LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT AND ASSEMBLY SUED

He stated further that the House of Assembly of Lagos State has been meeting secretly and holding clandestine proceedings for the purpose of considering and passing a bill that will remove the Probate Division of the High Court and farm it out to private persons.

According to him, no public hearing is being held at all and relevant stakeholders such as Lawyers, the Nigerian Bar Association, etc. are not in the picture of this plot.

Adegboruwa is contending that this decision will lead to arbitrariness as the administration of the estate of the deceased is mostly confidential and sensitive in nature and should not be left in the hands of private individuals as this may discourage many families from approaching the Probate Division at all. into the transaction because the risk is too great, or they raise the price to compensate for the additional hazard. In either event, the free flow of trade is hampered. On the other hand, when businesses are confident that laws and procedures exist so that disputes can be resolved efficiently, the conduct of international trade and foreign direct investment is facilitated. It would appear therefore that the proposed bill is in direct conflict with the policy of the present government which seeks to encourage and improve foreign direct investment.

In conclusion it would appear that the spirit and letter of the proposed bill is in total variance to the jurisprudence of arbitration and alternative dispute resolution and same would be an impediment to the attraction of foreign direct investment in Nigeria. The same would also be detrimental to practitioners of ADR who will be taken backward in their careers and would no longer be able to compete with colleagues in other climes. Nigeria will seize to be destination for arbitration. The bill if passed into law will also erode the private rights of citizens to resolve their dispute as alternative dispute resolution is self regulatory globally. The bill is in total conflict with international best practices in arbitration and should be stopped from being passed into law.

Nwakogo is the Managing Partner of Rosberg Legal Practitioners & Arbitrators.