…Canvasses for Judiciary Fiscal Autonomy.
A renowned Senior Advocate of Nigeria Barr. Ngozi Olehi says it is impossible to have a credible system of justice administration when Nigeria is currently the fourth worst governed country in the world while the integrity of other critical institutions that should support sound democratic values have vanished at a terrific speed.
Speaking at the just concluded Law Week of the Owerri Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Imo State, Barr. Olehi, SAN said the stench that characterize justice administration in Nigeria grows from the poor quality of governance and disgusting political leadership that celebrate corruption and ineptitude.
He declared that addressing the debilitating impediments to justice administration and the excruciating challenges that plague related institutions in the justice sector would yield no results when there are obvious actions of the Executive and Legislative arms of Government in Nigeria to decapitate the Judiciary and destroy its independence to ensure that the courts do not make pronouncements that are unfavourable to their shady operations.
The legal luminary lamented that questionable antecedents of political leaders and their dismal proclivity to corruption have not only tainted Nigeria’s image abroad but have diminished development resources, discouraged investors, increased poverty and taken Nigeria to the dark ages when the country should have been a global leader if her abundant natural endowments have been harvested and deployed to the good of the people.
Barr. Olehi said the Constitution and every statute of any nation is made up of its letters and the its spirit adding that applying the dry letters of the law without examining the purpose or morality it must advance produces bare judgments that have no justice and erodes public confidence on the judiciary.
He emphasized that the most important and more urgent duty before elites now particularly professional bodies like the Nigerian Bar Association is installing quality governance that will in turn entrench basic frameworks and economic blueprints before the damage by current leaderships across the nation becomes total and irreversible adding that occupying public positions to loot has become more important than transformational leadership and sustainable development while security and welfare of the people have ceased to be the prime purpose of governance.
Barr. Olehi, SAN contended that even though social media cannot dictate who should win in court cases, a judgment that does not meet public expectations, legal and moral standards of the citizens cannot be said to have delivered justice because laws that are being declared and enforced and meant for the people pointing out that people would hardly support laws that are considered to be esoteric and do not advance identifiable and known public good.
He said that Nigeria’s fragile governance modes, her serial poor ranking in global rule of index, weak institutions and a judiciary that is taken by other arms of Government as an appendage of the Executive cannot allow administration of justice to flourish pointing out that a system of administration of justice so bedevilled cannot ideally deliver on its statutory and constitutional mandates.
On judicial activism, Barr. Olehi, SAN said it is the only option for interpretation of constitution to reflect the dynamism of society which must not wait for legislations adding that it is by the purposive rule of interpretation which mitigates the hardship of the literary rule that the courts add vigour and legitimacy to crucial and urgent issues in socio-economic growth. He said “the only challenge is that, to make profound pronouncements, it requires great courage and judicial knowledge of specialized areas concerned without bowing to judicial timidity.”
Read Also:
Orlu Landlordship headquarters: Okafor Replies Orlu, Umuna Communities
