It was all excitement at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, Anambra State, last Monday, when the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, stopped by at the school to attend the 50th conference of the Nigeria Association of Law Teachers (NALT) with the theme: Law, security and national development.
Declaring the conference open, Prof Osinbajo faulted the inability of states to create an inclusive society under existing constitutional arrangements to guarantee the security of lives and liberties of the people. He noted that lack of trust in justice administration fueled the persistent agitations from different parts of the country.
He said: “First, on the matter of inclusion and inequalities, there is little doubt that the lack of provision of the basics of life to the largest number of our people remains the greatest source of tension in the polity.
“People at the grassroots struggle daily for basic amenities, such as healthcare. The absence of social justice and lack of education and jobs give opportunities to young people to be recruited into any sort of army, whether for kidnapping, terrorism, violence or anti-social agitation.
“It is the failure of states to deliver on these essentials of life and livelihood that compels our people to run to their tribal and religious camps to seek succour by way of agitation for basic rights and services.”
The Acting President said efforts must be made to tackle poverty at the grassroots, noting that hunger does not recognise tribe or religion.
He said: “There is no doubt in my mind that poverty has the same character in Bodinga Local Government Area in Sokoto State as in Ayanmelum Local Government Area here in Anambra State. Poverty affecting an Igbo man is not more dignified than the one affecting a Hausa-Fulani man.
“So, the question for us is how to resolve these issues. First is to place responsibility where it rightly belongs. It is the business of all tiers of government– executive, legislature and judiciary to provide the enabling environment for the quality of life that people expect.”
Prof Osinbajo said the Federal Government was working to ensure that poverty was reduced in all communities. He noted that the 2017 budget had a provision of N500 billion for social investment and N100 billion for social housing, targeting low-income families. He said the government’s N-Power scheme provided thousands of direct jobs to young graduates.
Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen, said the role of laws in solving the nation’s challenges could not be underestimated, noting that security of the nation depends on people’s faith in the law.
Onnoghen, who chaired the occasion, was represented by Justice Amina Augie, a Justice of the Supreme Court. He said it was necessary for the existing laws to be efficient with the right attitude to their implementation.
In his goodwill message, Governor Willie Obiano said his administration had transformed the state through good governance, observing that the state won the right to host the event because of its improved security.
Chairman of Society for Analytical Economics, Prof Godwin Owoh, advocated the need to link the law with the nation’s dynamics of growth in order to sustain the economy and foster development.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, said the event was in line with the school’s tradition of proffering academic solutions to the nation’s challenges.
In his address, NALT President and Dean, Faculty of Law, Prof Godwin Okeke, said the conference had become a platform for training and development of law teachers in the country.
