Buhari’s charge to lawyers

Last week President Muhammadu Buhari urged Nigerian lawyers at their 55th Annual General Conference not to sacrifice the integrity of the country’s legal system in a bid to cover the misdeeds of their clients, no matter how rewarding the brief may be. Buhari called on Nigerian lawyers to support his administration’s war against corruption and […]

Last week President Muhammadu Buhari urged Nigerian lawyers at their 55th Annual General Conference not to sacrifice the integrity of the country’s legal system in a bid to cover the misdeeds of their clients, no matter how rewarding the brief may be.
Buhari called on Nigerian lawyers to support his administration’s war against corruption and help the country return to the path of rectitude by making Nigerian courts functional and effective again. Hear the president: “I am convinced that law, law-makers, lawyers, law courts and thelaw enforcement agencies all have pivotal responsibilities to discharge, if the change we seek is ever to materialize.  “The fight against corruption is in reality a struggle for the restoration of law and order. Corruption and impunity become widespread when disrespect for law is allowed to thrive in society. Disrespect for law also thrives when people get away with all sorts of shady deals and the court system is somehow unable to check them. He emphasized that the ability to manipulate and frustrate the legal system is the crowning glory of the corrupt which has left many legal practitioners and law courts tainted in an ugly way. It was a profound delivery which requires deep introspection because the reactions that resonated after that was mixed. What he didn’t say is that denying the poor people of any country of access to justice is an abomination to the growth and development of any nation. But someone came to the president’s aid. A couple of days earlier, Yakubu Maikyau, SAN,
had made a wild swing at his colleagues with his remark at a preconference meeting of senior legal luminaries in the country here in Abuja-. As is well known, any meeting of lawyers is usually a sight to behold. Any meeting of senior advocates is even more of a marvel. Their robes come from the choicest boutiques and designers of the western world and their silky wigs sit regally atop very stormy brains. Usually such an atmosphere is electrified by the anecdotes that would populate the delivery and the laughter that the interjecting analogies would bring. It was any lawyer’s moment of glory to be a part of such events. As is to be expected, a contest of intellect and sophistry thickens the circumstance and indeed any speaker would like to leave his audience with a lasting memory from that encounter. I wouldn’t know the criteria used in choosing Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau SAN from among the leading lights of the legal profession in the country to discuss how to return the legal profession to that narrow path of honour that it seems to have abandoned, except his exemplary profile and meteoric success. More than that, he was to discuss how justice would become accessible to the common man. The title of his speech ‘Expanding the Frontiers of Pro-bono Work in Nigeria’ couldn’t have come at a better time, since President, whose broom of change has neither friend nor foe would ask lawyers to not deny the public the right to retribution by shielding government and public officials who had dipped their hands in the tills. So if anything, Maikyau prepared the minds of his colleagues for what was to be President Muhamadu Buhari’s charge to them. If the two speeches had come as a coincidence, it was a delightful one. The people of this country had been denied the right to have faith in this country, and especially in its judicial system, for a long while. And the country had turned a blind eye. Despite its imperfections, the demand was a significant attempt to balance the rights, privileges and legitimate expectations of the Nigerian people. Many have asked, does our justice system divide us along pecuniary hierarchies or does it provide workable arrangements for our multi-ethnic nation to live together in peace and harmony? My conjecture is that in Nigeria it is believed that justice only serves the affluent and jails the poor. So when I read what Maikyau said to the lawyers a few days before the president I got the feeling that due to some subconscious mechanism, both the legal luminaries in the country which represent the judicial arm of government and the executive are beginning to think along the same lines for the nation’s salvation. While it is generally agreed that doing what the president is asking for would breed an imperfect scenario, reechoing it from the bar means that the law must mirror existentialist realities while also cradling a lofty vision of the future of any country. Despite its imperfections, the Nigerian Constitution has made several significant attempts to balance the rights, privileges and legitimate expectations of every community within it but due to multifarious human factors Nigeria has allowed impunity to thrive and injustice to take over. Many though had scoffed at the president when he made his remark. Instructively, PresidentMuhammadu Buhari cannot be blind to the fact that his government also enjoys the legal backing of some of the most erudite legal practitioners from the south west of the country. Vice president Yemi Osinbajo SAN and the Deputy Chief of Staff in the presidency are on parade. With the voice of Maikyau from the northwest lending credence to the president’s quest it is indeed a factum that the various regions of the country are finding unanimity with the president’s mindset. Access to justice, which both are asking for, whether we like it or not, is a critical ingredient to the growth of democracy. Impunity on the other hand is its arch enemy. And what I understood to have come from the speeches in the nation’s quest to obliterate the rough edges of the country’s legal system is what Maikyau emphasized when he explained that lawyers must know themselves and appreciate their role in society if they were to add value to nation building. Will they concur to allow Nigeria to grow?