When potential entrepreneurs set out to fulfil dreams of establishing profitable businesses of their own, one of the essential lessons they learn is the ability to recognise opportunities in their respective environments.
For the uninitiated, opportunities may mean getting something for nothing or having an unfettered leeway to exploit what ordinarily should be contested. Contrary to the foregoing however, recognising an opportunity in entrepreneurial terms means the recognition of a problem for which the entrepreneur can provide a solution, and benefit or make a profit from the problem solving or invention.
The Nigerian Shippers Council recognised one such opportunity 27 years ago, when in 1995 its leadership observed a deficit in the quality of judicial decisions regarding maritime cases. It saw an imperative to correct the trend by collaborating with the National Judicial Institute to establish the Maritime Seminar for Judges series which now attracts participation not only from all around the continent but other foreign countries.
Thus, beginning from July 5th to 7th, this year, the council will be holding another in the series. It will bring together the nation’s judges, lawyers, industry practitioners and other stakeholders in an intensive enlightenment on current issues in maritime adjudication and practice.
As I write this, there is a huge national opportunity in the dispute resolution industry beckoning for an urgent intervention or recognition. Only during the week, a respected lawyers’ blog published a writer who raised concerns about delays in adjudicating appeals pending before the nation’s Supreme Court. The article quoted the published remarks of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Akajiugo Emeka Obegolu SAN, who disclosed that on Tuesday the 22nd of June 2022, an appeal filed in the year 2005 came up for hearing before the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Counsel in the matter informed the court that both the appellant and the respondent were now deceased.
No one knows exactly when the case under reference was filed in the court of first instance; suffice it to state that at the date when the Supreme Court was informed of the death of both parties, the matter had been in the court’s docket for 17years. This disturbing delay and death of parties in a case pending before the Supreme Court is not an isolated one; the only difference being that the Senior Advocate of Nigeria who raised the issue in the public space is a leading voice in the alternative dispute resolution community.
In an earlier landlord and tenant case, Pillars (Nig) Ltd v. Desbordes, decided by the Supreme Court on February 5 2021, Honourable Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim deprecated the 28 years in which the parties were in court for a matter that could well have been better managed. His Lordship gave a clear breakdown of the chequered history of the case. The case lasted 13 years at the High Court of Lagos State, three years at the Court of Appeal and 12 years at the Supreme Court of Nigeria. With these harrowing trauma and uncertainties, isn’t it time now for counsel and their principals to sincerely begin to explore the mediation process with all of its core values that grant parties self-determination in such matters that affect them?
The challenge of delayed adjudication at the Supreme Court should by now be a cause for sincere national concern and urgent intervention. It certainly does not augur well for our notion of justice as a people. It is true, in my view, that the problem is beyond the control of their Lordships whose court is inundated with all manners of appeal. Be that as it may, I suppose time is ripe for a drastic review of the processes that promote this avoidable trajectory. I am aware that like the court below it, the Supreme Court has since established the Supreme Court Mediation Centre. What now is the delay in revving that centre into action?
There is a suggestion that the centre may be lacking in appropriate manpower. If this be the case, it does not appear that it would take such a long time to develop appropriate skills to man the centre. Another concern that has been raised is that some counsel who file appeals at the Supreme Court do so with the intention of building their profiles for the coveted status of Senior Advocates of Nigeria. This concern runs through all levels of the court system and has in some significant measure contributed to the slow uptake of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) by lawyers in litigation practice.
Knowing full well that a valid mediation process is a recognised barometer for measuring true justice in the eyes of those who through self-determination arrive at acceptable outcomes for their cases, the judiciary in the interest of societal good must seriously give consideration to ADR at the Supreme Court now.