I was called the Minister of Justice, but I could not dispense justice -Kanu Agabi, SAN

It is well known that junior lawyers in Nigeria are not well remunerated by their principals. Would it be right for the NBA to legislate a minimum salary for junior lawyers? I will not confine the problem to junior lawyers. The Nigerian worker, on the whole, is not well paid. But as poorly paid as […]

It is well known that junior lawyers in Nigeria are not well remunerated by their principals. Would it be right for the NBA to legislate a minimum salary for junior lawyers?

I will not confine the problem to junior lawyers. The Nigerian worker, on the whole, is not well paid. But as poorly paid as workers are, the unemployed desire work in order to get the poor pay rather than languish in unemployment. A large proportion of our people of working age are either unemployed or underemployed. We can apply that to the legal profession and say that a vast majority of lawyers are either unemployed or underemployed. And that is because corruption has eroded the opportunities that ought to be available. As long as holders of public offices are as corrupt as they have become, workers will be underpaid. Those who find anything to do at all will consider themselves lucky.

Half bread, as they say, is better than nothing. Having said so, let me admit that those seniors, like myself, who are not paying appropriate salaries could afford to do better. At the same time, those who are employed, not because their services are needed, but as a way of giving them hope, should not lose sight of the fact that in a nation whose people have been rendered poor and dependent, the demands of charity will mean that our just expectations cannot be met all the time. We have to make do with whatever little we can get.

Some junior lawyers must accept poor pay as their sacrifice in aid of those others out there who have no hope whatsoever and who have to be aided somehow. I should add, finally, that the legal profession is not getting sufficient patronage on account of the fact that there is a general tendency towards lawlessness. Too many people are taking matters into their own hands. Because the machinery of law enforcement is weak and unreliable, people dispense with the services of lawyers and resort to self-help. Under those circumstances, lawyers who find anything at all to do should consider themselves lucky. The pay of junior lawyers is not something upon which the Bar Association can legislate.

 

It has been said that the conferment of the rank of SAN on some lawyers is unfair trading. Will you support the abolition of the rank of SAN?

I do not support the view that it is unfair trading, whatever that means. Nor do I support the abolition of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. There are indeed advocates who can properly be described as senior. Several institutions in our country have come under justifiable suspicion. Shall we abolish them all? As human beings we do sin and offend God all the time. Shall we all hang ourselves? We criticise the National Assembly daily as disappointing our expectations. Shall we abolish that institution? We rejected military rule. Should we have proceeded to abolish the army?  The abolition of the rank is not a solution to whatever problems attend its conferment. There is never going to come a time when the conferment of the rank will be devoid of all problems and suspicions. Do we not grumble against God himself when we are bereaved? After a while, we get over our loss and begin to give Him thanks. We shall eventually get over the problems which are associated with the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, whatever those problems are.

 

The NBA has been accused of being partisan. Should the NBA continue to get donations from government to finance its conferences and activities and at the same time, turn around to criticize the government? Would this not be like a judge receiving donations from litigants?

The analogy does not seem to  me appropriate. I am unable to liken the NBA to a judge and the government to a litigant. The government is at liberty to refuse to make grants to the NBA if the reason why it makes the grants is to solicit the support of the NBA whatever the circumstances. The NBA is entitled to whatever subvention it can get from the government. And the best way we can express our gratitude is to criticize the government constructively whenever that is necessary. A doctor who points out to a patient that he is suffering from a dreadful disease has done no wrong. On the contrary, such a doctor will be much frequented by the sick. The government often errs. There is no doubt about that. And when it does so, it must be corrected. That correction may be formal or informal. And that is why the constitution makes provision for an opposition, that will whenever necessary, oppose the government. But if the government decides to wipe out the opposition, as we have done, so that it can be free from all criticisms, then it will soon find that it will have to contend with criticisms from all quarters – much of which may not be constructive.  Those who accept all flattery and reject all criticism will soon regret it. The leadership of the NBA is to be commended. Whenever the need has arisen for it to speak it has never failed to do so. The vocation of law is a vocation to speak. The NBA must speak.

 

Without blowing your own trumpet, what has been your humble achievement and contribution to the legal profession in Nigeria while in office as Attorney General of the Federation?

I am unable to think in terms of my personal achievements. The government must be seen as a whole. No limb can claim to be healthy when the entire body is  sick. And no sickness can be attributed to any limb when the body as a whole is healthy. The doctrine of collective responsibility simply means that no minister should single himself out for credit or commendation. Nor should he single himself out for condemnation. I am aware that the government in which I served has been much criticized. I concede that mistakes were made. I held office at a time when law had failed the nation and there was need to return to God. We are like the prodigal son when he languished in the foreign land of corruption and violence and inefficiency. This is no time to talk of achievements. We have been too political with the nation. We need to be more honest with it.

 

Looking back at your tenure as AGF, do you have any regret? (maybe something you would have liked to do but  which you could not or something which you did but would rather not have done)?

The past is always full of regrets and that is why we are enjoined not to look back. Who can look back without regrets? There is a price to be paid for experience. When I assumed office as Attorney General, I was no better than a villager just come into the city. I needed time to adjust but there was none. The pendulum had just swung from one extreme of dictatorship to the other extreme of liberalism. Many expectations were disappointed. When the President moved me to the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, I was not surprised at all. The office of Attorney-General needed a better man than myself. We are a nation of competent and hardworking people and whatever anyone is doing, he can easily be surpassed by those who are better. If I had to count the miracles of my life, my survival in government was one of them. It gave me a life of prayer.

 

What would you consider as your major challenges during your tenure as AGF?

I was called the Minister of Justice. But I could not dispense justice. I often told people that my duty was to teach them how to bear injustice – how to go the extra-mile, how to turn the other cheek, how to add their cloaks to their coats which had been unjustly  taken. And I still think that we need to learn to do this – to leave vengeance to God and not be so sensitive about our rights while being indifferent to the rights of others. We need to learn to be more tolerant of one another – how to be our brothers keepers; How to forgive each other’s shortcomings; how to see the image of God in one another: how to humble ourselves and not feel so wronged. These are the challenges of our times.

 

Nigeria is 50, what direction would you like the nation to go?

We should be more united and more integrated. We should realize that the world is uniting. Boundaries are breaking down. Economic globalization will soon lead to social globalization – when men and women shall be free to live and work wherever they please without any restraints whatsoever. The voice of Martin Luther King is the ring tone on many of our phones now. Slowly, the dream of Martin Luther King will become the dream of all children of God.  That dream is coming to pass in America. It shall come to pass in Nigeria. We are one nation and one people under God. We should give up Afenifere. We should give up Ohaneze. We should give up Arewa. And all the other groups which tend to divide rather than unite us. We should concentrate on the things which unite us rather than on those which divide us. As one nation and one people, we should raise our hands to God. Whatever the mistakes of the past, whatever the injustices, we are better off as one nation. And whether we like it or not, manacled as our hands have become by corruption and violence and tribalism, we shall one day raise it to God.