NBA must stop acting like labour unions – Sofola, SAN | Nairalaw

By Onozure Dania

Mr. Olusina Abdulrafiu Sofola, SAN, is the first son of the late
renowned legal luminary, Chief Idowu Shotayo Sofola, SAN. In this
interview, he shares his view on what the APC government should
focus on in the next four years. He also spoke on law reforms,
remedy for election violence victims, independence of the judiciary
amongst other issues. Excerpt:

How would you assess the performance of INEC in the last
election?

The truth of the matter is that they did reasonably well but I
was expecting more. Having practised democracy for quite a while
now, there should be an improvement and we should practise things
the way it should be done in the 21st Century. There are a lot of
instances that are quite unpalatable and should not be happening. I
will give you  an example. On the day of the Presidential and
National Assembly elections, I left my house with my wife and
children and we were just going for a leisure walk around the
neighbourhood to see how everything is going on. This was about
8:45am and we saw a bus with some occupants. They introduced
themselves as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC
staff and said they were looking for where the polling station
should be, where they were meant to erect their polling booth. I
think that was not good enough, especially with the postponement of
the elections. I expected more from them in terms of logistics and
preparations for the elections. There were a few things I asked
myself like when shall we get there, considering this permanent
voter’s card and everything that goes with it, like the biometrics.
Why must you only be able to vote in the place where you
registered? I think the truth of the matter is that INEC would have
done a bit better.

There has been a lot of disagreements among lawyers over
the use of the Military during the general elections. What is your
reaction?

We all know what the job of the Military is. They are meant to
protect the country from external forces. That is their primary
duty. In certain cases, they can also get themselves involved in
protecting the citizens against themselves, within the country but
in such cases there has to be a clear need for that. The truth of
the matter is that I am not sure (as far as the election was
concerned), there was need for the Military to be actively involved
with the elections. It does seem sometimes that they could appear
to be exacting force, or to be putting people under pressure, or to
be making people uncomfortable. Honestly, I’m not sure that it was
necessary to have the Military out the way we did.  I would
have preferred a situation where the police are allowed to do their
job while the Military is kept on standby so that if the need
arises, they would be able to approach them within a short notice.
But to have them going around even before any obvious trouble, is
wrong in my view.

There were cases of violence in some parts of the
country during the last election.  What are the provisions for
victims of election violence?

The law makes provisions for how to treat election violence,
vis-à-vis the persons involved in such violence and prescribes
custodian sentences if they are actually found guilty of such
violence. If I understand your question properly, to the best of my
knowledge, the Electoral Act does not make specific provisions for
victims of election violence. Obviously, the law generally tries to
protect the victims and also, the Government has the duty and
responsibility to take care of the victims of such violence. 
The truth of the matter is that if we had a good system and if we
were in a country where the hospital is working properly, anyone
that is a victim of election violence should be able to get
treatment from state hospitals. I do not know of any particular law
that makes any specific provisions as to how to treat victims of
election violence.

Do you believe that the NBA is playing its role
effectively on the issues of governance?

I believe that they are moving in the right direction. We have
not gotten to where we want to be, but I believe that we are moving
in the right direction. I noticed that from the time of Austin
Aleghe, SAN, when any major matter arises, the president of the NBA
will meet with his executives and they will state their positions
on such issues. That has continued up till now. When issues arise
that the general community of people are not comfortable with, you
see the NBA coming up with their own communiqué on such issues. I
believe that is certainly a step in the right direction. The NBA is
beginning to realise that it should not be looked at as a labour
union of some sort. The NBA is meant to be interested in trying to
protect the Judiciary and ensuring that the rule of law is
maintained and that the warfare of their members is also taken care
of.

I am not one of those who believe that the NBA should be
radical, and should be going on strikes. I believe that they should
make positive comments and take positive actions in relation to
events as they arise. I believe that the present president, Mr Paul
Usoro, SAN is working in the right direction. I will like to
believe that as time goes on,  he will be able to perfect it
and give us the NBA that we would all be proud of.

Some months ago when the former CJN, Onnoghen was
accused of not declaring all his assets, the NBA asked lawyers to
boycott the courts. Do you think that was necessary?

Whether it was necessary or not, I will not want to go into that
right now because there are obviously divergent views on it. 
But as a lawyer and a member of the NBA, I believe that whatever
decisions the NBA, as a body reaches, should be complied with by
members of the association because if it is not, then the
association would be rendered ineffective. Once the body makes a
decision, as a member of that association, I believe that it is our
duty to comply with whatever directions that our parent body has
given except of course, if it is something that is illegal.
Provided that it is not illegal, I think that we should support our
association to the best of our ability. If I remember clearly, it
wasn’t just the meeting of the executives, the ex- officials of NBA
was called and it was the decision of that enlarged body that
lawyers should not attend court. I am of the opinion that every
lawyer should set aside their personal beliefs and comply with the
decisions of the NBA.

From the look of things, the judiciary appears to have
been muzzled by other arms of government. Do you believe the
judiciary can ever be truly independent?

I think it is very important that there should be independence
of the Judiciary and I cannot overstress this. The Judiciary is the
last hope of the common man and they should be allowed to do their
job. The executive should restrict themselves to their own
job.  Legislators should make the laws, the executive should
give the policies and the judiciary should be allowed to adjudicate
because there is the need for separation of powers and the
independence of the judiciary cannot be overemphasised.  I
think that the onus is on the executive not to be overbearing. The
executive may not necessarily be happy with the way things are
going in the judiciary sometimes, but the truth of the matter is
that the Constitution that we subscribe to must be followed to the
letter. I believe that the executive should respect the
Constitution.  They should respect the judiciary and give it
that which has been so stated in the Constitution.

As the 9th Assembly prepares to take over legislative
sessions, what aspects of the law do you think they should consider
reviewing?

One thing that continues to bother me every year is our budget.
For one reason or the other, our budget is never passed on time. We
are now in the month of March and the budget has not been passed
and this is for a country that the economy to a large extent,
depends on the Government. It’s dominated by the public sector, so
it obviously leaves a lot to be desired that as of March, which
will end next week, the budget has not been passed. This is
something that is of immense importance for everybody. Let us put
this budget in place so that the economy can move forward because
there is a lot of uncertainty all over the place.  Once it is
passed, everybody will know where they are going and then we would
be able to move forward. It also be nice if the issue of the
minimum wage for the workers is resolved so that we don’t have
cases of strikes every now and then. If these two things are
resolved, then we are on to a good start.

What are your expectations in the second coming of
Buhari’s administration?

Honestly, I pray that the APC government would move Nigeria to a
higher level. I know their campaign slogan was next level, but I
actually preferred Better level. I hope and I pray
that they move us to the next level. As far as I am concerned, it
is very important that the economy is fixed.

I understand that election petitions have been filed, and we do
not know the conclusion yet. But whoever is there, I believe that
it is only God that can make you a leader. I pray that whoever God
has put in that position will be somebody that will have the
interest of the people at heart and be able to move us all together
to a higher level.

The economy needs to  be improved; you can see improvement
in the energy sector in certain areas.

I can speak for myself, the place where I live, electricity
supply has improved substantially but not so much  in my
office. But that is one area that would be good if we can improve
on.

The other area that gladdens my heart is the issue of the
rail.  Part of the problem in Nigeria is that after we
started  road transportation, we more or less skipped rail
travel, and we went to air, without perfecting rail travel. All
over the world, in the developed countries, there are those options
of the rail, the road, the sea and the air.

One area that I think Nigeria certainly needs to improve on is
the rail. I ask myself everyday and I do not understand why there
is no fast train that goes from Lagos to Abuja. That is from the
commercial centre of the country, to the capital. I would have
thought that by now, we would have had fast trains that will just
take you straight to Abuja non-stop. I hope and pray that whoever
God says will be there, would be able to make such improvements in
the country generally.

Culled from Vanguard