London University trained Guy Ikokwu, one of Nigeria’s old generation lawyers, called to the Bar 53 years ago. speaks with Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, on the slow pace of Nigeria’s judicial process, among other related issues.
About eight years after his first arraignment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, raised an objection and took the case to the appellate court and finally to Supreme Court which recently ordered him to submit himself for trial on corruption and money laundering charges before a High Court. What does this portend for judicial process in Nigeria?
It portends that too much time is being spent in the judiciary. It is either we do not have enough judges or there should be divisions of certain kinds of cases. There should be a special court to handle corruption cases and there should be a constitutional court. Presently, it is only in election petition matters that the constitution has prescribed how long the election tribunal can sit, otherwise election petitions can go on for four years. The judicial system is not fast in Nigeria. Some cases EFCC had been handling for years, immediately they reached the London court, they were disposed of within three months. Our judicial system needs thorough re-organisation. There should be speedy dispensation of justice. If there is no speedy dispensation of justice, things will go wrong.
I still have cases that have lasted for 20 years in Lagos High Court. Some of my children refused to be lawyers when they see on my table files of such cases that I was handling when they were in primary and secondary schools. Sometimes, files get lost in our courts and you spend money and time to locate them. This might take another two years. In the process, witnesses die and litigants get disappointed. So, there must be quick dispensation of justice, so that people do not take laws into their hands, so that the rule of law will start to prevail and not the rule of anarchy.
Are the delays of cases before the lower and apex courts due to over-burden?
Though, not all cases go to the Supreme Court, the number of cases going to the apex court over-burdens the court. And that is why we are saying there should be specialised courts to handle certain cases. There are judges you appear before and they do not even know what you are talking about. That is why I am advocating that a judge should not be appointed from the civil service. Eighty-five per cent of our judges today in the country were appointed from the civil service. They were state counsel before they were appointed. When you are a state counsel, you just practise one branch of the law, and when you are told to incorporate a company, you do not know what to do. A judge who comes from the Bar and is in active legal practice has varieties of legal experience; he can appreciate addresses from the Bar and will not get annoyed. Some of our judges get annoyed when you start teaching them the law. Instead of writing a ruling on a motion same day, it takes them three to four weeks. Some judges will adjourn a simple ex-parte motion for three or four weeks. That is why you have the delays. The Supreme Court at the moment can only hear cases filed eight years ago.
As a senior member of the Bar, how would you assess the standard of the legal profession in Nigeria?
To some extent, it has improved because we have more technical resources because of the use of the internet. Now, you do not need a whole library to research your law. You do not need a law report of 10,000 pages to read, you can easily programme it into your legal disk. It is faster now to research cases than before when everything had to be done manually. But those who are using them are those who are already experienced and can afford it. The younger member of the Bar cannot afford this technology, as some of these disks cost about N100,000 each. So, to that extent, the practice of law has been revolutionalised, but for the younger generation of lawyers to benefit from the system, I think the system of education should be strengthened. However, there are some of these young lawyers who are doing very well and are able to come up with very good judicial prepositions.
How can we use law to develop the country?
I have been very much interested in the affairs of Nigeria to see how we can change Nigeria for the better, so that we will have more development and progress in the country. The Ghanaians have been able to live up to standard because of what they went through. They have to go through a revolution, but we have not gone through a revolution. Now we have a constitution which most Nigerians disagree with, which was imposed by the military. In actual fact, in the almost 40 years the military was ruling in Nigeria, manipulating the constitutional system in the country and at the end gave us a constitution which is more suited to the military than the civilians. The constitution we have today, the 1999 Constitution, which was drafted by the military, is tailored towards the military line. In the military, only one person is in charge at the top and every other person below obeys his command. Civilians are not brought up that way and that is why we have problems in the constitution and in the polity.
What is your position on insertion of immunity clause for some public officers?
The immunity clause should go. To some extent, it would initially be difficult, but after some years people who get into office will know that they cannot go scot-free. We should look at India and other countries and see how they have amended the immunity clause to suit the development of their countries. The present system of governance in Nigeria plus immunity is more or less a way of welcoming corruption. Tell me one governor that EFCC has not brought charges of corruption against, but also tell me which of these governors EFCC has successfully prosecuted. If you check the governors whose cases are still hanging, most of them are on bail. Some of them are even members of the Senate. I can name so many of them in the South East, South South, South West and the North East. In the six zones, you have former governors who have been charged. Some of them have had their illegal assets taken away from them, but that is not the same as convicting them, because when you convict them, you deprive them of holding political office for life.