As the Justice Summit in Abuja ends today…

By Sonnie Ekwowusi

The only obstacle to the speedy delivery of justice in our courts in Nigeria is human corruption, NOT technical issues such as judicial rules and procedures.

To facilitate easy access to substantive justice in our courts, we must begin to eliminate administrative injustices caused by judicial personnel – clerks, bailiffs, court file bearers, court messengers, etc. – that produce legal injustices. Look, if a clerk or bailiff has ruined your case, you cannot get legal aid from the judge

Until we get rid of civil service bureaucracy and red tapism, it would be quite difficult to expedite justice in our courts.

The problem is not with the rules or procedures of the court. After all, the same Wolf system used in Britain is used in Nigeria. But in Nigeria it doesn’t work well. Why? Because of who we are in Nigeria: the civil service corrupts structures

My suggestion:

Appoint UPRIGHT lawyers to the court. The banal law does not make a good judge: good judges are made by integrity and sincerity.

Second, our judges should attend an annual conference on the principles of logic, philosophy and metaphysics and the real meaning of justice. I can get excellent instructors to facilitate it for them.

You see, Justices Oputas, Esos, Uwaifos Idigbes and Oguntades of the glorious Supreme Court did not excel for mere knowledge of the law; they excelled because they were men of letters and classics.

Sonnie Ekwowusi