10 Important Things NBA President Said In His Speech At The Administration of Criminal Justice Conference

President of the Nigerian Bar Association Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, OON, SAN, FCIARb (UK) delivered a speech which gives an exposition of the journey so far with respect to the Administration of Criminal justice. In this report, among others, TheNigerialawyer gives you ten (10) important things addressed by the learned silk. 1. CRISIS IN THE JUSTICE SECTOR UNDERMINING THE RULE OF LAW: The learned Silk in his speech alarmed the dysfunctionality of the Nigerian Justice System and in particular, the criminal justice administration. According to him, the crisis facing the system could undermine rule of law in the country with grave consequences and to some extent this is already happening. 2. ACJA INTENDED TO SHIFT FOCUS FROM PUNITIVE TO RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: The NBA President in enumerating some of the steps so far taken to solve the crisis in the sector, stated the role the Administration of Criminal Justice Act is intended to be played via possible innovations. In his words: “With respect to Criminal Justice Sector in particular, one of the most important initiatives was the enactment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act on 13th May, 2015 by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR. This legislation represents a major attempt to revamp criminal trials. It introduced several innovative measures to achieve speedy trials as well as shift focus from punitive justice to restorative justice.” 3. WHY THE BRAVE NEW BAR ADVOCATED THE ADOPTION AND DOMESTICATION OF THE ACJA ACROSS THE COUNTRY?: The learned silk stated the move by the brave New Bar in championing the ideology of the uniformity of a criminal justice system across the country. According to him, there is a dare need for states to adopt and domesticate the ACJA; the advocacy for the adoption and domestication had been championed to promote the purpose of the Act. He as well stated that the NBA hope to create appropriate platforms to review, share experiences and identify the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the Act so far, and articulate improvements. 4. THE NEW NATIONAL JUSTICE POLICY RESPECTS LEGAL PLURARISM: Mr. President noted however that while the advocacy for a possible adoption and domestication of the ACJA remains paramount to achieve the purpose of the Act, it is not in any way compelling, this is because one of the key objectives of the New National Justice Policy as stated in Part 2 of the Policy is to “Preserve and maintain the plural character of the Nigerian legal system”. That means constituent parts of the Nigerian Federation must retain their capacity to enact or promulgate laws that are suitable to their respective circumstances. Nevertheless, the Nigerian Bar Association believes that within the context of our federal system, it is possible to promote alignment of objectives of our laws and legal principles, synergy of our institutions and acceptance of efficient institutional processes based on national and indeed internationally accepted standards. 5. NBA APPROACHED THE MACARTHUR FOUNDATION WITH A PROJECT PROPOSAL TO SUPPORT CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS IN NIGERIA: According to the NBA president, the association approached the MacArthur Foundation with a project proposal to support criminal justice reforms in Nigeria and in particular to support the adoption and implementation of the ACJA. According to him, the administration of criminal justice project supported by the MacArthur Foundation falls squarely within the thematic areas set out in their Strategic plan and include: Justice Sector reforms, rule of law and access to justice, elections and democracy, human rights, anti-corruption and lastly conflict resolution & transitional justice. 6. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION IS ONE OF NIGERIA’S STRONGEST PARTNERS IN THE PROMOTION OF SECTOR REFORMS: The learned silk stated that the Foundation is one of Nigeria’s strongest partners in the promotion of sector reforms and indeed provided substantial funding to support the enactment of the ACJA in the first place. 7. NBA RECEIVED A GRANT: The grant to the Nigerian Bar Association is the sum of $1.8Millon (United States Dollars) to be disbursed over a period of 3 years and covers activities aimed at promoting widespread criminal justice reform in the country. 8. TWO GOALS OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROJECT: The learned silk noted two-pronged goals of the administration of criminal justice project. They are: one, to engender wide-spread criminal justice reform by encouraging the domestication of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 ‘ACJA’ in the outstanding 28 states to ensure uniformity in the administration of criminal justice legislation across Nigeria; and to Promote the smooth implementation of the new criminal justice regime which the ACJA represents, by building stakeholders’ capacity within the 28 states. The project has a proposed approach and structure as well as a timeline for delivery which is in three phases. In his words: “The NBA envisages that the project will be implemented in three phases over a period of thirty-six (36) months in twenty (28) states, which are yet to domesticate the ACJ legislation. The twenty-eight states will be divided into 3 groups which will be spread across the years 2017, 2018, 2019. The states that will be selected for each year and phase will reflect all the six (6) geo-political zones of Nigeria.” 9. NBA INSTITUTE OF CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION TO PARTNER WITH THE NBA: According to the learned silk, in order to ensure efficient and effective achievement of the intended results, the NBA’s strategy is to create the following administrative structures and leverage partnerships with the NBA Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) to execute its approaches. In his words: “The NBA-ICLE shall drive the Continuing Legal Education part of the project. The ICLE shall house the e-learning portal through which online training will be deployed. The ICLE shall also award certificates and credits to lawyers who receive training.” Others to partner with are: The Project Management Team, State Committees, and the Selected MacArthur Grantees and Technical Partners. 10. ACJA TO HAVE A WEBSITE: The president also spoke about the Deployment of Technology in achieving the much needed results. In his words: “We shall largely leverage on information and communication technology, ICT, in driving this project. We propose to launch an Administration of Criminal Justice Website which shall serve as the information hub and the go-to site for information regarding criminal justice administration in Nigeria. We shall also design a portal for online delivery of continuing legal education training.”]]>