Capacity Building Can Reduce Excessive Procedures and Agonizing Delays in our Courts – Olumide Akpata
I am certain that every adult Nigerian must have heard at least a dozen times that Nigeria is the giant of Africa. Now, our profession must also strive to set a high standard of legal services in sub-Saharan Africa at least. I am not sure that even the most optimistic of us will claim that we, generally, are there yet.
The Nigerian lawyer is punching way below his weights and foreign lawyers are already taking our jobs. What hinders us (and thus what we must fix to change the narrative) are many. First, our systems of legal education and continuing professional education are dated and below par respectively. We must improve on them so that we can improve significantly on capacity. Second, our laws need to be updated and in sync with contemporary realities, just as our caselaw must return to the good old days of deep and robust analysis on the substance of cases. It is painful that on so many points, we still have to resort to finding out what the position in England is in order to make an informed guess of how those points are likely to be resolved in Nigeria.
Closely tied to this is the need to wean our courts off excessive focus on procedure and agonizing delays. The finger-pointing between the bar and the bench as to who is responsible for the snail pace of litigation in Nigeria is actually unnecessary because a realistic costs regime, in my view, can fix the problem quicker than we imagine. Awarding a successful defendant costs of two hundred thousand naira (which is less than $1,000) after a plainly frivolous lawsuit that lasted for years cannot deter a mischievous claimant. We should really consider following the practice in the UK where a significant portion of actual costs are awarded. If the courts do this consistently for a year, I am certain that frivolous suits and delaying tactics will reduce significantly.
Read full interview from LawDigest Click Here: LawDigest Olumide Akpata’s Interview
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