“If we do not arrest and eliminate this monster, it would consume our nation and we will not have any nation to bequeath to our children and future generation,” he said. Justice Onnoghen was quoted to have said this in his address at the 9th J-K Gadzama LLP Annual Public Lecture series held last week in Abuja. The acting CJN was represented by a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Musa Dettijo Muhammad. Speaking on the lecture’s theme, “Corruption and the nation’s economy: Lawyers as change agents,” the pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, said lawyers must realise that they occupy a vintage position in the country and must therefore always strike a balance between the interest of their clients and what is morally right. Ribadu said, “Agreed, a defence lawyer cannot be a yes-man to the prosecution or sacrifice his client for that matter, however, there should be morality threshold that should not allow a lawyer to turn himself into a tout or a charlatan in the defence of a suspect through irresponsible tactics, especially in the face of naked obvious facts.” Ribadu said lawyers who neglected the ethics of the profession and allowed themselves to be used to abuse the process were responsible for the current travails of the judiciary.]]>