Lawyers, Experts Ponder Current & Potential Role of Law in Nigeria’s Development @ 2019 Lagos Law Week
After weeks and months of anticipation, the business end of the 2019 Law Week of the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) got off to a flying start on Wednesday, June 20, 2019. Held at the iconic City Hall on Lagos Island, the event was graced by eminent justices and judges of the higher and lower courts, senior advocates of Nigeria, former presidents of the NBA and distinguished professionals from various walks of life. The 2-day conference climaxed a week of activities which began with a health walk and visits to prisons in Lagos, and to the Pacelli School for the Blind.
Welcoming delegates and visitors to the event, the chairman of the Lagos bar branch, Chukwudi Ikwuazom, described the occasion as a bittersweet one for him and his colleagues on the executive council , as it was the last major event of the present tenure – a tenure he described as highly challenging but also fulfilling, thanks to the tremendous his executive received from all stakeholders. He recalled the 2018 Lagos Law Week, whose theme, ‘Human Capital & the Legal Profession in the 21st Century,’ was, he said, a natural progression to this year’s theme, ‘Law & Development in an Emerging Economy.’ Describing the evolution of technology in recent years – especially the transformation of money and both tangible and intangible assets – as staggering, Ikwuazom said most of these changes were presently outside the contemplation of extant laws, for which reason the administration of law must itself be dynamic and nimble-footed in order to catch up.
Also welcoming the participants, the chairman of the 2019 Law Week Planning Committee, Tola Oshobi, SAN, described the Week – which began with a health walk and visits to prisons in Lagos and the famous Pacelli School for the Blind – as the branch’s way of giving back to society, promote the physical and mental well-being of lawyers in the branch, and facilitate recreation and social interaction among them. Describing law as an instrument of social engineering – whether as a facilitator of, or a hindrance to, sustainable development – the senior advocate said the responsiveness of the law and its stakeholders and handlers to the changes currently disrupting the modern world. Calling the conference theme a perennial intersection between the law and the forces of development, Oshobi called for a continuation of the conversation around the role of law in modern development in a bid to build sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges and to maximize the opportunities open to legal practitioners in the current global marketplace – especially one that is being increasingly defined by technological disruption.
NEWSWIRE Magazine’s correspondent at the City Hall venue of the event reports that Oshobi’s remarks were followed by goodwill messages from a trio of Justices: Justices Kanyip of the National Industrial Court, and Ogakwu and Obiozor, both of the Court of Appeal.
In his attempts to situate the true relationship between the law and socio-economic development, the keynote speaker, Ade Rahman Ipaye, a law lecturer and former attorney-general of Lagos State, who currently serves as the deputy chief of staff to the President of Nigeria, drew much of the material for his presentation from the writings and observations of Prof. Hariri, the Israeli author of the recently-published and widely-acclaimed ‘SAPIENS: A History of Humankind,’ and Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher. The most fundamental difference between early man and other animals on earth, Ipaye said, lay, not in his shared language or ability to dominate other animals, but primarily in his cognitive ability and his ability to structure his relationship with other people – based on their shared beliefs and myths and even shared fictions and rules of accepted behaviour, as well as man’s ability to coexist in extremely large numbers – in families, clans, communities and nations – based on the regulations handed down by recognised lawgivers. Before the advent of these humble beginnings of law, the former Lagos AG said, mankind lived in what Hobbes called ‘a state of nature,’ in which life was nasty, brutish and short. In such an environment, hard work, industry and planning were meaningless because the fruits thereof were extremely uncertain. For this reason, there was no development of an economic system, no commodious physical structures, no accumulation of commodities, no navigation, no quest for knowledge about the earth, no art, no culture, and indeed no society.
Over time, however, man overcame the state of nature (which was ruled by constant fear and motivated by self-will) and developed a ‘commonwealth’ anchored on the belief that he and his fellows were better preserved and protected by the rule of law as commonly defined and understood. Law, then, Ipaye said, was key to the development of modern civilization, as it had the power to define and even CHANGE social orientation and not just individual but collective behaviour – including the historic shift in religious belief from polytheism to monotheism.
Turning his attention to contemporary Nigerian society, Ipaye lamented the country’s steady slide into a Hobbesian state of nature in recent times – thanks, he said, to the glaring inadequacies in the country’s legal system. To rectify this, he concluded, emphasis on the urgent imperative of justice rather than a mere knowledge of the law and its application, must be laid in universities and law schools. The promotion of ethics must take centre stage once again.
The first discussion session was moderated by another former AG of Lagos State, Olasupo Sasore, SAN. With him to discuss the session topic, The Nigerian economy: 2019 Outlook & Opportunities Lawyers,’ was a stellar cast of panelists, namely, the renowned economist Bismark Rewane; Chidi Izuwah, the director-general and CEO of the infrastructure concession regulatory commission in the Nigerian Presidency; Chinua Azubike, CEO of Intracredit (a currency infrastructure guarantee company) and Andrew Levin, PhD, the chief economist for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Other sessions during the first full day of the conference discussed the following topics: Emerging Trends in Technology and Innovation; Smart Response of the Legal Profession to Technological Advancements; The 21st Century: Law Firm in Context; And ‘Guide on Compliance with Value Added Tax and Related Issues.’
See photos below:
Newswire, we present the world of law and the issues that engage them. This edition is yet again, ‘Mind-blowing’. Go get your copy(ies) Now!
Do you need to be heard? Or your articles published? Send your views, messages, articles or press release to: newswiremagazine@yahoo.co.uk >>> We can cover your (LAW) events at the first Call: 08039218044, 08024004726
-Advertisement-
Grab our latest Magazine, "2024 NBA ELECTIONS: THE MEN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT". Get your order fast and stress free.For more details about Newswire Law&Events Magazine, kindly reach out to us on 08039218044, 09070309355. Email: newswiremagazine@yahoo.co.uk. You will be glad you did