Justice is key in any society. No society can prosper without
justice. So my plan is to draw the concentrated attention of the
participants to Justice Administration in our society and the
challenges militating against an effective, efficient, fulfilling
and impactful justice delivery in Nigeria with particular focus on
the Legal Practitioners.
As an active player, I want to state that the challenges
confronting Justice Administration in Nigeria is systemic,
structural and attitudinal in nature. For me however, the greatest
impediment to impactful justice delivery whereby everyone involved
will get value and fulfilment is an attitudinal problem. No matter
how bad a system or structure may be, if the practitioners do the
right thing, apply the right approach and take the right step, the
effect of the inadequacy of the system and structure can be
mitigated. This is why I am focusing on the practitioners.
Whether as an Advocate or a Commercial Legal Practitioner, the
end that we seek for our clients is Justice, Justice, and
Justice!!!
However, it is not an overstatement to say that the
practitioners of the system either as Advocates, both private and
commercial and Judges on the Bench erect various impediments to
getting impactful justice. That is to say getting speedy justice
that will fulfil the expectations of the people without delay and
or procrastination as is the case in Nigeria today. It is common
knowledge that cases last in some instance for as much as 10-15-20
years journeying from the High Court to the Supreme Court.
Arbitration which throughout the world is known as an alternative
dispute resolution is also failing to meet its target. Examples
abound in Nigeria that arbitral awards are also gradually becoming
a cause of action rather than resolution of a dispute between
contending parties.
How about endless adjournments, frivolous applications,
frivolous interlocutory appeals, frivolous petitions against
opposing Counsel and even in some cases against trial Judges. All
on the part of the Practitioners at the Bar. On the part of the
Bench, you see negative attitude to innovations, late sittings or
not sitting at all, lack of proper apprehension of the Rules and
lack of the necessary will to enforce the Rules. These are some of
the frustrating attitudes of the Practitioners in achieving
positive justice. We have got to change this negative attitude if
we want results that will be positively impactful to the users of
the system. Everyone’s attitude determines his/ her altitude.
The Legal Profession is a highly regulated profession with a
standard code of conduct to guide and moderate our operations.
Unfortunately, it appears to me that like any other law in Nigeria,
the enforcement of this standard code of conduct is less effective;
hence, impunity reigns supreme. The time has come for us to begin
to do things in a different way so that we can get a different
result. Otherwise, the Profession will be gone before we know
it.
To address these challenges mentioned above, proper attention
must be focused on our disciplinary procedure in order to ensure
that smart but procedurally wrong steps are made sanctionable. A
Counsel who files frivolous suits must be sanctioned for failure to
offer proper professional advice to clients. The same goes for
Counsel who take pleasure in defending the indefensible. After all,
it is a professional misconduct for a Counsel to urge a defence he
does not believe in on the Court.
We have argued over and over again that interlocutory appeals be
made to terminate at the Court of Appeal. For me nothing stops the
total termination of interlocutory appeals so that whatever
dissatisfaction against any Ruling should be taken together with
the substantive judgment. Something similar to what operates in
election petition cases.
Before anybody challenges any arbitral award, the challenger
must be made to deposit the award into an interest yielding
account. These I submit will stop many frivolous cases challenging
a properly rendered award by an arbitral panel. Most of the cases
are to exhaust the patience of the other party and render the award
useless.
Our Judges must come back to the days of old of erudity and
industry when Bench Rulings are delivered promptly in respect of
contentious applications instead of the usual adjournments that we
witness today on any little argument. It is said that an ignorant
Judge is a calamity to the society. Of course, the Rules of
procedure must be obeyed including award of costs in accordance to
the Rules for any shortcoming by Counsel.
The Lawyers must hold their duties to justice as a minister in
the temple of justice superior to any other duty by doing the
proper thing most expeditiously.
DELE ADESINA SAN
Excerps from an interactive session with Mr. Dele Adesina SAN
and members of the NBA Nigeria- KYA group on Whatsapp on 9th May,
2020.
Justice is key in any society. No society can prosper without
justice. So my plan is to draw the concentrated attention of the
participants to Justice Administration in our society and the
challenges militating against an effective, efficient, fulfilling
and impactful justice delivery in Nigeria with particular focus on
the Legal Practitioners.
As an active player, I want to state that the challenges
confronting Justice Administration in Nigeria is systemic,
structural and attitudinal in nature. For me however, the greatest
impediment to impactful justice delivery whereby everyone involved
will get value and fulfilment is an attitudinal problem. No matter
how bad a system or structure may be, if the practitioners do the
right thing, apply the right approach and take the right step, the
effect of the inadequacy of the system and structure can be
mitigated. This is why I am focusing on the practitioners.
Whether as an Advocate or a Commercial Legal Practitioner, the
end that we seek for our clients is Justice, Justice, and
Justice!!!
However, it is not an overstatement to say that the
practitioners of the system either as Advocates, both private and
commercial and Judges on the Bench erect various impediments to
getting impactful justice. That is to say getting speedy justice
that will fulfil the expectations of the people without delay and
or procrastination as is the case in Nigeria today. It is common
knowledge that cases last in some instance for as much as 10-15-20
years journeying from the High Court to the Supreme Court.
Arbitration which throughout the world is known as an alternative
dispute resolution is also failing to meet its target. Examples
abound in Nigeria that arbitral awards are also gradually becoming
a cause of action rather than resolution of a dispute between
contending parties.
How about endless adjournments, frivolous applications,
frivolous interlocutory appeals, frivolous petitions against
opposing Counsel and even in some cases against trial Judges. All
on the part of the Practitioners at the Bar. On the part of the
Bench, you see negative attitude to innovations, late sittings or
not sitting at all, lack of proper apprehension of the Rules and
lack of the necessary will to enforce the Rules. These are some of
the frustrating attitudes of the Practitioners in achieving
positive justice. We have got to change this negative attitude if
we want results that will be positively impactful to the users of
the system. Everyone’s attitude determines his/ her altitude.
The Legal Profession is a highly regulated profession with a
standard code of conduct to guide and moderate our operations.
Unfortunately, it appears to me that like any other law in Nigeria,
the enforcement of this standard code of conduct is less effective;
hence, impunity reigns supreme. The time has come for us to begin
to do things in a different way so that we can get a different
result. Otherwise, the Profession will be gone before we know
it.
To address these challenges mentioned above, proper attention
must be focused on our disciplinary procedure in order to ensure
that smart but procedurally wrong steps are made sanctionable. A
Counsel who files frivolous suits must be sanctioned for failure to
offer proper professional advice to clients. The same goes for
Counsel who take pleasure in defending the indefensible. After all,
it is a professional misconduct for a Counsel to urge a defence he
does not believe in on the Court.
We have argued over and over again that interlocutory appeals be
made to terminate at the Court of Appeal. For me nothing stops the
total termination of interlocutory appeals so that whatever
dissatisfaction against any Ruling should be taken together with
the substantive judgment. Something similar to what operates in
election petition cases.
Before anybody challenges any arbitral award, the challenger
must be made to deposit the award into an interest yielding
account. These I submit will stop many frivolous cases challenging
a properly rendered award by an arbitral panel. Most of the cases
are to exhaust the patience of the other party and render the award
useless.
Our Judges must come back to the days of old of erudity and
industry when Bench Rulings are delivered promptly in respect of
contentious applications instead of the usual adjournments that we
witness today on any little argument. It is said that an ignorant
Judge is a calamity to the society. Of course, the Rules of
procedure must be obeyed including award of costs in accordance to
the Rules for any shortcoming by Counsel.
The Lawyers must hold their duties to justice as a minister in
the temple of justice superior to any other duty by doing the
proper thing most expeditiously.
DELE ADESINA SAN
Excerps from an interactive session with Mr. Dele Adesina SAN
and members of the NBA Nigeria- KYA group on Whatsapp on 9th May,
2020.