PROTOCOL
My Lord, the Chief Justice of
Nigeria,
My Lords, Justices of the Supreme
Court and the Court of Appeal, Judges of other Superior Courts, Hon. Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Benchers, Members of the
Inner and Utter Bar.
Distinguished
Ladies and Gentlemen;
INTRODUCTION
I
thank My Lord for the privilege to speak at today’s special sitting of the
Supreme Court to mark the beginning of a new legal year and also the admission
of 22 very distinguished colleagues into the inner Bar.
This
is the first time I will be appearing before this Court in my capacity as the
President of the Nigerian Bar Association. I therefore wish to thank my Lord
the Chief Justice of Nigeria and indeed other Justices of this court for the
congratulatory and goodwill messages sent to me on my election.
It is
customary to use this occasion to reflect, take stock, and chart the way
forward for the coming year not only for this Court, but indeed for the legal
profession and the administration of justice in general. It is therefore appropriate for me to make
some statements on behalf of the Bar, but first to our new members of the inner
Bar.
NEW
SENIOR ADVOCATES OF NIGERIA
Let
me begin by congratulating our distinguished colleagues on their elevation to
the rank of Senior Advocates of Nigeria and admission into the inner Bar. I
extend our felicitations to all of you, your families and associates. This is indeed a mark of professional
excellence that each and every one of your richly deserves. You have all made indelible marks in your
various areas of endeavors as legal professionals. You now share with other leaders of the Bar
the burden and responsibility for professional leadership that the rank of SAN
imposes. By your new position, you are
role models for the profession. The rank must carry with it some notion of
quality assurance. Our fellow countrymen and women would expect from you
provision of legal services with highest standards of excellence. Legal
practice has always been a business side to it.
We must recognize however, that if the idea of the award of the rank to
a few of us every year is merely to grant commercial advantage above our other
colleagues, then there will be hardly any justification for it. I must therefore remind us on this solemn
occasion that there are huge responsibilities that accompany this rank. The responsibility to promote justice
delivery to fellow citizens on the basis of the highest ethical and
professional standards. There is a solemn duty to mentor, groom and develop
younger members of the bar who will carry forward the rich traditions of the
legal profession. We have a duty to promote
the independence and integrity of the legal profession. We must recognize that
the prosperity of this country depends, amongst everything else, first and
foremost, on our ability to promote the rule of law and guarantee justice and
fairness to our communities and our fellow citizens. This is by no means an easy task in a country
of such great diversity and several potential fault lines. However, we have every confidence that our
colleagues being sworn in today will join other members of the inner and indeed
other leaders of the profession in the tasks ahead.
LEGAL
PRACTITIONERS PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE (LPPC)
My
Lords, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, let me use this opportunity to
commend my Lord the Chief Justice of Nigeria/Chairman Legal Practitioners’
Privileges committee for the new reforms introduced recently and contained in
the Guidelines for the Conferment of the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
2016. This demonstrates the continuing
effort to strengthen the rules and guidelines for the award of the rank to
address concerns and enhance the integrity of the process. There has always been a concern that the
quest for award of the rank is partly responsible for fueling appellate
litigation and thereby over-burdening the appellate courts as candidates make
concerted efforts to achieve the requisite number of appearances before our
appellate courts. The new guidelines
appear to respond to this by putting more emphasis on trial court
advocacy. We commend your Lordship for
this improvement. The NBA however would
like to have a greater say in the composition of the LPPC. We note with concern
the present composition of the Body without a direct input from the Bar. We
suggest the representation of the Bar on the Committee should be on the
nomination of the NBA to the Chief Justice.
It will also not be out of place to suggest that the President of the
Nigerian Bar Association should be a permanent member of the Committee. I am confident that greater involvement of
the NBA in the process will further strengthen and enhance the credibility of
the exercise.
My
Lord, permit me now to turn to some other broader issues.
REFORM
OF THE JUDICIARY
I
want to begin by again commending the efforts of the Judiciary under the
Leadership of Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed GCON. My Lord, in your address on
similar occasion in this very court room, on 21st September, 2015, two areas
caught my attention. First was your
commitment to institutional integrity. This is what you said: “Since assumption
of office, I have worked to strengthen the integrity of our Judicial
Institutions through the review of the Judicial Official appointment process as
well as innovations, which will enhance case disposition and the engendering of
an open door policy that has enabled me to engage with other Heads of Court and
where necessary the leadership of the Bar….” The other area that caught my
special attention was your commitment to the deployment of information
Technology in the Judiciary. Indeed, I have no doubt in my mind that these two
areas hold the key to the transformation of the Judiciary, on launching us into
the modern era of administration of Justice. Luckily, we are making progress in
both areas. In April 2016, we saw the
launching of the new National Judicial Policy by the National Judicial
Council. This new policy covers a wide
range of issues from appointments, to judicial performance, access to Justice,
Case Flow Management, Transparency and Anti-Corruption Policy etc. We commend your Lordship for this bold
initiative. We recommend active
dissemination of this policy across all levels of the nation’s judiciary and
periodic monitoring and evaluation of the attainment of the policy
objective. As demanded by this new
policy, your Lordship has just advised the Nigerian Bar Association of the
establishment of the Judicial Ethics Committee under the chairmanship of Hon
Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi GCON. We
commend this initiative but urge that the representation of the bar on the
committee be increased from the current 2 out of 10 to a more sizeable number.
In addition, we recommend that some public interest representation be infused
into the committee. Besides this being
in keeping with Your Lordships open door policy, public interest representation
can only enhance public confidence in the activities of the Judiciary
especially in this critical area of judicial ethics.
With
regards to Information Technology the Nigerian Bar Association believes that
the deployment of technology holds the key to the future development of the
judiciary. It has the capability to
improve access to justice, efficiency and transparency. We note despite the
approval of an ICT Policy for the Judiciary and the modest progress that has
been made in the areas of case flow management and electronic communication,
the pace of implementation needs to be scaled up. More importantly, the implementation needs
to drill down to the State levels. It is important that the progress be made at
all levels of the judiciary.
REFORM
OF THE BAR
My
Lord, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is not only the Judiciary that
requires urgent reforms. Indeed the Bar
is an eminent candidate for reform. I am
referring to the reform of the regulation of the legal profession. The recent public concern about the
profession has forced many of us to think deeply on the current state of the
legal profession and indeed how the profession is being regulated. We realise that there is an urgent need to
interrogate the architecture of the regulation.
This is imperative if the legal profession in Nigeria is to be raised in
sync with the current international standards of the regulation of the
profession. Many countries for instance are moving away from the current model
of self-regulation. A few have
strengthened their Bar Associations or Law Societies to combine both the
representative functions with the regulatory function. In my view this is conversation that is long overdue
here. We must for instance interrogate
the capacity of the Body of Benchers to continue its regulatory
responsibility. The Body of Benchers
currently comprises 240 members. Out of
these, 99 are Life Benchers majority of whom do not attend the meetings of the
Body due to age or other exigencies. 72 are State Chief Judges and Attorneys
General, the Nigerian Bar Association has 30 representatives. The remaining
members are Justices of the Supreme Court and the President and Presiding
Justices of the Court of Appeal Divisions all very busy people. The question really is what sort of
regulation do we expect from a body comprising 240 members many of whom we can
only expect fleeting attention from?
Many countries in the Commonwealth, though still retaining the
Ceremonial responsibilities of the Benchers for admitting qualified persons to
the bar and as custodians of the legal tradition and other formal powers, they
have created new and more effective institutions for the more arduous and
increasingly complex task of regulating the legal profession. In the United Kingdom for Instance, the Legal
Services Act 2007 is legislation of over 400 pages. It defines the Regulatory Objectives to be
achieved in the regulation of the legal profession in the United Kingdom and
establishes the Legal Services Board as the Apex Regulator with the Bar Council
and the Solicitors Regulation Authority having specific role of regulating
Barristers and Solicitors Respectively.
My postulation is that unless we take important and urgent decisions,
the legal profession in Nigeria will lag behind its other contemporaries in
Africa and indeed internationally. The
legal profession is key to the next phase of Nigeria’s development. Effective regulation of the profession is an
absolute prerequisite for the development of the profession.
I am
proposing to summon a high level Bar leaders’ Summit later in October this year
to consider this amongst other important matters affecting the profession such
as legal education. I will be counting
on the support of Lordship in this process of consultation and consensus
building on the direction to move the profession in the coming years.
BAR
AND BENCH RELATIONSHIP
My
Lord, let me use this opportunity to reassure your Lordship of my commitment to
a cordial relationship between the Bar and the Bench under my leadership of the
NBA. I am aware that my immediate
predecessors worked very hard to maintain a good relationship with the Bench
and enjoyed tremendous cooperation from your Lordship and indeed your own
predecessors in office. The Bar and the
Bench are Siamese twins. We work for the
same objectives. I think we must swim or
sink together. On our part, we will continue to be strong advocates of the
greater independence of the judiciary.
We will champion its cause. We
will guard its reputation jealously. But
that means we will fight even those within who seek to undermine its
reputation. Let me reiterate what I
said in Port Harcourt in my inaugural address on 26th day of August, 2016. “On the reform of the judiciary, NBA will
advocate for urgent reforms that will reposition our judiciary and equip it to
play its future role. A clean, efficient, knowledgeable and efficient and
transformative judiciary is at the foundation of building an orderly, peaceful
and prosperous society. It is the only way we can guarantee the rule of law and
an egalitarian society for our people.
The notion that a judge could be bribed either by a lawyer or litigant
is completely obnoxious and unacceptable. In many countries it is unthinkable!
The NBA under my watch will fight judicial corruption. We shall also make the
legal profession unattractive for corrupt lawyers. We will ensure that the NBA does not become a
sanctuary of miscreant lawyers”.
My Lord,
we are willing to explore all areas for enhancing the cooperation of the Bar
and the Bench in the overall interest of the legal profession and the nation’s
judiciary.
STATE
OF THE NATION
I
cannot conclude this address without commenting on the state of the
nation. Our country is facing daunting
challenges. The primary challenge appears to be the economic down turn. It is
officially accepted that we are in economic recession. For many Nigerians this is not a matter of
figures or statistics. It is hard
reality of joblessness, poverty and inability to meet basic needs.
Getting
out of our present situation demands concerted efforts of all citizens and all
institutions. The expectation on the legal profession is enormous. We must
demonstrate patriotism and leadership as well as knowledge and skills. We must work to enhance confidence in the
legal system, promote the rule of law, guarantee protection of citizens as well
promote the sanctity of contractual obligations thereby improving the business
environment. As we know development is
intricately linked to the Rule of Law.
My
Lord the Chief Justice, My Lords, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I want to
restate the commitment of the Nigerian Bar Association to promoting the rule of
law and rekindling a new era of economic prosperity for our Country.
Before
I take my seat let me welcome my Lords from your vacation and to wish you a
very successful legal year ahead. To our
new Silks, I say once again say a big congratulation on behalf of all your
colleagues in the Nigerian Bar Association.
I
thank you all for listening.
Abubakar B. Mahmoud, SAN, OON,
FCIArb, SFNLI
President,
Nigerian Bar Association
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