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By Joel Anekwe, Port Harcourt
Chief Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers State, has charged the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA to transform to what he termed judicial activism to save the nation.
Speaking as a guest at the 61st Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt on Monday, 25 October 2021, he urged Nigerian lawyers to engage in judicial activism as a deliberate measure to address the slow dispensation of justice and attempts to stifle the rights of the citizenry.
He urged the association to transform and reform “to an activist association willing and ready to use the law to advance the values and aspirations of our profession and the progress of society as a positive social force for change with courage and determination”.
He described this as one of the major ways for the association to demonstrate its readiness to ‘Take the Lead,’ which is the theme of the conference.
“Taking the lead is to reclaim and uphold the values of the profession we once held; to have the courage to challenge what is wrong and unjust; to break free from tired traditions and status quo of the system; to question the motives and rightness of unfair and inequitable governmental actions and decisions; as well as to take appropriate and bold steps to eliminate the increasing costs, delays and drudgery of our criminal justice system.
“Taking the lead is to embrace the truth and having no patience for injustice; no tolerance for bad governance, and having no sympathy for political leaders who fail their citizens or for timid and incompetent judicial officers who betray their judicial oath with wrong and conscienceless judgements”.
The governor added; “I do hope and pray that from this conference the NBA will reawaken to its responsibility as the trustee of our legal system, resolve to guard against the easy slide into passivity and find the courage and inspiration to fight for good governance, democracy, judicial independence and the rule of law, as the identities and traditions of our country, through positive activism.
“This is the mission of our profession and vigilance is the price of liberty,” he said.
Wike explained that since the birth of this nation, Nigerians have relied on the law and the legal system to settle disputes, prevent crime, promote democracy, protect human rights and regulate virtually all aspects of both private and public life.
He lamented that the NBA has focused less on promoting and fighting for the values of good governance, democracy, judicial independence, human rights and the rule of law.
“On a daily basis the economic, social and political rights, including the rights to personal security, freedom of speech, association, dissent and peaceful protests, as well as the right to personal liberty are being violated with impunity by the present central administration and its security apparatus”, the governor noted among other challenges the NBA should rise up against.
Gov Wike said no excellence can be achieved in the nation’s judicial system when judges lack the courage to enforce the law with equal measure because they are constantly under some form of political intimidation or pressure to please vested interests.
He wondered why the NBA has continued to focus less on promoting and fighting for the values of good governance, democracy, judicial independence, human rights and the rule of law when there is urgent need for them to do so.
“Never in our political history has Nigeria been so badly governed and denied of good governance with the federal government woefully failing in its basic duties to provide for the wellbeing and security of its own citizens as we have experienced in the last six years.
“On a daily basis the economic, social and political rights, including the rights to personal security, freedom of speech, association, dissent and peaceful protests, as well as the right to personal liberty are being violated with impunity by the present central administration and its security apparatus.
“The invasion on personal liberty has been brazen and indiscriminate, such that even judges of the superior courts, including Supreme Court justices, have in the recent past been victims of midnight assaults on their premises and subjection to unlawful arrests and imprisonments.
“Lately, the new devious trend is to tag security risks to innocent Nigerians and opposition elements and use the Immigration Authority to seize their international passports without a prior court order.”
Gov Wike said it is not enough for the Federal Government to issue Executive Order 10 and do nothing more pragmatic about resourcing the judiciary to the fullest possible extent, including enhanced judicial welfare and conditions of service.
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukuh, in his address, said it has been difficult to review the nation’s constitution in a manner that meets the current aspirations of Nigerians because of the poor quality of those saddled with such responsibility.
According to him, any tenable constitution should be one that provides a mirror for each Nigerians to recognise him or herself as a citizen and not as an instrument that distributes favours to vested interests, sections or tribes.
Bishop Kukah wondered about the usefulness of having 120 thousand members on NBA list that cannot be harnessed to provide the leadership that is required to save the country from the quagmire of having a workable constitution for Nigeria.
He said Nigerians suffer identity crisis because politics had been immersed in religion and making it difficult to have a legal system that can address all issues and promote freedom and justice without any form of discrimination.
“Our politicians must become very careful and more circumspect. If we are going to take a lesson away from Boko Haram, from banditry, from where we find ourselves now, is that there is an urgent need for politicians to become more restrained in their involvement with religion, because their religious identity remains a very troubling identity.”