Access to True Justice
The course of justice can only be served if legal practitioners provide free legal aid to indigent accused persons, Davidson Iriekpe writes
It is no longer news that in Nigeria, access to justice, especially for the poor, still remains a mirage due to the absence of an established pro bono culture; although the federal government established the Legal Aid Council, which is performing similar functions and also the Lagos State Government created institutions such as the Office of the Public Defender, Peoples Advice Centre, Directorate of Citizens Rights and Citizens’ Mediation Centre to perform such functions.
But congestion has always presented a new dimension to the problem with the deluge to the prison system. It is worsened by the seeming helplessness of those concerned. This is because past efforts at prison de-congestion have not yielded positive results.
By a report of the nation’s prisons audit carried out in 2012 by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and some stakeholders, over 80 per cent of inmates in the nation’s 234 prisons are awaiting trial. This, no doubt, reflects a failure on the part of the criminal justice system.
Aside that police investigations are largely substandard, devoid of scientific analysis and mostly dependent on forced confessions, the pace of trial at the nation’s courts is mostly at snail speed.
It is worse when an accused person is without representation.
It is against this background that Mr. Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau (SAN), used the occasion of the NBA conference to remind lawyers especially the younger generation that posterity will find them guilty of abdicating their duties and responsibilities to bequeath a lasting legacy for the next generation if they do not provide free legal services for the less-privileged. He noted that since most lawyers are direct beneficiaries of the efforts and sacrifices made by the older generations, it is now that the younger generation will contribute their quota to the development of the profession and enhance it.
In a paper titled: ‘Expanding the Frontiers of Pro-bono Work in Nigeria, Maikyau as if preempting the president, brought to the consciousness of lawyers practicing in the country, the need to help those who do not have the wherewithal for legal representation in their quest for justice. Not just that, Maikyau also posits that justice would not be seen to have been served if the lawyer fails to rediscover himself and his status in society.
The senior advocate urged legal practitioners in the country to engage more in pro bono work, which is key to national development. He pointed out that over 90 per cent of the effort of the older generation “structures from which we benefited and are still benefitting from were provided on a rather pro-bono basis.”
In a 33-page presentation which is laced with funny anecdotes and direct compunction to the state of the nation, representative of the president’s own misgivings, Maikyau said: “Posterity will judge us guilty of abdicating the duties/responsibilities placed upon our shoulders, to build and bequeath a lasting legacy for the next generation of Nigerians. Should this failure occur (and I am optimistic that we can stop it from happening), it would be catastrophic and we cannot afford to let that happen.
“I say this because, most, if not all the lawyers who are attending this conference are direct beneficiaries of the efforts and sacrifices made by the older generation (with some paying the ultimate price) to build, manage and keep the institutions, through which we all passed to become lawyers in diverse fields of human endeavor. Unfortunately, we are laid back and complacent. We are comfortable with our personal and individual attainments and there appears, not to be any effort at giving back to the society.
We have become self-centered and have chosen to plateau at various levels of our growth as individuals and at best, our extended families.
“The level of passivity on our part is so horrific that, even the structures we enjoyed, which were partly and to a great deal responsible for our present molding, have been abandoned. We not only have failed to give back even the exact of what we got, we offer so much less or nothing at all. We meet in the comfort of our homes, offices or gardens to grumble and complain about the absence of National Development and the collapse of the system, as our favourite past time. This should not be the case and we must consciously and deliberately take it further in this Conference by resolving that; this cannot remain the order of the day.”
Replicating the old maxim “ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country”, the learned silk challenged members of the profession to stop touting “national development only in terms of what they believe to be their entitlements and not in terms of their participation in the process as part of their responsibility towards the people arising from their professional calling. He noted that presently, there was what he described as “the abuse of the sense of entitlement among all of us,” calling on his colleagues young and old, to desist from such.
“David McCullough, an English teacher, in his commencement speech to the Wellesley High School Class of 2012, Wellesley Massachusetts delivered these sobering words: “None of you is special. You are not special. You are not exceptional.” He called the graduating students “pampered, sheltered, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped, nudged, cajoled, feted and fawned over. McCullough said these things because kids today are so pampered and spoiled that they have an attitude of entitlement. He urged them not to do things just for the sake of personal accomplishment or self-indulgence, but because you love and believe it is important.
“The CEO of a Fortune 500 company was in a commercial flight that developed some problems and had to make an emergency landing. Everyone was de-boarded and then got in a long line to rebook their flights. He walked by 50 people in the line and stepped up to the counter and began to blame the ticket agent for his missing an important meeting. She told him to get back in line whereupon he said, “young lady, do you know who I am? I could have your job with a simple phone call!” What a way to intimidate! What an attitude of entitlement!
“What is the impact of this sense of entitlement? Arrogance creeps in and exaggerating our importance; Dependence by trying to use the system or others for personal gain; we think we are owed in life; we blame and never hold ourselves accountable; we become a burden to others; and raising ourselves above others. So how can we avoid an attitude of entitlement? Humble ourselves - this is the opposite of entitlement; check our motives; understanding that everything we are and have comes from God as a gift. Thomas Akempis writes, “Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus and even to seem poor in this world.” This is how we can be useful.”
Maikyau tasked his colleagues to heed this sermon, adding that as lawyers, whenever they complain about the lack of development in society and point accusing fingers at the leadership, it was like the “biblical casting of the speck in another man’s eye while ignoring the log in our own eyes. We are quick to remind the public of our status as lawyers.”
The senior advocate stressed that if the frontiers of pro bono work must be expanded, legal practitioners across the country must rediscover their misplaced priorities. According to him, for an effective rediscovery of the true identity of the lawyer, more emphasis should be given to the teaching of the concept of pro bono service as part of the tenets and as an integral package of the lawyer in our universities and the Nigerian Law School. He recommended that the role of corps members, whom he said, could be engaged by the Council on Legal Aid, noting that the level of preparedness of the corps members taking part in the activities of the Legal Aid Council and similar other organisations should be enhanced.
He added that the Legal Aid Council should be strengthened by the provision of adequate funding “to cater for the statutory functions of the council. This will enable the council to engage more personnel to attend to the growing demand for pro bono legal service. There is the need for the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association to liaise with the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria towards ensuring that, pro bono works are not reduced to mere requirement for application for the conferment with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. As applicants for the rank, we frantically look for pro bono works in order to meet the requirements for the application. Thereafter, we literally resent pro bono works with the attendant consequence of having our colleagues who pay great attention to pro bono service, branded as busy bodies.”
The lawyer however rues that in the first place, the Nigerian legal practitioner has to face not only the problems of the developing society but also many of those of the developed one into which Nigeria is moving at a hectic rate; the present rate of change in every facet of life could not have been foreseen. Secondly, he is one among the very few privileged people in an environment where the vast majority is not only illiterate but also ignorant, superstitious and poor; his social and traditional environment clogs him and he is required to make a great effort not only to break through but to play his proper role as a social catalyst. On the whole it sounded like the president and the SAN were asking for the same cookie in different words.
By a report of the nation’s prisons audit carried out in 2012 by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and some stakeholders, over 80 per cent of inmates in the nation’s 234 prisons are awaiting trial. This, no doubt, reflects a failure on the part of the criminal justice system. Aside that police investigations are largely substandard, devoid of scientific analysis and mostly dependent on forced confessions, the pace of trial at the nation’s courts is mostly at snail speed”