“Law Must Lead Economic Growth”, Osinbajo Charges Nigeria at AELEX 19th Lecture
In a stirring Keynote Address at the AELEX 19th Annual Lecture themed “Rule of Law and Economic Development: The Nigerian Experience”, former Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo, GCON, SAN, urged Nigeria’s leaders and institutions to recommit to legal certainty, institutional integrity and people-centred governance as the bedrock for sustainable economic transformation. The event, held at the Ecobank Pan African Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue, Victoria Island, drew an array of legal, business, policy, and civil society stalwarts.
Osinbajo began with a precise working definition of the rule of law, laws that are “clear, fairly applied, and equally enforced”, and insisted that without enforcement, even the best laws amount to paper tigers. “To be credible, disputes must be resolved by independent courts, bound by laid-down precedents and legislation. No one, not even the Government or its agencies, is above the law”.
He underscored the symbiosis of rule of law and economic development: strong legal frameworks reduce uncertainty, lower transaction costs, and encourage investment, while weak execution and delays drive capital and talent away. Citing Lagos State’s experiment in mediation centres for landlord–tenant cases, Osinbajo illustrated how resolving legal logjams revived investor confidence in housing financing.
Yet, the former Vice President did not shy away from hard truths. He drew on recent empirical findings, to highlight that a typical commercial dispute in Nigeria takes about 13 years from filing to final Supreme Court resolution, if all appeals are pursued. This chronic delay, Osinbajo argued, cripples business confidence and thwarts growth.
On the Panel session, moderated by Mr Opeyemi Agbaje, SAN, Panelists including Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN; Dr Chinyere Almona and Mr Bismarck Rewane, mirrored Osinbajo’s urgency. They called for reforms in regulatory consistency, stronger arbitration regimes, and modernisation of institutions, to reduce human discretion and curb corruption.
Dr Almona zeroed in on the imperative of public–private synergy, urging that laws and regulations across sectors finance, trade, energy, and land align to avoid contradictory rules that deter investment. Mr Rewane warned that, in a fragile legal climate, investors would demand steep risk premiums, slowing capital inflows and stalling economic revival.
The lecture’s tone was not merely diagnostic, but aspirational. Osinbajo closed by emphasising that Nigeria’s problem is rarely a dearth of laws, rather, the gaps lie in weak institutions, inconsistent policy application, and human discretion. He urged an intentional sit-down among the executive, judiciary, legislature and private sector, to collaboratively chart a path forward.
As the curtains fell on the 19th AELEX Annual Lecture, the message resonated: for Nigeria to unlock its economic potential, the rule of law must not just be enshrined, it must be lived. The challenge ahead is not for lack of ideas, but for the discipline to turn them into action.
