By Christy Anyanwu
Phillip Ndubuisi Umeh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and managing counsel of Phillip Ndubuisi Umeh and Co. (legal practitioners and notaries public) was called to the bar in July 1981.
He has been in active legal practice since August 2, 1982 till date.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, he spoke about the state of the nation and, of course, his experiences as a lawyer.
What are the challenges faced in the judiciary?
I’m not in the judiciary. I’m a lawyer. I’m a minister in the temple of justice. Maybe the judges can tell you properly the problems they have in the judiciary. If you are talking about the court and its operations, I will tell you we have quite a number of problems in the courts. You may look at it, maybe in a wider form and say in the justice sector. When I talk about the justice sector, I’m referring to the courts, the police, the ministries of justice, states, federal; prisons, all of them make up the justice sector.
For example, you have the problem of corruption which affects every aspect of public service in Nigeria today, including the judiciary. You have the judicial officers, they have their own problems, you have their supporting staffers, they have their own problems, the bailiffs, the registers of courts, the judges etc. At times, a matter would be delayed and you ask why, they will tell you they have no vehicle to bring those awaiting trials to courts, those are the problems with the correctional centres (the prisons). You see why I include them in the justice sector? Their operations also affects their activities in the courts. Other times, a matter comes up in courts, there’s a delay, ask what is the problem they tell you the other party has not been served. The bailiff has not served. I think there’s need for a holistic reform of the justice sector. Very extensive reforms to bring it to a modern level so that the wheel of justice will grind faster. It is very slow now. A matter can take about three, four, five years in court. Go to the Supreme Court it can take six to 10 years. Go to Court of Appeal it can take five to six years. Assuming on the average, you have three years in the High Court, three years in the Court of Appeal, three years in Supreme Court, that’s nine years. How can a country that wants to run a modern government bedevilled with these kind of judiciary of justice sector. I think it’s very unfortunate. A lot has to be done to check the problems of delay in the administration of justice, the problem of corruption, the problem of incompetence, the numbers of incompetent people here and there, both up and low, people who should ordinarily not be there, either as judges, justices of high courts or registrars of courts. They are there probably the routine system is not very elegant, you end up bringing in round peg into a square hole, either due to nepotism, to corruption, or one form of problem or the other, we have some wrong people in these places. They all contribute to the delay we are experiencing. Also, we need to adjust some of the rules we use in courts, the laws, so that things are made more elegant. We find that everybody has been clamouring and requesting the president to sign the Electoral Act. He has not done so. You find that a number of improvements have been inserted there which is believed if he signs would enhance that aspect of the management of elections, including the aspect that takes place in the courts. You find out that one cannot easily identify the whole problems we have in the judiciary but most of these problems manifest principally by way of delay in the process of administration of justice. It is said that justice delayed is justice denied. Why it is important for us to address the issue of delay is that to some extent, when justice is delayed, it has been denied, look at the case of the late former old Oyo State governor, Bola Ige. Up till now, we’re still looking for those who killed him. While we are still looking for the killers, the wife also died. Justices should be dispensed as fast as possible and with some measure of accuracy. The delay in the administration of justice is something that whatever that has been contributing to the delay should be identified and rooted out. There are numbers of factors: corruption, incompetence, nepotism, double standards and Nigeria factors. We really have to do something to root out these problems so that we can have an efficient justice delivery system. Nigeria needs to grow and become a modern state and I think it can only do so when it can develop a modern and sensible judiciary or justice sector. Not a situation where you have more people awaiting trials more than those who have been sentenced. If you were to be a landlord, the easiest way to frustrate you is someone owing you rent and you take him to court, once you take him to court and the court proceedings can take nine or more years before judgment is given. How many landlords can withstand nine years of delay? Not only landlords, assuming somebody deprives you of your right and it takes you 10-13 years to have it redressed. I remember before now, elections petitions used to last years until there was an amendment which made it that it would start and end within 180 days. Before then, former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, was in court for three years plus in a case against Peoples Democratic Party before his mandate was restored and that is what has led to the change in the election calendar in Anambra State. Certainly, it must have some other impacts in the entire electioneering process because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be staggering the elections and probably lose advantage of mass preparations. I think the country seriously need to look into the problem of judiciary.
Insecurity in the country is alarming these days, do you believe state police will reduce insecurity in Nigeria?
I don’t think state police will reduce the problem of insecurity. I favour the state police but certainly not because I think it would reduce the problem of insecurity. It’s interesting to find out that even with the federal police we have, are they really trying to secure the country? Certainly, the state police may assist them, which I think they are getting over it by using local vigilantes, Amotekun (South), Hunters (North) and all kinds of security arrangements. I have a feeling that what may help to reduce insecurity or even stamp it out is to clearly have a competent and security outfit not only in the police, but also in all other areas of law enforcement because when you have terrorists, you may require the army to deal with them. We need to have very competent, professional security outfits nationwide, whether it is state police, let them be competent, let them be professional, let them be well trained and well recruited. Not a situation where criminals are recruited into the police and army.
People with questionable background, they get very little training and there are no clear cuts hierarchy controls. We have all kinds of political emancipations and intrigues affecting the work of the securitymen. A study of what is happening now revealed somehow that those who are in charge of our security are not competent and professional about it. Otherwise, how can you explain a situation where bandits and terrorists will take over local governments and nobody is challenging them, let alone they have defeated our people. They’re not seriously challenged. That is not even a question of state police. The government is aware, the people are complaining, crying for assistance and no assistance is coming. I remember when the governor of Niger State was shouting and talking that a good number of his state being taken over by terrorists. What did the army do? To the knowledge of the masses what have they done? There’s more to it that meets the eye. By and large, I think if we have a large professional security outfit that can live up to its purpose, there will be greater peace and security in Nigeria.
Do you believe in restructuring?
I believe in restructuring but something tells me it will never come unless there is southern unity. If there’s no unity of the Southeast, South-south and Southwest, something tells me, it won’t work. It’s a political agitation, in politics; you need the numbers to achieve certain results. If we are five in this room and it’s only one person agitation for a matter, it might not fly, but if we are four and two or three people are agitating, certainly, it would gather a lot of momentum and attract attention. Look at the agitation for transfer of power, when the southern governors came together, saying power must shift, the whole nation was moved and the issue gained greater attention than when it was only Southeast that were asking for power to shift.
In Nigeria, we must appreciate the peculiarity or uniqueness of our federalism. The North has about 19 states, and about 17 in the South. Anytime there’s political agitation, the same thing will happen if a matter depended on political wheel of the southerner and agitation is coming from the North, if a sizeable number from the North is not asking for the same thing, something tells me, it can only happen as a matter of goodwill. If you are a leader and you sense that the people who are pushing for a particular point have the number, something tells me you may likely yield and listen to them.
The country is in a bad shape, how do we get out of these problems?
I think we need more competent and informed leadership to get out of it. Nigerians should shine their eyes and make sure the next president must be somebody who is well informed, who probably has had a good track record of performance, somebody who has integrity, who love the people and, of course, we must be very serious about age and health condition of anybody who is going to become our next president. It mustn’t be anybody.
We have seen all the problems in this leadership at the national level, certainly we must work from the opposite, we must vote for somebody younger, somebody who is visibly healthier, who is visibly strong and healthy. Who can engage the givers of power not just putting anybody because of tribalism.
The political parties too, I think that is where this Electoral Act comes in because from the little we have heard, some of the provisions in the Electoral Act are things that are likely to promote internal democracy within the parties and we need this kind of internal democracy to stabilise our political process because the idea where the cabal hijacked the political party and impose leaders on us shouldn’t continue, even if it is expensive, I think it is important we should have a political process that would guarantee good party democracy because that would, in turn, overflow to the nation and create a stable nation. We need a process within the political parties that can throw up credible and informed leaders so that, at almost, at every level, we have leaders who are genuine and meet with the expectations of the people not leaders who are imposed, rescued political system. The manner of recruitment of political leaders should be the concern of everybody now onwards if we want to get it right because we are in a big mess. It is important we get it right from the grassroots to the national level in the recruitment of political leaders. Whatever law, whatever machinery, either from National Assembly, INEC or the courts, whatever that can help us to enable the masses, either through political parties or through the ballot boxes, elect or bring up leaders who are accountable to them will certainly be the way out not this style where people are imposed, clouted by the courts or what have you, we need to run a very vibrant democracy that can solve the problem of our time.
What is your take or assessment of the current National Assembly?
They are not doing well. I think they are just mere rubber stamp. They have not impressed anybody. Look at the way they are approving foreign loans for the president without serious questioning as to what previous monies or loans have been used for. In the case of this Electoral Act, one would have expected them to have sought amendments that would have gathered national support or goodwill, they should have been sensible enough to know people want something that would change the country. Not much is happening. It’s more like extension of the presidency. The National Assembly doesn’t show any independence and strong will. Frankly speaking, if I’m to score them, I will probably give them about 25 per cent.