Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) is the
immediate past Director General of the Nigerian Institute of
Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), the nation’s apex institution for
legal research. In this chat with STEPHEN UBIMAGO,
he reflects on the challenges facing the Institute and how
government’s intervention is required to assist it to function
optimally vis-a-vis its enabling statutory mandate.
Excerpts:
As a tertiary legal research institution, what is the
relationship between NIALS and the regular university in
Nigeria?
Well this is the apex legal research institute in Nigeria; and its
relationship with other citadels of research and learning is as
defined by law. The Institute’s establishment Act enjoins it to
undertake the supervision and guidance of postgraduate students in
faculties of Law in Nigerian universities. This means the institute
has the obligation to assist in the supervision of post-graduate
dissertation, and also to provide the environment for them to do
so. NIALS has the best law library in Africa. And you cannot be a
thoroughbred researcher if you cannot use the very best law library
that is available. As I speak NIALS has about fifteen law
professors. Not even when I went to some European universities or
even in the UK can you find fifteen law professors in one
institution. So with that NIALS is more than qualified in terms of
resources and capacity, and may be in terms of its faculty to help
other people who are less endowed to build capacity. Apart from the
internal work that is done in the Institute, it also extends its
hands of friendship to other law faculties in terms of helping them
out in the supervision of their post graduate students. That is
what the Institute’s enabling law enjoins it. But over and above
that, the Institute also publishes journals, and quite a whole lot.
As at the last count, the Institute has fifteen law journals. That
is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. As its Director
General then, we pioneered the idea of a Journal of Legislative
Drafting. There have never been any like it anywhere in the world
before. Hitherto people usually go to Europe and it was costing the
country a lot of money. So by doing this as part of our statutory
mandate, we are able to save our country a lot of scare foreign
reserve. It is gratifying that NIAL’s mandate enables it to pursue
research even to post graduate level. It started with the Masters
and the post graduate diploma, now the Institute is trying to see
if it can graduate its first set of Ph. D holders. So to that
extent NIALS is trying as much as possible to help the country and
at the same time help the other law faculties.
Can we then say that NIALS is a post graduate
degree-awarding institution?
Yes, but that is only in the area of legislative drafting. The
Institute’s enabling law is clear that it can only award degrees
leading to Masters or PhD in legislative grafting. So it’s highly
specialised. You cannot do any other form of PhD here except
Legislative Drafting
What is the relationship between the Institute and the
National Assembly giving that it boasts specialty in legislative
drafting?
Up until maybe when the National Legislative Institute was set up,
NIALS had been at the forefront of assisting the National Assembly
in building capacity and doing so many other things. But now they
have set up the legislative studies unit. But as far as legislative
drafting is concerned the Institute does not limit itself to the
theoretical perspective, it also does a lot of work in the
practical application of it. And to that extent, even up till this
moment, the Institute keeps churning out bills that will help the
National Assembly in many ways than one. Its relationship with the
Parliaments extends so far that for all public hearing of the
National Assembly involving the scrutiny of bills, NIALS is invited
to also make some informed comments, maybe because of the rich
faculty that it boasts. So, whether it has to do with oil and gas
legislation, or with health law, or constitutional amendment, in
most instances, if not all, the institute is usually invited to
make comments. And they take our comments very seriously.
It was once rumoured that the Institute was moving its flagship
operations to Abuja since a facility was under construction to that
effect. What is the latest development in that regard?
You see, the thinking of those who set up the Institute in the
University of Lagos campus was predicated on the fact that the
Institute by design and by virtue of the activities it was
established to embark on, is supposed to be close to the three arms
of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
Now, with the movement of the Supreme Court to Abuja, the National
Assembly in Abuja, and the presidency in Abuja as well,
automatically it is by design that the Institute should move or be
close to where those three arms of government are located. You
cannot be talking of legislative drafting when you are in Lagos and
the people are in Abuja. You cannot be talking about interaction
with the highest level of the judiciary when the Supreme Court is
in Abuja and you are here in Lagos. So it became imperative that
the Institute should also move to Abuja. But what we have done is
to now reposition, whereby some zonal offices will emerge. If and
when the Institute is able to transfer to Abuja, the facility at
the University of Lagos will become a zonal office in the south
west. Based on that, the Institute has been able to set up a zonal
office in the south-south, based in Asaba. In the south east it is
based in Enugu; in north-central, it is located in Makurdi;
north-east, Maiduguri; and then north-west, in Kano. However the
Institute has not been able to achieve this, because of inadequate
budgetary allocation. But it is work in progress. It is hoped that
in the course of time things will materialize.
As one in the know, what projections have the Institute
set for itself in the near future?
Well, it is difficult to say. If the Institute can enjoy important
intervention from government, fine. In any case, I think the
Attorney General of the Federation has been quite supportive in
seeing if the Institute can benefit from the Tertiary Education
Trust Fund. If that becomes the case, then maybe in five, six years
the Institute will be home and dry. Over and above that the
Institute is currently squatting at the Supreme Court facility in
Abuja and is quite comfortable there. And a lot of work is going
on. That wouldn’t have been possible but for the fact that the
Supreme Court has been quite supportive. Also bear in mind that
almost all time, the chairman of the governing council of the
Institute has always been the Chief Justice of Nigeria or a Justice
of the Supreme Court.
Can you elaborate on the challenge of funding facing the
Institute?
It is so bad that the Institute is almost cap-in-hand begging,
because it is limited in terms of trying to practicalise the ideas
being churned out by its rich faculty. The management of the
Institute has great dreams and visions of what they want to achieve
and where they want to get to. But finance is the issue. It however
has not frozen the Faculty to stupor. It is hoped that somewhere
along the line, there will be some people who will be prepared to
buy into the Institute’s vision and to see how they can assist in
actualizing it.
Looking at legal education in Nigeria are you pleased
with standards?
I don’t think we are doing badly. But mark you, we went through a
very disturbing period of retrogression arising from the
intervention of the military in our body polity, and we cannot say
that after almost two decades of military presence we can just
stand up and things will start running again. We lost so much, in
terms of good governance. We’ve also lost so much in terms of
corruption; in terms of decay in our educational system. Now we are
trying to gather the pieces. I have made this point repeatedly,
too, that any country where the type of scholarship that can be
found in that particular place does not impact positively on the
developmental growth of the people, it means there is no
scholarship at all. There should be a clear cut correlation between
the output in terms of scholarship and the developmental growth of
a particular country.
Culled from independentnig
Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) is the
immediate past Director General of the Nigerian Institute of
Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), the nation’s apex institution for
legal research. In this chat with STEPHEN UBIMAGO,
he reflects on the challenges facing the Institute and how
government’s intervention is required to assist it to function
optimally vis-a-vis its enabling statutory mandate.
Excerpts:
As a tertiary legal research institution, what is the
relationship between NIALS and the regular university in
Nigeria?
Well this is the apex legal research institute in Nigeria; and its
relationship with other citadels of research and learning is as
defined by law. The Institute’s establishment Act enjoins it to
undertake the supervision and guidance of postgraduate students in
faculties of Law in Nigerian universities. This means the institute
has the obligation to assist in the supervision of post-graduate
dissertation, and also to provide the environment for them to do
so. NIALS has the best law library in Africa. And you cannot be a
thoroughbred researcher if you cannot use the very best law library
that is available. As I speak NIALS has about fifteen law
professors. Not even when I went to some European universities or
even in the UK can you find fifteen law professors in one
institution. So with that NIALS is more than qualified in terms of
resources and capacity, and may be in terms of its faculty to help
other people who are less endowed to build capacity. Apart from the
internal work that is done in the Institute, it also extends its
hands of friendship to other law faculties in terms of helping them
out in the supervision of their post graduate students. That is
what the Institute’s enabling law enjoins it. But over and above
that, the Institute also publishes journals, and quite a whole lot.
As at the last count, the Institute has fifteen law journals. That
is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. As its Director
General then, we pioneered the idea of a Journal of Legislative
Drafting. There have never been any like it anywhere in the world
before. Hitherto people usually go to Europe and it was costing the
country a lot of money. So by doing this as part of our statutory
mandate, we are able to save our country a lot of scare foreign
reserve. It is gratifying that NIAL’s mandate enables it to pursue
research even to post graduate level. It started with the Masters
and the post graduate diploma, now the Institute is trying to see
if it can graduate its first set of Ph. D holders. So to that
extent NIALS is trying as much as possible to help the country and
at the same time help the other law faculties.
Can we then say that NIALS is a post graduate
degree-awarding institution?
Yes, but that is only in the area of legislative drafting. The
Institute’s enabling law is clear that it can only award degrees
leading to Masters or PhD in legislative grafting. So it’s highly
specialised. You cannot do any other form of PhD here except
Legislative Drafting
What is the relationship between the Institute and the
National Assembly giving that it boasts specialty in legislative
drafting?
Up until maybe when the National Legislative Institute was set up,
NIALS had been at the forefront of assisting the National Assembly
in building capacity and doing so many other things. But now they
have set up the legislative studies unit. But as far as legislative
drafting is concerned the Institute does not limit itself to the
theoretical perspective, it also does a lot of work in the
practical application of it. And to that extent, even up till this
moment, the Institute keeps churning out bills that will help the
National Assembly in many ways than one. Its relationship with the
Parliaments extends so far that for all public hearing of the
National Assembly involving the scrutiny of bills, NIALS is invited
to also make some informed comments, maybe because of the rich
faculty that it boasts. So, whether it has to do with oil and gas
legislation, or with health law, or constitutional amendment, in
most instances, if not all, the institute is usually invited to
make comments. And they take our comments very seriously.
It was once rumoured that the Institute was moving its flagship
operations to Abuja since a facility was under construction to that
effect. What is the latest development in that regard?
You see, the thinking of those who set up the Institute in the
University of Lagos campus was predicated on the fact that the
Institute by design and by virtue of the activities it was
established to embark on, is supposed to be close to the three arms
of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
Now, with the movement of the Supreme Court to Abuja, the National
Assembly in Abuja, and the presidency in Abuja as well,
automatically it is by design that the Institute should move or be
close to where those three arms of government are located. You
cannot be talking of legislative drafting when you are in Lagos and
the people are in Abuja. You cannot be talking about interaction
with the highest level of the judiciary when the Supreme Court is
in Abuja and you are here in Lagos. So it became imperative that
the Institute should also move to Abuja. But what we have done is
to now reposition, whereby some zonal offices will emerge. If and
when the Institute is able to transfer to Abuja, the facility at
the University of Lagos will become a zonal office in the south
west. Based on that, the Institute has been able to set up a zonal
office in the south-south, based in Asaba. In the south east it is
based in Enugu; in north-central, it is located in Makurdi;
north-east, Maiduguri; and then north-west, in Kano. However the
Institute has not been able to achieve this, because of inadequate
budgetary allocation. But it is work in progress. It is hoped that
in the course of time things will materialize.
As one in the know, what projections have the Institute
set for itself in the near future?
Well, it is difficult to say. If the Institute can enjoy important
intervention from government, fine. In any case, I think the
Attorney General of the Federation has been quite supportive in
seeing if the Institute can benefit from the Tertiary Education
Trust Fund. If that becomes the case, then maybe in five, six years
the Institute will be home and dry. Over and above that the
Institute is currently squatting at the Supreme Court facility in
Abuja and is quite comfortable there. And a lot of work is going
on. That wouldn’t have been possible but for the fact that the
Supreme Court has been quite supportive. Also bear in mind that
almost all time, the chairman of the governing council of the
Institute has always been the Chief Justice of Nigeria or a Justice
of the Supreme Court.
Can you elaborate on the challenge of funding facing the
Institute?
It is so bad that the Institute is almost cap-in-hand begging,
because it is limited in terms of trying to practicalise the ideas
being churned out by its rich faculty. The management of the
Institute has great dreams and visions of what they want to achieve
and where they want to get to. But finance is the issue. It however
has not frozen the Faculty to stupor. It is hoped that somewhere
along the line, there will be some people who will be prepared to
buy into the Institute’s vision and to see how they can assist in
actualizing it.
Looking at legal education in Nigeria are you pleased
with standards?
I don’t think we are doing badly. But mark you, we went through a
very disturbing period of retrogression arising from the
intervention of the military in our body polity, and we cannot say
that after almost two decades of military presence we can just
stand up and things will start running again. We lost so much, in
terms of good governance. We’ve also lost so much in terms of
corruption; in terms of decay in our educational system. Now we are
trying to gather the pieces. I have made this point repeatedly,
too, that any country where the type of scholarship that can be
found in that particular place does not impact positively on the
developmental growth of the people, it means there is no
scholarship at all. There should be a clear cut correlation between
the output in terms of scholarship and the developmental growth of
a particular country.
Culled from independentnig
Read more https://nairalaw.com/how-poor-funding-is-stifling-advanced-legal-research-in-nigeria-azinge-san/