Rebuild citizen’s trust, confidence, SAN tasks govt
FORMER Nigerian Bar Association ( NBA) presidential aspirant, Chief JoeKyari Gadzama ( SAN) has charged governments at all levels to be more responsive to the needs of the people by bridging the yawning gap in trust and confidence between citizens and the state.
According to him, rebuilding the nation post COVID- 19 will require effective leadership as the pandemic is not only a public health crisis, but has also heavily impacted and disrupted the economic, political and judicial space.
He made the charge during his firm’s 12th yearly public lecture with the theme: “Rebuilding the nation post COVID- 19 outbreak: the judicial, economic and political perspectives” in Abuja last week.
Gadzama also emphasised the need to institutionalise the use of technology in the administration of justice in the country.
He said: “It is a notorious fact that the virulence of COVID- 19 and its ravaging effects have brought about seismic changes around the world, with impact heavily felt in arguably all facets of human existence. It has affected how we live and interact with one another, how we work and communicate, how we move around and travel; in fact, every aspect of our lives has been affected.
“As a matter of emphasis, COVID- 19 is not only a global pandemic and public health crisis; it has also severely affected major pillars of various nations’ existence, with Nigeria getting its fair share of the spoils. On the economic front, it has brought about significant reductions in income, rise in unemployment, disruption in the transportation services, losses in service industries, low productivity in the manufacturing industry, increase in prices of goods and services, to mention but a few. This has triggered the urgent need to chart a way forward towards rescuing our economy.”
In the judicial sector, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, courts, he noted, were labouring under overloaded dockets and case files.
The closure of the courts arising from measures aimed at curbing the pandemic, he said, sadly exacerbated the problem.
“Awaiting trial detainees had their hearings which may have led to their release from custody stalled, litigants were left frustrated by the impasse as cases slated for hearing within the period of suspension were stalled, and cases whose cause of action arose within the period of suspension could not be heard.
“The reopening of courts created nightmarish scenarios as judges, court staff, lawyers and litigants battled to reschedule hearings that could not take place during the lockdown. The result was a backlog that tested the limits of the Nigerian judiciary, bearing in mind that the system is already bedeviled by protracted trials and undue delay. Justice delayed, they say, is justice denied,” he declared.
Gadzama reminded that the Nigerian judiciary has been stuck in analogue mode for so long, to the detriment of the country.
He therefore declared that it would not be out of place to suggest that the COVID- 19 pandemic came as a wakeup call on the need to deliberately bolster the institutionalization of the use of technology in the administration of justice in Nigeria.