Law News
Appointment of judges shouldn’t be done in secret – Obla

Which sector of the country do you expect the incoming General Muhammadu Buhari administration to pay more attention?
First, Nigerians are very expectant today, because they believe that things have not been going the way they expected them to go. But I think that the expectations should be reasonable because the usual thing is that when a new government comes in, the populace expect a magic wand, but life is not about magic, life is about reality. The justice sector to which I belong is a sector that has had a lot of challenges over the years. These challenges are not new but what the populace are looking forward to is a reform that will enhance speedy dispensation of justice without affecting the quality of justice that is dispensed. In criminal mattes, especially in matters involving politically exposed persons, the public expects speedy justice.

However, I think that it will be unfair to pigeon hole these expectations in relation to particular category of persons. Politically exposed persons deserve speedy justice, people involved in other forms of crime deserve speedy justice, the business man deserve speedy justice, the banker who lends out money to people desires that his matter be tried on time so that he can recover his money and move on. The person with a land crisis also needs that his situation be dealt with, so also those involved in matrimonial issues or those that have issues of inheritance. So, it is a complete overhaul that we need. May be our procedural laws have been too inhibiting, if they have, then we need to do something about it.

What kind of transformation should we expect?
It is not an overnight transformation that we are expecting, because the Chinese would say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step. So, there will be a lot of interventions in the justice sector. Incidentally, the incoming Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN has carved a niche for himself in the area of Justice Sector reforms, the reforms that the Lagos State Judiciary is experiencing today is substantially traceable to him, so I think that he will work hand in hand with the new Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, whoever that may be, to bring some serious reforms to the Justice sector.

A lot of Justice Sector Bills that started their journey in the 6th National Assembly could still not be passed into law by the outgoing 7th Assembly. Naturally such bills will start fresh legislative journey to be passed into law in the forthcoming 8th Assembly, how do we checkmate this unnecessary waste of time and resources in the legislature?

We need to be realistic with ourselves, most times, blames are heaped on the executive arms of government and people forget that the system of government that we operate, involves the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive arms of government. We also forget the fact that the three arms are to work in synergy and the failure to work in synergy affects the quality of governance that we all experience. A lot of those bills you mentioned will never be passed into law because of the diverse interests that are involved in them, like the Non Conviction bills, Assets Recovery bills. People are looking at the fact that some of these bills, when passed into law will impact on them personally, or their businesses later on. So, they actually put their feet down and frustrate it.

Obla

Corruption has also affected the activities of the National Assembly, those are bills that hold any potential of actually impacting on the members, so there is no incentive for the members to pass these bills into law. They are not like the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, or like any other bill that has any serious commercial interest.

So, how do we get over this?
I believe that until the members of the incoming National Assembly change their attitudes, their work ethics and do what is right for the country, no matter how well intentioned the incoming executive may be, you will find out that they will achieve very little because our laws are the basis upon which they will operate effectively. So, if you don’t have good laws, no matter your good intentions, it will definitely meet obstacles on the road.

Law has always been a catalyst for economic development, what is your advice to the incoming National Assembly in this respect so that we can have good governance in the country?

I think that the incoming National Assembly should first have a proactive perspective of development all over the world and to reflect this perspective on the nature and character of laws we make. Let me give you an example, commerce now, has largely been influenced by telecommunications and the internet. We are doing a lot of the things that Europeans and Americans are doing here, but do we have the legal framework to support the transactions that we are doing? Most times, they ask you to pay for items over the internet in Nigeria, you pay for Joint Admissions and Matriculation, JAMB forms, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA forms, conference forms over the internet, what is the legal framework that support these payment platforms that we are using.

The world has substantially
changed, there is so much cyber related crimes and offences now, what has the National Assembly done? How far have they gone to bring our laws in tandem with all these developments? So, the next National Assembly needs to be very proactive and speed is required in everything that they do. They may think that four years is a long time, but it is a very short period indeed for them to articulate these bills, bring them out, conduct public hearings, then go back, clean them up and then send them to the executive for signature. So, they have to hit the ground running and do the right thing, all these distractions and unnecessary altercations with the executive arm should be a thing of the past.

The race for Senate Presidency is getting hot, your zone, the North Central Zone is contesting for that and your state, Benue is in the frontline for it, what is your reaction to this?

My zone which is the North Central zone of all the geo political Zones in the country, has been the most dynamic of all the zones in this election. I say this because it the zone that changed the equation, it was the zone that was essentially in the mainstream Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Niger states were in PDP, all these states made a 360 degrees turn and moved in favour of the opposition party, that was the zone that determined the victory of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in that election. So, allowing the Senate Presidency to stay there is not a big deal for a zone that ensured victory, it is just an acknowledgement of what they have done and I strongly believe that the zoning should be left there. Don’t forget that Nigeria is a religious and politically sensitive contraption. I heard that some people have said that they want to move it to the North Central zone, that will be a most unwise decision for the party. I am not a religious fanatic neither am I am extremist canvassing a position that is not realistic.

What do you mean by this?
Don’ forget that the incoming President is from the North West, Katsina. North East just moved two hitherto PDP States into the main APC but the North Central moved five states into the APC, that number is not a number that you can ignore. The North as it used to be has two religious positions, the Christian minorities of the North and then the Muslim majorities of the North. Gen. Buhari is from the Muslim majority of the North, the North Central is essentially the Christian belt of Northern Nigeria. As a President, he is already a Muslim and is from the Northwest, there is no Christian member of the incoming government that I know that is a Senator. So, if you are moving it to the North East, it is going to be Muslim Muslim thing again from the North. Those of us from the North Central that are Christians, we feel that the history of marginalisation of our people that has always led to rebellion is being made manifest again and that we have been used as guinea pigs in a political laboratory and that we are no longer needed. Of course, we are very patient people, we are hopeful that it will not come to that but if it does, we will still take a look at ourselves, don’t forget that government is an ongoing thing and that when you get to the National Assembly and all that, we will still be required for purposes of the various permutations that will take place, so it is just a question of time, but I think that the best thing to do is to leave it in the North Central zone.

This is the period of election petitions, how do you think our laws, especially the 180 days rule will affect the expeditious determination of electoral disputes?

Well, a lot of the election petitions have just been filed and I don’t think any of the respondents have filed processes in rebuttal of what most of the petitioners have filed.

It all depends on the nature and character of the case, if for instance the petitioner said that he is going to call 300 witnesses and the respondent in rebuttal said that he is going to call 600 witnesses, it is within his right. Do not also forget that the right to fair hearing is a fundamental aspect of our constitution and everybody, the petitioner and the respondent have a right to be heard. So, if in the course of hearing 180 days elapses, well, in that case the law has not been changed.

What lessons did we learn along this line from the 2011 experiences, how did the law affect the determination of electoral disputes then?
We ought to have learned lessons from the 2011 elections and the related petitions that arose there from. My expectation is that may be the National Assembly having regard to the lessons learnt, would have taken appropriate steps to make certain amendments if need be. Well they just over looked it and as far as we are concerned, it is our law, a good law and we are stuck with it.

The process of appointing Judges has been blamed for most of the ills bedevilling the Judiciary including the quality of judgments d at our Courts, what is your reaction to this?

I think that there is always room for improvement in the conduct of human affairs, but the area that I am most worried about is the area of the perceived secrecy of the process. If our procurement process for the purpose of contract award has been made so open that the entire public participates in it, I don’t understand why the appointment of Judges should be like a matter involving the appointment of the Pope where people are secretly locked up somewhere to conduct the process, I don’t understand this. If Judges need to be appointed, there should be an advertorial, just the way the rank of Senior Advocates of Nigeria is also appointed, would be judges should be made to pass through a filtering process that is rigorous.

 

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