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Three key things are needed to have a working society in Nigeria, according to a Senior advocate of Nigeria, Adeyinka Moyosore Kotoye.
He statd this on Thursday while delivering the 2024 law week lecture of the Nigeria Bar Association, Ijebu Ode Branch.
The three, according to Kotoye, are: decentralisation of the judicial system, devolution of powers to the state and local governments, and reformation of Nigeria’s electoral process.
In the lecture titled The Law. The Bar. The Society, Kotoye decried a situation where the appointment of the chief judges, high court judges, and grand khadi and members of the Sharia court of appeal of a state, president and judges of the customary court of a state in “a bohemian body known as the National Judicial Council, it has completely eroded the status of each State, as an independent entity/unit in a federating structure.” He added that “What we have now is quasi unitary in nature.”
“I have tried in vain, to understand the reasons matters like aviation, bankruptcy and insolvency, banks, borrowing of money within Nigeria, construction, copyright, designation of securities in which trust funds may be invested, election to the office of the governor and deputy governor, evidence, fingerprints, identification and criminal records, fishing and fisheries, incorporation, regulation and winding up among others are included in the exclusive list.”
On elections, Kotoye added that “Our electoral process at the moment is designed to operate from top to the bottom. I am of the humble view that it should be from the bottom to the top. I suggest that we revert to the electoral cycle of 1998, during which the first election conducted was that of the local government, followed by the gubernatorial and various states Houses of Assembly election which held on the same day, whilst the presidential and national assembly elections that also held on the same day, was used to conclude the process.”
Other dignitaries at the lecture were Justice Onafowokan who represented the Ogun State Chief Judge, Justice Mosunmola Arinola Dipeolu, a former deputy governor of the state, Sefiu Adegbenga Kaka, and other senior lawyers.
