By Sonnie Ekwowusi
This is my response to Monday Ubani, SAN’s article: Reinventing the Nigerian Bar Association: urgent imperatives for reformative and caring leadership.
A client has just asked me to discontinue his case pending at the FHC Lagos for a gargantuan 10 years without trial, without anything. What a disaster. No need living in denial. A litigant cannot access justice in Nigerian courts, especially in Lagos courts
After 40 years in the profession without positive change in accessing justice in courts, I am seriously considering dumping the wig and gown. It serves no useful purpose, wasting my time in an institution perpetually immune from change and progress. It is not that there are too many cases in court that act as a clog in the dispensation of justice. No. That’s not the problem
The real problem is that the judicial process is bastardized or ruined by civil service bureaucracy and bottlenecks. Privatise the judiciary today, and you will see how efficient it becomes. For example, if you make me an administrator of the judiciary and I know that my livelihood depends on making the judiciary work, I will do everything to make it work overnight.
So, to hell with civil service bureaucracy that ruins the judiciary. Therefore, to make the Nigerian judiciary really work, you must get rid of age-old corrupt judicial personnel-bailiff, registrar, messenger, etc, who unleash administrative injustice in the course of their administrative functions.
And as you know very well, administrative injustice begets legal injustice. For example, if a court bailiff refuses to serve your court process, he has ruined your case before you even get to the judge.
I have participated via Zoom in the American court trial. The judge was very humble. He did not intimidate or harass lawyers or litigants. The lawyers were also very friendly. The trial ended very well within 30 minutes. Whereas in Nigeria, a judge behaves like a demigod. You can’t talk to him. He knows everything. The big lawyers wield an unnecessarily fearsome outlook.
Fear rules court proceedings. And at the end of the theatrics, nothing happens. Cases are adjourned. No progress made. The court goes on vacation. The year ends with little or no achievements.
A parody.
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
The call to reinvent the legal profession is gaining momentum. Streamlining court proceedings, reducing adjournments, and increasing efficiency could indeed lead to more effective justice delivery. What changes would you like to see in the legal system?