By Daniel Maduka
The Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Aba Branch, has called for a drastic reformation of the Legal System in Nigeria to bring it in tune with the current dynamics and realities on the ground.
Egwu said the country’s legal system needs to be purged of some, if not most of the received laws from our colonial masters, adding that they are no longer relevant to the administration of justice system in Nigeria.
In an interview with The Source, Barrister Egwu noted that while Nigeria has continued to hold on to most of the received laws, those who gave them to us have since discarded them.
“Frankly speaking, we require a very drastic reformation of our legal system .There is something called Received English laws that were operational in England as far back as 1900.We made our laws based on most of those received laws.
“This was mainly because ,at independence we needed laws ,and had to rely on those received laws.
But ironically ,we are still operating most of those received laws, even when those that gave them to us have discarded them.
“Despite a whole lot of those received laws being discarded in both Western and Eastern Regions as early as 1963 ,some of them are still there.” Egwu noted
He blamed the seemingly inability of the country to embark on a meaningful reformation of laws on lack of sincerity of purpose on the part of those saddled with the responsibilities.
According to Egwu, selfishness on the part of major actors in the task of reforming the country,s legal system has continued to stall the process.
“Most of our laws are obsolete. Even some laws that were not received are obsolete as well. But the problem is that the political class are really in charge .
“Most of the bills are presented from the nursery stages as ,executive bills where some people already have their interests and targets. Before sending the bills , the Executive will first of all look at how the proposed law will benefit and or negatively affect it .
This is the root cause why some provisions in the Electoral Act were left as non obligatory.
“Some people believe that making such provisions like the issue of transmission of election results electronically have the potentials of undermining their electoral fortunes.
All will need is to muster the required political will in our quest for the reformation of our laws .
“There have been calls for the establishment of a constitution review committee. But people should also not forget that there must be a law that will mandate the formation of any constitution review committee. There again politics will come in ” the NBA chairman stated.
According to Egwu, the tendencies for people to misunderstand and accuse the judiciary of alleged bias and compromise in their rulings ,especially in political cases boils down to lack of adequate knowledge of the laws by most of the critics .
” It is laughable when some people will be accusing the judiciary of trying to undermine our democracy through its pronouncements.
“I believe that the Judiciary, to those who understand what the law says, is rather working hard to protect our democracy.
“From your question concerning how three or five people will just sit down and upturn the will of millions of people.
“Well, this is a serious misconception. The judiciary is not out to upturn what anybody has done. Rather ,it is there to ensure that what ever those three millions and or more people have done is in accordance with the laid down procedures.
“Our democracy is a constitutional democracy. And that being the case, if some three million people should do what is not constitutional and in the process produce a winner, it is then the duty and responsibility of the three people to tell the three million people, ‘you have done well but you didn’t follow the the laid down rules in the performance of your duty’.
“The problem is that some people want the judiciary to follow three million people and accept their unconstitutional decisions just because it came massively.” Egwu noted.
