Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong was Assistant Secretary of Jos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). He was at the International Bar Association (IBA) conference in Vienna, Austria, where he spoke to select journalists. Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU was there
The African Regional forum of the International Bar Association (IBA) urged African lawyers to up their ante to the challenges of globalisation. How can this be actualised?
We can do this through discipline and upgrading our training in the profession. The issue of mandatory legal education is now imperative. The legal profession is dynamic. The scope and dimensions of practice broaden every day. So, lawyers must be acquainted with these developments and must be ready to diversify their practice areas in order to fit into the world order. Not only that, we can achieve that through outreaches as well as embracing international best practices in all aspects of our practice.
How did the discussions here affect us as a country?
From the contributions made at the conference, you can see that we still have a long way to go in Nigeria. We need to upgrade our legal system and our level of practice. We now see ourselves in a global community and with the use of information technology, those are the things that we definitely need in the training of lawyers and in actual practice. The facilities too! It is quite sad that in Nigeria, when people are talking of high technology in practice for judges, we are still taking proceedings in long hand. Not only the lawyers, but the judges need this mileage to be able to compete in the global community.
You have been on the saddle now for about six months as governor. What have been the challenges?
When I was contesting for the governorship of Plateau State, I knew I was going to get a lot of challenges. Really there are lots of challenges in the state, which include the issue of insecurity and inability to pay salaries. I saw them as issues I was going to tackle and focus on if I won the elections.
How do you intend to to transform the justice sector?
Well, I inherited a judiciary that was on strike for over one year due to lack of payment of salaries. It was a problem that emanated from a court judgment. We inherited a very seriously debilitated structures in the judiciary.
So, what have you done to address these challenges ?
Well, I foresaw these when I was Speaker. We were going to pass a Bill to to review all our laws, but shortly after we were booted out of office. As it is now, it is part of my programme. I have told them that I am going to embark on a very serious reform of the judiciary. Not only in the judiciary, but in other sectors. Already, a committee has been set up to that effect. I am waiting for the report of the committee. Once I get it, I will take off from there. In the main time, I am also in talks with the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) to see how we can take care of some of their issues. For the judiciary, we are already renovating the courts. If you go to Jos now, in the first 100 days, we are renovating them. We are also working on mobility for the judiciary. In fact, I will not be the one to talk about these things. If you meet lawyers and judges in my state, they would be the one to talk.
Part of the reasons for the JUSUN strike was the issue of financial autonomy for the judiciary. What is your position on this?
I have had cause to discuss that issue with some of the governors and we have a problem with that situation. But, however, on different levels, some governors are already implementing it. I am implementing some part of it, but some of the decisions of the court go contrary to the spirit and letters of the Constitution. The judgment said everything should be taken back to the judiciary. Who will be checking the judiciary? What would be the role of the executive? Is it not execution? Are you saying that for contract implementation, you take it to the judiciary? Why is there an executive then? You are saying there should be separation of powers without interference; that is not the concept of separation of powers.
In Nigeria, there is a culture of secrecy in court proceedings such that trials cannot be recorded. What is your view on this?
Transparency is the watchword. With what the president is doing now, they don’t need to tell you in each state to look at transparency as a cardinal principle. We are taking a gradual step. Although it might not be a one day thing, but we must start somewhere. The emphasis is that having come to this conference and listened, the emphasis should be to start practicing them. That is the advantage of going to conferences like this.
You set up a committee to handle the disbursement of the bailout fund . Why did you do that?
I set it up to maintain transparency. In everything that we do in my state, I will ensure that there is transparency. Before the bailout fund, I told my people that I would not wait for it; that we are going to do everything possible to solve the problem. Out of eight months that were owed them, we paid six. Some of them were asking me how I did it in a very short time with minimum funds. And I said it’s discipline. So, when the bailout fund came, I didn’t pick anything from it. I called them for a meeting.
Before then, people were saying it was the bailout funds that I was using, but they knew when it was released. I told them I needed to set up a committee immediately. And so, I set up a committee made up of labour and civil servants. Everything that was done was without me. They were the ones deciding how to apply the funds. I was informed that they have exhausted the first part of the bailout. They have paid all the salaries and everybody is happy.
The next bail out is coming because we applied for N10 billion, but ours was given in two bits. The first N5 billion came, which they have exhausted and we are waiting for the balance. So, the bailout is strictly within the committee for transparency. The governor is not involved at all.
How do you monitor implementation?
It is not only the payment. We told them that they should tell us what next after the bailout in order to sustain the civil service that we have. They have the mandate to work out how to raise revenue because the bailout will not be coming frequently. They are the ones to decide whether we would downsize or not. The bail out is a warning that something was wrong and not a luxury. We don’t want to continue with what was wrong.
Before then, I also shared my view with them on what I think might be done to raise revenue to sustain the civil service and make them very comfortable. Not only the civil servants, I told them that there were so many people on the street looking for job. What are we going to do so as to create employment for them? Don’t think that the entire revenue of the state is going to be for the payment of salaries. We must also improve on infrastructure. We must provide health facilities, education, which is very important.
My Head of Service is the chairman of that committee; the Accountant-General is there too. They are working hard, not only on the payment of salaries, but also trying to ascertain the workforce that we have. There are so many ghost workers.
A committee was set up to do verification and for eight years, that committee did not bring any report. But I gave them one month, insisting that that committee must conclude both for the state and the local governments within one month and they turned in their report in one month.
Now I know where those loopholes are. So, if we are able to block those loopholes, definitely there will be room for employment. It has to do with discipline and monitoring of what we have as our funds.
