How Nigeria Can Develop, By Uwais
From Lillian Okenwa and Kunle Aderinokun in Abuja
Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muham-madu Lawal Uwais, stated yesterday that for the country to develop properly, it must practice the principle of separation of powers, where each arm of government is allowed to function independent of the other.
Uwais stated this at the commencement of the 2004 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) annual general and delegates conference in Abuja.
The CJN who was represented by Justice Salihu .M. A. Belgore (JSC) at the opening ceremony said that unless each arm of government was able to work without another either dictating or acting in a superior position, the growth of the Nigerian nation may be hampered.
Outgoing President of the NBA, Chief Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) urged the executive to desist from interfering with the work of the judiciary.
Making particular reference to governors and State Houses of Assembly who he said often meddle with the affairs of State High Court Judges especially the Chief Judges, Olanipekun said no arm of government should be made to appear subservient to the other.
He equally appealed to the judiciary to desist from frustrating the process of disciplining lawyers by the indiscriminate grant of ex-parte orders against the NBA and the NBA disciplinary committee or the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee.
"It has now become fashion for some lawyers to rush down to their respective Chief Judges, through applications for enforcement of fundamental human rights to stop the NBA from even looking at complaints of professional misconducts made against them.
"I do believe that each of the High Court judges in this country knows well that the NBA Secretariat is in Lagos while the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee is based in Abuja.
"One then wonders why a State High Court Judge who is neither in Lagos or Abuja should assume jurisdiction in a matter filed against the NBA President, Secretary, Disciplinary Committee and the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee outside the two jurisdictions aforementioned.
"Our judges should not aid and abet acts of professional misconduct amongst lawyers," he said.
Delivering the keynote address, Professor Itse Sagay, (SAN) advised that for the Nigerian federation to survive, "we must shed the current federal stranglehold on Nigeria and go back to true federalism, not only structurally, but also in attitude and conduct.
"We must imbibe and practice, respect for the independence of the states; there must be solidarity of the center with the federating units in mutual cooperation. We must break the suffocating stranglehold of corruption and indiscipline. We must all sit down together and talk in order to find a new way forward..."
Sagay stated that that Nigeria was a unitary state 'masquerading' as a federal state.
He said: "If states are not challenged to reap where they did not sow, the economy of this country will go no where. As a result of cheap money from the Niger Delta, all the Northern states and other Southern states have just allowed their natural and mineral resources to go untapped and where they are tapped, the proceeds go to enrich individual foreign bank accounts....
"Depending on Abuja to dish out handouts called revenue allocation to state governments cannot grow this economy. Powers and wealth are being unduly concentrated at an unwieldy center..."
Sagay called for revisiting of the regional constitutions in the 1960 and 1963 Nigerian constitutions, noting that the said constitutions described each region as 'a self governing region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
To buttress the self- governing status of each region, adequate provisions, he said, were made in these Constitutions to guarantee their economic independence thus, avoiding the hollowness of a declaration of self-governing status totally undermined by economic dependence.
"As a direct consequence of the concentration of powers and resources in the Federal Government under the 1999 Constitution, Nigeria has been plunged into an unending series of crises since the commencement of the so called Fourth Republic on 29th May 1999...", he added.
In his address, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, disclosed that the ministry has issued only 13,000 Certificates of Occupancy (C of O).
He said that contrary to general perception that all C of O's in the FCT have been revoked the ministry was only re-certificating in order to sanitise land allocation in the territory.
Meanwhile the NBA yesterday received its Certificate of Incorporation from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) after many years of or existence.
Out-going President Olanipekun, who received the certificate from the Registrar-General, CAC, Mr. Ahmed Almustapha during a courtesy visit to its headquarters in Wuse Zone 5, Abuja yesterday disclosed that names of the registered trustees of the Association were approved at its National Executive Council meeting in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He said "from now on our association can sue and be
sued in its registered name. I believe that the formal registration of the NBA as a juristic person with perpetual succession had been long over due, particularly after the embarrassment in the celebrated case of Fawehinmi Vs NBA (1989)."
He commended the CAC management for re-awakening and revolutionizing it.
According to him, "we wish to commend the commission for the turnaround and re-awaking taking place. If the commission doesn't perform then the economy will descend into the doldrums. The CAC occupies a pivotal area in the system and economy."
In his welcome address, Almustapha recalled that the present management on assumption of office was faced with series of problems which constrained incorporation processes.
He explained that "the manual nature of its operations also resulted in missing of company documents among other things. Management therefore reviewed the process by introducing team task system.
"Under the team task system, a particular team is assigned a number of files to work on from beginning to the end. With this innovation, the delay hitherto experienced in company incorporation has been reduced drastically."
"Similarly", he added, "the process of registration of incorporated trustees has been reduced drastically with the introduction of the trustees declaration form and other measures to enhance efficiency."
However, the registrar-general stressed that the CAC has introduced a new Certificate of Incorporation with security features to eradicate the incidence of forgery in company registration.
Also he said the commission has embarked on the CAC online project to improve its efficiency.
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