VP Osinbajo calls for
VP Osinbajo calls for Judicial Reforms, saying justice
must address Economic, Social Right of People
An effective synergy among the three arms of government
including representatives of the legal profession would be a useful
approach to confront the urgently required reform of Nigeria’s
administration of justice system, and such collaboration is in the
works.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, dropped this hint on Saturday
at the virtual edition of the Wole Olanipekun & Co (WOC) Justice
Summit.
The summit themed “Developing an Institutional Concept of
Justice in Nigeria” featured prominent speakers including, the
convener, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN; Prof. Fidelis Oditah, QC,
SAN; Mr Yemi Candide-Johnson, SAN; notable economist, Prof. Pat
Utomi; and a prominent lawyer from the UK, Brie Stevens-Hoare, QC,
among others.
According to the Vice President, “I think it is important for us
to sit together – the leadership of the profession, the executive,
the judiciary and the legislature, to take a second look at some of
these issues.”
Prof. Osinbajo said the collaboration to get the reform going
should also include states, saying, “working together, the
sub-nationals and the federal government and their judiciaries, we
can make a fundamental change. This is obviously a matter that we
must take seriously and address, not just as professionals but we
must involve all the arms of government.”
Continuing, the Vice President said “because of the kind of
system that we run, the reform of the Justice System is many-sided.
It can’t be done by one segment. It cannot be done by the executive
alone, it cannot be done by the judiciary alone, and it certainly
cannot be done by the legislature alone.
“There is a need for us to appreciate that it is a many-sided
thing, complicated and we have to simply look for ways to work
together. I am seeing that critical mass of individuals in the
legal profession, in the executive and also in the judiciary who
are willing to reform. We are working quite hard to see how we can
all come together to make a real change.”
The Vice President noted that “the big question is also the
relevance of our paradigms of justice to the major socio-economic
circumstances that confront us. The law is a social construct and
makes sense only within a social context. To treat the law as
something apart from society, or as a body of technical
abstractions is to strip it of meaning and to alienate the legal
order from the very people it is meant to serve.
“Consequently, a definition of justice that focuses on the
social and economic rights of the people is not only more
meaningful, it is more just. These rights include the right to
food, shelter, employment, education and a reasonable national
standard of living, care for the elderly, pensions, unemployment
benefits and welfare for the physically challenged.”
Continuing, Prof. Osinbajo said “our progress in the observance
of socio-economic rights must also be prosecuted in terms of the
struggle to reduce the basic problems of ill-health, malnutrition,
illiteracy, and famine which daily afflict our people.”
He added that “where social and economic rights are unsecured,
people are unable to fully maximize their civil and political
rights. For instance, access to qualitative education enhances and
enriches the freedoms of expression, thought and conscience.
“Conversely, pervasive illiteracy can nullify the entire idea of
the freedom of the expression. In the progressive vision, political
rights and socio-economic rights are mutually reinforcing.”
Still on the concept of justice that addresses the
socio-economic needs of the people, Prof. Osinbajo said
“socio-economic rights even where wholly justiciable mean nothing
unless there is a fiscal commitment to enforcement. This is the
crucial intersection of politics, ideology and notions of
justice.”
“This may explain why the opposition in Nigeria was prepared to
abolish our social investment program if they won, while our
party’s understanding of the imperative of delivering social
justice was the provision of a massive social safety net.
“This was a fundamental feature of our manifesto. So, our Social
Investment Programme which is the most ambitious welfare programme
on the continent and our effort to expand universal health
insurance all aim at ensuring that our most vulnerable citizens are
not abandoned to the vicissitudes of fate,” the Vice President
explained.
The summit also addressed such issues including judicial
appointments, delays in the courts, the issue of technicalities,
among other critical elements of the justice sector reform
agenda.
Speaking specifically on the appointment of judges as an
important area of reform in the system, the Vice President said,
“judicial appointments should follow a merit based system and this
is absolutely necessary, we need to insist on mandatory tests and
interviews for all applicants.
He added that “clearly, we need to look more carefully at how
our judges are selected. There has to be an objective process of
selecting judges. We cannot insist that the only way to become a
judge is to be a (judicial) career person or move from the high
court to the Court of Appeal, to the Supreme Court. We must be able
to bring in practicing lawyers, academics to be justices of the
Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. If it requires rewriting the
rules, then let us rewrite the rules.”
Referring to other areas in the system that have been identified
as areas requiring urgent reform, Prof. Osinbajo said, “a lot of
those things that have been said today can be achieved.”
According to him, “for example, we can ensure that the process
of criminal trial is short and we get justice within a reasonable
time.
“Issues like rape, there are all sorts of sociological issues
and barriers that need to be encountered. The way the system
responds to rape cases is also a problem. So, we need a change of
mindset as well as the legal system responding adequately and
promptly to situations where rape is reported.”
Still on aspects of justice administration requiring new
approaches and models, the Vice President said the model of
adjudication in criminal cases which largely dispenses retributive
justice is not entirely adequate to meet the demands of justice
especially in complex scenarios and situations that are peculiar to
Nigeria.
“Given the tensions and frictions generated by contending
passions and grievances, and the social reality of inequality and
inequity, there is the recognition that some of the most serious
situations which threatens to even, sometimes, break the fabric of
society, require much more than just retributive sanctions by our
judicial system, they require restorative justice to bring about
healing and the reconstitution of the communities.
“This is one of the approaches that we are looking at as part of
our efforts to resolve protracted ethnic and religious conflicts.
In many of the cases, it is not enough to arrest, detain, prosecute
and jail terrorists. There is a need somehow to find a process by
which restorative justice can be brought to bear, by which the
communities’ feelings of violations can be assuaged,” the Vice
President stated.
Prof. Osinbajo said although the National Policy on Justice
embodies some of the prescriptions and offers pathways of
innovation for more holistic approaches to justice delivery, there
is still much work to be done to meet the needs of persons in
search for justice.
In his contribution, the keynote speaker, Prof. Fidelis Oditah
said pertinent issues that require urgent reform in the
administration of justice system include, the reform of dispute
resolution mechanisms and an overhaul of the current system that
focuses more on technicalities rather than the substance of cases
brought before the courts, amongst others.
Oditah referring to instances where appellate courts overturned
decisions merely based on technicalities without addressing the
public interest implications, noted that such judicial behavior is
not desirable, should be avoided and possibly prevented as much as
possible through the reforms.
The WOC Justice Summit was moderated by Mr Bode Olanipekun, SAN,
the Managing Partner of Wole Olanipekun Chambers.
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
22nd August 2020