Paul Usoro, SAN,NBA President
President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Paul Usoro, SAN, has
said that the bar and the bench need courage to stand up and speak
out.
The NBA President said this while delivering an address at the
2019/2020 legal year opening ceremony of the Federal High Court
held in Abuja on the 16th day of September, 2019.
According to him, the courage is needed at this time when the
independence of the judiciary is under severe threat.
Below read his Address
ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PAUL USORO, SAN, PRESIDENT OF THE
NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION AT THE 2019/2020 LEGAL YEAR OPENING
CEREMONY OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT HELD IN ABUJA ON 16 SEPTEMBER
2019
Protocols
1. On behalf of the Nigerian Bar Association, I felicitate with My
Lords on this occasion of the 2019/2020 Federal High Court Legal
Year Opening and also welcome Your Lordships from well-deserved
long vacation and rest period. Knowing how full and busy Your
Lordships’ dockets are all year round, My Lords deserved the rest
and vacation in order to recharge and rejuvenate for what promises
to be another packed Legal Year.
2. At the tail end of the last Legal Year, Honourable Justice
Adamu Abdu-Kafarati bowed out as the Chief Judge of this Honourable
Court upon attaining the mandatory retirement age. I congratulate
His Lordship for meritorious services to our fatherland and more
importantly, for surviving the externally-induced political
intrigues and incursions that sadly now bedevil our hallowed
judiciary institution. The Nigerian Bar Association wishes
Honourable Justice Abdu-Kafarati well in His Lordship’s future
endeavours.
In the same vein, we congratulate and welcome Honourable Justice
J T Tsoho who now presides over the affairs of this Honourable
Court as the Acting Chief Judge. We wish His Lordship well and
assure My Lord of the NBA’s willingness and availability to work
with His Lordship in upholding the tenets of justice and the rule
of law at all times.
3. It is not for nothing that the Federal High Court is
described and looked upon in terms that suggests its ranking as
primus inter pares in the hierarchy of High Courts in the Nigerian
Federation. The gamut of its jurisdiction, both exclusive and
concurrent, stands it out. But more than that, it is the primary
High Court in the Federation that has jurisdiction over the entire
Federation, with its Divisions dotted all over the country. Your
Lordships therefore have the unique advantage of being periodically
transferred from one Division of the Court to another and in that
process, Your Lordships get to work in, know and understand all the
different component
units of the Nigerian Federation and also appreciate the different
quirks and idiosyncrasies of the peoples that make up this great
country.
4. Your Lordships are therefore in a prime position to
pronounce, as Your Lordships always do, through this Honorable
Court’s decisions, that, though tribes and tongues may differ, we
remain one great country and are strong in spite of and indeed
because of both our diversity and unity. It is in that context that
I specially congratulate Your Lordships for stepping forward at
critical moments to reaffirm and cement the bonds of our Nigerian
unity through the various pronouncements and decisions of Your
Lordships’ Courts.
5. The Opening of the Legal Year traditionally affords the Bar
and the Bench the opportunity for introspection and to ruminate on
national issues particularly those that affect the justice sector.
Topping the list of such issues at all times is the need to promote
and protect the rule of law in all its ramifications. That need is
perhaps more pronounced today given the siege under which the
justice sector is currently operating, evident in the open and
sometimes veiled incursions by the executive arm and its agencies.
In particular, the independence of the judiciary is under severe
threat. To be exact, the independence of mind and thoughts by Your
Lordships in the determination of matters before the Courts is
under severe attack.
6. The Executive arm of Government and its agencies are
increasingly and unceasingly critical of the judiciary and its
decisions particularly in matters that the Government and its
agencies may be interested in. It is not unusual these days to hear
high officials of government talk down the judiciary and
ridiculously and rather ill-advisedly dump all the ills of society
on the judiciary. Decisions by Your Lordships are sometimes
brazenly denigrated and attributed to ulterior and ill motives –
and these on social and traditional media platforms. Veiled and
sometimes open and, in all cases, audacious attempts are made to
teleguide and program the decisions of Courts. These are very
dangerous practices that destroy the independence of the judiciary
and by extension the rule of law and indeed the fabric of our
society.
7. The society needs and can only survive if we have
independent-minded Judges who are empowered to dispense justice to
all manner of men, including government departments, without fear
or favor. We can only survive as a nation if the independence and
vibrancy of the judiciary, particularly, the non-interference with
the thoughts and decision-making processes of Your Lordships, are
guaranteed and protected. Society is diminished when Judges are
robbed of their independent minds and thought processes and the
confidence of the ordinary person in the judiciary is
thereby diminished, if not destroyed. Self-help and anarchy
ultimately become the available remedy. Of course, our economy
suffers in the process: the investing public, both local and
international lose confidence in our justice system consequent upon
these denigrations of our judiciary and there follows a
consequential downturn in our economy with the attendant fallout on
the socio-economic wellbeing of our people. In summary, the
ultimate losers when Judges are robbed of their independence, in
thoughts and discretions, is the society and all of us including
our rulers of today.
8. However, we are not entirely without remedy. To paraphrase
the poet, the man dies in him who fails or is not able to stand up
and/or speak against tyranny.
The courage to stand up and speak out is what we all need, both
the Bar and the Bench, in our present circumstances. My Lords have,
at critical moments shown such outstanding courage even in the face
of danger and our prayer is that such courage and grit should never
depart from Our Lordships. These are indeed moments that require
courageous Judges with the candour and fortitude to speak truth to
power, to borrow the hackneyed phrase, and to dispense justices to
all manner of men without fear or favour, as demanded by Your
Lordships’ Oaths of Office. We have no doubt that Your Lordships
will continue to live up to these dictates of Your Lordships’ Oaths
and our prayers and thoughts will, as always, be with My
Lords in that regard.
9. Turning to the Bar, the Nigerian Bar Association has been
relentless in disavowing these executive intrusions. In releases
after releases, the NBA has been consistent in deploring executive
incursions into the judiciary and we will not stop harping on these
issues for as long as these invasive and deleterious conducts
persist. The Bench can and should always count on the Bar to defend
and protect the rule of law, a component of which is the
independence of the judiciary. It is, in any case, our sworn duty
to so do and we will not relent.
10. On a very final note, My Lords, the Bar wishes Your
Lordships a most fulfilling 2019/2020 Legal Year, in good health
and good humor coupled with Divine Wisdom and guidance for the
dispensation of justice by Your Lordships to all manner of men (and
women, of course), without fear or favor. And we assure Your
Lordships that we, the members of the Bar, will remain ever loyal
and faithful officers at the temple of justice, always ready and
available to aid and assist Your Lordships in the arduous task of
meting out justice to all parties.
Paul Usoro, SAN
NBA President
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Kogi Governor
Bello
Security, top priority in Yahaya Bello’s administration
– CPS
Kogi State government has implemented deliberate reforms and
policy actions introduced by Governor Yahaya Bello to arrest the
tide of insecurity in the state, Onogwu Muhammed, the Chief Press
Secretary to the governor, disclosed.
The CPS, recalled that last year the governor recruited about
6,000 vigilante security personnel in the state.
According to the CPS, each of the vigilante members received a
motorcycle, and have been mandated to interact with people in rural
communities, so as to gather vital information for analysis and
prompt response by mainstream security agencies.
“Securing lives and properties is the most fundamental
responsibility of any government. And that, exactly, is what the
Governor Yahaya Bello-led administration is doing in Kogi
State.
Mr Muhammed added: “The streams of successes recorded in the
area of security have attracted accolades and commendations for the
State Government, from prominent persons and institutions across
the country.
“The State Government has spent a lot on security in the last
three years.
We procured and distributed over 155 patrol vans, together with
motorcycles to various security outfits.
“Governor Yahaya Bello has also enhanced the allowances of
various security personnel serving in the State.
“These are strategies that have helped to boost Intelligence
gathering,” he said.
“Before the advent of this government, Kogi State was the hotbed
for all sort of crises, and crimes.
“There were incidences of kidnapping in the State. It even
became so worse that a serving commissioner, under the then PDP-led
administration, was kidnapped.
“The kidnappers did not also spare our traditional rulers. They
were responsible for the murder of a prominent Igala traditional
leader in 2014.
“But, presently, residents of the state now sleep without being
apprehensive of criminal elements attacking them or invading their
homes, either in broad daylight or at night.”