Stakeholders harp on need for constant law review
At the National Summit on Law Revision organised by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC), Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter S. Onnoghen, called for urgent reform of the country’s laws to address the challenges of the justice sector. Osinbajo, who declared the summit open, said, “It is […]
At the National Summit on Law Revision organised by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC), Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter S. Onnoghen, called for urgent reform of the country’s laws to address the challenges of the justice sector.
Osinbajo, who declared the summit open, said, “It is in line with international best practices that while the parliament makes the laws, a law reform institution is expected to monitor, review, reform and revise the law to guarantee its efficacy, utility, availability and accessibility to the public and end users.”
Represented by the Solicitor General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, the vice president said every successful democracy throve on the principle of rule of law and that the law itself was an instrument of social change and development.
He added that if the law was expected to meet these critical demands of the society, it had to be revised at least every 10 years in line with international best practices and in consonance with the prevailing norms and values of the society.
On his part, the CJN said the delay in the country’s justice system was a worry to him as it was to other stakeholders and as such there was need for thorough, comprehensive and urgent reform agenda of the laws of the federation which required the cooperation of all the arms of government and other stakeholders.
Stakeholders at the NLRC summit in Abuja with the theme: “Law Revision Towards National Development” said the lack of revision of Nigeria’s laws in the last 15 years had affected the push for sustainable democracy.
They said with the last revision exercise of federal laws in Nigeria done in 2002 and published in 2004, the country was not moving in line with international best practices which required that revision exercise be undertaken in every 10 years.
The keynote speaker and Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Prof, Adedeji Adekunle (SAN), traced the genesis of Nigeria’s problems with its laws to the intervention of the military.
Prof. Adekunle said from that point “a plethora of strange laws, such that trample on the rights of the citizens as enshrined in the constitution; laws that turned the concept of separation of power upside down; laws that give legislative and judicial powers to executive bodies, laws completely disappeared from gazettes; they were now published on radios and therefore became more or less the wish of a dictator.”
Adekunle said a lot of these laws caused Nigeria to be ostracised by the international community because they were against the letters of the constitution and other charters the country was a signatory to.
“There were so many laws that were more or less state laws, there were even laws that properly belong to the purview of local government bye-laws but they came out as decrees. There were many laws that brought many agencies in conflict with themselves because mandates were not determined in accordance with legislative reasoning, but by virtue of who the then military head of state thought could do the job faster,” adding that these led to having multiple agencies pursuing similar mandates with its attendant confusion.
On why the revision is important, Prof. Adekunle said it was because it was the tidying up of the laws that allowed the country to push out obsolete laws; clean up and clarify areas of ambiguity. He added that, “It also allows the opportunity to spot areas where reform is needful. More importantly, it allows for the presentation of the laws in one composite form; if for instance you are able to have the electronic copy of the revised laws.”
He said a standing revision body, like the NLRC, was able to systematically collate laws in real time, adding that once the process was done, it would be passed to the National Assembly as an executive bill, and that the National Assembly could amend even executive bills in any way that was consistent with their constitutional duties.
While all the panelists agreed on the exigencies of law revision and reform, one of them, the Chairman of Odadade Law Publishers, Prince Yemi Adefulu, said many of those that were put in charge of law reforms knew nothing about reforming the laws, hence the delay. He called for proper technology and right structures to be put in place for the updating and consolidation of the laws, adding that there was also need to bring in private sector expertise.
The summit, according to the Chairman of NLRC, Kefas Magaji, was thus intended to sensitise the stakeholders and the general public, not only on the need for law revision, but also the necessity to have an accurate body of laws that would engender good governance founded on rule of law.
Magaji said the failure to undertake the revision as at when due had created a huge gap in the body of laws which, he said “is consequently affecting the smooth administration of government institutions and structures, and the effective administration of justice, particularly in terms of access to authentic laws citation and referencing.”
He said there were currently about 552 laws published in the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (2004) with some missing out, and added that, “In the last 15 years, many of these laws have undergone series of amendments by the legislature and through court pronouncements, while several new laws have been enacted.
“Lack of law revision has made these amendments inaccessible and consequently referencing and use of these laws became difficult. It is, therefore, imperative that law revision be undertaken so that these amendments and new laws are incorporated into the laws of the Federation of Nigeria to facilitate their effective use.”