OFFICE
OF THE ACTING PRESIDENT
PRESS
RELEASE
*STATE
FAILURE TO DELIVER LIFE ESSENTIALS FUELS ETHNIC TENSIONS
*POVERTY
HAS SAME CHARACTER FOR AN IBO, OR HAUSA-FULANI MAN
*AG.
PRESIDENT EXPLAINS RATIONALE FOR N500B SOCIAL INVESTMENT ALLOCATION IN 2017
BUDGET
SPEECH
DELIVERED BY THE ACTING PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, HIS EXCELLENCY
PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, AT THE OPENING SESSION OF THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
CONFERENCE OF THE NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW TEACHERS THEMED-
LAW, SECURITY & NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT HELD AT NNAMDI AZIKIWE
UNIVERSITY, AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE, JUNE 12, 2017
PROTOCOL:
I must
say how extremely pleased I am to be here in the company of friends and
colleagues of many years, and those who have come into this exceptional
vocation of ours, after us.
Since I
became a law teacher in 1981, I have always looked forward to the law teachers
conference for various reasons some less noble than others.
First, it
was the only conference that the University felt obliged to pay for, so we did
not have to spend our meager resources to attend.
Secondly,
it was a chance to meet friends and colleagues from across the country and have
a good time in each other's company.
But the
third reason and perhaps the most important, was that it was a time to discover
in the course of the sessions, what the latest thoughts and opinions were on
the jurisprudence of a wide range of subjects.
The
sessions were important because we were not just legal practitioners as many of
our colleagues in the profession were. We were and remain the purveyors,
custodians and creators of the underlying concepts and foundational premises of
legal thought. We are the thinkers for our system of law and justice, and our
profession.
We often
contended then about the usefulness of law to society which its liberal origins
ensured that it supported and we talked a lot about the influence of capitalism
on law and justice.
We
understood that because teaching was not, to paraphrase Faust, merely to
transmit knowledge but how to imagine, adapt, assess, interpret, change, and
create, we needed to rigorously interrogate the fundaments of our jurisprudence
and system of law and justice.
So the
law teachers conference has always been our forum for the free and yet deep
interrogation of the fundamental ideas and issues that held society together,
the trajectory of the rule of law and law and order, and their current
interpretations and efficacy.
So, we
have always believed and rightly in my view, that the enormously important task
of thinking through and designing legal policy, and guiding legal thought
rested upon us. The law teachers conference was a time to step back and
reflect, in order to come back to the problems with boldness and innovation.
I believe
that today more than ever in our national journey, we law teachers must
again step back from the confusing and sometimes overwhelming noises of the
moment to craft, through legal thought and innovation, a
future that is not hobbled by, but, takes advantage of the past and the
present.
Where, as
is sometimes the case, those charged with thinking do not think or abdicate
that responsibility, then those ill-equipped to do so will and we must all bear
the consequences.
The theme
of this conference I believe is to compel us to play our role as thinkers for
our nation and system. Permit me therefore in what will follow to play the role
of an 'agent provocateur', to provoke some thoughts and ideas.
Let me
say that perhaps the greatest challenge to national development today is
insecurity. But we must define security correctly.
Security
cannot merely be State-centric or military i.e. security of lives and
livelihoods from internal and external threats. This focuses solely on the role
of the State in the maintenance of law and order.
I think
it was Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General who defined security with a
broader and more contemporary description when he said, "human security can
no longer be understood in purely military terms. Rather, it must encompass
economic development, social justice, environmental protection,
democratization, disarmament, and respect for human rights and the rule of
law,’’ to which we must add as a distinct category, governance.
The most
important subtext in this definition is the growing influence and power of
non-state actors, including big business, socio-cultural groups, ethnic
nationalities, terrorist organizations and tendencies, religious organizations
and criminal networks. Because of the more pervasive roles of those non -State
actors, often acting on legitimacies not necessarily conferred by formal laws,
the robustness of the state's response to its primary role of maintaining
security is often called to question.
The
measure of security within a nation is therefore a function of the state’s
capacity to maintain this broad definition of security, on the other hand, the
degree of lack of capacity is an index of where the State is in the spectrum of
State failure.
Consequently,
our definition of the role of the State in maintenance of security in
contemporary jurisprudence must change. Our laws and jurisprudence must
recognize this as such. Take corruption as an example and corruption of course is
an issue of governance which is part of our definition of security.
Grand
corruption has led our country to terrible depths of misery. In the past two
years we have unearthed cases of embezzlement of public funds that show that if
we could recover all that was stolen we could easily double our external
reserves. That level of corruption is an existential threat to any nation.
The
abject poverty of millions in every zone of our nation, the absence of good
roads, schools, hospitals, is largely because some have pocketed the common
wealth.
Boko
Haram for example could have cost us less-loss of lives of our brave soldiers
and over 20,000 civilians- if the government and military authorities had not
corruptly enriched themselves with the funds to purchase platforms, equipment,
uniforms, and pay allowances.
About 2.3
million persons in the North East are displaced from their homes and their
livelihoods today, thousands of children cannot find their parents.
This is
why the vast majority of our people are confused about our system of justice
especially in its response to the stealing of public resources. How, for
example, does it take so long to prove in court that a man earning a civil
servants salary has billions in his bank accounts? The gradual loss of
confidence in our administration of justice system is a real threat to social
cohesion.
Almost
daily you hear on radio and read on social media how easy it is to jail a man
who stole a goat or a phone within months and how difficult it is to prosecute
a public officer who has stolen billions of public funds.
Consequently
we must redefine the offence of corruption and our approach to its prosecution,
taking into account its profoundly destructive impact on lives and property.
Such an offence is worse than homicide; it is a crime against humanity. The
approach of the trials must be time bound.
In many
judicial systems more often than not in serious cases part of the reason why
bail is not easily granted is because the trials are time bound and usually not
longer than six weeks. Dilatory tactics on the part of lawyers is sternly
viewed, adjournments are usually not allowed or if so at great financial and
professional cost to the lawyers on either side.
Today the
most obvious cases of corruption are interminably delayed; indeed the strategy
of many defence counsels is delay. In a recent UNODC study, about 43% of
judicial officers surveyed reported that the main causes of excessive delay in
our courts were “ploy by parties”, “requests for unnecessary adjournments” and
“interlocutory applications to protract proceedings” and it was similarly found
that most adjournments were caused by the absence of the accused, the
defendant, their lawyers or of a witness.
This
suggests that the stakeholders in the justice sector are mostly responsible for
the problem of delay in the administration of justice. The delays in our system
of justice are becoming a source of derision of our trial system by judges in
other jurisdictions.
In 2014
for example, an English Court of Appeal decision- IPCO (Nigeria) Limited v.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [2014] EWHC 576 (Comm), the Court ruled
that a pending challenge in a Nigerian court to a US$340 million award should
not be a bar to enforcement in London, because the Nigerian proceedings could
take “up to a generation” to be resolved. The Court also described the Nigerian
judicial system as being bedeviled by “catastrophic” delays.
Our
system of justice is clearly under siege; most of it is self-inflicted - delays
by counsel, weak control of proceedings by courts, and corrupt practices, a
subject which in and of itself is a matter of serious concern.
We as law
teachers must ask ourselves whether our legal system can survive and serve its
purposes to society without a serious and incisive rethink and reconsideration.
So, how
should the state react to our other security challenges, the Boko Haram
terrorist activities in the North East, tensions in the Niger Delta, herdsmen
and farmer clashes, and threats of secession and counter threats of forced
excision. In addition are the overarching issues of poverty, unemployment and
corruption.
First we
must recognize that a lot of these agitations center around the alleged
failures of the state to create an inclusive society under existing
constitutional arrangements, to guarantee the security of lives, livelihoods
and liberties by the agencies charged with maintaining law and order and to
build trust around the rule of law and the system of administration of justice.
First, on
the matter of inclusion and inequalities, there is little doubt in my mind that
the provision of the basics of life to the largest number of our people remains
the greatest source of tension in the polity.
The daily
struggles of many, for healthcare, a means of livelihood and the absence of a
socially just means of ensuring that many, especially young people, have access
to education and jobs provides a constantly replenished pool of young
malcontents, ready to be recruited into any sort of Army, whether it be of
kidnappers, terrorists, or violent or antisocial agitation for one cause
or the other.
Besides,
the constant agitation for share of national resources, is a product of
individual-elite- deprivation, taken up by ethnic nationalities and
socio-cultural groups. Each group views the other with suspicion when it comes
to matters of resources, and government appointments.
As it is
at the Federal level, so it is at the State level. In my state for example, the
Egba and Ijebus in Ogun State are constantly arguing over who is getting a
better deal in government appointments or infrastructural development.
Unfortunately,
in order to give our campaigns greater acceptability and resonance, we often
characterize them as ethnic or religious agitation. The right to a decent
existence, to education, healthcare or jobs must not depend on how loudly my
ethnic or religious group agitates; no, these are my rights as a citizen of
Nigeria.
It is the
failure of the State to deliver on these essentials of life and livelihood that
compels our people to run to their tribal and religious camps to seek succour
by way of agitation for basic rights and services.
Unfortunately,
it is the same elite especially the political elite, who fail the people by the
wastage and embezzlement of their funds who are at the forefront of pretending
that their deprivations are caused by other ethnic nationalities.
Having
gone round this nation to its villages and settlements, everywhere in the
course of the campaigns, and after, there is no doubt in my mind that poverty
has the same character in Bodinga Local Government in Sokoto State as in
Ayanmelum Local Government here in Anambra state; poverty on an Ibo man
is not more dignified than on a Hausa Fulani man. Hunger is neither a tribal or
religious issue.
So the
question for us is how to resolve these issues. First is to place
responsibility where it rightly belongs.
It is the
business of government, by that I mean the executive, legislature and judiciary
to provide the enabling environment for the quality of life that people expect.
Indeed
the constitutional obligation to do so is clear. Section 14(2 ) (a) says that
sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through the
Constitution derives all its powers and authority ; and assures that (b) the
security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.
This is crucial.
Whereas
the classic overriding obligation of the State is Security our constitution
places Security and Welfare on the same pedestal as the primary purposes of
government.
Coming
from this perspective, the fundamental objective must become the founding
principle for legislation, executive action and the observance and enforcement
of the rule of law.
For
example, the provision of section 16(1) (b), 16(2)(b) and (d) which provide
respectively as follows: "the control of the national economy(shall
be) in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of
every citizen on the basis of social justice, equality of status and
opportunity; (b) that the material resources of the Nation are harnessed and
distributed as best as possible to serve the common good; (d) that suitable and
adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum
living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and
welfare for the disabled are provided for all citizens."
These
directive principles must be regarded as justiciable in order to realize the
Nigerian dream.
It is the
duty of our association to champion this important pillar of our national
development. Governments must be compelled to show by budgetary provision and
executive action how they have complied with this constitutional imperative.
Often in government, the issue of how to adequately provide for the poor,
create jobs and welfare for those who cannot work becomes an ideological
debate.
The
classical view had always won the argument namely that when you enable private
commerce and industry, jobs will be created and that direct job creation and
social welfare schemes are wasteful and achieve little. This is the so called
trickle down approach.
However
in the current Federal Government the argument is being won by those who
believe that government has a central role to play in the provision of social
welfare. That extreme poverty is not only immoral, it should be illegal.
This has
led to the largest single provision in our history for social welfare. In the
2017 budget we are providing N500 billion for social investment alone; N100
billion of that is for part of our social housing fund and the total value of
that fund is N1 trillion; the provision for cash transfers which is for the
poorest and vulnerable is 1 million Nigerians; the N-Power, which is the provision
of direct jobs to young graduates for two years is 500,000 and 200, 000 jobs
have been created already but certainly we can do more.
It is
important that our budgets are crafted in such a way that we take into account
the aspect of social welfare.
Like I
said, it is an ideological battle. It is a battle that must be contended for
and must be contended by all of us especially law teachers. I was speaking to a
group of law teachers and I was telling them that we have not engaged
government, we have to engage government.
It is
also true that we do not engage the judiciary anymore. In the past; we had
journals about all manners of judgements from all of our courts, in fact there
were journals that even analyzed high court cases and even exceptional articles
by some of our colleagues that drew the attention of judges. There was an
article by Prof Amos Utuama titled Crocodile
tears by the Supreme Court and he was talking in particular about
Certificate of Occupancy and all that; and the Supreme Court in one of its
sittings contended that its tears were not crocodile at all.
I believe
that today we must pay more attention to what is going on in our court system,
what is going on in the executive, it is our business as law teachers to
critique everything that is going on. That is why we have been entrusted with
this great duty to teach the would-be lawyers and be the thinkers of our
profession and our justice system.
It is
also probably true that our corporate existence and security have been put at
risk by the failures in the enforcement of law and order but also our failure
especially we as legal intellectuals to correctly dimension the problem. Our
contributions to the various disputes in our society must be to properly
dimension the problem so that we are not just joining argument. We have the
tools, the training to present the problems to society along the lines of the
constitution, public law and our different disciplines.
Take the
herdsmen and farmer conflicts. As justice Amina Augie just said, it is first
and foremost a struggle for food security, land and water resources. The
context of environment and environmental justice sets the stage for meaningful
engagement and arbitration.
We must
also admit that these conflicts are not new. But engagement and law enforcement
had kept things in check. Law enforcement must move apace with engagement. The
President for example had issued a directive to the police to arrest and
prosecute anyone found with weapons. This is important not only to assure the citizenry
of safety of their lives and property but to prevent resort to self-help. There
is a long way to go.
Just last
week, I was meeting with our security agencies to sharpen our response to this
problem. Our discussions centered on the robustness of law enforcement. There
is no half-way house in maintaining law and order and the safety of the
citizen. It is the very core of government.
So, we
must creatively and innovatively provide for maintenance of law and order.
Let me
close with a brief comment which touches on the questions of victim justice and
transitional justice alluded to by the deputy governor of Ebonyi State, but I
would want to leave this matter for fuller consideration by this very august
body.
But the
issue of what happens to victims of conflict within society; victims of the
Herdsmen clashes with farmers, victims of the insurgency in the North-East,
victims of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta; the question of what
happens to them is certainly captured in transitional justice.
I think
that these are aspects of law that are developing and are developing very
rapidly because people are asking all sorts of questions. What happens to me
when my property is destroyed by insurgents or herdsmen or what happens to me
when the only source of fishing for me and entire environment is damaged by
activities unrelated to me in anyway.
I think
the most important thing is to start from analyzing, but first government must
take responsibility because government is expected to maintain the rule of law
and it is the failure of the rule of law and the failure of the administration
of justice that is usually the first culprit when there is any kind of
victimization.
To go
beyond that, there is also the question of communal responsibility, what are
the responsibilities for communities, civil society, and non-state
actors.
For
example, in the North-East, hundreds of people have been killed, children have
seen horrible violence, some have seen their parents killed and have faced
severe hunger, and all kinds of situations that you would not wish for your
enemy; how do you reconcile these people to society?
There are
all of these transitional justice vehicles such as truth and reconciliation
commission and all of that. There are all sorts of international compensation
models that could be adopted to resolve these issues because societies in
conflict issues are becoming part of our lives and it is not just in Nigeria,
it is across our continent and the globe.
I think
the issues that call for our attention today are so many. These are challenging
times for us but also times of great opportunities because our society rely a
great deal on our law teachers to find solutions to these issues and to teach a
new generation of students the types of problems and issues that are relevant
to our own time. And I believe it your responsibility and I believe at some
time it will be mine too.
Finally,
let me congratulate all of us on this 50th anniversary, it is a wonderful thing
to be able to celebrate 50 years and I pray that our next 50 years would be
even greater and we will be blessed with all of the good things that our nation
deserves.
I
therefore have the pleasure to declare this conference open.
Released
by
Laolu
Akande
Senior
Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the President
Office of
the Vice President
June 12,
2017
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