The administration and delivery of justice in Nigeria came under intense scrutiny on Monday’s opening panel session at the ongoing Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Section on Legal Practice (NBA-SBL) in Asaba, Delta State.
Chaired by a Justice of Nigeria’s Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Chima Centus Nweze, the star-studded panel comprised of Hon. Justice Benedict B. Kanyip, President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria; two academics, Prof. Gbolahan Elias, SAN; and Prof. Andrew Akume;
UK-based Fidelis Oditah, SAN, QC; and Dr. Orowhuo Okocha. The sixth scheduled panelist, the lawyer, academic and activist, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, was unavoidably absent.
According to NEWSWIRE Law & Events Magazine correspondent in Asaba, it was the view of the majority of the panelists that the quality of Nigeria’s jurisprudence – relative to a number of other jurisdictions around the globe – leaves a lot to be desired for a number of reasons. One of these reasons, according to both Justice Kanyip and Mr. Oditah, is that the Nigerian jurisprudential system is too procedural and overly formulaic, almost to the point of irrelevance.
The issue of congestion in court is one that many lawyers, judges and justices are familiar with. Both Profs. Oditah and Elias, as well as Dr. Okocha, agreed that the present pool of judges and justices is a paltry one relative to the huge backlog of cases waiting to be disposed of in our courts. Prof. Elias in particular decried the lack of enthusiasm in the judicial community for the practice of front loading as a solution to the problem, and called for a change in attitudes.
In addition to increased funding for the judiciary and the recruitment of more qualified judges as a matter of urgency, Dr. Okocha also called for more investment in technology as an aid in courtroom processes. He hastened to add, however, that beyond tech, there needs to be an improvement in the human element. Tech can only serve to improve access to enhanced judicial outcomes, he added, but it can never on its own guarantee better delivery of justice.
In his summation, the panel chair, Justice Nweze was of the view that the challenges of legal practice in Nigeria, as fraught as they are at present, are nevertheless surmountable, but only if they are tackled with fresh thinking and a progressive attitude, and always with an eye on the immense opportunities that await those who embrace such fresh thinking, and the changes that arise from acting on it by all relevant stakeholders.
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