Press Releases

Fashola Calls For An Overhaul Of Rules And Policies Of The United Nations

Apr 14, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Tuesday called for a total overhaul of rules and policies which have been in place since the formation of the United Nations in order to enable the body respond to current global challenges.

Governor Fashola who spoke when he hosted a delegation of British Nigeria Law Forum (BNLF) led by Mr Babs Akinyanju at Lagos House, Ikeja added that the one of the points to be pondered over is whether the rules that were made in 1948 when the United Nations came into being are still sufficient to deal with the challenges of today.

Said he:”Rules that were made in 1948 when the United Nations came into being, are they sufficient now to deal with challenges of today? Did we foresee today at that time that leaders will begin to inflict pain and degradation and genocide on their people?”

He wondered whether the rules made 60 years ago are still sufficiently appropriate to deal with the situation today because at that time the global focus was on international aggression with one person trying to conquer the whole world.

Governor Fashola added that the rules and other policies then did not anticipate the present crop of leaders on the scene today, charging legal practitioners to put on their thinking caps about how to deal with such leaders who also have diplomatic and international immunity from arrest.

Said he: “The challenges of today require all of us in so many spheres to put on our thinking caps because our generation is the most challenged by the development of the day. Technology has opened our eyes to things we thought were so far away”.

“The issue of globalization is one of the bye products of technology and businesses no longer have frontiers and therefore a problem in every part of the world has become a problem for every part of the world”.

Governor Fashola added that as lawyers gather in Abuja for a conference in the midst of businesses facing what he described as tri-semester problems, there could have been no better time than now for the lawyers to meet.

He explained that lawyers and accountants have major roles to play in responding to how the world economy and medium of trade and exchange (capitalism) fare in the midst of current challenges of globalization.

The Governor reiterated that the present administration is committed to the success of every Nigerian business enterprise because it believes that entrepreneurship creates opportunities for jobs which sustain families and develop communities.

“We recognize the need to use policies of government to fuel the private sector which clearly is the engine of development and growth. We expect that in many fields including aviation and transportation, Nigerian entrepreneurs will begin to assert themselves in very qualitative terms in areas which have always been dominated at both ends by non Nigerian operators”, he added.

Governor Fashola promised that the state will work within all rules of engagement allowed by law with the Forum and to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the forum, Mr Akinyanju said the group was in Lagos to attend a business law conference scheduled to hold in Abuja.

He added that the forum which was formed in Abuja in 2001 runs a legal surgery which gives free advice of 50 minutes legal representation to Nigerians and non Nigerians living in the United Kingdom.

He informed that the Forum also has a judicial attachment programme for lawyers in the State Ministry of Justice which has been on for the past three years through they travel to London for practical training.

Mr Akinyanju also said the Forum is in discussion with the Nigerian High Commission in London on how the scope of the programme can be broadened.