Reforms are needed to enhance sanity in legal administration
While receiving a delegation of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, recently expressed the readiness of the federal government to work on judicial and justice sector reforms. “There is no question at all that we need reforms. We have to do it,” said Osinbajo who pointed to some of the worrying instances that have compelled the need for reforms in the judicial sector, asserting that “it is becoming worse every day”.
Osinbajo was re-echoing the pledge he made in March this year, a week before the election that brought the new government to power: “No one is in doubt that a nation can do little if the judiciary is not functioning. Our legal system has not been reformed at the national and state levels but more importantly at the national level. The frustration to reform came from the federal government and when you fail to reform the system, corruption increases. The masses have lost interest in the judiciary because delay in administering justice is on the increase, making people to lose faith in the system. We must deal with law reforms and with a new government like that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the centre, there will be change.”
As Nigerians therefore await the much-promised judicial reforms, it is gratifying that Osinbajo recognises the complicity of lawyers in the rot within the sector. Over the years, several senior lawyers have been mentioned in the bribery of judges to pervert the course of justice at the election petition tribunals. Many accused persons standing trial in anti-graft cases, have also, through the unprofessional conduct of their respective lawyers, systematically devised effective means of undermining the courts to speedily dispose cases against them.
It is indeed distressful that some otherwise respected lawyers, who are supposed to be officers in the temple of justice, throw decorum and professional ethics overboard to bring frivolous court applications in the bid to scuttle the judicial process. It is on record that court congestion is mainly caused by some of these lawyers who simply go to court to seek frivolous adjournments. All these have to stop.
We suggest that the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) should regularly meet to decide on the disciplinary action to be meted out to lawyers found guilty of professional misconduct. Once there are serious allegations that a lawyer whose name is on the roll has misbehaved with provable evidence, the LPDC should not hesitate to take appropriate disciplinary measures to deter others. While it is good that lawyers can point accusing fingers at corrupt judges, even if unnamed, they will do better to be rid of the unscrupulous members among them.
However, there is also the need to instil sanity on the bench. We recall that a few years ago, two Justices of the Court of Appeal were dismissed for collecting bribes to award a court victory to a political party in an appeal over a decision of an election tribunal. Other High Court judges have similarly been suspended or dismissed in the last few years for similar infractions. But it is wrong to assume that only judges are to blame. As we stated in previous editorials on this issue, judicial personnel–court registrars, court clerks, court bailiffs, court messengers–also play an active part in the perversion of the administration of justice.
While we wait for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to walk its talk on judicial reforms, we call on the bar and the bench to live up to their respective callings in the dispensation of justice in Nigeria. When our judiciary is corrupted by the very foremost stakeholders who should labour to maintain its prestige, then it is inevitable that justice will be for the highest bidder, with dire implications for the society.
