How the Chief Law Officer of the Federation can galvanize the law officers under his watch to serve as catalysts for effective administration of Justice, of course with all other variables being positive was the focus of the conference.
EMEKA OBEGOLU, ESQ, made this known in a keynote address made available to the THENIGERIALAWYER, which he made to the law officers in the conference. Mr. Emeka spoke on the need to re-engineer the law officers for an effective administration of Justice in Nigeria. In attempting a contextual definition of Re-engineering, he was of the opinion that it is a systematic starting over and reinventing the way a firm, or a Ministry, Parastatal or Agency of Government gets its work done, and that if he was speaking to a business corporation executives, he will adopt the definition offered by Michael Hammer and James Champy, in their 1993 book ‘Reengineering the Corporation’, which defined Re-engineering as a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business process to achieve dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance such as cost service, and speed.
According to him, In order to properly situate the topic there is need to identity the issues with the administration of justice in Nigeria, and how these issues may be engaged by the re-engineering of the law officers.
According to Mr. Emeka, “My understanding of the incisive and frank interview comments by the AGF is that all was not well with the Law officers within the office of the AGF and as at the time of granting this interview, the AGF did not believe that the bureaucracy of his office could drive the vision of the administration he has been appointed to serve, hence the constant reference to farming out prosecution of high profile cases to private counsel …Indeed, the morale of Law Officers hit an all time low several months before the assumption of office of the AGF when in January 2015, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the Law Officers Association of Nigeria gave the then Minister of Justice, a 21 days’ notice of strike over issues bothering on breach of collective bargaining agreements, etc… Then again, that was then and this is now. The question that begs for answer is: What has changed? Where are we today in terms of the bureaucracy in the service of the Chief Law Officer of the Federation? Can we say that the Law Officer has been sufficiently equipped to aid the administration of justice?
The speaker noted that the above questions are relevant because, administration of justice in any society cannot be discussed without relating it to the effective dispensation of justice. He stated that this problem still persist despite the number and caliber of legal of officer Nigeria can boast about, hence the need for the re-engineering of legal officers of the ministry of justice and the legal departments of other governmental establishments.
Thus he spoke about delay in justice delivery which must be solved by all means. In his view, to properly address the issues raised, Mr. Emeka stated certain factors that must be addressed which include, Continuing legal education, welfare of Law Officers, Capacity Building, Recruitment and Posting, and Discipline.
Speaking on the Welfare of Law officers, which he traced the climax to January 2015 when Law Officers, in an unprecedented move, issued 21 days strike notice to the AGF on issues bordering on welfare and sundry matters making several demands, he reiterated the problem of lack of adequate welfarism of the law officers which has contributed to the problem facing the system. He made a solid comparison of how medical professionals and law officers are treated in government ministries and the need why a proper welfarism is needed to solve some of the problems facing the administration of justice.
On Recruitment and Posting, he stated that another problem affecting the system is how recruitment and posting of law officers are done. Although he affirmed that he may not have a perfect knowledge of how the recruitments are done, he however stated that some of the officers so recruited lack experience. He did not miss words, when he said that he can also say same about some of his friends in the private bar. Speaking on discipline, he emphasized that lack of discipline for Law officers has also contributed to the problem. In his words he stated thus:
He therefore concluded that by restating the importance of the law officer in the dispensation of justice, and that once the motivation is provided and is tied to responsibility and accountability, we can begin to look forward to sustainable reforms driven by a capable bureaucracy of Law Officers.
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“History of Rivers State Judiciary: A Compendium of Personalities on the Bench.” Authored by Ampim Gogo Blankson, Esq., Deputy Director at the Rivers State Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with the Rivers State Judiciary
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[A MUST HAVE] Evidence Act Demystified With Recent And Contemporary Cases And Materials
