President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Augustine Alegeh SAN made these submissions at the University of Benin Law Faculty last Thursday when he delivered the 2016 Justice Idigbe Memorial Lecture. The annual lecture was instituted in 1988 by the erudite human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN in memory of the late Hon Justice Chukwunweike Idigbe JSC who was applauded as one of the leading jurists in his time at the Apex Court. Mr. Alegeh SAN is the first president of the NBA to deliver the lecture which is the 15th in its series. His lecture which was titled “Law and National Development” drew a sizeable population of the University to the Akin Deko Auditorium which was filled to capacity. The NBA president also had the rare privilege of being an Alumni of the University of Benin pioneer class of the Faculty of Law in 1981. He described Justice Idigbe JSC as an erudite and fearless judicial officer with great intellectual prowess whose judicial pronouncements remain indispensable till date. In his paper, Alegeh said ‘Nigeria’s crude oil and gas reserves have continued to increase over the years. However, despite our enormous endowments, we have not been able to record significant economic growth and development relative to our resources. The reasons for this setback are not farfetched and are easily identifiable as absence of the rule of law, corruption, insecurity, failure to implement extant laws etc. He however noted that ‘The Petroleum industry Bill has undergone several modifications and reforms in order to better serve the needs of the public. However, we are yet to achieve the much desired reform in this sector. It is rather unfortunate that despite discovering crude oil over 59 years ago, we are yet to enact an Act that has the capacity to regulate all activities within the petroleum sector. ‘The attempt by our National Assembly to balkanise the Petroleum Industry Bill and pass it piecemeal is certainly not the solution to the problem. Our neighbour, Ghana understudied the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Bill and have long passed and amended their version several times over. It behoves on our legislature to do the needful by being courageous enough to pass a PIB that is holistic and reflects the interests of all Nigerians and Stakeholders in the industry. The Nigerian Bar Association has constituted a Think-tank that will review the various versions of the PIB and come up with a final Bill which the NBA will seek sponsorship and support of our members at the National Assembly to ensure its passage.’ He stated that the PIB is expected to address the constant face-off between Oil companies and their host communities. That the PIB should address the issue of the destruction of the ecosystem via pollution of the water system leading to the death of fishes and other sea animals. The PIB should also be able to address the issue of youth restiveness and militancy in the Niger Delta region. These and many other issues are expected to be addressed by the PIB as part of the reforms expected to be introduced in the oil & gas sector. On the nation’s justice delivery system he emphasised that ‘In Nigeria, there are several archaic and anachronistic laws which remain in our body of Laws and which militate against the progressive development of our Country. These laws need to be reviewed and amended for there to be proper progressive change in Nigeria and on our lot as Nigerians. Additionally, we need to enact several other Laws to meet modern-day challenges and put our Country on the path of progressive development.’ By: Jude Igbanoi This Day News]]>