The majestic ambience of the Marriott Hotel Ikeja in Lagos played host to the cream of the Nigerian legal ecosystem on Monday, February 28, 2022.
NEWSWIRE Law & Events Magazine’s correspondent reports that the event, which was chaired by the Hon. Justice Helen Ogunwumiju of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, a Town Hall meeting, was convened by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to discuss the non-justiciability of Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (and to seek ways of remedying the legal conundrum created as a result).
The meeting was graced by prominent leaders of the Bar, notably the NBA President and General Secretary, Olumide Akpata and Joyce Oduah, respectively; the Chairman of SPIDEL, Dr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani (MOU); and two of his predecessors, Chief JK Gadzama, SAN and Prof. Ananaba.
Also present were a number of Senior Advocates of Nigeria and other senior lawyers as well as accomplished professionals from various fields of endeavour.
Welcoming participants and guests to the event, SPIDEL Chairman Ubani situated the theme of the Town Hall Meeting, namely, ‘Justiciability of Chapter Two of 1999 Constitution: Pragmatic Measures for Government Accountability, ‘ on the sad fact that the fundament reason for the existence of government seems to have been lost in the Nigerian situation. In a country where the citizens provide every single amenity for themselves – food, water, shelter, light, education, security, etc. – there is nothing fundamental, Ubani said, about our human rights.
He therefore called for a reassessment of a constitutionally-mandated (and enforceable) social contract between the government and the governed.
In their respective opening remarks, the Chairman of the organizing committee of the Town Hall meeting, Steve Abar; NBA President Akpata, and Hon. Justice Ogunwumiju, JSC, praised SPIDEL for the timeliness the event and its theme, stressing its importance at a time of severe human rights violations and willful neglect of the basic human needs of Nigerians by the authorities at the national and sub-national levels. Akpata in particular, reminded the assembled guests about Nigeria’s dismal human development indices (poverty, infrastructure gap, millions of out-of-school children, a spiraling debt burden, etc.) and called for a renewed awareness of the populace of what really is at stake in the run up to the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
The trio of speakers all expressed high expectations as regards the outcome of the deliberations at the town hall meeting, adding that it was high time the Nigerian people got a fair deal under their leaders, who would be compelled by the provisions of Chapter Two of the Constitution to take the people’s welfare seriously – whether they wanted to or not.
NEWSWIRE’s correspondent also reports that goodwill messages were sent to the meeting by the Chairman of the NBA Committee on Security Agencies Relations, Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN, and the Chairman of the Association’s Welfare Committee, Yakubu C. Maikyau SAN.
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