Perception of the Law
The United States (US) legal system defines perception to mean “appreciation or cognition. It is an observation awareness, or realisation, usually based on physical sensation or experience.” It therefore means that perception is gotten from the surrounding circumstances of the viewer.
Take for instance in the country right now, the public believes the Bar & Bench are scuttling the anti-corruption war because they are faced with facts as reported by the media that way; the public is continually losing confidence in the judiciary because the wrath of justice is only felt by the poor.
Some are even saying that it is because of the personality or position that some Nigerians possess, like the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the former National Security Adviser {NSA} Sambo Dasuki that is why they are yet to face the brunt of the law, that if it were a common man involved in such enormous crimes he would have been done and dusted by now. And the truth is selective justice is no justice at all.
When the public is faced with such information and the attitudes of some members of the Bar and Bench confirms this assertion, can we then say that the public perception of the Law in Nigeria is misconceived? Or are the operators of the legal profession who should be changing this impression lax on the approach of same?
It is my belief that while the media have helped in giving out half-baked truths about the true nature of the profession, we as members of the profession owe it a duty to the profession to show the society that it is a different ball game, and to achieve this, both the Bar and the Bench must work as a team.
Using the Abia legal imbroglio as a case study, one or more lawyer{s} must have suggested a route that has brought the legal conundrum going on now in the state to the mercy of the poor masses who are confused and don’t know which way is the right route and which way is not, and because I am not conversant with the complete facts of what is going on in the state, I would not assume which side is wrong or right.
The team work as advocated here would play out when members of both the Bar and Bench start calling a spade, a spade while in the performance of duties as legal practitioners, there is little the bench or Court can do than to grant a relief sought by a party in a process franked by a lawyer. A lawyer ought to respect the Rules of Court, while the Bench must be brave to take a stand where a relief sought would cause more harm than good to the society.
The issue of criticizing judgments on public media has been over flogged by this column and we strongly advise against young lawyers towing this line either now or in the future, however, some senior members of the Bar still engage in it. The public cannot have a good perception of the law when team members are shooting at themselves - when the judgment is in our favour we say erudite and well considered, when it is against us, we say poorly researched, and these statements are made to the hearing of laymen who know little of what happens in the legal system.
In the words of Professor A.K Usman, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Legal Matters, Research and Documentation “God forbid that the Bar and Bench after losing patronage because of their perceived collusion with corrupt people, be heard crying out against loss of relevance and pleading for remission like the fellow who after killing his father and mother and was about to be sentenced pleading for leniency because he was an orphan.”
What we do as a body matters and the society is observing, using surrounding circumstances to form an opinion about how the law works in this country, whether the perception is true or not matters little, if we cannot present ourselves as ministers in the temple of justice.
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