Gbajabiamila Tasks Lawyers to Fix Dysfunctions in Legal System

Gbajabiamila Tasks Lawyers to Fix Dysfunctions in Legal System

By Okon Bassey

The House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, has challenged lawyers to fix evident dysfunctions that corrupt the legal profession and undermine its prestige.

Gbajabiamila posed the task on the lawyers yesterday while addressing the 2021 Nigerian Bar Association-Section on Legal Practice (NBA-SLP) annual conference held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The Speaker, who was represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary and member representing Etinan/Nsit Ibom/Nsit Ubium federal constituency, Onofiok Luke, argued that as lawyers and citizens, they need to make effort to do things differently for the profession and the country.

Nigeria, he said, is desperately in need of honest brokers to mediate a national dialogue to resolve many issues and give it a new lease of life.

According to him, “This conference is coming at a time in our country when we are confronted with and must answer critical questions about the terms of our nationhood and the conditions for a sustained national union.

“Throughout history, it has often fallen to lawyers to do a lot of the heavy lifting of nation-building. That is still the case today.

“We have a lot of work to do, and the destiny of our country may well depend on how well we do the job that this moment requires.

“The work of fixing our country must begin in our own house, and within our profession. Before we can begin to play our full and proper role as lawyers in the difficult, but necessary task of nation-building, we have to fix those evident dysfunctions that corrupt the Nigerian legal profession and undermine its prestige.

“When in a world of inexorable change we deliberately or by inaction maintain fidelity to outmoded practices and dated conventions for their own sake, we do ourselves a disservice and risk becoming relics rather than the innovators we ought to be for our sakes and the benefit of our country.”

In his remark, the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, had sort to know if it was not possible that the current challenges facing the Nigerian project are consequence of the justice that lawyers failed to dispense in the past.

Emmanuel, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr. Moses Ekpo, noted the theme of the conference: ‘Law, Lawyer and the Next Generation’, saying it all on the cross-generational impact of what lawyers do or fail to do in their capacity as ministers in the temple of justice.

Declaring the three-day conference open, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Tanko, who was represented by Hon. Justice Abdul Aboki, said there was need for women and men of good conscience and leaders of thought not stand aloof and watch the country degenerate further than it is today.

According to him, “Our country is officially weak and the leaders have a virtual role to play as the conscience of the society to secure equity, fairness and justice.”

In his welcomed remark, the President of NBA, Mr. Olumide Akpata, identified globalisation and technological advancements as the two primary factors that are changing all global industries at a rate that has never been imagined.

Akpata said: “May the day never break when members of the Nigerian Bar Association, the largest Bar in Africa, wake up to the rude shock that they are unable to stand shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts in other part of the world because they have refused to equip themselves with the skillsets necessary for global practice.

“In welcoming you to this conference, I am confident that with the line-up of the stellar faculty, the participants would leave the conference charged and well-equipped for the challenges of a changing time and business climate.”

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