Ahead inauguration of his cabinet this week, prominent lawyers from different regions in the country have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to consider professionalism and rich experience in law practice in the choice of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice.
The Nigerian Senate had cleared 43 ministerial nominees for inauguration but none is yet to be assigned portfolio.
Since democracy berthed in 1999, successive presidents did not strictly consider educational background of ministerial nominees and relevant job experience in assigning portfolios.
The successive commander-in-chief had always exercised their liberties to assign portfolios to nominees except one.
Section 150 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, compels the president to pick a lawyer as the nation’s attorney-general and minister of justice.
The section says: “There shall be an Attorney General of the Federation who shall be the Chief Law Officer of the Federation and a Minister of the Government of the Federation”.
The Constitution specifies that a person shall not be qualified to hold or perform the functions of the Office of the AGF unless he is qualified to practice as a legal practitioner in Nigeria and has been so qualified for not less than ten years.
Although there are lawyers on the list of the ministers-designate, prominent lawyers in the country are urging President Buhari to go beyond the constitutional provision if he must succeed.
They gave him guidelines on how to pick the best nominee from his list for the job.
For Yunus Usman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and constitutional lawyer, he said whoever is assigned the Justice Ministry must be as clean and above board as Julius Caesar’s wife.
He said: “The person must have proven incorruptible qualities and must be able to give the Federal Government wonderful legal advice at all times.
“Second, when he is in doubt, he must consult experienced external lawyers before giving advice to government”. Buhari
Besides, the senior lawyer, who has handled many sensitive cases in court, said it was imperative for an AGF to personally conduct high-profile cases involving the Federal Government.
“Whoever is appointed as the AGF should be handling serious government cases himself. He must also ensure that government lawyers in the Ministry of Justice are not just there to take salaries but must be forced to go to court so as to reduce the cost of litigation and amount of money spent to pay external lawyers. That is why they were employed as state counsel.
“Any AGF that imbibes these qualities will succeed but anyone who fails to do so is bound to fail”.
Another SAN, Dayo Akinlaja, said: “To my mind, professionalism is crucial for one to serve as a desirable Chief Law Officer. The AGF must be someone that can comfortably rise above the murky waters of politics and ensure that the rule of law flourishes.
“The country at this point essentially needs an AGF that will make going to court worthwhile by looking for ingenious ways to expedite the course of litigation from the trial court to the apex court. Much of the injustice that we witness around is linked to the fact that it takes inordinate time to round off litigation in the courts.
“Once it is known that people can get justice in court over a reasonable period of time, it is almost certain that some of the injustice around would be promptly curbed by deterrence. It takes a professional person whose preoccupation is not politics and politicking to bring this about.
“Of course politics is inexorable in the discharge of whatever political duties; nonetheless, it should not have the better of professionalism. There is a need to rebuild confidence in our judicial system. We need an AGF who will work hand in hand with the judiciary and the NBA to achieve this.
“So we need a judiciary and NBA friendly personality for the office of the AGF. Importantly too, we need an AGF that will serve as a bridge-builder among the three arms of government and the generality of the public.
“The singular way to do this is to be in a position to foster a robust culture of rule of law. It takes professionalism to have this done as well. Of no less importance is the fact that we need the AGF to dictate the pace of legal practice in the public area of the law of the land.
“Professionalism comes to the fore in this regard as well. For all these, the AGF must be a team player, well-focused professionally and, above all, given to probity and must be God-fearing”.
To Chino Obiagwu, SAN, who is the Director of Legal Defence and Assistant Project, LEDAP: “The main minus of this regime is disobedience to orders of the court. That is a major affront to the rule of law.
“No modern society can develop without the rule of law. So I expect the incoming AGF to be committed to the rule of law. He must not misadvice government that national security or whatever security supersedes judicial orders or the rule of law. That is a call to anarchy.
“A new AGF must respect the Constitution and citizens cannot be detained arbitrarily without charge for weeks and months and years. This is a democracy and arbitrary detention is unconstitutional. We want an AGF that is truly a democrat”.
Said human rights lawyer, Mr Ugochukwu Ezekiel: “I believe we need radical reforms in the administration of Justice in Nigeria. We, therefore, need someone who does not only have a deep understanding of the law but also one who is independent-minded, fearless and bold, someone who could look straight at his principal’s eyes and advise on radical but result oriented reforms in our justice system in Nigeria.
“I am not talking of the criminal justice system alone but reforms in civil rules to ensure speedy dispensation of justice. Such a person should be someone who could convince his colleagues at the state level to advise governors to adopt uniform but well-thought-out reforms in the states,
“We also need someone who understands what is required for the successful prosecution of cases, and not one whose job will be to find loopholes in our laws or contrive one to explain executive mistakes and outright violation of the laws of the land. We need a forthright and courageous Attorney General and Minister of Justice”.
