Henry Uche
Young legal practitioners under the aegis of Legal Business Network have challenged Nigerian judiciary to restore the confidence and trust Nigerians had in the legal sector.
They believe that the trust and confidence of the common man reposed in the Nigerian judicial system have been eroded and tarnished following the judgements and pronouncements made by different courts on political cases during the last elections.
Speaking at the Legal Business Network conference in Lagos recently, the founder of the network, solicitor Ifeoma Ben, tasked the Bar and Bench at the apex cadre to introspect and make amends where necessary since the hope of Nigerians in the judiciary have declined drastically.
‘The judiciary is the last hope of the common man… and if the judiciary has lost its substance of truth what can the common man do?” she queried.
Legal practitioner Fidel Albert, on his part, maintained that it was high time Nigeria’s legal system was digitised to make the system align with modern technologies, noting that Nigeria still practises antiquated laws.
He stressed the need for a total overhaul of the legal system to restore the sacrosanctity of the law which would boost trust and confidence of the citizens.
‘Why should we still operate laws made in the 1960s? Why can’t we do video conferences like other developed economies instead of cancelling sitting because of coronaVirus?
‘We have all it takes to digitise and technologicalise our system, but integrity has been eroded which has become an albatross for us. People no longer trust lawyers because of perceived injustices meted on some persons. So, unless the system is cleaned up, people would not entrust cases to the court, just like most multinational companies would prefer their cases handled in their parent home where they have trust,’ he said.
He decried the inability of lawyers in Nigeria to fully engage in the advertisement of their offering unlike their counterparts in other countries. He challenged the apex legal body to extricate the system from all encumbrances hindering them.
The Managing Partner, CalmHill Partners, Chinenye Oragwu, in her remark, sued for Data Protection and Privacy by the Nigerian Data Protection Agency following the intrusion and incursion of internet fraudsters into private accounts.
‘Everyone, including lawyers, must be data protection and privacy-conscious for our clients, by deploying the best technology and technical know-how while delivering services because people want to see that assurance of data protection and privacy’.
She added that all the needed tools to guard against data theft are available and that all it takes is painstaking effort to explore opportunities to secure people’s personal data and information.