An imbalanced legal industry

Imbalanced means ‘A lack of balance, as in distribution or functioning. Unevenly or unfairly arranged.’ Thefreedictionary An imbalanced legal industry is one where adjudication and dispensation of justice is unfairly assessed by parties interested in the legal pursuit of remedy for wrong done to them. In the Nigerian setting, there are certain famous instances that […]

Imbalanced means ‘A lack of balance, as in distribution or functioning. Unevenly or unfairly arranged.’ Thefreedictionary

An imbalanced legal industry is one where adjudication and dispensation of justice is unfairly assessed by parties interested in the legal pursuit of remedy for wrong done to them. In the Nigerian setting, there are certain famous instances that frequently occur in our legal environment which gives out the legal industry as imbalanced.

This writer was an undergraduate in the university, or a student in the Nigerian Law School, when the Aluu killings happened in Port Harcourt.  This should be five or six years ago, if not more, and it is just barely weeks ago that judgment was delivered in the High Court of Rivers State as a court of first instance, meaning there is a possibility of appeal to the Court of Appeal, and then to the Supreme Court, giving an Accused/Defendant too long a time to avoid the wrath of the law before judgment is passed.  

I met a Nigerian who practices law in The United Kingdom, as a member of the Inner Bar, a body of the Queen’s Counsel, who explained to me that in the British system an accused can be charged and convicted in a manner of weeks, at most months. Meanwhile in Nigeria, a judgment Debtor/Appellant can avoid execution of a judgment debt for months by filing a frivolous appeal at the Court of Appeal, and due to the kind of system we have, the courts are bound to listen to every party that comes before it, and can only determine if an appeal is frivolous only when it gets into its arena.  A Judgment Creditor/Respondent has to wait for years to reap the fruits of his/her litigation.

The Nigerian Police have become a fast and effective tool for debt recovery between citizens, yet we say the police are not debt collectors, by the time a fundamental human rights application is filed, the damage has already been done. Take for instance, a complainant makes a complaint to the police on offence of breach of trust and cheating, which is criminal in nature, the Suspect then files Fundamental Right application asking the court to restrain the police from arresting him/her, the hearing of the application is adjourned till after court’s vacation (2 months) and the suspect  walks freely on the street pending determination of the application.

A senior lawyer once opined that ‘the Vacation/Holiday of the High Court Judges is too long, and contributes in no small measure to the delay, cases suffer in courts. I have noticed a disturbing trend where some judges will not deliver judgment one (1), two (2) or even three (3) years after conclusion of trial, why do the High Court Judges enjoy more holiday than the Magistrates?, Do they really do more work than the Magistrates, or is it because one is a lower bench and the other is higher bench?’. If you ask me, our Judges/Magistrates can only play the part the legal system allows them to play, being likened to their hands tied behind their back, yet we ask them to dispense justice effectively. 

To Fumen Isaac Gandu, Esq a member of the NBA-YLF Governing Council, and Secretary of The Young Wig Network, ‘I buy the idea partly that we are over stretching the Magistrates, however if you look at it closely you would see that the Magistrates are the courts of first instance thereby making them the engine room of the Judiciary. The High Courts have vacation judges providing room for continuity as to some urgent cases; my take would be that there should be Vacation Magistrates for the Magistrate Court.’

Truth be told, the legal industry as practiced in Nigeria is imbalanced, with over sixty years of age, the legal profession in Nigeria ought to take a shape that would put it on the radar of the world as a bastion of justice, and last hope of the common man. A wise man once said ‘we cannot continue to do the same thing all the time, and expect a different result.’

The level of globalization that the world is right now, provides the best opportunity for the Nigeria legal industry to key in and re-shape its practice to fit modern standard, the downside however is the Nigerian System as a whole contributes to the stunted growth of the profession, that any meaningful change takes ages to come into effect. The future on the profession depends largely on re-structuring and re-engineering, not just the future generations. 

Godspeed!

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