Hammed Shittu
30 August 2007
Ilorin — Attorney-General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Mr. Mi-chael Kasse Aondoakaa, yesterday frowned at the use of judges to get hurried court injunctions to remove governors.
He said the Federal Government would not tolerate such resorts to abuse of court processes any longer.
Such actions, he said, would contradict the principles of the rule of law advocated by the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
Also, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has said that if Nigeria continued to shy away from taking certain steps in the direction the global system is moving, it would be difficult to achieve the stated objectives of the Financial System Strategy (FSS) by 2020.
Aondoakaa, who was speaking at the national delegates conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Ilorin, Kwara State, said it would be difficult for the Federal Government to enforce a court order by a judge to remove a governor when ex-parte orders are hurriedly granted but when life is involved a judge may decide to give an ex-parte order to save the situation.
According to him, whatever is done outside the law "is no longer prosecution but persecution and such will surely be avoided."
He said whoever is arrested for any criminal case should be taken to court within 24 hours of his arrest, adding that such persons should not be kept in custody unduly.
The Minister assured that the federal government would do everything possible to ensure that the rule of law and respect for the law and order was sustained and maintained, as this would go along way in moving the nation forward.
According to him, this is indeed the basis for building a civilised nation that is fair to all of its citizens and solves their problems.
"We must build a nation in which all individuals feel and know that they are valued members of society. That they have a government that respects human dignity, promote human development, foster human equality and advance human freedom," he said.
As the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, he said his vision of the justice system was one that is simple, fast, efficient, effective and more responsive to the needs of the people
"Our justice system will give full protection to law abiding citizens and redress injustice suffered by every citizen. It is only in this manner that we shall earn our respect as a nation and dignity as a people," he said.
Soludo, in a lecture he delivered also at the national delegate conference entitled "Financial Sector Strategy 2020, the Legal Imperatives" said, "Without a robust and vibrant financial system that would power the nation's economy, the country will go no where".
According to him, the nation is in a state of urgency and in a haste as she cannot afford gradualism toward the economic development of the country.
He said, "You cannot afford to get to the sky, you cannot afford to get to the moon and yet be afraid of something like an aeroplane. If we are going to be one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020 then we need definitive actions. Part of the FSS 2020 is that we must dare to be; we must dare to do it."
The CBN governor added that "some people believed that we have to crawl to get there, people are afraid of changes, changes that would be required might be so dramatic that they may have difficulty with".
He stressed that the country needed the kind of revolution that took place in the banking system to also take place in all other sectors of Nigerian economy in order to meet up with developed countries of the world.
Soludo said in order to achieve all this economic goals to the international level, the CBN would campaign vigorously for the establishment of commercial court divisions within the High Courts across the country to tackle the current difficulties experienced by operators in the financial sector.
He also warned that unless other sectors of the economy caught up with the revolution in the banking sector, current effort would be meaningless.
His words: "At least, a section of the High Courts in each state must be designated for banks. It has become imperative if Nigeria were to grow in the financial sector as the rest of the world. Such banks fall within the framework of the three strategic agenda the CBN is pursuing to enhance the growth of the economy by making it attractive to consumer interest as well as external financial institutions.
"The legal infrastructure needed for the expected growth in the economy is weak but one way to start is to have commercial courts. We must designate in every state a section of the High Court that deals with commercial cases. It is different from fast tracking. One of the problems in getting loan in Nigeria today is that of identification. You don't know the identity of the person you are giving loan.
"Today the man who takes loan and gives bank the collateral knows he is not going to pay; he knows once the time for paying comes he will go to court, using you lawyers to obtain an order of perpetual injunction restraining the bank until the substantive issue is dealt with and meanwhile he will not be servicing the loan.
"That case can be on for years. This is ineffective and it is not the problem of the banks but that of the legal system.
"The CBN stands ready to partner with the lawyers and the courts to start these courts. We have fixed the financial infrastructure; the banks are working steadily but we need to work together on these other areas.
"We need draft legislations for the FSS Project, while there is urgent need for the amendment some existing legislations including the Evidence Act, Consumer Bill of Right, BOFIA, CAMA, Investment Laws, e-documentation, Land Use Act e-transaction, cyber crime etc.. I believe that in the final analysis, and we are telling the NBA we will be ready to partner with you and the National Assembly, the judiciary to put these things together because it is in our overall collective interest."
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