The Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice Ishaq Bello has asked old politicians and similar actors to yield the stage to the more vibrant young minds who have the capacity to effect the much needed reforms to propel the nation’s development.
Justice Bello, who stressed the need for the aged to assume the back seat and encourage the youths to grow, said he feels uncomfortable when elders occupy offices where the young ones could perform better.
He said: “When I see aged people sleeping at the Senate or House of Reps contributing nothing, when they have young people at their constituencies to promote; to go there and be vibrant and contribute, I feel ashamed.”
Justice Bello spoke in relation to the acrimony generated by the just concluded election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that produced a non-Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olumide Akpata as the group’s National President.
He spoke in Abuja on Monday at the opening session of a two-day capacity building workshop for young lawyers, with the theme: “Trends in criminal justice administration and anti-corruption in Nigeria” organised by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS).
Justice Bello, who would soon retire, urged senior lawyers to accept the outcome of the election and work with the new leadership to build a united and strong NBA.
He admonished the incoming NBA leaders not to depart from the old tradition of respect at the Bar, learn to take advice from more experienced people, and noted that SANs deserved to be respected.
The FCT CJ and other speakers urged lawyers to ensure the effective application of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) to ensure that the spirit of the law is upheld rather than working to frustrate the purpose for which the ACJA was enacted.
They tasked lawyers to see themselves as change agents, determined to use the law to effect needed societal changes.
The other speakers included Law Professor and President of the CSLS, Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), former Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Ali Ahmad and Chairman, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abuja branch, Hauwa Shekarau.
Akinseye-George, who regretted the delays and congestions still being experienced in the criminal justice system years after the ACJA became effective, said the provisions of the Act could only be properly implemented with the cooperation of lawyers.
“Put in another way, the effectiveness or otherwise of the ACJA depends on the legal profession: judges, registrars, prosecutors and legal practitioners,” he said.
Akinseye-George urged the incoming leadership of the NBA to be committed to effecting the needed reforms in the justice sector to ensure the nation’s system of justice administration works to benefit all.
“The NBA must put its house in order and rise up to the challenge of protecting hard-working judges, investigators and prosecutors from politicians and the high profile defendants who would go to any extent to weaken, intimidate, or compromise the criminal justice system.”
He frowned at the practice where senior lawyers yield themselves as agent for the manipulation of the criminal justice system in favour of high profile defendants.
“I dare say that the legal profession has only been able to secure the conviction of only a handful of high profile defendants and politically-exposed persons.
“The improvement in the criminal procedure law and the increasing number of lawyers and senior advocates on a yearly basis has not translated to a greater effectiveness of the criminal justice system, greater access to justice by the poor or improved justice delivery system in the country.
“Although more courts are being established and the legal profession is growing by the day, there is not much to write home about justice delivery in the country.
“Indeed, the increasing rate of anti-social behaviour and criminal activities such as banditry, kidnapping, insurgencies, corruption and resurgent anti-democratic and harmful tendencies which threaten our democracy and collective existence are partly traceable to the inability of the elite legal profession to fashion creative solutions to the challenges of the society.
“Unless the legal profession reinvents itself and return to original nobility and integrity for which it was reputed, the confidence of the majority of Nigerians in the profession will continue to decline.
“The leaders of the profession must be worried that many young lawyers are out of work and several others who are working are poorly paid.
“Clients now prefer to pay bribes to officials including to the law enforcement agencies rather than pay decent legal fees to hard-working lawyers. That should not be so.
“The experience of lawyers in other democracies is that lawyers thrive better in an atmosphere of respect for the rule of law; lawyers tend to be more prosperous when the national economy is vibrant and blooming.
“But when lawyers fail to make meaningful contribution to the development of the political economy and become allies to wrong-doers and political pay masters, our legislatures will be filled with persons who ought not to be there, the legal system loses its capacity to punish wrong-doing by the big man or the political elite; the law and legal system are undermined and the entire society including lawyers suffer,” Akinseye-George said
