*Says Proposed Constitutional Amendment Fails To Treat Nigeria’s Existential Problem
*Clamors For Reforms Of Nigerian Law School and Legal Education In General

The Honorable Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice of Oyo State, Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo SAN has reacted and commented on what he tagged as failure of the 44 bills of amendment of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended to cover real issues relating to the existential challenge of Nigeria, as well as raised issues about the stress load of law school and the independence of the judiciary, seeking salient reforms.

In an interview with the Tribune Online Newspaper , the Honorable AG gave insights to his thoughts and viewpoints on salient issues of the legal profession.

Answering questions about the judiciary, one of which was his view on how independent the judiciary was, the learned silk opined that the Nigerian Judiciary was as independent as the stakeholders that makeup the dispensations of justice in Nigeria. However, he stated that there were challenges that were weighing down on this independence of the judiciary. According to the AG; “There are some matters that throw up a question mark on the independence of the judiciary and one of the biggest is election petitions. And that’s a function of the politicians, the practitioners, the judges, and even thugs, you see thugs going to court to disrupt sittings, so bottom line, all those give the impression of a dependent judiciary but election petitions equal a miniscule every cycle affair that doesn’t represent the judiciary in the amount of dispensation of justice that they do.” It was the opinion of the Hon. AG that despite all these challenges which threatened the judicial sector, there was still independence of the Nigerian judiciary, and as such addressing the challenges which enhance this independence.

In addition, answering if judges were paid well, the Hon. AG stated that the issue of renumeration of judges would be laid to rest with the constitutional amendment which makes for autonomy of the judiciary. “So, there’s been a constitutional amendment for autonomy. There’s been legislative enactment, so what remains in Oyo State for instance, is developing the framework for the implementation. But when it comes to the salaries, mostly it is federal, the National Judicial Council (NJC), that determines it and that’s why I think the Federal Government announced the upward review of the salaries of judges”, He said.

Furthermore, speaking on what is the role of the 1999 constitution as amended in restricting, Oyewo SAN sta ted that the constitution does not cover restructuring but rebalancing. In his opinion it was the clamor for restructuring and its failure to manifest that has resulted in the calls for secession in Nigeria. His words on the issue read thus; “But if you look at the antecedent of the word restructuring, it is from the coinage of what was constituted to be the problems of Nigeria called national question. It is when those national questions remain unresolved. People call for sovereign national conference, when the sovereign national conference was not resolved, they now took a look at the Constitution. Are you remember in 1999, the Constitution was said to be a document that lies against itself. Because it says we the people of Nigeria, so since that time, there’s been  agitation, and then this formula of restructuring, restructuring means different things to different people. But contextualizing it within the discourse of constitutional politics, it relates to our federal structure. So one, in terms of subject matter, between the Federal Government and the states, there needs to be restructuring, which I believe is devolution or rebalancing. So take some subject matter from the federal give it to the states, and that’s part of what is going on in the constitutional amendment. Some items are being taken, so when it comes to restructuring too,  it has to do with access to power, you know, look at a lot of allegations have been made and substantiated with statistics that the Buhari administration has totally brought disequilibrium in appointments.

And so, people are saying, let’s restructure this Nigeria. And if we cant restructure it, then; and that’s why we are now having agitation for secession. So I mean, these are things that shows that we are not practicing federalism, as was intended by those designed Nigeria, and the way we are going, it’s a call to patriotism, for people to acknowledge that if we must live together, then we must be able to have equal assets. It’s equity and justice that restructuring stands for.”

Commenting on whether the bills of amending the 1999 constitution was the difference needed in the Country, the AG summed his viewpoint on the issue thus; “So on the issue of fundamental national questions, I dare say and I’ve had the privilege of going through the 44 bills, none of them have addressed the real issues relating to the existential challenges of Nigeria, as a nation or as a nation states.”

Speaking about the stress load of Law school, the learned silk opined that it was time to think outside the box. Questioning the necessity of law school, he stated that there was the school of thought that said was better to consider scrapping the law school and imbibing its syllabus in the University Level, and that the law school did not reflect the realities of real life and practice and according to the AG this all boiled down to a critical reform of the law school.

Speaking about recent reforms in Oyo State; on the reform of online Affidavit, the AG commended the leadership of the Oyo State Judiciary who have been able to ensure transparency in the process of online affidavit. Though according to the AG, illiteracy was still a challenge to this reform.

On the reforms of the Oyo Multi-door Court House and Family Court, the Hon. AG stated thus; “The bottom line of it is that those are reforms; Multidoor, we met it, so what we are doing is that we are trying to also look at the personnel and enhance the status of it. The new board of the multidoor court house has been constituted. I believe as you have more and more people who are reform-minded, things will get better. The multidoor court house for example has taken a lot of load from litigation alone and more and more. It›s also not as expensive as arbitration, so it helps to bring justice speedily. But we still have challenges about enforcement and all that. And let me also let you know that even in the Ministry of Justice, we have a mediation center that complements the multidoor. So what we are trying to do is that once there›s been mediation in the mediation center, it goes to the multidoor for ratification and then enforcement. With respect to the Family Court, it›s a very, very positive development that even though it started some time before we came, but it was established under the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde and we are even still looking at some other aspects.”

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