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From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said poverty and hunger is fuelling increasing agitation across the country.
This, he said, is forcing the people, who are very hungry and faced with abject poverty, to seek succour in ethnic and tribal groups.
The acting president said this when he opened the 50th Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) holding at the Auditorium of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, Anambra State. Osibanjo also blamed the political elite who, he said, failed the people through massive embezzlement of funds meant for the social welfare of the masses.
A NALT member, Osinbajo reiterated that most of the security challenges bedeviling Nigeria were self-inflicted by “corrupt practices, injustices, among others.
“Boko Haram in the North East, militants in the Niger Delta and farmer/herdsmen clashes are as a result of poverty. A lot of these agitations centere around alleged failure of the state to create an inclusive society, a failure to guarantee the security of lives and property by the agencies charged with the responsibility, and, to build trust around the rule of law and justice system of administration.”
Osibanjo, who stressed that lack of provision of basic needs of lives to the largest number of people remained the greatest source of tension in the polity, decried the level of unemployment which, according to him, is responsible for the vulnerability of the Nigerian youth to recruitment by kidnappers, anti-social agitators and violence.
He insisted it is the duty of the three arms of government to provide an enabling environment for the quality of life expected by the people and wondered if the legal system of the country could survive and serve its purpose without serious and incisive reconsiderations.
The acting president also described law teachers as custodians and creators of the underlying concept and foundation premises of law, who were entrusted with the power of delivering justice and adjudicating same, just as he disclosed how he started teaching in 1981.
“We are the thinkers for our system of justice. We have often contested to usefulness of law to the society,” and added that the forum offers law teachers opportunity to interact on the fundamental issues and ideas that bind them together and rethink, in order to come back with more solutions and innovation about the process.
“I found no reason why it is easier to prove a case of a man who stole small amount of money than ‘the case of a civil servant who earns, say, N200,000 a month in whose account is found billions of naira. How does it take so long to convict a man in whose account, as a civil servant, is found billions of naira in his account? We must redefine the offence of corruption because it is worse that homicide.”
Speaking earlier, Anambra Governor, Willie Obiano, reiterated his worry over the rate criminals are granted bail by the courts. He described it as an ugly trend that has cost the society a lot.
Obiano called on the delegates to take advantage of the conference to proffer lasting solution to the ugly trend.
Also, in his remark, chairman of the occasion and Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen said the law has a big role to play in achieving the highest level of security for an individual in any society.
Represented by Hon. Justice Amina Augie, the CJF stated that it was necessary for the existing laws to be efficient and the right attitude given to its implementation.
The Chief Host and Vice Chancellor of NAU, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, called on NALT to maintain the unity that had bound them for over 50 years and use the conference to come up with resolutions that would assist move the nation forward.
