EXCERPTS FROM THE SYMPOSIUM

What do you think? Share your thoughts.

HON. JUSTICE NWALI SYLVESTER NGWUTA

The office of the Attorney General is too important to be combined with that of the minister of justice. Why? The chief lawyer of the federation must be independent of the whims and caprices of the government.

The rape case presently ongoing in Delta should not be heard. The state should not hesitate to pay the woman and apologise to her dearly. How would we imprison a woman with two male counterparts? This is unheard of.

GOV. ROTIMI AMAECHI

My Lords, we must defend democracy because we must defend Nigeria

We must be prepared as a people to hold government accountable; to demand accountability.

PROF. EPIPHANY AZINGE, SAN, DG NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

There should be a quality process of appointment of judges. This process should be open and transparent.

We are concerned by the declining intellectual death of some of our judges and we are of the respective view that a wider diversity of experience will add to the decisions of the judiciary in court. Such as appointment of Senior Advocates of Nigeria to the Court of Appeal.

We need a revolutionary change, a precipitate and immediate change.

HON. JUSTICE NASIRU AJANAH, CHIEF JUDGE KOGI STATE

The funding for the judiciary is of utmost importance. To encourage judicial independence, monies accruing to the judiciary should be placed in the care of the head of court. Though these provisions are in the constitution they are not being implemented.

Where members of the Judicial Service Commission are appointed by the Governor, it is the politicians that would decide the outcome of that body.

A.B. MAHMOUD, SAN

The challenge we have presently is that we should not always look to the solution of the problem of judicial reform from our constitution. There are several issues and reviews that can be made without resort to constitution review.

There must be a defined federalism for there to be changes in the judiciary.

We should build a federalism that takes into consideration our peculiarity.

There has been an excessive concentration of power in the national judiciary such as concentration of matters in the Federal High Court. We need to allow the State Courts, state judiciary to develop.

In fact, each States should handle their electoral disputes.

FESTUS OKOYE ESQ.

 Asking for a decentralisation of the judiciary should also mean the decentralisation of other state issues such as the issue of having an independent state electoral commission to conduct states and Local Governments’ elections.

We must therefore deal with our federation first.

The NBA should lay siege at the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY for this process of constitutional review to be completed before the end of the year.

YUSUF ALLI, SAN

The truth is, most of us lack character. Character is at the heart of the efficiency of the judiciary. If an individual lacks character, appointing him a judge will not change that fact.

The problem of this day is that there are too many mistakes of the heart from the bench.

MR. ASIJUE, (Representative for the Controller-General of the Nigeria Prisons Service)

The problem of congestions and the number of awaiting trial inmates in prisons is not with the prisons service but the judiciary.

DELE ADESINA, SAN

The national industrial court is the court of first and last instance except on fundamental rights cases. This should not be so.

The Nigerian Bar Association should sit with the National Judicial Council to propose a guideline for the appointment of Judges.

FEMI FALANA, SAN

I do not believe that the ongoing review will stand the test of time because we are not prepared to have a holistic once and for all amendment.

If we are going to have administration of justice in Nigeria we must look at the role of lawyers in the importation of criminal proceedings and civil proceedings. On the issue of staying of criminal proceedings, it is evident that in the last 10 years, the States High Courts have not secured conviction of criminals as is being done by the EFCC in the Federal High Court. Once a criminal proceeding as commenced, there should be no stay of proceedings.

The judicial reform bill has failed to address the problem of lack of access to justice by the generality of the people.

The rules of court should now be amended to abolish the issue of locus standi. It should not be limited to fundamental rights actions only.

We can do anything in Nigeria and go away with it. Ours is the only country apart from Banana Island where the courts grant stay of proceedings for an election petition matter, knowing that the action is time bound.

On the issue of state police, we all know that there are many police forces, the state security service have its own police service not under the Inspector General of Police. We have the EFCC, NDLEA, Nigerian Civil Defence, Vigilante groups, Neighbourhood watches, who carry guns in the name of security, so why are we pretending? We need to streamline this primitive way of policing the country. We only must ensure that we curtail the States Governors from controlling the police.

We should get credible civil societies to be members of the Police Council so that no Governor or president can say go and arrest Femi Falana.

Our prisons are in a sorry state. These prisons were built by the colonial masters. We don’t have prison congestion in Nigeria, we have prison mismanagement.

It is only the rich and privileged that have some of their rights respected in prisons. We call to the government that our prisons should be modernised and conjugal visits should be allowed.

I also will suggest that the ICPC Act be reviewed to provide the death penalty for looters of funds.

We should also increase the participation of women in governance. Rwanda has the highest number of women in administration in the world.

Chapter II of the constitution is justiciable, there are laws of the nation that were made pursuant to the provisions under chapter ii, they are justiciable, we should stop saying they are not.

MR. CHINONYE OBIAGWU, ESQ.

We need a body outside the police that can police the police.

I suggest that Chapter Ii and IV should be merged.

The National Assembly should be reserved for proportionate representation, such as allowing 30% representation for women and people with disabilities.

I.B.B BENEDE (miss)

Where robbers are convicted for armed robbery, they should be sentenced and wasted.