NAN-H-109
Judiciary
By Sandra Umeh
Lagos, Feb. 22, 2018 (NAN) The generalisation that the Nigerian judiciary is corrupt is unacceptable, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Deacon Dele Adesina, said on Thursday in Lagos.
“That the nation’s judiciary is corrupt is an unacceptable generalization which must yield up to specifics.
“Let us begin to speak our desires into the institution as everything we see today was spoken into existence; a spoken word is what creates the thought process.
“Words create pictures,” Adesina said at the public presentation of his book entitled, “New Development in Law and Practice in Nigeria.”
He urged the judiciary to continue to live up to its constitutional role in a bid to preserve the legal system.
The judiciary, he noted, had continued to live up to its constitutional and historic role as the bastion of constitutional democracy in the country.
Describing the third arm of government as the tripod on which the hope of democracy and the common man rest, Adesina said it was time to stop the “politicisation” of the judiciary.
The former NBA National Secretary urged junior and senior colleagues to be steadfast and keep hope alive in the discharge of their tasks.
“To our colleagues, both junior and senior, who are primarily the focus of this event, I commend you to the words of the presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo thus: `You cannot win the prize, if you fail to pay the price.
“And you cannot be a star, if you fail to endure the scar.”
In his comment, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), a discussant at the event, also advised lawyers to learn to “steal” knowledge from their colleagues, adding it also impacts on the learning process.
According to Olanipekun, Rome was not built in a day, and so even as young lawyers, they must be prepared to learn and adhere strictly to the principles of legal practice.
Citing a personal example, he said, “whenever I go to court with Femi Falana, I know it is going to be legal war and I am prepared to tap from him.
“This is because I know that where my wisdom stops, his own begins and so, I must not run him down.”
Warning lawyers against corruption, Olanipekun said:“Woe betide any lawyer who gives bribe, offers bribe, compromises the integrity of the legal profession or distorts justice; such a lawyer will go to hell.”
He said that lawyers must at all times be God-fearing, humble, charitable, and accommodating, pointing out that the virtues are instrumental to a successful legal practice.
According to Olanipekun, lawyers are at liberty to make representation for individuals who seek representation whether they are charged with corruption or not.
He, however, warned that such representation must be done with due adherence to the rules of professional conduct and ethics of the legal profession.
He called on the Nigeria Bar Association as a body to be at the forefront of protecting the integrity of the profession as the association was larger than even itself.
In her remarks, the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mrs Folake Solanke, urged senior lawyers who engage lawyers under their pupillage to ensure that such lawyers were well remunerated.
According to Solanke, lawyers traditionally are not expected to render services without remuneration as they are paid by their clients.
“In defence of lawyers under pupillage, I declare that lawyers are not slaves; only slaves work for no pay or even poor pay because a slave is the legal property of the slaver.
“A lawyer is certainly not the legal property of a learned senior or any other person. I implore all senior members who utilize the services of lawyers under pupillage to pay them adequately.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion was graced by other eminent Senior Advocates of Nigeria including Prof. Konyisola Ajayi, Chief Femi Falana, Dr Wale Babalakin, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu and a host of other lawyers. (NAN)
UNS/BOLA/DA
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Edited by Bola Akingbehin/Dele Akinsola