Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has given reasons the
Nigerian judiciary must address the issue of delays in processing cases through
the courts.
Prof. Osinbajo, who had addressed the issue on previous
occasions, restated his position again on Friday when he chaired a Wole
Olanipekun & Co., WOC, Justice Summit on Justice Sector Reforms in
celebration of the 70th birthday of Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, in Lagos.
Describing the issue of delays in the judicial process as
the ‘elephant in the room’, the VP wondered what would happen to the country’s
legal profession in “another 50 years given the gridlock in processing cases
through the courts and the question of the integrity of the legal process, or
better still, the integrity of actors in the legal process in Nigeria.”
Highlighting delays in Nigerian courts, the Vice President
recalled: “how the UK Court of Appeal had occasion to comment in the case of
(IPCO v. NNPC [2015] EWCA Civ 1144) where a challenge to the enforcement of a
Nigerian seated arbitration tribunal award came before the English Court of
Appeal.”
The VP explained that “the court referred to the delays in
the parallel proceedings before a Nigerian Court as catastrophic and that it
could take a further 30 years to resolve.”
“Incidentally, the expert witness who testified on delays in
the Nigerian Courts was a former Justice of the Supreme Court who testified
that a case could take 20 to 30 years to resolve in a Nigerian Court.”
Prof. Osinbajo urged for further engagements by stakeholders
on the integrity of the legal process and its key actors, particularly judges
and lawyers, towards proffering solutions to the challenge of delay in court
processes.
He said, “I look forward to the conversations we will have
today, and may I suggest as rules of the house that we focus on practical and
implementable ideas, not a rehash of the problems. We are all experts at
knowing the problem.”
The Vice President described the celebrant, Chief
Olanipekun, “as one of the most consequential and influential lawyers in the
commonwealth”, adding that beyond his accolades and achievements, he has
impacted many lives through his kindness, philanthropy and faith.
Thanking God for giving the legal luminary “an ever-youthful
physique and disposition, Prof. Osinbajo said, “Chief Olanipekun’s great
intellect, mastery of the law, its substance and its technicalities, his
incredible ability to get to the heart of the matter and to let whole panels of
judges see his sometimes daring points; his disarming wit and humour, his
sometimes lyrical and poetic submissions, quoting from the classics and the
Scriptures, make him easily one of the most outstanding minds in the legal
profession in this or any other generation.
“But I am sure that what must give him as much, if not more
satisfaction, as his accomplishments in the legal profession is how he has
affected the lives of hundreds, who cannot repay him for his kindness, his many
charities and philanthropies and his several contributions to the growth and
reach of the gospel.”
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