National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
Law & Justice
Monday, October 28, 2013
43
players in global arena-Daramola different areas of law within the same firm. Are you saying a one-man firm cannot specialise? When you operate a one-man firm or where you have few hands, you will find it difficult to specialise. This explains why Nigerian lawyers are not top players in the global arena. I am sure if a lawyer calls himself a general legal practitioner in England nobody will patronise him because they would not see him as a serious lawyer. The time has come when a lawyer should develop himself in an area of law and acquire expertise rather than jumping from election petition to matrimonial causes.
the welfare of workers. How do you see the manner in which the issue of child marriage was handled by the Senate? Although the Senate has protested that it did not legalise child marriage but I believe that is what they have done by defining an adult to include any person who has married. That means if you forced a girl of 13 year-old to marry you, such a girl is an adult. This is unfortunate. This is contrary to the law that a girl below 16 years of age cannot give consent to sexual intercourse. What the Senate is trying to do is to legalise illegality. This raises a serious moral question. Some have alleged that there are sacred cows in the way the CJN is carrying out discipline of judges. What is your view on this? Since I am not a member of the National Judicial Council, I am not in a position to answer that question. However, I must say that the CJN has done well in that regard. I do not think that there is a deliberate policy to treat some judicial officers as sacred cows. As a senior member of the Bar, how would you assess the standard of the legal profession in Nigeria? The standard of legal practice in Nigeria is very good and indeed comparable with what obtains in the Western World. The only thing that is just evolving is partnership. In Nigeria, the prevalence of one man firm is the only draw-back in the profession. The reason is that many seniors in the profession do not want to share their income with their juniors and many juniors do not want to be under any person. In this era of globalisation, Nigerians need to tap the benefits of partnership where you have lawyers specialising in
Despite fast-track procedure introduced to speed-up hearing of cases in Lagos courts, cases are still being delayed. What do you think is responsible for this? What is responsible for delay in Lagos is the misapplication of the rules with respect to pre-trial conference. It is rather unfortunate that some Judges insist that all cases must go through the pre-trial conference procedure including matters commenced by originating summons or under summary judgment procedure. The rule as to pretrial conference should only apply to cases commenced by writ of summons and which require trial. Apart from this, the other cause of delay is frivolous applications usually filed by lawyers who know that their clients are not likely to win on the merit. Once the application is refused, he proceeds to appeal and then files a motion for stay of proceedings. There is a need for all the stakeholders that is the judges, lawyers, and litigants to recognise that justice delayed is justice denied. Courts should sit on time and should refuse frivolous applications for adjournment. The government must create enabling environment for the judges to work. By this, I am referring to regular supply of electricity to the courtrooms, provision of air conditioners in the court rooms, recording facilities and judicial assistants should be appointed to assist judges in conducting research. I believe one of the reasons why Nigeria is not attractive to foreign investors is that they lack faith in our judicial system due to delay. No foreign investor would want to invest his money in a country where it will take up to fifteen years to resolve a commercial dispute in court. In Singapore, it takes just about six months to conclude the hearing and determination of a case in the high court.
IF A LAWYER CALLS HIMSELF A GENERAL LEGAL PRACTITIONER IN
ENGLAND, NOBODY WILL
PATRONISE HIM BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT SEE HIM AS A SERIOUS LAWYER.
The appeal will also not last for more than six months. If the case turns out to be frivolous, heavy cost is usually awarded. But in Nigeria, a person who owes billions will rush to court knowing that if he eventually loses the case, he will pay little or no cost. One of the reasons why corruption is very rampant in the country is the delay in adjudication of cases. Most of the cases of corruption preferred against governors who served between 1999 and 2007 are still in court. In many, trials have not even commenced. A former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, recently alleged that over one trillion naira had been spent on National Assembly members in the last eight years. What is your take on this? We are running a very expensive government. The creation of 36 States has not helped matter. Most of the revenue accruing to the federal, state and local governments is used to pay government officials leaving little or nothing for development. There is no reason why legislators should not be engaged on part-time so that they only meet to pass laws and then go back to their different engagements to earn their living. The unfortunate thing in Nigeria is that it is the people that are serving their leaders and not the other way round. This is an anomaly that needs to be addressed. Some of your colleagues have called for revocation of Land Use Act, Are you in support? It is despicable for government to acquire land from landowners under the pretext that it would be used for public interest, only for the same land to be allotted to firms where the governor has his interest. He explained that the attitude impoverishes the poor in the sense that government pays compensation on lands where there are developments such as structures or economic trees. It is assumed that the land belongs to government to be used for the benefit of everybody. So, the only compensation you are being paid is in respect of development of the land, like you have planted something on it and it needs to be uprooted or buildings. So, there is serious abuse. Government at various levels now introduces all manner of levies. One of them is the governor’s consent levy where you pay as high as 20 or 25 per cent of the value of the land if you want to transfer. If it is an area where government has not done anything and you want to sell your own land, government now says you must pay 20 per cent consent fee just because Section 22 of the law says you must seek the consent of the governor before you can alienate your land�, What role should lawyers play in creating a better Nigeria, or more specifically, a corruption- free Nigeria? Honestly, there is very little lawyers can do to stem the tide of corruption in Nigeria. Mind you, a lawyer is a professional plying his trade to make a living. Corruption affects all strata of the society and there is very little lawyers alone can do to stem the tide. You need political will to fight corruption. I doubt if you can point to any country in the world where lawyers alone stopped corruption. What lawyers can do is to aid the government in the fight by supporting measures put in place to attack the menace. I am aware that many lawyers have been involved in campaigns against corruption but unless the government takes the battle seriously, nothing can be achieved. Imagine a school where the principal and most of the senior teachers are very corrupt, one teacher shouting against corruption in that school cannot achieve anything. He may even be framed up and victimised. If you have a government that has zero tolerance for corruption, everybody would sit up and toe the line including public servants, lawyers, doctors, engineers and so on. Do you support the suggestion that retired judges should handle election petitions? I am firmly in support of that. At least it will assist in decongesting the courts.