Speeches

Under-Developed Countries, Failed Economies And The Future Of The Legal Profession

Aug 17, 2009 - It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association – Lagos 2009; for several reasons not the least being that after 20 years, the bar conference has finally come back to the birth place of the profession.

In 1989, I was a young practitioner with dreams of leaving a mark on the legal profession and the world. I recall with nostalgia the very dynamic tenure of the late Alao Aka Bashorun, whose “one and a half terms” ended at the 1989 conference. Such was the charisma of “Aka” that under his leadership, every young practitioner wanted to be associated with the Bar and I was no exception.

With Aka as president, the Bar had reached the zenith of its reputation as the watchdog of society and a strong voice of opposition to military rule. Consequently, the Lagos 1989 conference was notable in several respects. Not only was it held in the year that the centennial anniversary of the legal profession in Nigeria was celebrated, it was held in Lagos - where the legal profession started in Nigeria, and featured the hitherto unprecedented attendance of almost 3000 delegates – the highest number ever at the time.

That conference also featured several legal heavyweights seeking the presidency of the association. Listening to the manifestos of Scott Emakpor, Onyeabo Obi and Bandele Aiku amongst others, made one proud to be a lawyer.

One highlight of the conference was certainly the attendance of Prince Bola Ajibola ("as he then was"). I recall that we all looked forward with eager anticipation to hearing his “defence” of “defection” in favour of a government appointment to become the then Attorney-General and Minister for Justice of the Federation.

This was a first and many viewed it with mixed emotions. However in a brilliant and well articulated speech, the former NBA president restored the faith of his admirers and confounded many who had written him off as a military apologist.

Such was the excitement that pervaded the 1989 Conference.

You can therefore understand my joy at the rare honour of being a lawyer and hosting this conference during my term of office as Governor of Lagos State. It is a memory that I will treasure for a long time to come and I thank the Nigerian Bar Association for the privilege. Undoubtedly, I can say without fear of contradiction, that Lagos 2009, like Lagos 1989, and indeed the year 1889 will be a reference point for many years to come.

Today's keynote topic is significant not only to the present situation of global affairs but also to the future of our noble profession. I will therefore start by commending the organizers of Lagos 2009 for choosing this most challenging topic for the opening ceremony of this year’s conference.

The challenges facing under - developed countries are many; none more crucial than achieving recognizable indices of development. These no doubt include the maintenance of law and order to protect lives and property by minimizing and resolving conflicts, food security, affordable housing, healthcare delivery, environmental protection, economic growth and a stable polity.

A country is generally regarded as under-developed when resources are not optimally utilized. The result is that local or regional development within the country is slower than it should be. It also results from the complex interplay of internal and external factors that allow less developed countries only a lop-sided development progression.

Underdevelopment is easily recognized by wide disparity between the rich and poor. Sadly, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa today account for nearly half of the world’s underdeveloped nations.

We should continue to recognize the aggravating role that military incursion into politics has played in underdevelopment. This protracted intervention was characterized by ill-motivated economic policies, the relics of which still haunt some countries on the African continent. Inefficiency was heightened and respect for the constitution and rule of law drastically eroded.

In coming to this conclusion, and without being apologetic, one must acknowledge that even the best of men, with the best of minds could have achieved very little in an era of continuous conflict and unpredictable political future that made planning impossible.

The last decade however brought about a much awaited and indeed a most desired change in the political atmosphere. More underdeveloped countries embraced democracy which has had a positive economic impact on some of these countries.

However, in the last 13 months, the entire world economy can easily be classified as having failed or at least a majority of the erstwhile leading economies are undergoing the unusual experience of failure.

The financial sector of the developed countries and emerging market economies have been severely traumatized with what began as a US mortgage backed securities crisis. This evolved into a full-fledged financial crisis impacting the investment and commercial banking sectors and the insurance industry, with international transmission of the crisis to Europe, Africa and Japan.

It subsequently degenerated into a credit crisis, with banks declining to lend due to lack of confidence. The decline in real sector production activity and growing unemployment then worsened the crisis with a spiraling downwards effect on the global economy.

Clearly, the “melt down” as it is now commonly referred to, is not the making of the underdeveloped countries. It is the creature of the developed economies.

It is the manifestation of some failure of “law” and its practitioners, characterized by lack of regulations and appropriate sanctions where they ought to have been properly applied.

However, being at the bottom of global economy, underdeveloped countries are not insulated from its impact. Indeed, it would appear that the principal actors of the “melt down” are recovering at a rate even faster than the victims. This merely demonstrates that economic failure like economic success is not a permanent state of affairs. Therefore, Nigeria (and sub Saharan Africa) must see the present challenge to the world economy as an opportunity and not a problem.

If spending is a policy to stimulate western economies out of recession, what are we doing to present our economies as a viable destination for meaningful trade? The immediate future of nations such as Nigeria lies in strategic leadership and critical thinking. However, the future is no longer a distant prospect. The future is now. We do not have the luxury of placing responsibility on generations to come.

It seems to me that as capitalism wrestles with the new demands of globalization, a new economic world order and legal regime is a matter of urgent necessity.

As banks and financial institutions now operate without borders, as capitalism has evolved from a preference for cash to the invention of credit for its sustenance, and as credit now seems to be drying up, what new legal order will emerge to regulate financial transactions?

What will be the shape and form of international instruments of credit and commerce like bills of lading, letters of credit, promissory notes and so on in the next decade and beyond.

These clearly are matters for which the skills of lawyers will be in high demand, and to which lawyers must find answers that will sustain and strengthen the world’s economy.

I am aware that a pilot project is already being sponsored by a foremost multi-lateral development agency, using skills of a foremost lawyer to attempt to create a data base of global “toxic assets” in the financial landscape with a view to enabling investors properly assess the risk of those assets and hopefully galvanize institutions back to the advancement of credit.

Clearly therefore, the critical role of lawyers at this time is heightened rather than diminished.

The beginning of wisdom is realizing just how little of the future you can predict - therefore the future role of the legal profession can only at best be proposed not predicted. I will like to dwell more on the role of lawyers in promoting constitutionalism, professionalism, law and order – and therefore economic well being of future Nigeria.

1. CONSTITUTIONALSIM
i. Enforcing Economic Rights
Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria sets out the objectives of all organs of government.

In summary Chapter 2 of the Constitution mandates all organs of government to run their affairs in a manner that ensures economic and social welfare, sanctity of human person and happiness for every citizen.

It is also the duty of the state qua public officers under this chapter to direct its policies towards ensuring economic prosperity for the people.

However, Section 6 (6) (c) of the Constitution has been construed as rendering the provisions of Chapter 2 non-justiciable, and therefore unenforceable.

The challenge is for the Bar to overcome this fictional barrier as part of its duty to ensure the promotion of the well being of the people. However, certain provisions of Chapter 2 (section 15(5)) of the 1999 Constitution obliging the Nigerian State to abolish corruption and abuse of office has been given justiciable effect by item 60(a) on the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution where the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act No. 5 of 2000 was affirmed validly made by the Supreme Court in Attorney General of Ondo State v. Attorney General of the Federation & 35 Ors. (2002) 27 WRN 1.

Fortunately, some of the provisions of Chapter 2 are contained as economic and social rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. This is now part of our domestic law by virtue of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

Lawyers should take advantage of these provisions in ensuring that organs of government and holders of public offices conform to the provisions of Chapter 2 which sets out this very essence of governance. The invocation of these provisions will serve as a means of checking the inadequacy of government policies with a view to holding public officers accountable for the vindication of social and economic rights and the performance of state duties under Chapter 2 of the Constitution.

In fact, the Indian Supreme Court has admirably adopted an expanded approach to Fundamental Human Rights contained in the Indian Constitution by construing the provisions of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution to demand the realization of Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy (similar to the provisions of Chapter 2) .

In Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1986) AIR 180 the Indian Supreme Court in construing the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution held that the right to livelihood which is one of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution is an integral component of the right to life.

The Court reasoned that if the right to livelihood is not treated as part of the constitutional right to life, the easiest way of depriving a person his right to life would be to deprive him of his means of livelihood to the point of abrogation. Such deprivation, in the opinion of the court, would not only deny the life of its effective content and meaningfulness, but it would make life impossible to live.

The right to life has also been construed in India to cover the right to emergency medical treatment, the right to basic necessities of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter, and the right to a decent environment.

Perhaps I should stress the fact that a country might be under-developed and yet have a vibrant economy.

A more selfless legal community can promote the required harmony between the wishes of the citizens and government policy (ies) in achieving development thereby avoiding failure of states. Recent developments are suggesting that fewer lawyers are involved or even interested in public-spirited litigation and yet we all desire a civilized and functional state.

One must of course acknowledge the salutary efforts of the likes of Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN and Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN in this regard and commend their courage and tenacity in blazing and sustaining the trail for public spirited litigation.

I re-call that it was Mr. Agbakoba, SAN who unsuccessfully argued before the Supreme Court that the continued and prolong detention of a condemned prisoner amounted to cruel and inhuman treatment.

What he however succeeded in doing was to galvanize concern about being decisive with regard to the treatment of condemned prisoners. This year, the Government of Lagos State responded to this call by commutting the death sentences of 29 (twenty nine) condemned prisoners to various terms of imprisonment on the recommendation of the State Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kole Abayomi, SAN.

In similar manner, it was Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s effort before the Supreme Court which has helped to prevent the emasculation of the opposition by allowing the registration of more political parties such as the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Action Congress (AC) who fly flags of governance in Abia, Anambra and Lagos States today.

Therefore, underdevelopment is not a sudden occurrence. Recent experience has also revealed that it may not be necessarily due to inadequate resources or non-existence of a legal framework. It is a gradual process. The same applies to failed economies. They happen because some people have abandoned their duties and their roles.

Let us all imagine for some seconds where we would be as a nation and as members of the legal profession if public officers can be held accountable for their actions and inactions, if lawyers seek the Attorney General’s fiat to prosecute electoral offenders and where the violation of the Constitution is a criminal offence?

As I have already said elsewhere, we do not need better legal or Constitutional framework. An optimal use of the existing legal and Constitutional regime can take us to where we all dream to be.

The vindication of the decisions of the electorate at the ballot box is an important confluence of social justice in enforcing economic rights. Lawyers have a duty to ensure that electoral processes are conducted in accordance with the spirit and the letters of the law and that electoral offenders are accorded with the appropriate sanctions.

Electoral reforms will count for nothing if electoral offenders are not brought to justice. Many determinations have been made by the various tribunals handling election petitions in which allegations of fraud, electoral malpractices, violence and so on, which constitute offences under the Electoral Act of 2006 have been upheld.

In my view, these findings constitute prima facie evidence and reasonable grounds for asserting that some offences were committed and for bringing charges against all those involved at the various polling stations where these acts occurred.

For the avoidance of doubt, I must not be misunderstood as suggesting that these findings constitute proof of the offence. On the contrary, they only provide reasonable grounds for initiating criminal proceedings. These should be the responsibility of the Attorneys General of those States in which the acts took place.

I cannot of course over-emphasize the need for the profession to endeavor to participate in the advancement of government policies and protection of the Constitution. However, in performing this role, lawyers should strive always to maintain a balance between promoting government policies and engaging in acts that are capable of holding public officers accountable for failure to perform their duties in accordance with the Constitution.

Constitutional violation should be met with unconditional opposition and indeed, lawyers should strive towards constituting violation of the Constitution into a criminal offence.

ii. Liberty of Citizen
As we consider the future of legal profession in under-developed countries and failed economies, we must realize that the attendant poverty in such economies create desperate conditions that test the human limit of integrity in the face of survival challenges.

While I do not subscribe to criminality, our jurisprudence has recognized that some members of our society will fall short of the standards of acceptable behaviour in a manner that constitutes a criminal offence. In all such cases, we must remind ourselves that the law must maintain the right balance between the protection of the society and liberty of the accused person.

We must not lightly deprive him of his liberty unless there is just cause according to law. It is not just cause to arrest such persons on Friday afternoon with the clear intention to ensure that they spend the weekend in detention in full knowledge that the courts will not operate until Monday.

Our profession must evolve very creative solutions for these violations of rights. A public spirited litigation challenging this practice may well serve the purpose and set guidelines for the timing and process of arrests.

Another matter which deserves our urgent attention is the manner in which the bail process is being handled.. As we all know, one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution is the right to a fair hearing. A cornerstone of this right is the presumption of innocence.

Section 36(5) of the Constitution provides that “[e]very person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty.” The effect is that an accused person is entitled to all the rights enshrined in the Constitution until a competent court of law has determined his culpability or otherwise.

One of such rights is that of personal liberty. A person can be deprived of his liberty only as permitted by the Constitution and in accordance with a procedure laid down by law. Therefore, anyone who is arrested or detained upon reasonable suspicion of having committed a criminal offence must be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time, i.e., 24 hours where there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of forty kilometers or, where there is no such court, a period of 48 hours or such longer period as may be considered reasonable in the circumstances.

Of course, it is not enough to bring such a person before the court. He must be tried without delay. Otherwise, he must be released either conditionally or unconditionally under section 35(4) of the Constitution. Bail is therefore a right of an accused person, unless the alleged offence is a capital offence.

It is therefore most disturbing to see prosecution lawyers opposing bail, almost as a matter of course, or urging very onerous conditions to ensure that an accused person is remanded in custody at all costs. Sometimes the cause of this is the perceived magnitude of the crime; but we must always bear in mind that we are dealing at this stage with allegations merely and not a conviction.

Contrary to what we commonly see these days, it is, in my respectful view, not the proper role of a prosecution counsel to oppose bail merely because the alleged offence is ‘a serious offence’ or because there is a public outrage against the alleged act. This is especially so when he (the prosecution counsel) has failed to arraign the accused person for trial with proper proof of evidence and he is well aware that investigation is still at infancy stage.

In my view, it should not be the duty of the accused person or his lawyer to ask for bail.

In all such cases where the offence is one that is bailable of right as classified under the law, it should be the duty of the presiding judicial officer to immediately admit the accused to bail after which he can take arguments on the conditions of bail. It is during this second process that considerations about the nature of the offence alleged and so on, should assist in exercising discretion of the court on the terms of bail.

In other words, there is no discretion to refuse bail where the offence is bailable and therefore the accused should not be the one to ask for it. The discretion lies in the kind of conditions that will secure his attendance at trial or prevent his interference with any further investigation, the continuation of which in my view here raises questions whether there should be a charge if investigations are not concluded.

2. PROFESSIONALISM
i. Dignified and Reputable Profession in Defending Economic and Social Rights
You and I know that the hallmark of the effectiveness of this profession is its dignity which is itself rooted in its traditions.

Closely related to this is the legal and social duty imposed on every lawyer solely by virtue of his calling. We will not be of effective purpose to the society in enforcing economic and social rights of Nigerians unless we protect the dignity of our profession. I will say and with all sense of responsibility too that we have not fully kept faith with this most important role. We all as lawyers have sacrificed our public safeguard obligation on the alter of “self interest”.

I re-call once, that a client was so confused in seeing his lawyer embrace his adversary outside the court room after watching them in the court room vehemently opposing one another and simply wondered how they could be friendly and warm to one another outside the court room. These are some of the exciting traditions of our great profession which must never be compromised.

As officers in the temple of justice, lawyers should not be parties to frivolous and endless litigation. Litigants should not exert unnecessary control in the arena. The current and unfortunate trend of spurious, protracted and seemingly unending election related matters should be discouraged.

We should dissociate ourselves no matter the pecuniary temptation from actions that tend to clog the advancement of our legal and political system. When last did any of us reject a brief and advise the client accordingly on the ground that his case is bad?

For instance It is very elementary law, that by enabling statute, all gubernatorial election petitions should end in the Court of Appeal.

It was there with concern, and later relief, that I followe the journey of a gubernatorial election that made 2 (two) undeserved trips to the exalted altitude of our Supreme Court.

I was relieved to note the tone of disapproval in the concluding statements of their Lordships while dismissing the action.

However, something told me that we had not seen the last of that matter in spite of the strong admonition of the Court and I truly wished that the Court had been fully assisted and referred to its previous decisions in Ishola Noah v His Excellency, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria (1980) All NLR 208

My worst fears have since been confirmed because the same petitioner has seemingly appeared before the Supreme Court seeking yet another bite at an adjudged rotten cherry.

In the Ishola Noah’s case, the Supreme Court having been satisfied that Alhaji Ishola Noah was needlessly issuing process against the British High Commissioner over whom the Court had no original jurisdiction, and who enjoyed diplomatic immunity, found the second action which was a repeat of an earlier one, to be an abuse of court process.

Fatayi-Williams, CJN (of blessed memory) who read the lead judgment, made the following consequential order:-

“To avoid any further repetition of this farce or further harassment of the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, I further order that no writ or process instituted or any summons taken out against the said British High Commissioner shall be accepted for filing in this Court.”

While I make no comments on the merits of the current action - this is the prerogative of their Lordships in the Supreme Court, in my respectful view, such an order was deserving in dismissing the earlier action.

As lawyers, we must lead the way in ensuring court room decorum is upheld. Court premises should not be a stage for disorderly brigandage and political activities. We should discourage recent developments whereby litigants, sometimes with the knowledge of counsel bring political supporters into court premises in a manner that threatens the independence of judicial officers in the performance of their judicial functions. We all have a duty to protect our profession and the courts from being reduced to theatres of the absurd.

ii. Constitutional Umpire
Similarly, in order to secure the future of the profession, we must extend the necessary protection to the judiciary.

I have learnt of situations where senior law officers and indeed members of the judiciary are quoted in public and therefore on the internet as stating the "deplorable spate of corruption and corrupt judges". Many of these utterances are not substantiated or easy to substantiate more so where no judicial officer has ever been convicted of corruption. These reputational diminutions have the tendency of disparaging our legal system in the eyes of the world at large.

I should not be understood as condoning corruption but the underlying message is that such derogative remarks should not be addressed to judges by senior members of the bar and the judiciary without justification. Perhaps I should mention that making false statements against public officers particularly judges remains an offence on our statute books.

Our courts, especially the Supreme Court remain the only protection we have from tyranny and oppression. We must protect them jealously and stand vanguard against any attempt to desecrate their hallowed precinct.

Speaking about the role and pre-eminence of the United States Supreme Court in the Introduction to his book, A People’s History of the Supreme Court, Peter Irons said:-

“For some two centuries, since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, disputes over the meaning of its broadly worded provisions have been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, whose unelected members have often wielded power to strike down the acts of elected lawmakers…In a very real sense, the history of the Supreme Court reflects the appeals of powerless “outsiders” to the powerful “insiders” who have shaped the Constitution’s meaning over the past two centuries”

The kind of protection our courts can and should afford against oppression is vividly illustrated in the book God and Bad Power, where Geoff Mulgarn stated at page 56 that:-

“In early modern Europe, the struggles over justice prepared the way for democracy and rights. When Frederick the Great wanted to extend the gardens of his palace near Berlin, Sans Souci, he is said to have asked a miller who owned a mill overlooking the extension to sell it. The Miller replied that he wanted to keep it for his children. The king said he could take it without compensation, to which the miller replied “yes majesty, if our courts did not exist”. The mill still stands overlooking San Souci as a subordination of royalty to law”

I could not dwell too much about the ominous bells ringing about the Rule of Law and our profession; as I discuss the subject of the role of lawyers, the future of our profession in the scheme of under developed countries and failed economies.

In the manner in which some of our people resort to self medication instead of seeking medical advice, we are witnessing non-lawyers interpreting judgments of courts and choosing which statements appeals to them or support their partisan views.

While it is true that court judgments are written in simple English, it is my respectful view that only trained lawyers can identify the ratio decidendi of a case by analyzing the issues submitted for adjudication which forms the judgment of the court, as against statements that are made obiter. These are simple but very important principles that we must protect.

In a political era where the position of the adversary is not worthy of consideration by the leader of the official bar because he is the “master of the law”, we must use this annual conference to reinforce the hard lessons we learnt from the Port Harcourt Conference and respect the efforts of leaders of our profession particularly our current President Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, who have toiled day and night to recover our pre-eminent position.

We must remind ourselves that the Rule of Law demands that the judiciary must remain the constitutional umpire.

iii. Borderless Future – for our Nation and our Profession
As we look to the future of our profession, it is manifest that the interdependence of countries in exchange of goods and services across borders now produces bizarre results. Jobs are lost in a country 5000 km away from the location where a bank withdrew a line of credit resulting from another countries declaration of war against another.

Globalization, open economy and the removal of restrictions on goods and services have not always been in the best interest of the southern hemisphere and Nigeria in particular. Yet outright protectionism is not the route to a high performing economy.

Where should we be strategically as a nation and as a professional sub sector of the national economy? We must be discerning enough to decompose ideas emanating from developed economies before we implement them wholesale.

The wave towards “unrestricted globalization” for instance is to be firmly rejected.

This I will suggest should be substituted with “internationalization” of the legal profession. This is achievable by our quest for high standards thereby attracting foreign specialization within our existing framework and exporting local expertise to foreign countries.

I therefore urge all of us to elevate our professional skills to have borderless appeal. Borderless in the sense that the services of a Nigerian lawyer practicing for instance in a place like Jos will be relevant offshore. We should take advantage of our strategic position in Africa and particularly the West-African sub-region.

Recent global events have proven that survival is no longer just for the fittest but those who adapt most effectively to the technological demands of the 21st Century. The legal profession therefore cannot be exempted.

However, let me quickly admit that the ability to accept change has always been a major downside of the practice of law especially in Nigeria. A major area in which technology is an asset to the legal profession is document control. In today's digital age, paper systems can lead to loss of money, time, and efficiency. Losing a vital paper document means that extra time and money must be spent tracking down a copy.

With ICT, paralegals, lawyers and even judicial officers are able to scan paper documents and convert them into electronic files; compile databases of evidence, facts, or statistics; code litigation documents for quicker retrieval and in some cases, restore the quality of damaged electronic documents.

These document-control programs will allow legal professionals to work more efficiently while saving immeasurable amounts of space and, therefore, costs by eliminating the need for bulky paper organization and filing systems. In fact, in many other jurisdictions, it is now difficult to imagine practicing law for even one day without ICT and the internet in some form.

The legal profession has been losing out on the advantage of ICT in Technology-based evidence. Technology-based evidence is a great development for expediting trial preparation and procedures. Unfortunately, certain Technology-based evidence remains inadmissible under our law of evidence.

At the moment, the Evidence Act does not permit the admissibility of certain digital document which can be especially compelling in civil and criminal cases. For instance, what can we describe as the primary evidence of a digital photograph where the Evidence Act insists on the tendering of the original of a photograph for evidence purposes?

I am sure we are all aware of the material significance of digital and technology –based evidence in the Enron and other renowned cases.

Incidentally, there is a Bill currently before the National Assembly for the amendment to the Evidence Act. The Bill seeks to incorporate electronic/technology based evidence into our law of evidence. The proposed amendment introduces a new Part XIV with ten (10) innovative sections specifically providing for the admissibility of Electronic Evidence.

In view of this and apart from the general tendency of lawyers to resist change, you will agree with me that ICT and the internet will fundamentally, irreversibly, and comprehensively change legal practice with the attendant impact on the general administration of justice.

3. LAW AND ORDER
Partnering in Progress for the future

As a State Government, we shall continue to contribute our quota to the development of the legal profession and the law. We shall not relent in our justice sector reform drive both in the area of public order law and the promotion and the preservation of private rights and obligations. Only recently, I received the report of the committee inaugurated to review the Criminal Code, a law that originally came into force in 1916. The proposed Criminal Law of Lagos State Bill 2009 has since been forwarded to the State House of Assembly for consideration. Similarly, we have presented for re-enactment the Administration of Criminal Justice Law Bill 2009. This is also currently before the House of Assembly. All these are in continuation of our initiatives to further strengthen an orderly society in Lagos State.

In the area of private obligations and in our attempt to re-align ourselves with the continuous and rapidly progressing global economy, we have embraced Limited Liability Partnerships (“LLP”), as a business vehicle that has proved successful in other economies. This we have done by amending the Partnership Laws of Lagos State and incorporating provisions pertaining to Limited Liability Partnerships into the Law. One of the obvious advantages of LLP's is that it will permit owners of these business entities to become legally capable of limiting their liability. This we believe will encourage the growth of small and medium businesses (and professional practices) in Lagos State.

In our effort to guarantee and secure interests in property in Lagos State, the Lagos State Executive Council has passed the Consolidation of the Registration of Titles Law of Lagos State and same is now awaiting the consideration of the House of Assembly. The Bill, when it is passed into law will be an amalgamation of all laws relating to registration of titles to land in Lagos State thereby creating a regime of certainty of titles.

As you may all be aware, the sanctity of contract and the speedy resolution of commercial disputes are necessary ingredients in promoting economic development. To this end, and in our bid to make Lagos the arbitration hub of West-Africa, the Arbitration Law 2009 was signed into law. We have also enacted the Lagos Court of Arbitration Law 2009. The objective of this law is to make the Lagos Court of Arbitration (“LCA”) the choice center for the resolution of commercial disputes in the West Africa sub-region and beyond. The LCA will enpanel international selected "neutrals" in a conducive environment for this purpose.

Against this background we have embarked on the upgrading of physical infrastructure in the justice sector, particularly the Magistracy. New Magistrates’ Court Buildings are being constructed across the state and they have all reached considerable stages of completion. This July marked the dawn of a new Magistracy in Lagos State with the signing into law of the Magistrates’ Court Law 2009. The old law came into force on 31st December 1955. The Magistrates’ Court Law 2009, will only permit prosecution by qualified legal practitioners. The law also makes Saturday a day of business in the Magistrates’ Court. This is to ensure that suspected offenders are afforded the earliest opportunity of being brought before a Court in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.

Furthermore in the justice sector, we are currently training 130 carefully selected candidates as Verbatim Court Recorders. This is with a view to modernizing the manner in which court proceedings are recorded and thereby achieve a more judicious use of judicial time of courts. On the completion of their training course, they will be deployed to courts across the State and the era of long-hand recording of court proceedings will be over.

E-commerce and e-justice are now interwoven concepts. We must continue to position our systems and processes to be receptive to IT in the justice system. On a comparative basis, Singapore, Malaysia and Mexico already operate Electronic Filing System (EFS) for court process. In Lagos State, we are determined that our Court Automated Information System (CAIS), the Intranet Access for Court Officers, Electronic Access Gateway for Lawyers (EAGLE) and Information Network Extranet Access for external users will be launched in 2010 to achieve the real development potential that the future of the legal profession demands.

The primary purpose of governance is to ensure the security, social and economic well being of the greatest number of its citizens. Lawyers have a crucial role to perform in ensuring that public officers do not lose focus of this objective. This I encourage lawyers to do undeterred. It is for this reason that I will say that lawyers are major stakeholders in our quest to ward off underdevelopment and achieve economic and political stability.

Members of the public hold us in very high esteem. They have left so much to our discretion and we should not let them down. Also, lawyers have been in the front line of social, political and economic change in several countries. We can re-write the future of the profession, our nation and continent as a whole.

My Lords, my learned friends, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, once again I welcome you to Lagos, the Centre of Excellence, the State of Aquatic Splendour and the region of minds.

I thank you for your attention, and wish us all a very successful conference.

Eko o ni baje o!

Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN
Governor of Lagos State