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Are deductions from state allocation legal?

All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have demanded a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan over the cash crisis, which they said is crippling their states, many of which cannot pay salaries. The dwindling allocation to states is said to be, in part, due to certain deductions by the Federal Government. Are the deductions legal? What options are open to the states? JOSEPH JIBUEZE asks.

Is Nigeria broke? No, says the Federal Government. But to some governors,something is wrong. Allocations are reducing, and they are unable to meet their states’ needs. Many have resorted to borrowing to pay salaries and fund capital projects. Many states are in debt.

It is for this reason that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors met in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, last week and resolved to have an emergency meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan over the crippling cash crisis.

At the meeting were Governors Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara); Rauf Aregbesola (Osun); Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo); Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara); Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano); Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe); Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers) and Rochas Okorocha (Imo).

The governors were worried that allocation from the Federal purse keeps reducing, even as the central government says the country is not broke. Many states, they said, may not be able to pay their workers.

Okorocha said the dwindling allocation from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has hampered states’ capacity to pay salaries.

“This has become a very serious concern to us as governors and we felt that issues that affect the lives of our people must never be politicised. We refuse to accept that this nation is broke. I thank God that the Federal Government is not broke, that if the nation is not broke, what is due to states as revenue should be paid to the states.

“This idea of cutting down what should go to states does not in any way promote democracy and democratic dividends and so we as progressive governors do call on the Federal Government to look into the issue of dwindling resources or convince us as to why the states should not get what is due to them.

“We do not know why our colleagues in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are not talking of this matter. If they are not talking, it is either they are not affected or somehow they are getting something from the back door, which we do not know.

“But if that is not the reason, I think the Presidency or the Federal Government should act quickly on the present ugly situation which this terrible condition of dwindling revenue has caused us by making sure that the states get what is due to them at least to pay the basic salaries of the workers.”

Deductions to fund the police

The APC governors’ complaint is not new. In October last year, they threatened to employ all constitutional means to compel the Federal Government to pay exactly what was due the states. The immediate past Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, had said: “We continue to insist that we condemn the illegal and unconstitutional deductions.”

States were said to have lost 40 per cent of their normal earnings from the FAAC. They argued that based on budgetary benchmarks, oil never sold for anything lower than $115 per barrel, and therefore, there was no basis for the incomplete allocations.

In March, Lagos State challenged at the Supreme Court the Federal Government’s power to deduct one per cent from the revenue due to all federating units from the Federation Account for the purpose of funding police reforms.

Lagos said the defendant had been deducting the one percent since October 2013, describing it as unconstitutional and illegal.

The state asked the Supreme Court “to declare that it is unlawful for the defendant to deduct at source one percent or any other fraction or per cent of the revenue due to Lagos State and its local government councils from the Federation Account under the Allocation Revenue Act for the purpose of funding police reforms or for any other purpose.”

Lagos also sought a declaration that it “is unlawful for the National Economic Council or any other agency of the federation to authorise, by resolution, decision or consensus, the charge or deduction at source by any authority or person of any part of revenue due to Lagos State Government and its local government councils under the Allocation Revenue Act for the purpose of funding police reforms.”

The state prayed for an order compelling the defendant “to immediately reverse the unlawful deduction of one percent…and to credit the amounts so far deducted to Lagos State Government with interest at the current Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) minimum rediscount rate.”

Governor Babatunde Fashola contended that, as a result of the deduction, insufficient statutory allocation “has reduced the capacity of the state and its local governments to fund their programmes and projects.

“The police as constituted is an organ of the Federal Government and the constitution does not prescribe a situation where one level of government will impose a financial obligation on another level of government.

“The National Economic Council has no power under the constitution of Nigeria or under any act of the National Assembly to approve any deduction, appropriation or expenditure from the federation account or statutory allocations due to the states and local governments,” he said.

Fuel subsidy deductions

The 36 states are challenging at the Supreme Court the Federal Government’s deductions of funds for fuel subsidy and related expenses from crude oil proceeds before making payment into the Federation Account.

They are unconvinced about the government’s transparency in its handling of proceeds from crude oil sales and urged the apex court to stop the practice.

The states, in a suit filed by their Attorneys-General, described as “unwholesome and unconstitutional” the practice of deducting “fuel subsidy funds and other expenditure from oil proceeds before it is paid into the Federation Account.”

They contended that the practice, carried out through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is a means through which the states and local governments are shortchanged.

The states claimed that the practice has occasioned inaccuracies in the computation of oil revenue remitted to the Federation Account by the government and its agencies and urged the court to abolish the practice.

Sovereign Wealth Fund

The Excess Crude Account (ECA) was replaced with the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) to manage Nigeria’s excess earnings from crude oil. In other words, the fund would hold the differential in oil revenues above annual benchmark price.

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority was set up in May 2011 to manage the SWF in the form of Future Generations Fund, Nigeria Infrastructure Fund and Stabilisation Fund.

Implementation of the Sovereign Wealth Fund began with an initial fund of $1 billion. President Jonathan assented to the bill setting up the fund on May 27, 2012.

Governors have opposed the Fund, describing it as illegal, and saying it would deny them the opportunity to have enough money to develop their states.

A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund investing in real and financial assets, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments, such as private equity or hedge funds. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally. Most SWFs are funded by revenues from commodity exports or from foreign-exchange reserves held by the Central Bank.

Analysts say SWFs are typically created when governments have budgetary surpluses and have little or no international debt. It is not always possible or desirable to hold this excess liquidity as money or to channel it into immediate consumption.

High volatility of resource prices, unpredictability of extraction, and exhaustibility of resources are some of the reasons for creation of SWFs. It may also be economic, or strategic, such as war chests for uncertain times.

The states are challenging the legality of the Excess Crude Account and the decision to transfer $1bn from the account to the SWF. They sought an order declaring the SWF illegal and unconstitutional.

When the case came up on September 24, the Supreme Court said it was not ready for hearing. It adjourned till January 26 next year.

Presiding judge Justice Mahmud Mohammed said the case was not ripe for hearing because vital documents were not in the file. “In order to hear the case, it is necessary for counsels to go to the registry and make sure that all necessary processes were in the file,” Mahmud said.

The government had challenged the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to hear the suit, arguing that the matter was not between states and the federation, but a dispute between the states and the government, which it said ought to have been filed before a Federal High Court.

The states also prayed the court to order that all sums standing to the credit of the Excess Crude Account be paid into court or be secured as the court may deem fit, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

The states sought an order compelling the Federal Government to pay into the Federation Account N5.51 trillion being the balance of the money that accrued to the central purse between 2004 and 2007 from crude oil sales, petroleum profits tax and oil royalties.

The government, however, accused the states of mischief because they allegedly took part in the deliberation of the National Economic Council where the decision to transfer the $1bn from the Excess Crude Account to the SWF was taken.

But the states insisted that they had shared only the legitimate funds deposited in the Federation Account and not from the funds illegally deposited in the Excess Crude Account.

‘Nigeria not broke’

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, while giving account of her ministry’s stewardship in the last nine months, insisted that all the economic fundamentals remain strong.

“The country is like a household. There may be periods that your income may shrink because of some unforeseen circumstances and you just adjust.

“If you were indulging in very expensive food you may tell your children that its time we just manage garri and if you have a spouse that is not working, you tell her please you must go and start a trade.

“You would not jump out and begin to tell people that your condition is worst and you are dying because you know that it’s a temporary condition. That is the same with a country.

“We are facing a temporary challenge because of the fluctuation in both price and quantity of oil produced. Yet we are meeting our obligations. We have not got to where we can’t pay our salaries nor are we failing to meet our obligations to our creditors.

“Our foreign reserve is robust at $39.48 billion as at October 16 and it can finance nine months of import. We are gradually rebuilding our excess crude account, which is at $4.11 billion at the moment and we are working to increase the account.

“Our Sovereign Wealth Fund today holds investment of $1.55 billion… This is as a result of confidence in our economy, which is today the third destination of foreign direct investment in Africa as a result of the recent rebasing of our economy.”

Are the governors’ claims valid?

The 2006 United Nations Human Development Index puts Nigeria at 159 of 177 countries, with 70.8 per cent of the population living on less than one dollar a day and 92.4 per cent on less than two dollars a day.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of the poor is rising. In 2004, 55 per cent of the people were living in abject poverty. By 2010, this had risen to 61 per cent.

Corruption has been identified as the country’s major source of poverty. A former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, once said more than $380 billion has either been stolen or wasted by leaders since 1960. Nigeria is regularly ranked as one of the most corrupt by graft watchdog, Transparency International.

A former Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, reckoned that $400 billion of Nigeria’s oil revenue has been stolen or misspent since independence. It is reported that oil is being stolen at a record rate. Some analysts say it is still unclear how much oil Nigeria actually produces. If there were a reliable figure, perhaps the truly horrifying scope of corruption would be exposed.

To observers, if corruption and wastages are tackled, there will be enough resources to truly transform the country and its citizens.

This year’s budget is based on a projected $79 per barrel of crude oil. The country has been selling above $100. This, observers say, tends to validate the states’ claim that there is a problem.

The constitution vests too much power in the Federal Government, giving it wide and imperial powers over other tiers of government. It has been noted that the exclusive Legislative list takes initiatives away from the states, resulting in their dependence on the Federal Government on several issues. There have, therefore, been calls for a reduction or devolution of these powers.

Former Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch, Mr Monday Onyekachi Ubani described the governors’ move as “a wise step and a thoughtful process to getting proper information on what is going on in the management of our economy”.

He added: “It is clearly frightening as most states that are heavily reliant on federal allocation are on the verge of collapse due to their inability to meet basic economic needs like payment of salaries to their workers. Their demand is legitimate and calls for urgent redress to avoid catastrophic backlash on the entire country.

“If it is true that the Federal Government is making certain deductions from the federation account which is unknown or not disclosed to the other tiers of government, then such deductions are unconstitutional, unlawful and legally redressible.

“The budget of 2014 was based on a certain bench mark as pertains to the sale of our crude oil. How come we are in deep economic quagmire so soon due to crash in oil price when for a very long time we have experienced boom in crude oil sales in the international market?

“The reason is not far-fetched. We have as a nation mismanaged our economy based on greed, corruption and outright theft of our resources.

“Despite bold face denial by the Finance Minister that we are not broke, the truth of the matter is that Nigeria’s economy presently is not healthy, and when you take into account that election is next year, then be rest assured that more dangerous health issues on the economy will crop up as we match towards 2015.

“In all these we pray that what we know from facts available should not happen as its consequence is better imagined than experienced,” Ubani said.

According to the rights activist, it is illegitimate for the Federal Government to make unauthorised deductions from money due the states’ and must be challenged in court.

“If its true and the Federal Government does not show remorse and repentance, I will advise the state governments especially, those states that cannot meet their financial obligations to file a straight action before the Supreme Court of Nigeria to halt the illegality and to demand the immediate refunds of such illegal deductions into the federation account for a common sharing.

“They should seek the instruments of law to nip the illegality in the bud. It is the only way out. Another method may be (used advisedly) seeking political solution.

“The National Assembly that should carry out their oversight function is failing heavily in this regard. How come they are there and the executive is basking and carrying out illegality with impunity as alleged, and they have not spoken or done anything about it? They have certainly failed the citizens.

“The Federal Government is advised to stop those deductions that are only known to them as that violates the express provision of the Constitution. They can only spend their own money after the sharing.

“It is unconstitutional for them to dip their hands into the Federation Account and begin to spend the money that is not meant for them alone. It is not only unconstitutional, it violates the spirit of federalism which we preach that we are practising! That is a short- term solution.

“A long term solution is the entrenchment of fiscal federalism that will enable each state to produce and control their resources while paying certain percentage to the federal government for common good.

“Until we start to practise true federalism, encourage competitive economic spirit and diversify our economic pursuit as a nation we will continue to suffer what is happening presently and that is the truth!” Ubani said.

Executive Director, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) Chino Obiagwu

urged states to be more creative in the management of available resources.

“The deductions are based on the sliding national income and huge debt portfolio of states. The truth is that some state governors in the last two tenures have been fiscally reckless. Most of the states have borrowed more money from local and foreign creditors than their states can re-pay in 20 years.

“Rather than save for the future, the governors are creating liabilities for their people. Rivers State for example has a debt portfolio of nearly $1 billon. So also Lagos, Imo, Benue etc.

“Recently, Benue State divested it’s investment in a major industrial stock and Rivers wants to dissipate its long-held reserve. These are reckless financial management. The truth is that no business can run for long in borrowed funds without creating its own wealth. Governance is a business.

“Most of these people that found themselves in government have never run any business successfully and so they don’t understand wealth building. The state governors are not creating wealth at all. They are not empowering their people. All they do is get money monthly and throw around or build elephant projects and wait for the next round of sharing.

“Unfortunately the state Houses of Assembly that are supposed to be checking on the executive are just mere rubber stamp legislature. The civil society on the other hand has paid most attention to to federal government but there are a lot of rot taking place at state levels,” he said.

Obiagwu said LEDAP sued 15 state governors to account for the millions of dollars they borrowed from the capital market.

“None of them has provided any answer. So, since Federal Government is the guarantor of these credits, it’s natural that it will make deductions from state allocations.

“Another reason for deducting is the dwindling national income. We all know the price of oil is going down and the US has started massive oil production and has not been importing oil. So that affected the crude oil market.

“We will continue to see slides in national income for a long time to come. So any governor who still sits back and waits for the national cake should think twice. It’s time our state governments started building capacity of their people to create wealth so they can justify the public vote,” Obiagwu said.

October 28, 2014
Judicial workers suspend strike Judicial workers

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has suspended its strike.

Its President, Comrade Mustapha Adamu made this known on Sunday.

The union had billed to resume the strike on Thursday. It was aimed at pressing for better welfare of its members.

Earlier, the 36 attorneys-general had appealed to judicial workers to reconsider their decision to resume their strike on October 2.

The plea was contained in a communique issued after a meeting of the attorneys-general in Lagos.

It was signed by the Chairman and Ondo State Attorneys-General and Commissioner for Justice Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) and Secretary, Nasarawa State, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Innocent Lagi.

The adopted the strike option to enforce the judgment of a federal high court, delivered by the Hon. Justice A.F.A Ademola against the National Judicial Council(NJC) and 73 other defendants on the funding of the Judiciary.

The body of attorneys-general reviewed the initial strike and picketing of the courts by the JUSUN.

It decried the practice where judges, magistrates and litigants were locked out of court under the pretext of enforcing court judgment.

It said the development portends danger to justice administration.

It said the industrial action had a negative effect of depriving awaiting trial detainees of their liberty and access to justice.

The body reviewed the issue of Taxes and Levies (Approved List) Collection Act, 1998 and the mounting of roadblocks by various council tax collectors across the country.

It supported the President’s directive to the Inspector-General of Police to dismantle all roadblocks set up for the enforcement of revenue collection.

The union condemned the attack on a judge in Ekiti State, urging that the matter be probed by the police and culprits punished.

September 30, 2014
IAEA, FG to work out legal framework for nuclear power

The International Atomic Energy Council (IAEC), Deputy Director-General, Mr. Kwanu Aning, yesterday revealed that having got the assurance of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the development of nuclear power in the country, the next stage is to put the legal framework in place.

His words: “There should be a legal framework that covers the use, liability , emergency preparedness and ability to address God forbid if there is an incident. So, all of these things have to be in place. And then off-course, the actual development of the facility which is something you are going to be doing with vendors.”

He led a delegation of the council to Abuja, where visited the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who assured him of the country’s readiness to adopt energy mix, including the nuclear power.

Aning who had visited Vice President Namadi Sambo and also took a tour to the Nuclear Power Facility in Sheda, Abuja, noted that the council is working with the ministry and other relevant organizations to get set because of the complex undertaking for safety issue.

Nebo however told the delegation in his office that it is no longer acceptable for the nation to put all its eggs in one basket, insisting that Nigeria will need to correct and avoid in the future hiccups, occasioned by lack of gas to power plants.

He said: “We need coal, biomass, small hydros, solar even nuclear, if it is designed it is the best as it remained the cleanest and safest form of energy”.

The minister also told the delegation in his office that with regard to implementation,the ministry has a national mandate superintend over the entire power supply in the country from generation to transmission to distribution.

He explained that there will be a framework for the building, transferring of a nuclear power plant between Nigeria and its partners.

The minister noted that whatever the case may be, there must be a bilateral agreement between the Federal Government and its partners for them to forge ahead.

Nebo said that “And a special pool vehicle will be established to make sure that it is done, built owned and transferred mechanism that could allowed the plant to be constructed in a way that Nigeria working with private enterprises and two countries working together in Nigeria nation.

“And whatever partner there will be a bilateral agreement to make us forge ahead. So we welcome you, and we are there to support our own atomic energy agency knowing that they play a significant role .”

July 6, 2014
50 years of legal education in Nigeria: A critique

(f) Continuing Legal Education

Continuing legal education (CLE; also known as MCLE (mandatory or minimum continuing legal education)) is a professional education of lawyers that takes place after their initial admission to the bar. It is to ensure that lawyers remain professionally competent throughout their careers. In the United Kingdom for instance, a lawyer has to be assessed every year before he is allowed to practise. To remain competent, the lawyer has to stay in touch with the profession. All Nigerian Lawyers in legal practice or employment must comply with the Nigerian Bar Association’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Programme.

The Nigerian Bar Association Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) serves as the Continuing Legal Education regulatory authority for the NBA and the profession by providing the standards and scope for the MCLE programme. The institute is overseen by the Board of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education and works closely with Nigerian Bar Association Sections and the various local branches at large in developing programmes on Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.

In many states in the United States, Continuing Legal Education participation is required of attorneys to maintain their license to practise law. Continuing Legal Education requirements exist in many other jurisdictions, such as in Canada.

If we impose these same conditions here in Nigeria, we can be sure that any Lawyer who practises in Nigeria is not out of touch with the Profession32. This should be seen as a further contribution of legal education to the profession in Nigeria.

8. Conclusion

There is no doubt that legal education in Nigeria has come a long way since the days of “Igbosere”. We now have more campuses of the Nigerian Law school than before, more Faculties of Law, more law students and by extension, more lawyers. This is an encouraging development, but it is not enough that the period of 50 years of legal education has brought us more lawyers, we also need to know that their quality is such that they can stand among the best in the world. This should be our collective objective. Today’s lawyer lacks adequate preparation for the basics of legal practice and this lack of preparedness stems from the problems already highlighted. There is a need to adjust legal education in Nigeria to be more in tune with what obtains in the developed parts of the world. Happily, there have been concerted efforts made by the current Leadership of the Nigerian Law School to address these problems, some of which were inherited.

We should aim not only to have as many lawyers as possible, but to have lawyers we can be proud of at all times; both intellectually and otherwise.

We should be more forward thinking. What would legal education in Nigeria look like when it is 100 years old? Would it be better than it is presently or worse? These are the questions that should agitate our minds. Like I said earlier, it is not all gloom and doom. The profession has coped well after 50 years of legal education. We are not where we are supposed to be, but we are also not where we were before.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Statutes referred to

1. Legal Education (Consolidation, etc.) Act, Cap L10, LFN 2004.

2. Legal Practitioners Act, Cap L11, LFN 2004.

Books Referred To

1. Adewoye, O. The Legal Profession in Nigeria 1865-1977 (Lagos: Longman, 1977).

2. Doherty O Legal Practice and Management in Nigeria (Lon don: Cavendish Publishing Limited, 1998).

3. Encylopaedia Brittanica 2003 Edition ISBN-10: 0852299613 | ISBN-13: 978-0852299616.

4. Imhanobe S Lawyer’s Deskbook (Abuja: Temple Legal Con sult, 2010

Articles and Publications Referred To

1. A Model Definition of the Practice of Law: If Not Now, When? An Alternative Approach To Defining the Practice of Law-Soha. F, Volume 61, Issue 4, Article 13, Washington and Lee Law Review. 9/1/2004.

2. Address delivered by Dr Tahir Mamman, Director General of the Nigerian Law School at the Presentation of Candidates for Call to the Nigerian Bar at the International Conference Centre, Abuja on 14 February, 2012.

3. Court Dismisses Aturu’s Suit on Law School’s Fees-This Day Newspaper, October 18, 2013.

4. Democracy And Socio-Economic Imbalance in Nigeria: the role of law. Being the full text of a Keynote Address delivered at the Nigerian Bar Association (Benin Branch) Law Week On June 24, 2013 at Fourteen Eighty Five Marquee, Edo Hotel Premises, No.4, Okada Drive, GRA, Benin City, Edo State. By Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, MFR, SAN, FCIArb. (UK).

5.Jurist: The Legal Education Network: History of the Legal Profession in Nigeria. Prof. Yemisi Akinseye George, (now SAN) Acting Head and Senior Lecturer, Department of Public and International Law, University of Ibadan.

6. Modernizing Legal Practice In Nigeria: Challenges And Prospects: Being The Full Text Of A Paper Delivered At The 2013 State Of The Legal Profession Lecture Of The Nigerian Institute Of Advanced Legal Studies (Nials) On August 06, 2013 At Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja By Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, MFR, SAN, FCIArb. (UK)+

7. mynlasportal.com (the Nigerian Law School’s official website) on Friday, September 27, 2013.

8. Soha F Turfler A Model Definition of the Practice of Law: If Not Now, When? An Alternative Approach To Defining the Practice of Law- Volume 61, Issue 4, Article 13, Washington and Lee Law Review. 9/1/2004.

9. The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin. October 5, 2010.

10. Training to Become a Lawyer in Nigeria’ – Idornigie, P O being a Chapter Contribution to the book The Anatomy of the Legal Profession in Nigeria published by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 2013

(Footnotes)

1 Now Legal Education (Consolidation, Etc) Act, Cap L10, LFN, 2004.

2 1962.

3 See the Address delivered by Dr Tahir Mamman, Director General of the Nigerian Law School at the Presentation of Candidates for Call to the Nigerian Bar at the International Conference Centre, Abuja on 14 February, 2012

4 See the Body of Benchers

’ Programme for the Call to the Nigerian Bar: 14 February, 2012 at page 5.

5 Soha F Turfler

A Model Definition of the Practice of Law: If Not Now, When? An Alternative Approach To Defining the Practice of Law

– Volume 61, Issue 4, Article 13, Washington and Lee Law Review. 9/1/2004.

6 See generally, Idornigie, P O

‘Training to Become a Lawyer in Nigeria

’ being a Chapter Contribution to the book

The Anatomy of the Legal P

rofession in Nigeria

published by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 2013

7 The words

‘lawyer

’ and

‘legal practitioner

’ are used interchangeably. Indeed in the Legal Practitioners Act the word used and defined is

‘legal practitioner

’ while Rule 56 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2007 defines the word

‘lawyer

’ by reference to the definition in the Act.

8 Ordinance No 4 of 1876.

9 These include experienced court clerks

10 See Supreme Court Ordinance No. 4 of 1876 that granted powers to the Chief Justice to admit persons to so practice.

11 Gray

’s Inn, Inner Temple, Lincoln

’s Inn and Middle Temple.

12 He was enrolled in England as Barrister in November 1879 and in Nigeria on 11 August, 1880. He set up practice first in Accra which was then part of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria and then Lagos. He practised among self-taught attorneys. Thereafter there were few legal practitioners who established practice in Lagos, Calabar, Onitsha and Warri as sole practitioners.

13 Adewoye Fn 20 at 16

14 Doherty Fn 20 at 7

15 Ordinance No. 6 of 1914

16 A qualified lawyer may either be a non-graduate barrister or solicitor or a graduate barrister or solicitor. To qualify as barrister or solicitor, a person must possess Ordinary Level or its equivalent, join any of the four Inns of Court and pass the Bar Part I and II examinations or Law Society Examinations for Part I and II respectively. The graduate lawyers enjoyed some privileges

– a person with a law degree having a minimum of Second Class Honours is exempted from Bar/Law Society Part I examination, enjoyed enhanced salary and served shorter period of pupilage.

17 The membership of the Committee were: E I G Unsworth (the Attorney General of the Federation), Chief F R A Williams (Attorney General, Western Nigeria), M O Ajegbo (Attorney General, Eastern Nigeria), G K O Amachree (Solicitor General of the Federation), I M Lewis (Solicitor General, Northern Nigeria) and the following legal practitioners: Alhaji Jibrin Martin, C A H Obafemi, Asuquo Okon, J M Udochi, Dr F A Ajayi and C O Nwokedi.

18 In 1962, one campus was established in Lagos but the Nigerian Law School now has campuses in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu, Yenogoa and Yola.

19 Now Legal Education (Consolidation, Etc) Act, Cap L10, LFN, 2004

20 The other enactment is the Legal Practitioners Act, Cap L11, LFN 2004.

21

Problem of legal education in Nigeria

Hon. Justice M.O. Onolaja, OFR, JCA, LLD, is the former Chairman of the Council of Legal Education

22 1962

23 Culled from the mynlasportal.com (the Nigerian Law School’s official website) on Friday, September 27, 2013.

24

Modernizing legal practice in Nigeria: challenges and prospects:

Being the full text of a paper delivered at the 2013 state of the legal profession lecture of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (Nials) on August 06, 2013 at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua centre, Abuja by Chiefjoe-Kyari Gadzama, MFR, SAN, FCIArb. (UK)+

25 Idornigie Fn 21 at 5.

26

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bar

Professional Training Course accessed on 18 May, 2012

27 The ten institutions are:

BPP Law School, London, BPP Law School, Leeds, University of the West of Engl and, Bristol, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, The College of Law, London, the College of Law, Birmingham, City Law School, London, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, Northumbra University, Newcastle upon Tyne and Kaplan Law School, London

28Court Dismisses Aturu’s Suit on Law School’s Fees-This Day Newspaper, October 18, 2013.

29

See Fn 25.

30

See Fn 25.

31

Supra See Fn 25.

32

Supra. See Fn 25.

March 18, 2014
50 years of legal education in Nigeria: A critique

50 years of legal education in Nigeria: A critique

Introduction
Legal Education (even if in its most remote form) has existed in Nigeria for over a century. Long before we had the Nigerian Law School, there was indeed, a system through which Nigerians were trained as lawyers. The inadequacies posed by this system prompted the enactment of the Legal Education Act of 1962 , which gave birth to the Nigerian Law School and the Legal Practitioners Act. Since 1962, when these two enactments came into being, Nigeria has churned out lawyers every year, (sometimes, more than once a year) as if it were merely fulfilling the biblical admonishment; be fruitful and multiply. On 14 February, 2012 alone, the Body of Benchers called 3,479 candidates to the Nigerian Bar. Between January 1963 when eight (8) students were admitted for a three-month course at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos and 2012, the Nigerian Law School has graduated over 50,000 lawyers. Indeed, between 2011 and 2012, the Nigerian Law School produced over 6,000 lawyers. And this is without counting the over 3000 new wigs, who are sure to join us in November 2013.
All seems to be well. In fact, statistically, one would wonder what the worry over legal education is. The common answer to criticism being; ‘look at how many lawyers we have produced’. It is one thing to produce a high number of lawyers, but in between, we seem to have also produced lawyers that the country would rather do without. Somewhere along the line, our production line has been tainted and corrupted. The fault may not lie completely with our law school; indeed, it may not even lie with our universities. It is likely that the educational foundations of some of our budding advocates are so bad that correcting them at any of these stages would have been a herculean task if not an exercise in futility. A balanced view would likely reveal that all institutions of learning have a part to play in this alarming decline in legal education in Nigeria.
Fifty years after the advent of the Nigerian Law School, cracks are starting to appear in the way legal education is offered in the country. On one hand, we have successfully produced legal practitioners this past half century, but on the other hand, there remains the lingering question of whether or not the system is airtight or foolproof enough to give us nothing but the best.
Over the years, the lawyer or attorney traditionally, has fulfilled the role of gatekeeper and guide to the web of law. It is therefore, our collective responsibility (lawyers, judges and lecturers alike) to ensure that only the best get to wear the wig and gown. It is the only legacy we can leave for future generations.
On the whole, legal education in Nigeria has endured its ups and downs. We have successfully produced some of the best legal minds on planet earth, through our Law School. One would therefore expect legal education to improve over the years and not regress.
Fifty years on, some of our fundamental objectives such as making legal education available to everyone have been partially achieved. It is, however, not all about how many lawyers we produce; we must produce the best. We must have a system that gets the best out of an individual no matter how disadvantaged he or she is. In other words, the individual picks up habits from the profession and not the other way round. It is laudable that teaching at the Nigerian Law School has become a great deal more interactive than it used to be, but sadly, the results have not entirely been commensurate with the educational innovations. Laptops have practically replaced traditional notebooks while the bulk of the Law School programme (most especially lecture notes) can be found in a single Compact Disc (CD). The opportunities are there to make ours a ‘must-have’ legal education, but the whole package has not necessarily been a sum of its parts (from the Universities to the Law School). Instead, we find instances where the Law School finds itself in the unenviable position of having to retrain a Law Student and imbibe in him or her the finest traditions of the Legal Profession, which must have been lost somewhere in his or her journey through university. In some cases, what is taught at the Law School is at variance with what these students were taught in the universities. While it is understandable that such differences would inevitably exist, given the somewhat quantum leap from substantive law to procedural law, it still calls to question the teaching style and standards of some of our universities. The transition from University to Law School should be as painless and as seamless as possible. There seems to exist therefore, a slight break in communication among institutions of higher learning on how a Nigerian Lawyer should be trained. This is despite several visits by the Nigerian Law School to Nigerian Faculties of Law (public and private) in order to ensure that there is an educational synergy between these faculties and the Law School.
That is not to say that we do not have a lot to celebrate after 50 years of legal education in Nigeria. On the contrary, legal education in Nigeria has grown exponentially. From just one campus of the Nigerian Law School in Igbosere, Lagos State, to six campuses of the Nigerian Law School, each located in one of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, there is no doubt that the door to legal education has been swung wide open. This is also the case with universities where faculties of law have sprung up. What we have now is a situation that is in sharp contrast to what existed in the past when the paucity of spaces in the Nigerian Law School kept some graduates at home for close to five years (in some cases). This was due to the fact that each university had a quota that it could not exceed as far as the sale of Law School forms was concerned. Some universities that were not rated highly by the Nigerian Law School, had as little as 50 forms for sale each Law School session. One should not neglect to note that even at that time, some of these universities had as many as 200 law students in a set. Whither legal education for the other 150? With that in mind, one must laud the initiative of the current Law School administration and the Council of Legal Education in making more Law School Campuses available to take care of this problem. This is in addition to the upgrade in technology and the new interactive way of teaching at the law school. The faculties of law are also not left out as some of them, most especially the newer ones, have imbibed this new approach by the Nigerian Law School. There is indeed, a lot to celebrate.
One, however, envisages a situation whereby we would have much more to celebrate when the Nigerian Law School turns a hundred years old. By then, hopefully, the niggling problems would have become a thing of the past and we would have a system we can truly rely upon to produce the best lawyers we have ever seen.
This paper is, therefore, not an attempt to criticise the valiant efforts of the major players in our legal education system, it merely serves to show us what still needs to be done. In other words, the objective of this paper is to show us the way forward and ensure that we reap maximum benefits from our legal education. We want to produce lawyers who can hold their own, not just in the already traditional areas of legal practice, but in the hitherto untapped areas like Sports and Entertainment law. To achieve this, we may need to slightly tweak our system to accommodate these demands.

2. The genesis
A critical study of the history of legal education in Nigeria is necessary in order for us to know where we started from and where we are going. Legal Education and Practice in Nigeria did not just spring up from nowhere; they arose because they were needed. It is, therefore, imperative that one knows why they were needed and which anomaly they came to correct.
Be that as it may, the very first brush Nigeria had with Legal Education and Practice was in 1862, when the British colonial administration introduced a system of courts akin to those found in the British system in order to create an organised legal profession, which would gradually familiarise the country with English laws and procedure.
Analysts tend to divide the history of legal training in Nigeria into three phases: 1876-1914, 1914-1962 and 1962 to date. During the period, 1876-1914, two categories of lawyers, namely, the local Attorney and the professionally qualified Attorney undertook legal work in Nigeria. The Supreme Court Ordinance empowered the Chief Justice of Nigeria to grant temporary licence to admit fit and proper persons to practice as local Attorneys. To qualify for such a licence, the applicant had to sit for an examination to test his general education and knowledge as well as principles and practice of law and show good moral character testified to by a judge or two District Commissioners. The licence to practice was usually for six months and renewable subject to good moral character. The power to grant such licence was discretional.
The second category of lawyers that practised during this period was the professionally qualified lawyers. The professionally qualified lawyers were those who were qualified to practice as Barristers or Solicitors in England and enrolled in the Supreme Court of Nigeria. To qualify to practice as a Barrister in England at that time, a person must pass the Part I and Part II of the Bar Examination, join one of the four Inns of Court, and keep terms by dining in his Inn. Similarly to qualify to practice as Solicitor, a person must enroll as a student with the Law Society, serve a period of pupilage – article for a minimum of four years with a practicing Solicitor and pass Parts I and II of the Law Society qualifying examination. It is worthy of note that the first Nigerian Barrister was Christopher Alexander Sapara-Williams. It is also noteworthy that prior to 1945, lawyers trained in England had no law degree until the University College, London, started law degrees that year.
The nature of legal practice during this period was aptly captured by Adewoye thus:‘…of the seven men who served as chief magistrates for Lagos between 1862 and 1905, only three had legal qualifications. Of the remaining four, two were ‘writing clerks’, one was a merchant and the fourth was a commander of the West Indian garrison stationed in Lagos. Also, 14 served as police magistrates in the same period. Of these, four were merchants, six were military officers, two were colonial surgeons, one was a retired naval officer and one was a deputy collector of customs.

One might be tempted to ask the nature of private legal practice in Nigeria during this period. In the words of Doherty: “There were no legally qualified private legal practitioners to render services to the business community and the community at large”. However, the year 1913 was remarkable because it was the beginning of the legal profession and legal practice in Nigeria and those who trained overseas as Barristers and Solicitor joined the profession as legal practitioners.

In 1914, the Supreme Court Ordinance 1914 repealed the Supreme Court Ordinance of 1876. This marked the second phase of legal training in Nigeria. During the second phase, the professionally qualified lawyers monopolised legal practice in Nigeria. This was so because enrolment was restricted to qualified lawyers only.

3. Establishment of the Nigerian law school
Clearly, the legal training in the United Kingdom (UK) then did not take into account the Nigerian Legal System especially our customary law and the strong influence of Islamic law. Accordingly in 1959 the Unsworth Committee was set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the recommendations of the Committee included setting up of the Nigerian Law School in Lagos and establishing a Faculty of Law at the University College, Ibadan. Based on the recommendations, in November 1961, a board was constituted to make arrangements for the establishment of the Nigerian Law School. This was accepted by the Government and the Legal Education Act, 1962 was passed under which the Council of Legal Education was set up. Unfortunately, the recommendation of the Unsworth Committee that a Faculty of Law be established at the University College, Ibadan was not accepted by the Government. However, in 1961, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka established the Faculty of Law, the first in the country.
The academic stage of legal education in Nigeria after 1962 is characterised by acquisition of approved university law degree. It is generally agreed that undergraduate academic law should give the students a “broad general knowledge and exposure to other disciplines in the process of acquiring legal education. Academic legal education should therefore act, first, stir the student into the critical analysis and examination of the prevailing social, economic and political systems of his community and, secondly, as an intellectual exercise aimed at studying and assessing the operation, efficacy and relevance of various rules of law in society. We shall proceed to examine the various institutions of legal education and their impact on the Nigerian Legal Education system.

4. Institutions of legal education in Nigeria
On paper, it looks as though the system that produces lawyers in Nigeria is foolproof and devoid of cracks, but a closer inspection has revealed that this is not the case.
On one hand, the Nigerian lawyer oversees major financial and property transactions, often preparing the instrument of transfer and his statutory declaration of compliance is a sine qua non for the registration of a company. He also represents his clients in civil and criminal matters in court where he serves as mouthpiece. There are, as a matter of fact, Nigerians who do nothing without their lawyers’ consent. Everything from the preparation of Wills, signing of important documents and every day commercial negotiations, now seems to require the services of a lawyer. Legal Practice in Nigeria has therefore developed steadily over the years, beyond court appearances. It has become so much more than that.

On the other hand however, only a minute percentage of Nigerian legal practitioners can be said to have tried to expand the frontiers of legal practice in Nigeria. Worse still, the toga of integrity was recently stripped from notable members of the profession, lawyers and judges alike.

We shall therefore proceed to assess our institutions of legal education and their impact on our legal practice in the last 50 years. Quite naturally, the blame has been selectively placed on some components of the system to the exclusion of others. I would like to think that it should be more evenly spread amongst them. A law student goes through the University and then on to the Law School. It is after he has passed the Bar Exam and has been found worthy in character that he is called to the Nigerian Bar. We shall start with the Nigerian Faculties of Law.

(i) Nigerian Faculties of Law.

In Nigeria, the education of a lawyer starts at the university. Faculties of Law are to be found in some of the Universities all over Nigeria and the conditions or qualification for admission to study law are usually as published by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board Act. A prospective lawyer may also choose to study law in a foreign University.

A person aspiring to study law at a university in Nigeria is required to have completed Secondary School education and passed the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Exam or its equivalent with at least 5 ‘O’ level credit passes in Arts and Social Science subjects including: English, Mathematics and Literature-in-English. Candidates are admitted into the Faculties of Law in Nigerian universities either by direct entry or by undertaking the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination. Direct entry candidates are admitted into the second year of the five-year LLB (Bachelor of Laws) degree programme. The qualifications acceptable for direct entry (in addition to the ‘O’ level subjects) include: a university degree in disciplines other than law; a two-year diploma in law; and other qualifications in fields outside law such as a Higher National Diploma in a related course. They also includes ‘A’level papers in History, Government, Economics, Religious Studies and Literature-in-English. It takes five years to complete a law degree in a Nigerian University. Upon completion, graduates are awarded an LL.B (‘Bachelor of Laws’). The undergraduate curriculum requires law students to study 12 compulsory core law courses and 11 optional law courses. There are currently over 30 faculties of law in Nigeria. They include but are not limited to faculties of law in:

· Abia State University.
· Afe Babalola University.
· Ahmadu Bello University.
· Ambrose Alli University.
· Ben Idahosa University.
· Benue State University.
· Delta State University.
· Ebonyi State University.
· Ekiti State University.
· Enugu State University of Science and Technology.
· Igbinedion University.
· Imo State University.
· Lagos State University.
· Madonna University.
· Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
· Obafemi Awolowo University.
· Ondo State University.
· Ogun State University.
· Rivers State University of Science and Technology.
· University of Abuja.
· University of Benin.
· University of Calabar.
· University of Ibadan.
· University of Ilorin.
· University of Jos.
· University of Lagos.
· University of Maiduguri.
· University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
· University of Uyo.

In Nigerian Faculties, the typical Nigerian law student spends five (5) sessions which should ordinarily not exceed five (5) years, subject to unforeseen (or foreseen, depending on which side of the divide you belong) circumstances like industrial actions (“ASUU” strikes to the uninitiated) and internal administrative problems. Quite naturally, industrial actions like the now regular Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strike are peculiar to government owned Universities. Within these five (5) sessions, Nigerian law students in these faculties are compulsorily introduced to the following courses one way or the other;

· Legal Method.
· Land Law.
· Jurisprudence.
· Nigerian Legal System.
· Criminal Law.
· Law of Evidence.
· Law of Torts.
· Law of Equity.
· Law of Trusts.
· The Law of Contract.
· Constitutional Law.
· Commercial Law.
· Company Law.

The following Law courses are also offered as electives by law students at some point during the said five (5) sessions

· Family Law.
· Environmental Law.
· Oil and Gas Law.
· Law of Intellectual Property.
· Islamic law.
· Conflict of Laws.
· Labour Law.
· Law of International Trade.
· Law of Taxation.
· International Law.
· Administrative Law.
· Maritime law.
· Criminology.
· Law of Banking.
· Human Rights.
· International Humanitarian Law.
· Medical Law.
Law students in Nigerian Faculties of law, to complete the package, also register for elective courses outside their faculties. The courses are to be found in Faculties of:
· Arts.
· Social Sciences.
· Management Sciences.
· Sciences.

It is expected that by the time a Nigerian law student completes five sessions at a faculty of law, he/she is equipped to deal with the rigours of the Nigerian law school.

(ii) The Nigerian Law School

The Nigerian Law School is the institution responsible for the training of law graduates from the various accredited faculties of law. The Institution has been in existence for roughly half a century. It was established pursuant to the Legal Education Act22 with its location at Igbosere in Lagos and its first Director was an Englishman, Mr. G. Rudd who served from 1962 to 1967. He was followed in succession by Dr. Olakunle Orojo from 1968 to 1976, a period during which the Law School Campus was also moved from Igbosere to Victoria Island (in 1969). Mr. Justice J.O. Sofolahan served as Director from 1976 to 1978 and Babatunde Ibironke, SAN, from 1979 to 1993. Mr. Ibironke was succeeded by Chief John Kayode Jegede, SAN who headed the Nigeria Law School with the new title of Director-General. Chief Dr. Kole Abayomi, SAN became Director-General after Chief Jegede and ran the Law School from October 2004 to November 2005 when Dr. Maman Tahir succeeded him. In between these administrative changes, the Nigerian Law School’s main campus was moved from Victoria Island to Bwari, Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory in1997. The Campus on Victoria Island thus ceased to be the main campus of the Law School23 and is now the Lagos Campus.

Subsequently, other campuses were added such as the Enugu and Kano Campus in 2005 and the Yola and Yenogoa Campuses in 2010. All Campuses except the Abuja Campus, which is the Headquarters, are headed by Deputy Directors-General. The Director-General heads the Headquarters and is the overall administrative head of the Nigerian Law School.

The Nigerian Law School plays a very fundamental role in the development of a lawyer in Nigeria although it must be stated from the start that the education of a lawyer starts properly at the University.

There are over 30 faculties of Law in Nigeria from which students are admitted by the Nigerian Law School, sometimes annually. The content of the course of study leading to the award of a law degree whether from a Nigerian or foreign University must be approved by the Council of Legal Education which runs the Nigerian Law School. Only foreign Universities in common law countries or teaching common law courses are approved by the Council which usually insists that the subjects taken must include Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Law of Contract, Tort, Land Law, Equity and Trust, Commercial Law and Law of Evidence.

Admission into the Nigeria law School is also open to persons who have passed the final Bar Examinations of the English, Scottish or Irish Bar or the Solicitor’s Final Examinations of England, Scotland or Ireland.

Today, persons educated in foreign countries can only practice law in Nigeria after being trained at the Nigeria Law School. For this purpose, the course is broken into two parts.

The first part, Bar Part I, is designed for persons educated in foreign countries. The courses taken include:

· Constitutional Law.
· Criminal Law.
· Nigeria Legal System.
· Nigerian Land Law.

The second part, Bar Part II is for all students whether trained in Nigeria or not. The courses taken include:

· Civil Litigation.
· Corporate Law Practice.
· Criminal Procedure.
· Law in Practice.
· Property Law Practice.

For the students trained outside Nigeria therefore, they must first take and pass the Bar Part I examinations before they can join the students trained in Nigeria for the Bar Part II course.

These courses are taught by the academic staff of the Nigeria Law School and outside experts (Judges, Senior lawyers and accountants) are called in to deliver lectures from time to time. Persons who have completed the professional training offered by the Nigerian Law School are entitled by Section 4 of the Legal Practitioners Act to be formally called to the Nigerian Bar and are issued a certificate authorizing them to practice law in the country by the Body of Benchers. This certificate can be withdrawn by the same Body for reasons usually related to gross misconduct and fraud24.

The Nigerian Law school is unique in the sense that a student’s lowest grade is what is used as that student’s final assessment. In other words, if a law student gets 4 As and one C in his Bar Finals, his lowest grade becomes his overall grade. The idea is for the student to be good at all subjects, thus potentially making him a good lawyer. Overall, the Law school’s primary objective is to ensure that lawyers in Nigeria are properly trained in the highest standards of the Bar.
5. PROBLEMS OF LEGAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

At first glance it appears as though we have a fool-proof system but empirical evidence has shown that this is far from the truth. This is not to say that it is all gloom and doom as far as the Nigerian Legal Profession is concerned; I have merely highlighted the problems because I believe our Legal Education system has the potential to be much better than it is presently. I have separated the problems experienced by both institutions because while they might experience similar problems in some cases, more often than not, these problems are peculiar to each one of them.

(i) PROBLEMS OF NIGERIAN FACULTIES OF LAW

Faculties of law in Nigeria suffer from the following problems, among others;

(a) Too many Students

There is no gain stating the fact that Nigerian Faculties of law admit too many students. It is quite understandable that faculties of law seek to make Legal Education available to all and sundry but the downside of this desire is that the Nigerian faculties of law end up exceeding their quota at the Nigerian law school (each faculty of law is allowed to sell Law School forms to a particular number of its students).Some Universities are allowed to sell over one hundred (100) Law School forms to their students while others do not get more than 50 forms. The availability of these forms is dependent on how highly the said Faculty of Law is rated by the Council of Legal Education. Some Nigerian Faculties of law, despite the said rating, still admit more than their prescribed quota so we have instances where a particular faculty of law is entitled to say, 50 Law School Forms every year, but ends up graduating 250 students! Invariably, there is a backlog of students who eagerly await their respective turns to obtain Law School Forms. We therefore have instances where some students wait for as long as five years after graduation before they are allowed to go on to the law school. These are fallouts from the initial problem of admitting far more students than the faculty can cater for or is entitled to.

(b) Lack of synergy with the Law School

Following closely on the heels of the problem of too many students is a lack of synergy with the Nigerian Law school. The bulk of what is taught in Nigerian Faculties of law is substantive law which tells us what law ought to be (de lege ferenda) instead of procedural law which deals with what law is (lex lata). When students arrive at the Nigerian Law School, from Nigerian Universities, they are immediately faced with the remarkable difference or distinction between what is taught by both institutions of learning. This makes for an awkward transition for the law students. In some cases, a good number of them never quite grasp the complexity of what they are facing since it all seems so surreal. It is therefore a common sight to see students who had excelled in the University, having problems at the Nigerian Law School. It could, at first glance, be attributed to the intelligence (or lack of it) of the students involved but when an exceptional student’s academic career takes a sudden and inexplicable downturn, one would be advised to lay the blame where it belongs; at the feet of the faculties themselves.

The truth is that while the Council of Legal Education, in a bid to build a synergy between the Nigerian Law School and Nigerian faculties of law, has stipulated the courses to be offered and taught in Nigerian Universities, a couple of Nigerian faculties of law still offer some decidedly strange law courses which are not approved by the Council of Legal Education and which do not positively influence the making of a Nigerian Lawyer. A lot of Nigerian Universities have no room in their curriculum for the practical aspect of law, which is what is taught at the Nigerian Law School. Indeed, many Nigerian law students graduate from the University without having visited any Nigerian court. It is even far-fetched in some cases to assume that they would have seen some practice-related documents like Motions, Certificates of Incorporation, Writ of Summons, Charge sheets, etc. For such students, the Law School represents a totally different brand of education. This is a primary reason for the mass failure that usually characterizes the release of results by the Nigerian Law School. This is in addition to the fact that a good number of those who pass the Bar exams still struggle to adapt to the demands of legal practice which, despite the very best efforts of the law school, are very high.

(c) Lack of adequate Funding

It is no secret that despite concerted efforts by the State and Federal Governments alike, our Universities and by extension, our faculties of law still suffer from lack of adequate funding, a situation that has led to the various Unions (Academic and Non-Academic Staff) going on strike intermittently to lodge their protest. The Universities require funds to make available the most basic of facilities and cater for the large population they harbour.

(d) Inadequate facilities

This problem, a fallout of the earlier stated “lack of adequate funding” is one that pervades Nigerian Universities collectively, and by extension their faculties of law. There is a need for Nigerian Faculties of Law to conform to the ever increasing standards of legal practice, setbacks like poor funding; lack of basic infrastructure; poor power supply, lack of standard lecture halls, lack of Information Technology equipment and poorly equipped libraries, inadequate accommodation and transport system, and in some cases, management problems, tend to crop up every now and then. This is a rather disturbing trend as faculties of law in other parts of the world (even in nearby Ghana and Benin Republic) have somehow managed to present an appreciable solution to these problems. Many Nigerian Faculties of law however helplessly accept these conditions and have somehow attuned themselves to them instead of thinking outside the box. Thus, we have Law Students who are not I.T Compliant, due to no fault of theirs, but because the system has not allowed them to be so. It is generally believed that learning in a conducive environment enables a student to assimilate much faster. When a student is taught in an environment where he has no access to information, relevant books, good lecture halls, basic amenities like electricity or water, he/she inevitably spends more time attending to issues well outside the ambit of what he is taught in school. Sadly, this is the lot of a good number of law students, particularly those who attend public schools. The effect such poor facilities have on Nigerian law students can be better imagined when one considers how well they perform when they travel abroad for further studies. It is thus obvious that Nigerian law students are held back from fully developing their potentials by poor facilities

(e) Incessant Industrial Actions

Like all institutions, it is inevitable that Nigerian Universities would experience industrial actions once in a while but what we have in Nigeria is a situation in which industrial actions have become the norm rather than the exception. A cursory look at the history of strikes undergone by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would reveal some appalling statistics.

In 1999, Nigerian Universities were closed for five months, in 2001, for three months, in 2003, for six months, 2007 for three months, 2009 for four months, in 2010 for five months, in 2011 for three months and currently as we speak, Nigerian Universities are on strike with the said strike having entered its fourth month.

The negative effects of these strikes are better imagined than stated but suffice it to state that it has become acceptable for parents to mentally add a couple of extra years to the number of years their wards are expected to spend in the Universities upon admission. If a Nigerian Student were to gain admission into a University for instance, it would be wise to anticipate about 2 extra years to the 5 years that the student is expected to spend in the University. One could only imagine the effects that 2 extra years would have on a future lawyer. Some even go out of touch and only barely manage to pass exams. Apart from the facts highlighted above, the major effect of such strikes is that the victims lose their much coveted parity with their mates in private Universities. Beyond that however, law is a course that requires regular contact with books and a situation whereby a law student spends in total, about 2 years away from his books does not bode well for the student or the profession that he plans to join.

(f) Insecurity

This problem of insecurity in Nigerian faculties of law is only limited to some Northern parts of the country where Universities and other institutions of learning have either been attacked or have come under the threat of attack at some point.
By and large, universities in Nigeria need a lot of work to conform to international standards. Consequently, faculties of law in Nigeria also need a lot of work in order to produce the kind of lawyers that the society needs.

Having addressed the problems faced by Nigerian faculties of law, we shall proceed to the Law School itself which is the final bus stop for law graduates who desire to wear the wig and gown.
(ii) PROBLEMS OF THE NIGERIAN LAW SCHOOL

The Nigerian Law school which represents the pinnacle of Legal Education in Nigeria suffers from the following problems;

(a) Disparity in sale of Forms
The Nigerian Law school issues Law School forms to Nigerian faculties of law depending on their standing with the Council of Legal Education. It is not uncommon for established faculties of law like the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Faculty of Law to have twice as many forms as less established faculties of law. In the past, this disparity in the sale of Law School forms was justifiable but in recent times these “less prestigious” faculties have also recorded outstanding performances at the Nigerian Law School. It is therefore no longer tenable for a faculty of law to rest on past laurels and the disparity needs to be revisited because the Law School owes a duty to ensure that the best students are admitted at all times. If one of the not so illustrious faculties of law has been performing well over a period of time, then it goes without saying, that the number of forms available to such a faculty must be increased while those of low or non-performing faculties of law should be reduced to prevent a situation whereby the Law School would have too many law graduates to manage. That way, a student with good potential would not be sidelined simply because he is from a less prestigious University while one who is less endowed intellectually gets to attend the law school because he is from a prestigious University.

(b) Too many students to manage
While it is, on the face of it, a good idea to have as many lawyers as possible, it should not translate to the law school being inundated with too many students. It is not uncommon for a campus to have as many as 1, 500 (One Thousand Five Hundred) students. This does not allow for efficient teaching as students get to engage in other activities besides listening in class due to the sheer number of law graduates in the lecture hall. This in turn is reflected in the overall performance of the students in their Bar Final exams. The fact that the Nigerian law school is the only institution allowed to admit students from faculties of law also contributes to this problem. There are clamours for private law schools or an adoption of the American model where each University has its own law school.

In the UK, from the original four Inns of Court, there are now ten institutions that run the Bar Vocational Course. According to Idornigie25

“Legal Training in the United Kingdom from which that of Nigeria evolved has changed. Today, to become a Barrister in the UK, an aspirant undertakes the Bar Professional Training Course (Bar Vocational Course or BVC)26. The BVC is a graduate course that is completed by those wishing to be called to the Bar, i.e. to practice as a barrister in England and Wales. The ten institutes that run the BVC27 along with the four Inns of Court are often collectively referred to as ‘Bar School’. This vocational stage is the second of the three stages of legal education, the first being the academic stage and the third being the practical stage, i.e., pupillage”
It is imperative that the Nigerian law school is not burdened with the sole responsibility of training law students so as to reduce the number of students that it has to manage. Private Law Schools can therefore be established for this purpose.

(c) High Tuition Fees

This is one of the problems that some critics have complained of, although it must be established from the start that I do not consider it a problem. Recently, Bamidele Aturu, a Human Rights Lawyer sued the Council of Legal Education over what he termed “excessive and oppressive” tuition fees28. The suit, which was filed at the Federal High Court was dismissed on October 18, 2013. As earlier stated, I am of the view that Law School fees are not too high. Nothing good comes easy and one must be prepared to pay for a sound education, particularly legal education.

(d) Lack of synergy with the faculties of law
As earlier stated, there appears to be a slight disconnect between what the law school wants and what it is given by Nigerian Universities. On the surface, it looks as though the provision of a strict curriculum for Nigerian faculties of law by the Council of Legal Education suffices but some of the Nigerian faculties of law take liberties with this curriculum, offering courses that could only be described as distractions. By the time these students, having graduated, get to the Nigerian law school, they meet a whole new world; one they had never imagined. This lack of synergy between the Nigerian Law School and faculties could also be identified as one of the reasons Nigerian law graduates fail at the law school, as the transition is not smooth enough. It is therefore important that the institutions of legal education cooperate and arrive at a meeting point.

6. EFFECT OF PROBLEMS OF LEGAL EDUCATION ON LEGAL PRACTICE IN NIGERIA IN THE LAST 50 YEARS

Education is supposed to provide students with the general ability to think critically and independently and apply this line of independent thinking to the practical aspects of what they have been thought. This paper does not aim to create the impression that there is nothing good about legal education presently; it only aims to show us where we are and what can be done to improve it. The Nigerian legal education system has produced some of the best brains in legal practice all over the world in the last 50 years, but there is still room for improvement and the full utilization of the vast potential.

I feel highly uncomfortable commenting on the competence or otherwise of some of my colleagues at the Bar, but this must be said without mincing words. Since 1962, it seems the quality of lawyers turned out every year has been on the wane.

We have lawyers who cannot draft processes, who cannot speak good English and who argue illogically. A lawyer should stand out from the crowd, even if he/she is not in active legal practice. Sadly this is not restricted to junior lawyers. Even Lawyers of over 10 years’ post call experience do make these mistakes. The blame here lies largely on our training institutions, particularly our Law Faculties and the Nigerian Law School. The Law Faculties of Universities owe a duty to adequately prepare Nigerian Law Students for the largely procedural law that will be studied at the Nigerian Law School and encountered in practice. That way, the transition from substantive law to procedural law will not be too sudden. The law school, in turn, owes a duty to ensure that those who are eventually called to Bar are competent and can defend their Call to Bar Certificates at all times. Every year (sometimes once, sometimes twice) over 3, 000 (Three Thousand) lawyers are released into the society and it saddens me to say that many of them do not have a clue about what legal practice entails. In most cases, they have to be trained all over again by their prospective Chambers. From my own experience, and indeed from the experience of many of my colleagues, our offices in most cases become an extension of the Law School as we have to re-introduce these young lawyers to the basics of the legal profession. That high sense of ethical responsibility that once pervaded the legal profession has somehow been lost amidst all the fanfare and celebration that greets each admission of lawyers to the Nigerian Bar.

In the last three (3) years alone, two (2) Senior Advocates have been temporarily stripped of the prestigious rank. Something is obviously wrong with our noble profession. In the past, the disciplinary issues never involved Senior Advocates but now we have seen two (2) of our senior lawyers affected within three (3) years. Lawyers insult each other in court; there was even a reported case of two senior lawyers exchanging blows within the court premises. It is now the norm for senior lawyers to refer to our younger colleagues as “my juniors”. I refer to my younger colleagues as my colleagues. I sincerely hope I am not in the minority. This is a classic case of “physician heal thyself”. A lot of in-house cleansing needs to be done if we are to improve the quality of our lawyers29.

You could beat your chest firmly in the past and boast that lawyers would never be arrested or charged to court for the sort of crimes you would expect from an average lawless citizen but that is not the case now as the legal profession has been infiltrated by wolves in sheep’s clothing who could not care less about its Rules of Professional Conduct and old traditions. Lawyers now get arrested for crimes bordering on tampering with clients’ money. This was unthinkable in the past but it is now the norm. Something needs to be done about the system that produces our lawyers so that the society can return to seeing them as the social engineers that they are. The Legal Profession has therefore suffered from the problems experienced by the institutions of legal education, most especially:

· Lack of synergy between the institutions.
· Lack of basic facilities.
· Too many students.
· Industrial actions.
· Lack of basic facilities.
· Very few lecturers in faculties of law who actually practise law.

7. THE WAY FORWARD.
(a) Synergy in curriculum between Nigerian Faculties of law and the Nigerian law school.

Over 70% of a Lawyer’s foundation is the job of the University he/she attends. It is therefore important that the Universities prepare a law student adequately for the complexities of legal practice. A lawyer must not only demonstrate intelligence and great wit, he is also supposed to be honest and above board. I am well aware of the fact that the issue is sometimes out of the hands of the Universities as the foundation of some students might have been severely damaged in Secondary School. Education in Nigeria is at its lowest ebb and even though the authorities are rising to the challenge, there is still a lot to do.

At the Law School, a law graduate is introduced to the ethics of the profession but one wonders if nine (9) months is not too short a period for this. The Law Faculties could be made to incorporate professional ethics into their curriculum over the five (5) sessions that a law student is expected to spend in the University. Overtime, the ethics of the profession become engraved in the minds of the law students who will most likely know them by heart by the time they graduate. This same solution could be applied to other aspects of law in which lawyers experience problems today. That way, the introduction to procedural law is gradual and not sudden. It should also be a pre-condition that a Law Student must be found worthy both in learning and in character before he/she is sent to the Nigerian Law School. This will go a long way in preparing law students for the side of law which is nothing like what they have learnt in the University.

(b) More practising lawyers should be engaged as lecturers or part-time lecturers.

The Universities and to a lesser extent, the Nigerian Law School, are the factories in which an aspiring lawyer’s foundation is built. By the time law graduates proceed to the Nigerian Law School for the relatively short period (nine months) that they would be there, the seeds sown during their time at the University (where they spend about five years and in some cases, more) would have taken hold, molding them into the lawyers that they will be. The Nigerian Law School equips them for Legal Practice but what has been learnt for five years cannot be compared to what is learnt in nine months. The Faculties at the Universities therefore have a lot to do if they are to produce competent law graduates and by extension, competent lawyers. The Universities therefore have to ensure that more practising lawyers are employed as lecturers in their faculties. Periodic accreditation programmes by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Council for Legal Education (Nigerian Law School) would also help to ensure that the faculties of law have the requisite teaching personnel and the right learning environment for their law students30.

(c) Separation of the Council of Legal Education from the Nigerian Law School

The Nigerian Law School as presently constituted is over centralized in terms of admission and examination. Although there is a Secretary to the Council of Legal Education and Chairman of the Council, the Director General of the Nigerian Law School virtually runs the Council. This should not be the case. It should be the other way round, that is, the Council running the law schools. In any case, before the multi-campus system was introduced, there was no legislation providing for multi-campus. It was merely an administrative fiat.

We believe that the Legal Education Act of 1962 is overdue for immediate review and amendment to provide for autonomous campuses and separation of the Council from the Law School31.

(d) Private Law Schools And Institutions

At present, we have a total of one hundred and twenty eight Universities in the country. Fifty (50) out of this number are Private Universities, forty (40) are Federal universities while the remaining thirty eight (38) are State Universities. If private individuals or institutions, can run Universities, I do not see any reason private individuals or institutions cannot run Law Schools under the guidelines to be published by the Council of Legal Education and a central examination conducted by the Council. However, there must be strict regulations and accreditation of such Private Law Schools. This is more or less the practice in other climes, for example, the English system has moved from four Inns of Court to the creation of additional ten institutions for the training of lawyers.
(e) Rating of Faculties

Faculties of law in Nigeria should be rated annually. This rating should be continuous with the parameters clearly stated. It should also be the basis upon which law school forms are issued to these faculties of law, regardless of their previous standing with the Council of Legal Education. This way, there would be competition which would only bode well for the legal profession in the long run as a favourable
(f) Continuing Legal Education

Continuing legal education (CLE; also known as MCLE (mandatory or minimum continuing legal education)) is a professional education of lawyers that takes place after their initial admission to the bar. It is to ensure that lawyers remain professionally competent throughout their careers. In the United Kingdom for instance, a lawyer has to be assessed every year before he is allowed to practise. To remain competent, the lawyer has to stay in touch with the profession. All Nigerian Lawyers in legal practice or employment must comply with the Nigerian Bar Association’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Programme.

The Nigerian Bar Association Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) serves as the Continuing Legal Education regulatory authority for the NBA and the profession by providing the standards and scope for the MCLE programme. The institute is overseen by the Board of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education and works closely with Nigerian Bar Association Sections and the various local branches at large in developing programs on Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.

In many states in the United States, Continuing Legal Education participation is required of attorneys to maintain their license to practise law. Continuing Legal Education requirements exist in many other jurisdictions, such as in Canada.

If we impose these same conditions here in Nigeria, we can be sure that any Lawyer who practises in Nigeria is not out of touch with the Profession32. This should be seen as a further contribution of legal education to the profession in Nigeria.
8. CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that legal education in Nigeria has come a long way since the days of “igbosere”. We now have more campuses of the Nigerian law school than before, more faculties of law, more law students and by extension, more lawyers. This is an encouraging development but it is not enough that the period of 50 (fifty) years of legal education has brought us more lawyers, we also need to know that their quality is such that they can stand among the best in the world. This should be our collective objective. Today’s lawyer lacks adequate preparation for the basics of legal practice and this lack of preparedness stems from the problems already highlighted. There is a need to adjust legal education in Nigeria to be more in tune with what obtains in the developed parts of the world. Happily, there have been concerted efforts made by the current Leadership of the Nigerian Law School to address these problems, some of which were inherited.

We should aim not only to have as many lawyers as possible but also to have lawyers we can be proud of at all times; both intellectually and otherwise. We should be more forward thinking. What would legal education in Nigeria look like when it is 100 years old? Would it be better than it is presently or worse? These are the questions that should agitate our minds. Like I said earlier, it is not all gloom and doom. The profession has coped well after 50 years of legal education. We are not where we are supposed to be but we are also not where we were before.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Statutes referred to

1. Legal Education (Consolidation, etc.) Act, Cap L10, LFN 2004.
2. Legal Practitioners Act, Cap L11, LFN 2004.

Books Referred To
1. Adewoye, O. The Legal Profession in Nigeria 1865-1977 (Lagos: Longman, 1977).
2. Doherty O Legal Practice and Management in Nigeria (London: Cavendish Publishing Limited, 1998).
3. Encylopaedia Brittanica 2003 Edition ISBN-10: 0852299613 | ISBN-13: 978-0852299616.
4. Imhanobe S Lawyer’s Deskbook (Abuja: Temple Legal Consult, 2010).
Articles and Publications Referred To

1. A Model Definition of the Practice of Law: If Not Now, When? An Alternative Approach To Defining the Practice of Law-Soha. F, Volume 61, Issue 4, Article 13, Washington and Lee Law Review. 9/1/2004.

2. Address delivered by Dr Tahir Mamman, Director General of the Nigerian Law School at the Presentation of Candidates for Call to the Nigerian Bar at the International Conference Centre, Abuja on 14 February, 2012.

3. Court Dismisses Aturu’s Suit on Law School’s Fees-This Day Newspaper, October 18, 2013.

4. Democracy And Socio-Economic Imbalance in Nigeria: the role of law. Being the full text of a Keynote Address delivered at the Nigerian Bar Association (Benin Branch) Law Week On June 24, 2013 at Fourteen Eighty Five Marquee, Edo Hotel Premises, No.4, Okada Drive, GRA, Benin City, Edo State. By Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, MFR, SAN, FCIArb. (UK).
5. Jurist: The Legal Education Network: History of the Legal Profession in Nigeria. Prof. Yemisi Akinseye George, (now SAN) Acting Head and Senior Lecturer, Department of Public and International Law, University of Ibadan.

6. Modernizing Legal Practice In Nigeria: Challenges And Prospects: Being The Full Text Of A Paper Delivered At The 2013 State Of The Legal Profession Lecture Of The Nigerian Institute Of Advanced Legal Studies (Nials) On August 06, 2013 At Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja By Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, MFR, SAN, FCIArb. (UK)+

7. mynlasportal.com (the Nigerian Law School’s official website) on Friday, September 27, 2013.

8. Soha F Turfler A Model Definition of the Practice of Law: If Not Now, When? An Alternative Approach To Defining the Practice of Law- Volume 61, Issue 4, Article 13, Washington and Lee Law Review. 9/1/2004.

9. The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin. October 5, 2010.

10. Training to Become a Lawyer in Nigeria’ – Idornigie, P O being a Chapter Contribution to the book The Anatomy of the Legal Profession in Nigeria published by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 2013
(Footnotes)
1
Now Legal Education (Consolidation, Etc) Act, Cap L10, LFN, 2004.
2 1962.
3 See the Address delivered by Dr Tahir Mamman, Director General of the Nigerian Law School at the Presentation of Candidates for Call to the Nigerian Bar at th
e International Conference Centre, Abuja on 14 February, 2012
4 See the Body of Benchers
’ Programme for the Call to the Nigerian Bar: 14 February, 2012 at page 5.
5 Soha F Turfler
A Model Definition of the Practice of Law: If Not Now, When? An Alternative Approach To Defining the Practice of Law
– Volume 61, Issue 4, Article 13, Washington and Lee Law Review. 9/1/2004.
6 See generally, Idornigie, P O
‘Training to Become a Lawyer in Nigeria
’ being a Chapter Contribution to the book
The Anatomy of the Legal P
rofession in Nigeria
published by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 2013
7 The words
‘lawyer
’ and
‘legal practitioner
’ are used interchangeably. Indeed in the Legal Practitioners Act the word used and defined is
‘legal practitioner
’ while Rule 56 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2007 defines the word
‘lawyer
’ by reference to the definition in the Act.
8 Ordinance No 4 of 1876.
9 These include experienced court clerks
10 See Supreme Court Ordinance No. 4 of 1876 that granted powers to the Chief Justice to admit persons to so practice.
11 Gray
’s Inn, Inner Temple, Lincoln
’s Inn and Middle Temple.
12 He was enrolled in England as Barrister in November 1879 and in Nigeria on 11 August, 1880. He set up practice first in Accra which was then part of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria and then Lagos. He practised among self-taught attorneys. Thereafter there were few legal practitioners who established practice in Lagos, Calabar, Onitsha and Warri as sole practitioners.
13 Adewoye Fn 20 at 16
14 Doherty Fn 20 at 7
15 Ordinance No. 6 of 1914
16 A qualified lawyer may either be a non-graduate barrister or solicitor or a graduate barrister or solicitor. To qualify as barrister or solicitor, a person must possess Ordinary Level or its equivalent, join any of the four Inns of Court and pass the Bar Part I and II examinations or Law Society Examinations for Part I and II respectively. The graduate lawyers enjoyed some privileges
– a person with a law degree having a minimum of Second Class Honours is exempted from Bar/Law Society Part I examination, enjoyed enhanced salary and served shorter period of pupilage.
17 The membership of the Committee were: E I G Unsworth (the Attorney General of the Federation), Chief F R A Williams (Attorney General, Western Nigeria), M O Ajegbo (Attorney General, Eastern Nigeria), G K O Amachree (Solicitor General of the Federation), I M Lewis (Solicitor General, Northern Nigeria) and the following legal practitioners: Alhaji Jibrin Martin, C A H Obafemi, Asuquo Okon, J M Udochi, Dr F A Ajayi and C O Nwokedi.
18 In 1962, one campus was established in Lagos but the Nigerian Law School now has campuses in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu, Yenogoa and Yola.
19 Now Legal Education (Consolidation, Etc) Act, Cap L10, LFN, 2004
20 The other enactment is the Legal Practitioners Act, Cap L11, LFN 2004.
21
PROBLEM OF LEGAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
–
Hon. Justice M.O. Onolaja, OFR, JCA, LLD, is the former Chairman of the Council of Legal Education
22 1962
23 Culled from the mynlasp
ortal.com (the Nigerian Law School
’s official website) on Friday, September 27, 2013.
24
MODERNIZING LEGAL PRACTICE IN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS:
BEING THE FULL TEXT OF A PAPER DELIVERED AT THE 2013 STATE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION LECTURE OF THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED LEGAL STUDIES (NIALS) ON AUGUST 06, 2013 AT SHEHU MUSA YAR
’ADUA CENTRE, ABUJA BY
CHIEFJOE-KYARI GADZAMA, MFR, SAN, FCIArb. (UK)
+

25 Idornigie Fn 21 at 5.
26
http://en.
wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bar
Professional Training Course accessed on 18 May, 2012
27 The ten institutions are:
BPP Law School
, London, BPP Law School, Leeds, University of the West of Engl
and, Bristol, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, The College of Law, London, the College of Law, Birmingham, City Law School, London, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, Northumbra University, Newcastle up
o
n Tyne and Kaplan Law School, London
28
Court Dismisses Aturu’s Suit on Law School’s Fees-This Day Newspaper, October 18, 2013.

29
See Fn 25.
30
See Fn 25.
31
Supra See Fn 25.
32
Supra. See Fn 25.

February 11, 2014
Guide to judgment writing

From the inquisitive nature of man flows the desire to know what is in the mind of others. This is particularly so when the actions of those others are capable of affecting our lives in one way or the other. The judge occupies such a position as his pronouncements during adjudication affects numerous lives. The ability to predict the outcome of a case by visualising it as a judge thus becomes desirable. In a different light, knowing the mind of a judge is key to legal comprehension as the knowledge of how judges do decide, or should decide cases is of essence to understanding law itself. These have found expression in judicial reasoning, which is ‘the process by which a judge reaches a conclusion as to the appropriate result in a case and to the written explanation of that process in a published judgment’. The fact that two seemingly similar cases may not produce the same outcome and the fact that the result of legal disputes subject to adjudication is not predictable has made it necessary for subjects of the law to understand how the mind of the judge works.

Understanding the mind of the judge will involve going on a philosophical and jurisprudential voyage and this is what this book has done in twelve chapters.

Judicial Reasoningm a 12-chapter book was published by by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NAILS). It discusses the concept of judicial reasoning by exploring the thought of a judge and what influnces during judgments.

The first chapter, written by Peter Ademu Anyebe is titled: Stares Decisis: Step to Conclusion. He explains stare decisis as a step to conclusion, noting that principles established by previous cases are not inviolable. It elucidates that the doctrine to stand by a precedent is a principle of decision making and not a rule and as such needs not be applied when the precedent at issue is badly reasoned. The approaches taken by the courts in deciding whether to overrule a precedent are discussed in this chapter. The expository nature of this chapter is seen when the writer enumerates the factors that guide the courts in overruling precedents while citing some notable instances where precedents have been overruled.

The second chapter is titled: Judicial Reasoning and Personal Idiosyncrasies and is written by Dr. Adebisi Arewa. The writer argues here that the most significant responsibility of the judiciary is fidelity to the law and adjudication of cases in accordance with the law. While agreeing that the attitudes and beliefs of judges are critical determinant factors of their decisions, the writer posits that the attitudinal perspective is an element of the extra legal paradigm of judicial decision making. He writes: “All legal systems have their criteria for determining legality and or legitimacy of judicial decisions. These criteria include constitutional and statutory enactments judicial precedent and the formal and legal process for establishing them, and informal norms and social values which are indeterminate, inexact, subjective and of low justificatory value and often confined in the subconscious where they nevertheless impact on judicial reasoning and decision. Once the rules of validation are clearly stated, each factor whether formal or informal can then be ranged against such rules pursuant to determining their legitimacy ad legality, for the purpose of judicial reasoning and judicial decision making.”

This chapter reveals that contrary to the portrayal of judging as a value free, detached and dispassionate process predicated on facts and legal precedents, that extra-legal factors such as psychological, attitudinal and social background play significant role in the judicial decision making process.

Chapter three, written by Dr. Francisca E. Nlerum, is titled: Towards Substantive Justice in Nigeria. It discusses the concept of substantial justice by first positing that the court is able to provide substantive justice through stating the law, providing fair trial, acceptable outcome and ultimately, constraining and directing human behaviour. She said the structure of the substantive law, rule and procedure has direct implication on the perception and construction steps necessary to provide substantive justice. The exercise of discretion by the courts is examined in this chapter as the writer writes “… the exercise of such discretion is controlled and manipulated by the structure and function of substantive law, rule ad procedure upon which the discretion is exercised. The judge’s ability to exercise fair discretion by being impartial and objective is called to question and such burden places on him an expectation to produce consistent result …”

Addressing the extent at which extraneous conditions can be resorted to in order to qualify as judicial activism, this chapter examines landmark cases such AG Bendel State v AG Federation & Ors, AG Federation v AG Abia State & Ors, Plateau State of Nigeria & Anor v AG Federation, Amaechi v INEC among others. It concludes by acknowledging that substantive justice can only be promoted by judicial activism.

Chapter four titled: Research and Judicial Reasoning, written by Ige Adeola Olabomi, shows the nexus between legal research and judicial reasoning. It says that research plays an important role in recommending solutions to existing problems of the society particularly in judicial reasoning. The reader is informed of doctrinal legal research which is concerned with the formulation of legal doctrines through the analysis of legal rules. This chapter analyses the sources of legal research in Nigeria and the writer likens research in judicial reasoning to scientific research. According to the writer “…the more nearly we are able to predict what decision will be made by the courts on a given state of facts, the more nearly do we approach to a scientific and civilized jurisprudence… ”

Chapter five is titled: Analysis of Brief of Counsel and is written by Osatohanmwen Eruaga. The writer in this chapter x-rays the concept of brief of counsel by considering the various types of briefs there are, and when they may be used in appeal process as well as what is expected of a brief by the court. Well versed in legal history in Nigeria, the chapter traces the history of brief writing in Nigeria. The writer discusses the concept and importance of brief of argument through citing and reporting of required cases as well as the Supreme Court Rules. Going through the cases, this chapter discusses the structure and contents of briefs of arguments. The chapter is particularly enriched by rulings of learned justices explaining brief of arguments as well as the contents. One of these as quoted by the writer is on the brevity of a brief where the Supreme Court stated per Oputa JSC in Engineering Enterprise v Att. Gen. Kaduna. “As the name implies, a brief should be brief. It should be short enough to be attractive yet long enough to cover the substance …” Still on the length of briefs, the writer cautions on restrictions. She writes “… restricting the number of pages in the brief of argument as done in some jurisdictions such as the United States, would affect negatively the brief system in Nigeria by exposing the system to more “empty” or faulty briefs provided within the limits as provided.” The chapter concludes by reinforcing the need for counsel to attach the same level of seriousness the court displays when producing the brief by adhering to the general rules of brief writing.

In Chapter 6 ,which is titled: Prophesy of the Courts written by Suzzie Onyeka Oyakhire, the definition of law as the prophecies of what the courts will do is scholarly analysed. The chapter reasons that this lay the foundation for the 19th century reliance on the doctrine of judicial precedents which has influenced legal thinking and which also is the crux of the legal systems of common law jurisdiction including Nigeria. Through identifying and analyzing arguments in favour of and against the prediction premise of judicial precedents, the writer examines the idea behind the prophesies of the courts.The writer considers the binding effect of the judgments of the court which until they are appealed and reversed by a higher court, remain the law and govern the affairs of subjects. She writes “A classical example of judicial precedent which has set the foundation for the principle of negligence in the law of torts is the decision of Lord Atkins in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson. This decision has formed the crux of determining the liability of the neighbor who owes a duty of care to another and breaches that duty of care. Since the decision of the court in that case it is apt to conclude that the bad man and the society at large can predict that if he acts in a way that causes injury to his neighbor, he would be liable under the law of torts.” (p.138). The writer identifies judicial activism as one of the factors which challenge the prediction theory as judges do not only apply the law as it is but sometimes extend it and at other times create new ones. The role played by ratio decidendi in the judgment of the court is analysed in this chapter as the writer identifies that when faced with similar fact cases, a later court may give different reasons for arriving at a particular conclusion notwithstanding that the cases were tried with exactly the same law. She cites the instance of the proliferation of conflicting decisions arising from election petitions in Nigeria and cites the cases of Ugwu v Ararume and Amaechi v INEC as examples. This chapter canvasses that while the importance of ‘prophesy of the courts’ cannot be undermined, its characteristics as a tool for absolute prediction is however questionable. The chapter examines this in the light of judicial activism, contradictory and dissenting precedents and more importantly with the instrumentality of statutes which may alter the validity of previous predictions.

In Chapter 7 titled: Specialisation as a factor in Judicial Reasoning, Prof Animi Awah infers that judicial reasoning depends not only on legal imperatives but also on social philosophy, moral imperatives and political justification. This has made judges to continue being generalists even when the courts are specialised. The reason for this, according to the writer, is the fact that law is no longer restricted to the traditional issues any more but cuts across all discernible areas of human endeavours. The chapter examines the theories of judicial reasoning; it discusses specialisation and brings out the impact of specialisation to judicial reasoning. In the light of specialisation movements in the legal sector which has found its way into the court system whereby there are creations such as the National Industrial Court, specialist tribunals, and divisions specialising in different areas, the writer as a poser asks whether specialisation impacts on the quality of service and service delivery in the sector, what expertise in judicial adjudication means and whether specialisation impacts judicial reasoning process. Acknowledging the difficulty in deciphering the issue of expertise and specialisation, the writer notes “As a safe measure therefore, reference to specialisation will refer to the judge that sits over specialized cases or specialised court dealing with specified subject or related subjects while the generalist judge would refer to that judge who sits in a court of “unlimited” jurisdiction and adjudicating over any matter that comes before him irrespective of subject matter.”

The writer examines the pros and cons of judicial specialisation while citing examples of specialised adjudication. This chapter concludes that proper evaluation of the substance of cases and good use of interpretation skills and other aids to judicial reasoning can better guarantee the goal of the justice system than mere subject matter expertise.

Chapter 8 titled: Elevated Thought Process in Judicial reasoning, is written by Uchechukwu Ngwaba. Recognising that thought is a very significant factor in understanding judicial reasoning, it discusses it, stating that judicial reasoning is an elevated thought process. The chapter examines the different theories of judicial reasoning, which have arisen as a result of the disagreements about the reasoning process of judges. The writer analyses the various theories, namely the formalism, intuitionism and determinism. An important question of whether there can be any theoretical basis to explain the construction of human thought is asked. This chapter uses a philosophical approach to address the issue.

He writes: “Revisiting the postulations of the scholarship on judicial reasoning, we notice that despite their divergent claims, a common ground is the understanding that in judicial reasoning, the ultimate objective of the judge is to do justice.”

The writer says justice is not tangible or conscious. He explains that a judge’s reasoning embodies a method distinct from judicial decision making.

In Chapter 9 titled: Logicality and Clarity of Judgments, is written by Nkiruka Chidia Maduekwe, access to justice is described as being tied to access to judgments. He analyses the essence of a logical and clear judgment, discusses importance of logic in judgments, warning that the art of thinking should not be confused with logic. It analyses the importance of clarity and logic in judgments as being essential tools in producing accessible judgments. It also sufficiently explains how the absence of clarity in judgment has far-reaching consequences on adjudication. The writer proffers some recommendations which will help to improve the quality of judgments.

Chapter 10 is titled: The Judicial Doctrine of Pith and Substance and written by Adejoke O. Adediran. It examines the doctrine of pith and substance as created by the court in connection with judicial review of legislation is made. Tracing the history of the doctrine, the chapter discusses how it came about under the Canadian law by being developed by the Canadian courts.The purport of the doctrine in a federal system of government is discussed as well as what the courts usually determine in ascertaining the pith and substance of a case. Citing the purpose of the legislation and the legal effect of the law as instrumental in ascertaining the pith and substance of a case, the writer states that the court takes cognizance of both extrinsic and intrinsic evidence.

On the judicial interpretation of the doctrine in Nigeria, she writes: “ …in a federal system where the legislative powers of legislatures are different, there is likelihood of encroachment by a legislature in the legislative field of another. The courts have always examined the law examined the law enacted vis a vis the legislative power contained in the constitution in order to determine whether such encroachment is merely incidental or substantive. The courts in Nigeria have applied this rule in a number of cases, although they might not expressly indicate that the rule is being applied.” The writer cites cases whereby the courts have applied this doctrine such as Attorney-General of Federation v Attorney-General of Lagos State, Attorney-General Abia v Attorney-General Federation, Attorney- General Lagos State v Eko Hotels ltd, among others. The essence of the doctrine as an effective means of interpretation of statutes in situations where enactments prima facie seem to be ultra vires is adequately discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 11 is titled ‘Extra Legal Deductibles: A Search for the Fine Line between Law and Nuances’ and is written by Judith Chukwufumnanya Rapu. This chapter recognises the importance of the duty of the judge whose claim to power the writer claims is multi- faceted; first the nature of his office and secondly, the lives and destinies of several persons lie in the pronouncements he makes.

January 14, 2014
Legal restrictions to sale, advert of drugs

In view of calls to regularise and standardise the procurement and distribution of drugs, Augustine Ogoma of the Imo State Judiciary examines the Medical and Pharmacy Laws.

The only reference is the dissolution of the Food and Drugs Administration and Control Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services. All assets, funds, resources and movable or immovable property which immediately before the commencement of the Act held office in the Food and Drugs Department shall be deemed to have been transferred to the Agency.

The implication of these provisions is that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control is to administer the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act. This view is buttressed by the fact that the NAFDAC Act does not contain substantive offences.

This simplistic approach may, however, be faulted by conflicting provisions noticeable in the two laws. These conflicts includes, disparity in the penalty provisions; use of different terminologies in related cases; and differential powers conferred on the Minister. For instance, under the Food and Drugs Act the power of making regulations is exercisable by the Minister on the advice of the Advisory Council. But under the NAFDAC Act, the power is exercisable by the governing Council on the approval of the minister.

Silence on the relationship between the two laws creates unnecessary confusion and uncertainty. The Food and Drugs Act deals with substantive issue such as offences and penalties. The NAFDAC Act is more or less administrative in context. In the main, it deals with function and powers of agency and its functionaries. It effectively address the issue of probity of the officers by making commendable disciplinary provision.

But no offences are created. On this ground it can be argued that the NAFDAC Act cannot stand alone since offenders cannot be charged under any of its provision. It is therefore suggested that the two laws be merged since, as seen from their respective provisions, one complements the other.

Counterfeit and Fake Drugs

(Miscellaneous provision) Act

Enforcement of provisions of the Counterfeit and fake Drugs (Miscellaneous provision) Act is conferred on the Federal and State Task Force. The functions of the task force include:

•Paying unscheduled visits to all ports of entry and border posts.

•Taking sample or specimen of any article, opening and examining, while on the premises, any container or package;

•Examining any books, documents or records found on the premises, which are reasonably believed to contain any information relevant to the enforcement of Act; and

•Seizing any drug or poison which is counterfeit, adulterated, banned, fake, substandard or expired.

The Task Force also have power to seal up any premises used or being used in connection with any office under the Act.

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act

The pharmacists Council of Nigeria is charged with the implementation of provisions of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act. Among other functions, it determines the standard of knowledge and skill to be attained by person seeking to become registered members of pharmacists profession. Although enforcement of drug laws is not a direct function, the Council by its nature helps to instill sanity in drug matters.

The various provision of the Act creates an inherent deterrence against drug offences. In particular, the provisions on professional discipline make it possible to appropriately deal with a pharmacists found guilty of a drug offence.

Implementation problems

From the foregoing discourse it is clear that there exist adequate legislative enactments to control the manufacture, sale and advertisement of drugs. The major problem is that of implementation.

The food and Drugs Act has been in force since 1974 but not much successes have been recorded. None of the regulations which received the approval of Advisory Council under the food and Drugs Administration and control Department has been passed into law.

Enforcement procedures are not clearly set out. Apart from the general provisions in Section 10(5), and 14(3), no section confers power of prosecution on any particular person or authority. The position is the same under NAFDAC Act. The result is that a reported case is referred to the police for prosecution.

A noticeable fact about this procedure is that many cases end up at investigation stage. The authority in charge react by passing the buck. For instance, officials of the NAFDAC blame the police and the judiciary for the recurring difficulty normally encountered in the prosecution of food and Drugs Offenders. They claim that many cases which should have been prosecuted end up mid-stream due to ineffective enforcement.

Closely related to the above is the delay associated with investigations of reported cases. In some countries such as Britain, such reports are treated with utmost dispatch. The contrary is the case in Nigeria. Investigations, almost always, take an unduly long period thereby creating opportunity for fraudulent dealing with condemned product.

A case that readily comes to mind is that of destruction of fertility drugs worthN11million by NAFDAC officials in Kano on January 28, 1994. The drugs were seized at the Murtala Mouhammed International Airport in November 1992. They bore neither the name of the manufacturer nor expiry date. Such time lag could lead to many undesirable consequences for instance, some of the consignment could, with the connivance or collaboration of officials, be pilfered and sold to unsuspecting members of the public.

This research reveals that most provisions on sale of poison and prescription of drugs laws are not observed in practice. Many drug sellers still sell such drugs without prescription.

Oral request are honoured even by some registered pharmacists. Similarly, in disregard of the law, some patent medicine dealers stock and sell prescription drugs. Some also retail in smaller quantities. Tablets and capsules are freely counted and sold to buyers.

The main problem in this regard is that of enforcement. Many state ministries of health are not sufficiently equipped to monitor the activities of the registered pharmacists and patent medicine dealers. In some states, there may not be more than ten pharmaceutical inspectors with no functional vehicles. Much cannot be achieved under this situation, especially in view of the large number of registered pharmacy and patent medicine shops in the states.

Sale of drugs in prohibited places is still noticeable in many towns and cities in the country. The greatest offence in this regard is committed with respect to sale in market places. In 2003, the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria was compelled by the then prevailing situation to issue Guidelines and Regulations reiterating the legal position. The result of this effort is yet to be seen as sections of some Nigerian markets are still devoted to the sale of drugs

Conclusion

This thesis shows that the various enforcement agencies are making reasonable efforts in the implementation of drug laws. Some public alerts have been issued by the NAFDAC against the consumption of drugs adjudged dangerous to health. Also both the NAFDAC and the task Forces have been embarking on incessant raids, seizures and destruction of illegal drugs. The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria uses the process of de-registration to phase out sale of drugs in market places.

Despite the above efforts, the scourge of fake, adulterated and sub-standard drugs has continued unabated. This has generated comments from the mass media, individuals and organisations. An irresistible conclusion is that the enforcement authorities are ill-prepared to reverse the trend. In most cases their directives are not backed by practical implementation. For instance, when a drug is declared unfit for human consumption there is usually no follow up action to ensure that it is actually withdrawn from the market.

The need for closer monitoring of sale of drugs in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasised. There should be routine visits to drug factories to ensure compliance with in-house quality control requirements. In addition, quality control laboratory should be established in each state of the Federation. Drugs from every batch should be certified by this laboratory before been put into circulation. To curb the activities of drug fakers, the raids and seizures of suspicious drugs should be intensified.

The consumer has a very important role to play. Undeserved patronage keeps illegal drug dealers in business. If consumers shun drugs suspected to be sub-standard: make their purchases from accredited sources and report suspected cases to law enforcement agents, the incidence of illegal drugs will be minimised. Education is necessary in this regard as some consumers fall victim out of ignorance.

•Ogoma is also a research student

December 31, 2013
Legal restrictions to sale, advert of drugs

Preserving the health of the nation requires the need for a strict control of the manufacture, sale and advertisement of drugs.

This is because drugs are special commodities which could save or endanger the life of the consumer depending on how they are used.

In realisation of this, government all over the world usually put in place some degree of control over dealings in drugs.

The objectives of pharmaceutical legislation can be summarised as follows:

•To provide rules and regulations which will ensure that only people with the necessary training, qualifications and experience handle various operations associated with pharmaceuticals.

•To ensure that possession of any given pharmaceutical license is in accordance with laid down rules and regulations.

•To protect the ordinary citizen against the dangers of drug abuse, drug resistance, substandard drugs and drug adulteration.

There are various legislations regulating and controlling drugs in Nigeria and these includes:

The food and Drug Act cap 150 LFN 1990; the National Agency for food and Drug Administration and control (NAFDAC) Act No 15, 1993 the counterfeit and fake Drugs (Miscellaneous provisions) Act Cap 73 LFN 1990; The National Drug formulator and Essential Drug list Act, Caps 257 LFN 1990; THE Drug and related products (Registration etc) Act No19, 1993, the pharmacists council of Nigeria Law No 91, 1992; the dangerous Drug Act Cap 91 LFN 1990, THE National Drug Law enforcement Agency Act Cap) 253 LFN 1990; And Pharmacy Law of various states particularly, Lagos State.

Definition of drugs

Section 20 of the food and drug Act Cap 150 LFN 1990 defines drug to include any substance or mixture of substance manufactured, sold or advertised for use in:-

•The diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of any disease, disorder abnormal physical state or the symptoms thereof in man or in animal.

•Restoring, correcting or modifying organic functions in man or animal.

•Disinfections, or the control of vermin, insects or pets or contraception

It has to be noted here that section 30 of NAFDAC Act also defines drug in similar terms.

Possible offences

•Sale of drugs in prohibited places:

Section 2 (1) of the counterfeit and fake drugs (miscellaneous provisions Act Caps 73 LFN 1990 makes it an offence to hawk, sell or display for the purposes of sale, any drugs or poison whatsoever in any market, kiosk, motor park, roadside stall, bus, ferry or any other means of transportation or other place not duly licensed or registered for the purpose of sale and distribution of drugs or poison.

It has to be noted that an offence under this section does not depend on the nature or quality of the drug in question but on the place of sale.

•Manufacture and sale of fake adulterated and substandard drugs:

Section 1 (2) of the food and drug Act makes it an offence to sell any drug which is adulterated.

However, the counterfeit and fake drugs (Miscellaneous provisions) Act is more general in contest.

It prohibits the manufacture importation, sale, distribution, display for the purpose of sale any counterfeit, adulterated, banned, fake substandard or expired drugs. Infact, merely being in possession of the prohibited drugs is also an offence.

•Offences relating to advertisements:

It has to be noted that the food and Drugs Act and the Drugs and related products (Registration) Act prohibits certain advertisements.

Section I of the Drugs and related products Act provides that no drug or drug product shall be advised in Nigeria unless it has been registered in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

Section 2 of the Food and Drugs Act prohibits advertisements of drugs represented as treatment or prevention of the diseases specified in the first schedule to the Act. Altogether about sixty five diseases and disorders are listed which includes, Alcoholism, cancer, obesity, sleeping sickness and loss of youth. A possible reason advanced for the prohibition of advertisements in these is that since some of the diseases have no known cure, the advertisements are likely to be false.

The code of advertising practice issued by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) created by Law No 55 of 1988 established by law No 55 strengthens the legal position.

The code re-affirms the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act and in addition prohibits the following:

•advertisements of on over the counter (OTC) drug unless it has been registered by the Federal Ministry of Health.

•offer to diagnose, advise, prescribe or treat by correspondence

•prevention of ageing

It also has to be noted here that by virtue of Section 2 of the Advertising practitioners (Registration Act) 1996 as amended, the power to vet advertisement of regulated products is vested on the minister of health.

•Sale by unauthorised persons:

By the provisions of the pharmacist council of Nigeria Law the following persons are authorised to sell things.

•A registered pharmacists

•A holder of patent and proprietary medicine vendors licence.

Patent and proprietary medicine

Patent and proprietary medicine is defined as any medicine held out by advertisement, label or otherwise in writing as efficacious for the prevention,cure or relief of any malady, ailment, infirmity or disorder affecting human beings and-

which is sold under a trade name or trade mark to the use of which any person has claims or purports to have any exclusive right; or of which any person has or claims or purports to have the exclusive right of manufacture or for the making of which nay person has or claims or purports to have any secret process or protection by letters patents.

No person shall sell or deliver any patent or proprietary medicine unless he is either-

.a selling dispenser or chemist; or a holder of a patent and proprietary medicines licence.

The law requires that patent and proprietary medicine shall be sold intact in the box, bottle, parcel or other container in which it was imported, packed or made ready for sale.

The container must bear the name or trade mark of the manufacturer. Also no person other than a selling dispenser or chemist shall import in bulk and subsequently repack any patent and proprietary medicine. The summary of the requirements is that a patent and proprietary medicine must reach the consumer in the condition in which it left the manufacturer.

Penalties for drug offences

Each of the existing laws stipulates penalties for offences created therein.

By Section 17(1) of the Food and Drugs Act, any person who contravenes any provisions of the Act or the regulations shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand naira or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.

It is a defence that the Accused,

•Sold the article in the same package and in the same condition as it was when he bought it; and

Could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that the sale of the article would be in contravention of the Act or regulation.

The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control Decree only imposes penalty for obstruction of an officer of the agency in the performance of his duties. The penalty for this offence is a fine of N5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Penalties for offences under the Drugs and Related Products (Registration e.t.c.) Act are as follows:

•in the case of an individual, a fine not exceeding N50,000 or imprisonment for term not exceeding two years or to both fine and imprisonment; and

•in the case of body corporate, a fine not exceeding N100,000.

Dealing without registration being the crux of this Act, it is assumed that the stipulated penalties are only applicable to cases of sale of genuine but unregistered drugs. If the drug in question is fake, adulterated or substandard, the penalties in the Counterfeit and Fake Drug (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act will prevail.

The Counterfeit and Fake Drug (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act contains the highest penalties for drug offences.

Penalty for the sale, manufacture, importation e.t.c. of the prohibited drugs is a fine not exceeding N500,000 or imprisonment for a term not less than five years nor more than15 years or to both. Penalty for sale in prohibited places is a fine exceeding N5,000 or imprisonment.

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act

It contains further penalties where a drug offence is committed by a person registered under it. Section 18(1) give the Disciplinary Tribunal the power to reprimand or order the striking out of the name of a pharmacist found guilty of unprofessional conduct by a court or tribunal.

There is, no doubt, that any illegal dealings in drugs will constitute an act or unprofessional conduct. Penalties for offences relating to patent and proprietary medicines range between N20 and N200.

Enforcement agencies

Different Agencies are charged with the implementation of the existing drug laws. For clarity, implementation under each law shall be treated separately.

Food and Drugs Act

Enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act is vested in the Minister of Health and the inspecting officers.

Powers and functions of the Minister include, power to obtain particulars in respect of certain substances; grant of certificate of safety of batch; and declaration of compliance with provisions of the Act. The most important power of the Minister is the power to make regulations for carrying out the purposes of the Act.

Powers of the inspecting officers are set out in Section 10. These include; power to enter and inspect any premises used for a regulated product; examine any article to which the Act applies, examine any books, documents or other records found on the premises and seize and detain any article by means of or in relation to which any provision of the Act or the regulations has been contravened.

National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and control (NAFDAC)

National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control is a body corporate established to perform the following functions:-

•regulate and control the importation, exportation, manufacture, advertisement, sale and use of regulated products;

•conduct appropriate tests and ensure compliance with standard specifications designated and approved by the council;

•undertake inspection of imported regulated products;

•compile standard specifications and guidelines for the production, importation, exportation and sale of regulated products; and

•issue guidelines on, approve and monitor the advertisement of regulated products.

Apart from the extension of the meaning of regulated products in the NAFDAC Act to include bottled water and chemicals, the same subject matters are dealt with by both the Act and Food and Drugs Act. Functions of the authorities are similar. The NAFDAC Act which is later in time does not mention the former Act. The only reference is the dissolution of the Food and Drugs Administration and Control Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services. All assets, funds, resources and movable or immovable property which immediately before the commencement of the Act held office in the Food and Drugs Department shall be deemed to have been transferred to the Agency.

The implication of these provisions is that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control is to administer the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act. This view is buttressed by the fact that the NAFDAC Act does not contain substantive offences.

This simplistic approach may, however, be faulted by conflicting provisions noticeable in the two laws. These conflicts includes, disparity in the penalty provisions; use of different terminologies in related cases; and differential powers conferred on the Minister. For instance, under the Food and Drugs Act the power of making regulations is exercisable by the Minister on the advice of the Advisory Council. But under the NAFDAC Act, the power is exercisable by the governing Council on the approval of the Minister.

Silence on the relationship between the two laws creates unnecessary confusion and uncertainty. The Food and Drugs Act deals with substantive issue such as offences and penalties. The NAFDAC Act is more or less administrative in context. In the main, it deals with function and powers of agency and its functionaries. It effectively address the issue of probity of the officers by making commendable disciplinary provision.

But no offences are created. On this ground it can be argued that the NAFDAC Act cannot stand alone since offenders cannot be charged under any of its provision. It is therefore suggested that the two laws be merged since, as seen from their respective provisions, one complements the other.

Counterfeit and Fake Drugs

(miscellaneous provision) Act.

Enforcement of provisions of the Counterfeit and fake Drugs (Miscellaneous provision) Act is conferred on the Federal and State Task Force. The functions of the task force include:-

.paying unscheduled visits to all ports of entry and border posts.

.taking sample or specimen of any article, opening and examining, while on the premises, any container or package;

.examining any books, documents or records found on the premises, which are reasonably believed to contain any information relevant to the enforcement of Act; and

.seizing any drug or poison which is counterfeit, adulterated, banned, fake, substandard or expired.

The Task Force also have power to seal up any premises used or being used in connection with any office under the Act.

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act

The pharmacists Council of Nigeria is charged with the implementation of provisions of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act. Among other functions, it determines the standard of knowledge and skill to be attained by person seeking to become registered members of pharmacists profession. Although enforcement of drug laws is not a direct function, the Council by its nature helps to instill sanity in drug matters.

The various provision of the Act creates an inherent deterrence against drug offences. In particular, the provisions on professional discipline make it possible to appropriately deal with a pharmacists found guilty of a drug offence.

Implementation Problems

From the foregoing discourse it is clear that there exist adequate legislative enactments to control the manufacture, sale and advertisement of drugs. The major problem is that of implementation.

The food and Drugs Act has been in force since 1974 but not much successes have been recorded. None of the regulations which received the approval of Advisory Council under the food and Drugs Administration and control Department has been passed into law.

Enforcement procedures are not clearly set out. Apart from the general provisions in Section 10(5), and 14(3), no section confers power of prosecution on any particular person or authority. The position is the same under NAFDAC Act. The result is that a reported case is referred to the police for prosecution.

A noticeable fact about this procedure is that many cases end up at investigation stage. The authority in charge react by passing the buck. For instance, officials of the NAFDAC blame the police and the judiciary for the recurring difficulty normally encountered in the prosecution of food and Drugs Offenders. They claim that many cases which should have been prosecuted end up mid-stream due to ineffective enforcement.

Closely related to the above is the delay associated with investigations of reported cases. In some countries such as Britain, such reports are treated with utmost dispatch. The contrary is the case in Nigeria. Investigations, almost always, take an unduly long period thereby creating opportunity for fraudulent dealing with condemned product.

A case that readily comes to mind is that of destruction of fertility drugs worth=N=11M by NAFDAC officials in Kano on January 28, 1994. The drugs were seized at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in November 1992. They bore neither the name of the manufacturer nor expiry date. Such time lag could lead to many undesirable consequences for instance, some of the consignment could, with the connivance or collaboration of officials, be pilfered and sold to unsuspecting members of the public.

This research reveals that most provisions on sale of poison and prescription of drugs laws are not observed in practice. Many drug sellers still sell such drugs without prescription.

Oral request are honoured even by some registered pharmacists. Similarly, in disregard of the law, some patent medicine dealers stock and sell prescription drugs. Some also retail in smaller quantities. Tablets and capsules are freely counted and sold to buyers.

The main problem in this regard is that of enforcement. Many State Ministries of health are not sufficiently equipped to monitor the activities of the registered pharmacists and patent medicine dealers. In some States, there may not be more than ten pharmaceutical inspectors with no functional vehicles. Much cannot be achieved under this situation especially in view of the large number of registered pharmacy and patent medicine shops in the states.

Sale of drugs in prohibited places is still noticeable in many towns and cities in the country. The greatest offence in this regard is committed with respect to sale in market places. In 2003, the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria was compelled by the then prevailing situation to issue Guidelines and Regulations reiterating the legal position. The result of this effort is yet to be seen as sections of some Nigerian markets are still devoted to the sale of drugs

Conclusion

This thesis shows that the various enforcement agencies are making reasonable efforts in the implementation of drug laws. Some public alerts have been issued by the NAFDAC against the consumption of drugs adjudged dangerous to health. Also both the NAFDAC and the task Forces have been embarking on incessant raids, seizures and destruction of illegal drugs. The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria uses the process of de-registration to phase out sale of drugs in market places.

Despite the above efforts, the scourge of fake, adulterated and sub-standard drugs has continued unabated. This has generated comments from the mass media, individuals and organizations. An irresistible conclusion is that the enforcement authorities are ill-prepared to reverse the trend. In most cases their directives are not backed by practical implementation. For instance, when a drug is declared unfit for human consumption there is usually no follow up action to ensure that it is actually withdrawn from the market.

The need for closer monitoring of sale of drugs in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasised. There should be routine visits to drug factories to ensure compliance with in-house quality control requirements. In addition, quality control laboratory should be established in each state of the Federation. Drugs from every batch should be certified by this laboratory before been put into circulation. To curb the activities of drug fakers, the raids and seizures of suspicious drugs should be intensified.

The consumer has a very important role to play. Undeserved patronage keeps illegal drug dealers in business. If consumers shun drugs suspected to be sub-standard: make their purchases from accredited sources and report suspected cases to law enforcement agents, the incidence of illegal drugs will be minimized. Education is necessary in this regard as some consumers fall victim out of ignorance. Augustine Ogoma is a Senior Magistrate in Imo State Judiciary Owerri & a research student

December 17, 2013
Legal restrictions to sale, advert of drugs

In view of the calls to regularise and standardise the procurement and distribution of drugs in the country, Chief Magistrate of Imo State, Augustine Ogoma examines the Medical and Pharmacy Laws.

Preserving the health of the nation requires the need for a strict control of the manufacture, sale and advertisement of drugs.
This is because drugs are special commodities which could save or endanger the life of the consumer depending on how they are used.
In realisation of this, government all over the world usually put in place some degree of control over dealings in drugs.
The objectives of pharmaceutical legislation can be summarised as follows:
•To provide rules and regulations which will ensure that only people with the necessary training, qualifications and experience handle various operations associated with pharmaceuticals.
•To ensure that possession of any given pharmaceutical license is in accordance with laid down rules and regulations.
•To protect the ordinary citizen against the dangers of drug abuse, drug resistance, substandard drugs and drug adulteration.
There are various legislations regulating and controlling drugs in Nigeria and these includes:
The food and Drug Act cap 150 LFN 1990; the National Agency for food and Drug Administration and control (NAFDAC) Act No 15, 1993 the counterfeit and fake Drugs (Miscellaneous provisions) Act Cap 73 LFN 1990; The National Drug formulator and Essential Drug list Act, Caps 257 LFN 1990; THE Drug and related products (Registration etc) Act No19, 1993, the pharmacists council of Nigeria Law No 91, 1992; the dangerous Drug Act Cap 91 LFN 1990, THE National Drug Law enforcement Agency Act Cap) 253 LFN 1990; And Pharmacy Law of various states particularly, Lagos State.

Definition of drugs
Section 20 of the food and drug Act Cap 150 LFN 1990 defines drug to include any substance or mixture of substance manufactured, sold or advertised for use in:-
•The diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of any disease, disorder abnormal physical state or the symptoms thereof in man or in animal.
•Restoring, correcting or modifying organic functions in man or animal.
•Disinfections, or the control of vermin, insects or pets or
.•Contraception
It has to be noted here that section 30 of NAFDAC Act also defines drug in similar terms.

Possible offences
•Sale of drugs in prohibited places:
Section 2 (1) of the counterfeit and fake drugs (miscellaneous provisions Act Caps 73 LFN 1990 makes it an offence to hawk, sell or display for the purposes of sale, any drugs or poison whatsoever in any market, kiosk, motor park, roadside stall, bus, ferry or any other means of transportation or other place not duly licensed or registered for the purpose of sale and distribution of drugs or poison.
It has to be noted that an offence under this section does not depend on the nature or quality of the drug in question but on the place of sale.
•Manufacture and sale of fake adulterated and substandard drugs:
Section 1 (2) of the food and drug Act makes it an offence to sell any drug which is adulterated.
However, the counterfeit and fake drugs (Miscellaneous provisions) Act is more general in contest.
It prohibits the manufacture importation, sale, distribution, display for the purpose of sale any counterfeit, adulterated, banned, fake substandard or expired drugs. Infact, merely being in possession of the prohibited drugs is also an offence.
•Offences relating to advertisements:
It has to be noted that the food and Drugs Act and the Drugs and related products (Registration) Act prohibits certain advertisements.
Section I of the Drugs and related products Act provides that no drug or drug product shall be advised in Nigeria unless it has been registered in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
Section 2 of the Food and Drugs Act prohibits advertisements of drugs represented as treatment or prevention of the diseases specified in the first schedule to the Act. Altogether about sixty five diseases and disorders are listed which includes, Alcoholism, cancer, obesity, sleeping sickness and loss of youth. A possible reason advanced for the prohibition of advertisements in these is that since some of the diseases have no known cure, the advertisements are likely to be false.
The code of advertising practice issued by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) created by Law No 55 of 1988 established by law No 55 strengthens the legal position.
The code re-affirms the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act and in addition prohibits the following:
•advertisements of on over the counter (OTC) drug unless it has been registered by the Federal Ministry of Health.
•offer to diagnose, advise, prescribe or treat by correspondence
•prevention of ageing
It also has to be noted here that by virtue of Section 2 of the Advertising practitioners (Registration Act) 1996 as amended, the power to vet advertisement of regulated products is vested on the minister of health.
•Sale by unauthorized persons:
By the provisions of the pharmacist council of Nigeria Law the following persons are authorized to sell things.
•A registered pharmacists
•A holder of patent and proprietary medicine vendors licence.
Patent and proprietary medicine
“Patent and proprietary medicine” is defined as any medicine held out by advertisement, label or otherwise in writing as efficacious for the prevention, cure or relief of any malady, ailment, infirmity or disorder affecting human beings and-
which is sold under a trade name or trade mark to the use of which any person has claims or purports to have any exclusive right; or of which any person has or claims or purports to have the exclusive right of manufacture or for the making of which nay person has or claims or purports to have any secret process or protection by letters patents.
No person shall sell or deliver any patent or proprietary medicine unless he is either-
.a selling dispenser or chemist; or a holder of a patent and proprietary medicines licence.
The law requires that patent and proprietary medicine shall be sold intact in the box, bottle, parcel or other container in which it was imported, packed or made ready for sale.
The container must bear the name or trade mark of the manufacturer. Also no person other than a selling dispenser or chemist shall import in bulk and subsequently repack any patent and proprietary medicine. The summary of the requirements is that a patent and proprietary medicine must reach the consumer in the condition in which it left the manufacturer.
Penalties for drug offences
Each of the existing laws stipulates penalties for offences created therein.
By Section 17(1) of the Food and Drugs Act, any person who contravenes any provisions of the Act or the regulations shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand naira or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.
It is a defence that the Accused,
•Sold the article in the same package and in the same condition as it was when he bought it; and
Could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that the sale of the article would be in contravention of the Act or regulation.
The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control Decree only imposes penalty for obstruction of an officer of the agency in the performance of his duties. The penalty for this offence is a fine of =N=5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Penalties for offences under the Drugs and Related Products (Registration e.t.c.) Act are as follows:
•in the case of an individual, a fine not exceeding =N=50,000 or imprisonment for term not exceeding two years or to both fine and imprisonment; and
•in the case of body corporate, a fine not exceeding =N=100,000.
Dealing without registration being the crux of this Act, it is assumed that the stipulated penalties are only applicable to cases of sale of genuine but unregistered drugs. If the drug in question is fake, adulterated or substandard, the penalties in the Counterfeit and Fake Drug (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act will prevail.
The Counterfeit and Fake Drug (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act contains the highest penalties for drug offences. Penalty for the sale, manufacture, importation e.t.c. of the prohibited drugs is a fine not exceeding =N=500,000 or imprisonment for a term not less than five years nor more than fifteen years or to both. Penalty for sale in prohibited places is a fine exceeding =N=5,000 or imprisonment.
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act contains further penalties where a drug offence is committed by a person registered under it. Section 18(1) give the Disciplinary Tribunal the power to reprimand or order the striking out of the name of a pharmacist found guilty of unprofessional conduct by a court or tribunal.
There is no doubt that any illegal dealings in drugs will constitute an act or unprofessional conduct. Penalties for offences relating to patent and proprietary medicines range between =N=20 and =N=200.
Enforcement agencies.
Different Agencies are charged with the implementation of the existing drug laws. For clarity, implementation under each law shall be treated separately.
Food and Drugs Act.
Enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act is vested in the Minister of Health and the inspecting officers.
Powers and functions of the Minister include, power to obtain particulars in respect of certain substances; grant of certificate of safety of batch; and declaration of compliance with provisions of the Act. The most important power of the Minister is the power to make regulations for carrying out the purposes of the Act.
Powers of the inspecting officers are set out in Section 10. These include; power to enter and inspect any premises used for a regulated product; examine any article to which the Act applies, examine any books, documents or other records found on the premises and seize and detain any article by means of or in relation to which any provision of the Act or the regulations has been contravened.
National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and control (NAFDAC)
National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control is a body corporate established to perform the following functions:-
.   regulate and control the importation, exportation, manufacture, advertisement, sale and use of regulated products;
.   conduct appropriate tests and ensure compliance with standard specifications designated and approved by the council;
.   undertake inspection of imported regulated products;
.   compile standard specifications and guidelines for the production, importation, exportation and sale of regulated products; and
.   issue guidelines on, approve and monitor the advertisement of regulated products.
Apart from the extension of the meaning of regulated products in the NAFDAC Act to include bottled water and chemicals, the same subject matters are dealt with by both the Act and Food and Drugs Act. Functions of the authorities are similar. The NAFDAC Act which is later in time does not mention the former Act. The only reference is the dissolution of the Food and Drugs Administration and Control Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services. All assets, funds, resources and movable or immovable property which immediately before the commencement of the Act held office in the Food and Drugs Department shall be deemed to have been transferred to the Agency.
The implication of these provisions is that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control is to administer the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act. This view is buttressed by the fact that the NAFDAC Act does not contain substantive offences.
This simplistic approach may, however, be faulted by conflicting provisions noticeable in the two laws. These conflicts includes, disparity in the penalty provisions; use of different terminologies in related cases; and differential powers conferred on the Minister. For instance, under the Food and Drugs Act the power of making regulations is exercisable by the Minister on the advice of the Advisory Council. But under the NAFDAC Act, the power is exercisable by the governing Council on the approval of the Minister.
Silence on the relationship between the two laws creates unnecessary confusion and uncertainty. The Food and Drugs Act deals with substantive issue such as offences and penalties. The NAFDAC Act is more or less administrative in context. In the main, it deals with function and powers of agency and its functionaries. It effectively address the issue of probity of the officers by making commendable disciplinary provision.
But no offences are created. On this ground it can be argued that the NAFDAC Act cannot stand alone since offenders cannot be charged under any of its provision. It is therefore suggested that the two laws be merged since, as seen from their respective provisions, one complements the other.
Counterfeit and Fake Drugs (miscellaneous provision) Act.
Enforcement of provisions of the Counterfeit and fake Drugs (Miscellaneous provision) Act is conferred on the Federal and State Task Force. The functions of the task force include:-
.   paying unscheduled visits to all ports of entry and border posts.
.   taking sample or specimen of any article, opening and examining, while on the premises, any container or package;
.   examining any books, documents or records found on the premises, which are reasonably believed to contain any information relevant to the enforcement of Act; and

.   seizing any drug or poison which is counterfeit, adulterated, banned, fake, substandard or expired.
The Task Force also have power to seal up any premises used or being used in connection with any office under the Act.
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act
The pharmacists Council of Nigeria is charged with the implementation of provisions of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act. Among other functions, it determines the standard of knowledge and skill to be attained by person seeking to become registered members of pharmacists profession. Although enforcement of drug laws is not a direct function, the Council by its nature helps to instill sanity in drug matters. The various provision of the Act creates an inherent deterrence against drug offences. In particular, the provisions on professional discipline make it possible to appropriately deal with a pharmacists found guilty of a drug offence.
Implementation Problems
From the foregoing discourse it is clear that there exist adequate legislative enactments to control the manufacture, sale and advertisement of drugs. The major problem is that of implementation.
The food and Drugs Act has been in force since 1974 but not much successes have been recorded. None of the regulations which received the approval of Advisory Council under the food and Drugs Administration and control Department has been passed into law.
Enforcement procedures are not clearly set out. Apart from the general provisions in Section 10(5), and 14(3), no section confers power of prosecution on any particular person or authority. The position is the same under NAFDAC Act. The result is that a reported case is referred to the police for prosecution.
A noticeable fact about this procedure is that many cases end up at investigation stage. The authority in charge react by passing the buck. For instance, officials of the NAFDAC blame the police and the judiciary for the recurring difficulty normally encountered in the prosecution of food and Drugs Offenders. They claim that many cases which should have been prosecuted end up mid-stream due to ineffective enforcement.
Closely related to the above is the delay associated with investigations of reported cases. In some countries such as Britain, such reports are treated with utmost dispatch. The contrary is the case in Nigeria. Investigations, almost always, take an unduly long period thereby creating opportunity for fraudulent dealing with condemned product.
A case that readily comes to mind is that of destruction of fertility drugs worth=N=11M by NAFDAC officials in Kano on January 28, 1994. The drugs were seized at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in November 1992. They bore neither the name of the manufacturer nor expiry date. Such time lag could lead to many undesirable consequences for instance, some of the consignment could, with the connivance or collaboration of officials, be pilfered and sold to unsuspecting members of the public.
This research reveals that most provisions on sale of poison and prescription of drugs laws are not observed in practice. Many drug sellers still sell such drugs without prescription.
Oral request are honoured even by some registered pharmacists. Similarly, in disregard of the law, some patent medicine dealers stock and sell prescription drugs. Some also retail in smaller quantities. Tablets and capsules are freely counted and sold to buyers.
The main problem in this regard is that of enforcement. Many State Ministries of health are not sufficiently equipped to monitor the activities of the registered pharmacists and patent medicine dealers. In some States, there may not be more than ten pharmaceutical inspectors with no functional vehicles. Much cannot be achieved under this situation especially in view of the large number of registered pharmacy and patent medicine shops in the states.
Sale of drugs in prohibited places is still noticeable in many towns and cities in the country. The greatest offence in this regard is committed with respect to sale in market places. In 2003, the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria was compelled by the then prevailing situation to issue Guidelines and Regulations reiterating the legal position. The result of this effort is yet to be seen as sections of some Nigerian markets are still devoted to the sale of drugs
Conclusion
This thesis shows that the various enforcement agencies are making reasonable efforts in the implementation of drug laws. Some public alerts have been issued by the NAFDAC against the consumption of drugs adjudged dangerous to health. Also both the NAFDAC and the task Forces have been embarking on incessant raids, seizures and destruction of illegal drugs. The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria uses the process of de-registration to phase out sale of drugs in market places.
Despite the above efforts, the scourge of fake, adulterated and sub-standard drugs has continued unabated. This has generated comments from the mass media, individuals and organizations. An irresistible conclusion is that the enforcement authorities are ill-prepared to reverse the trend. In most cases their directives are not backed by practical implementation. For instance, when a drug is declared unfit for human consumption there is usually no follow up action to ensure that it is actually withdrawn from the market.
The need for closer monitoring of sale of drugs in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasised. There should be routine visits to drug factories to ensure compliance with in-house quality control requirements. In addition, quality control laboratory should be established in each state of the Federation. Drugs from every batch should be certified by this laboratory before been put into circulation. To curb the activities of drug fakers, the raids and seizures of suspicious drugs should be intensified.
The consumer has a very important role to play. Undeserved patronage keeps illegal drug dealers in business. If consumers shun drugs suspected to be sub-standard: make their purchases from accredited sources and report suspected cases to law enforcement agents, the incidence of illegal drugs will be minimized. Education is necessary in this regard as some consumers fall victim out of ignorance. Augustine Ogoma is a Senior Magistrate in Imo State Judiciary Owerri & a research student

December 3, 2013
‘Keeping someone in prison without trial is illegal, wicked’

When was the idea of Prisonners’ Right Advocacy Initiative (PRAI) conceived and why?
PRAI was conceived when I was a youth corps member in Abia State. I remembered when I was in the university, we visited prisons often and since then, I had promised to look into the plight of prisoners and many innocent people languishing in prison and promised myself and God that when I am through with the university, we would assist them. We even promised some of the inmates that we are going to assist them when we are through.
When I served in Abia State, immediately after my call, I assisted a lot of prisoners there. For this, I won the best corper award for the state and on finishing youth service, I thought it would be good to continue the good work as it is, hence the floating of PRAI. We started doing our work at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison.

Who motivated you into floating the NGO ?
When I was in Abia State in 2009/2010, there was this boy called Chidi. I can’t remember his surname again, who was in prison for nine years awaiting trial. He was arrested on his way from a football match and dumped in the prison. While there, because of his incarceration, his dad died, his mother died and he almost lost his sight until we visited and got him out. That was one peculiar case that really motivated me. And also the first set of inmates that I filed fundamental rights application for at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison. The inmates had spent upwards of 13 years awaiting trial. One of them even developed a kidney disease; one was attacked by some thugs. He was stabbed and with the injury, he was kept in prison unattended. He was there for six years. These stories I am telling you, for most of the inmates, they lost their families while there. Because of their problem, some of them developed hypertension probabaly because of thinking and they died. These are some of the cases that motivated me at the earlier stage.
How many ATs have earned freedom through the initiative?
We have had over a 100 in that category and that was from 2011 to date and they are mainly from Kirikiri Maximum Prison. I remembered that when the CJ, Justice Phillips came on board, that was the time we heard written on behalf of about 131 prison inmates, out of which we later filed matter for 106. I think we had written in that letter the age and names of the inmates and others in prison across Lagos State. I think this motivated the AG to further have discussion with the CJ. You would remember that about 233 inmates were released and they were largely from the list we forwarded to the AG.

So, how would you describe the journey so far?
It has been fulfilling and it has also been very hard because we had done this from my pocket, from the meagre amount I earned from the practice in the law firm I work with. It has been more of a personal effort up to date. But we have not been deterred by the fact that we don’t have funds or foreign sponsorship. This is our own way of giving back to the society and we definitey believe that there is a reward for everything one does even when we do not know that they were watching us. At the IBA conference, there is this award for Pro Bono lawyers. Though I did not win, there are a lot of applications, but from feelers we got from the IBA, particularly, Channels Television journalist who posted on her Twitter page, I was recognised, in fact, the only Nigerian recognised for this particlar award. A lot of people forwarded applications but they recognised only a few. Our application was qualitative enough to be so recognised. That was fulfilling. The person who won it has been at it for 12 years. I have just been at it for two years. I know that as we move on, we would get recognition by the grace of God and that is fulfilling.

Does it ever occurred to you that some of these people whose cases you take up might become a problem to the society?
We are not judging. Our problem is not in their incarceration, so to speak, if it had been done the right way. There is no justification for keeping someone in prison longer than is necessary. He should be tried and tried appropriately. There is no reason for keeping an underage in prison, for instance. That is one of the issues we are facing. They have no business in the prison. They are to be in correctional centres, which I am not sure are adequate enough. If the law says they should not be there, then they should not be there. Because what we have done is to follow the law strictly. One of the cases we are handling is that of those people allegedly killed by the police from Makinde Station in Oshodi. The bottom line is not whether they are guilty or not. What we are advocating is that they have a right, which is very fundamental. And we try in our little way to rehabilitate them within our means, even if we feel that they have been unjustly kept there, even if they are criminals. Because we are not the courts and trial has not been done to determine that.

Aside from handling the problem of awaiting trials, what other matters do you take?
I am a lawyer. I practise and I do general matters. I am also an arbitrator and I am a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and practise law – labour laws, medical laws, civil and criminal laws. So, I do general matters. I am also involved in sports. I have another NGO trying to develop future champions. We have Q-Madi Martial Arts Development Initiative and we have done a lot and all of my boys will be going for junior Olympics by the grace of God.
Recently, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court suggested that we expunge issue of jurisdiction from our statute books to fast-track quick dispensation of matters in court. What is your position on this?
I do not support that it should be totally expunged from our laws because there are some cases in which it might be justified. It is not in all cases that jurisdiction might be seen as frivolous because the court should have the power of what it wants to do. So, I am not in support of it. But it must be used rarely.

What is your perception of corruption in the judiciary?
Well, I have not done any matter which I suspect that a judge have been biased. But I have heard about it. We have done cases that were decided on their merit. And we have done others not so decided, but I believe that there is corruption in the judiciary. I believe that thete should be full steps taken against corrupt judges. May be when one or two or three are sent to prison, others would sit up. And I think the issue of corruption should be tackled from the home to the top. So, if parents did not cut corners for their children to gain promotion to the next class, for instance, these are some of the simplest cases of corruption, I think the society would be better for it. Let us start from the lowest ebb up to the top echelon- the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. I think the corruption in the judiciary mirrored what is happening in the society. Almost all facets of the society is corrupt. The only reason we focus on the judiciary is because the judiciary is the last arbiter and if they are corrupt then you can be sure that there won’t be any light at the end of our tunnel.

As somebody conversant with the law, what advise will you give the Senator Okurounmu-led committee on National Dialogue?
First and foremost is the issue of the environment. I do not envisage a situation where Nigerians would be called upon to come and dialogue. I don’t know how realistic this can be. I cannt imagine the venue that would use for such. The first issue should be on the criteria for the selection of delegates because it must be the mirror of the lowest of the low. Those who feel the pinch must be represented. Those are my minute duties about the area of delegation. And I think the committee should just ensure that they are open minded. I also support the call that that there should be no limit; that there should be no agenda setting. Let everybody come there and pour out their minds and hopefully, we would get a good result this time around. When most committee are set up, I am most times pessimistic about the result, espcially by this government. But let us see the requirements. I doubt if it will solve our problems, but let’s see give it a trial. Let’s see, may be, this will solve our problem. I don’t think so, but let’s see how far it goes because the problem of this country is mainly that of corruption and I don’t see this conference as solving the problem of corruption.

Why law? Would you have preferred another profession?
Well, when I was growing up, I didn’t know any other profession as I knew law because my dad is a lawyer. I wanted to become a lawyer because he was a lawyer. So, I grew up finding myself in law. Having come into law, aiding people, seeing people progressing every day, solving the problems of the downtrodden and putting smiles on their faces has made me love law all the more.

So has it been practising in the same chamber with your father?
It is just like practising anywhere. I don’t see much advantage in it. It is more or less like being at home. May be, that would give you some leverage to also do some things and I am speaking to my father I have known over the years. So I know how to get him to accede to my request. May be, that is just all about it.

So, when were you called to the bar?
I was called to the bar in 2009. So, I am about five years in practice.

Since you started practice, what has been the challenges?
The challenges majorly is the delay in courts, frequent adjournments, cases taking years in court. These have been the major challenges.

So, what do you see as the way out of this?
May be as it was said at the stakeholders forum during the begining of the new legal year that lawyers should be informed when the court is not sitting and it must be for just cause, especially when it has to do with criminal matters. I am presently handling a criminal matter where the earliest adjournment you have is two to three months and this person has been in prison since the year 2000. We woke up the Ministry of Justice by filing a fundamental right application and he was charged to court last year. Since he was charged to court, we have heard adjournments upon adjournments and the case is yet to be concluded. I think the judiciary should be alive to its duty. There must be adequate monitoring. Where a case stays longer than is necessary, the judge should be queried.

What is your most memorable experience?
Sincerely, I can’t pinpoint any because I had so many and we have so many works in progress. We have won so many cases. So, I can’t think of any particular moment that is more memorable than the other. But any time I win a case, I am happy.

And when you lose?
Unfortunately, I am yet to lose any. And even if I lose, the world goes on as if we had a good a case and won it.

Your first day in court, was it with your father or you went alone?
My first day in court was in Abia State while I was serving as a youth corps member. There was nothing special about it because the way we were trained in the law school, I was very thorough and we were already used to the system. When I led my team to the court, the magistrate who presided said we did practically well even better than lawyers who practise outside. We started the new curriculum at the law school and we were well- groomed. So, I didn’t see it as anything special.

Would you support those advocating a review of the Law School curriculum?
I do not see anybody who attended the Law School and who participated fully in its activities the way we did when the new curriculum started and who was in Lagos campus, may be in other campuses, I do not see anybody who attended Lagos campus saying he was not well groomed or asking for a drastic change in the curriculum of the law school. The curriculum that we met was African and was the best.

October 15, 2013