28032019 - NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP:All clear for Lawan; fresh crisis brews over Gbaja

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28 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 08152060944 NBA must t stop op acting like e labour unions ----Sofola, SAN By Onozure Dania Mr. Olusina Abdulrafiu Sofola, SAN, is the first son of the late renowned legal luminary, Chief Idowu Shotayo Sofola, SAN. In this interview, he shares his view on what the APC government should focus on in the next four years. He also spoke on law reforms, remedy for election violence victims, independence of the judiciary amongst other issues. Excerpt: How would you assess the performance of INEC in the last election? The truth of the matter is that they did reasonably well but I was expecting more. Having practised democracy for quite a while now, there should be an improvement and we should practise things the way it should be done in the 21st Century. There are a lot of instances that are quite unpalatable and should not be happening. I will give you an example. On the day of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, I left my house with my wife and children and we were just going for a leisure walk around the neighbourhood to see how everything is going on. This was about 8:45am and we saw a bus with some occupants. They introduced themselves as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC staff and said they were looking for where the polling station should be, where they were meant to erect their polling booth. I think that was not good enough, especially with the postponement of the elections. I expected more from them in terms of logistics and preparations for the elections. There were a few things I asked myself like when shall we get there, considering this permanent voter’s card and everything that goes with it, like the biometrics. Why must you only be able to vote in the place where you registered? I think the truth of the matter is that INEC would have done a bit better. There has been a lot of disagreements among lawyers over the use of the Military during the general elections. What is your reaction? We all know what the job of the Military is. They are meant to protect the country from external forces. That is their primary duty. In certain cases, they can also get themselves involved in protecting the citizens against themselves, *Mr Olusina Abdulrafiu Sofola, SAN within the country but in such cases there has to be a clear need for that. The truth of the matter is that I am not sure (as far as the election was concerned), there was need for the Military to be actively involved with the elections. It does seem sometimes that they could appear to be exacting force, or to be putting people under pressure, or to be making people uncomfortable. Honestly, I’m not sure that it was necessary to have the Military out the way we did. I would have preferred a situation where the police are allowed to do their job while the Military is kept on standby so that if the need arises, they would be able to approach them within a short notice. But to have them going around even before any obvious trouble, is wrong in my view. There were cases of violence in some parts of the country during the last election. What are the provisions for victims of election violence? The law makes provisions for how to treat election violence, vis-à-vis the persons involved in such violence and prescribes custodian sentences if they are actually found guilty of such violence. If I understand your question properly, to the best of my knowledge, the Electoral Act does not make specific provisions for victims of election violence. Obviously, the law generally tries to protect the victims and also, the Government has the duty and responsibility to take care of the victims of such violence. The truth of the matter is that if we had a good system and if we were in a country where the hospital is working properly, anyone that is a victim of election violence should be able to get treatment from state hospitals. I do not know of any particular law that makes any specific provisions as to how to treat victims of election violence. Do you believe that the NBA is playing its role effectively on the issues of governance? I believe that they are moving in the right direction. We have not gotten to where we want to be, but I believe that we are moving in the right direction. I am not one of those who believe that the NBA should be radical, and should be going on strikes; I believe that they should make positive comments and take positive actions in relation to events as they arise I noticed that from the time of Austin Aleghe, SAN, when any major matter arises, the president of the NBA will meet with his executives and they will state their positions on such issues. That has continued up till now. When issues arise that the general community of people are not comfortable with, you see the NBA coming up with their own communiqué on such issues. I believe that is certainly a step in the right direction. The NBA is beginning to realise that it should not be looked at as a labour union of some sort. The NBA is meant to be interested in trying to protect the Judiciary and ensuring that the rule of law is maintained and that the warfare of their members is also taken care of. I am not one of those who believe that the NBA should be radical, and should be going on strikes. I believe that they should make positive comments and take positive actions in relation to events as they arise. I believe that the present president, Mr Paul Usoro, SAN is working in the right direction. I will like to believe that as time goes on, he will be able to perfect it and give us the NBA that we would all be proud of. Some months ago when the former CJN, Onnoghen was accused of not declaring all his assets, the NBA asked lawyers to boycott the courts. Do you think that was necessary? Whether it was necessary or not, I will not want to go into that right now because there are obviously divergent views on it. But as a lawyer and a member of the NBA, I believe that whatever decisions the NBA, as a body reaches, should be complied with by members of the association because if it is not, then the association would be rendered ineffective. Once the body makes a decision, as a member of that association, I believe that it is our duty to comply with whatever directions that our parent body has given except of course, if it is something that is illegal. Provided that it is not illegal, I think that we should support our association to the best of our ability. If I remember clearly, it wasn’t just the meeting of the executives, the ex- officials of NBA was called and it was the decision of that enlarged body that lawyers should not attend court. I am of the opinion that every lawyer should set aside their personal beliefs and comply with the decisions of the NBA. From the look of things, the judiciary appears to have been muzzled by other arms of government. Do you believe the judiciary can ever be truly independent? I think it is very important that there should be independence of the Judiciary and I cannot overstress this. The Judiciary is the last hope of the common man and they should be allowed to do their job. The executive should restrict themselves to their own job. Legislators should make the laws, the executive should give the policies and the judiciary should be allowed to adjudicate because there is the need for separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary cannot be overemphasised. I think that the onus is on the executive not to be overbearing. The executive may not necessarily be happy with the way things are going in the judiciary sometimes, but the truth of the matter is that the Constitution that we subscribe to must be followed to the letter. I believe that the executive should respect the Constitution. They should respect the judiciary and give it that which has been so stated in the Constitution. As the 9th Assembly prepares to take over legislative sessions, what aspects of the law do you think they should consider reviewing? One thing that continues to bother me every year is our budget. For one reason or the other, our budget is never passed on time. We are now in the month of March and the budget has not been passed and this is for a country that the economy to a large extent, depends on the Government. It’s dominated by the public sector, so it obviously leaves a lot to be desired that as of March, which will end next week, the budget has not been passed. This is something that is of immense importance for everybody. Let us put this budget in place so that the economy can move forward because there is a lot of uncertainty all over the place. Once it is passed, everybody will know where they are going and then we would be able to move forward. It also be nice if the issue of the minimum wage for the workers is resolved so that we don’t have cases of strikes every now and then. If these two things are resolved, then we are on to a good start. What are your expectations in the second coming of Buhari’s administration? Honestly, I pray that the APC Continues on page 25 C M Y K
VANGUARD, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 — 29 NBA-SBL launches banking & finance academy for lawyers with help of ILFA By Innocent Anaba The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law, NBA-SBL, in partnership with International Lawyers For Africa, ILFA, has launched the Banking & Finance Academy - a programme designed to help young lawyers hone their skills and expertise in the field of banking and finance. Speaking at this event which took place at the Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Chairman of the NBA Section on Business Law, Mr Seni Adio, SAN informed guests at the opening ceremony that the initiative was in line with the Section’s objectives to build capacity for Nigerian lawyers across various specialisations and sectors of the economy. He said: “The programme is made up of practical and interactive modules, with a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of banking and finance law and will thus keep young lawyers in tune with the modern practice of NBA must stop acting like labour unions ---- Sofola, SAN Continued from Page 24 government would move Nigeria to a higher level. I know their campaign slogan was next level, but I actually preferred Better level. I hope and I pray that they move us to the next level. As far as I am concerned, it is very important that the economy is fixed. I understand that election petitions have been filed, and we do not know the conclusion yet. But whoever is there, I believe that it is only God that can make you a leader. I pray that whoever God has put in that position will be somebody that will have the interest of the people at heart and be able to move us all together to a higher level. The economy needs to be improved; you can see improvement in the energy sector in certain areas. I can speak for myself, the place where I live, electricity supply has improved substantially but not so much in my office. But that is one area that would be law as it relates to banking and finance. “As business lawyers, it is important to enhance the capacity of our young lawyers in the area of commercial law practice, to ensure they become specialists and not just generalists,” the NBA-SBL Chairman said. The academy opened with a three-day specialised training for over 100 young Nigerian good if we can improve on. The other area that gladdens my heart is the issue of the rail. Part of the problem in Nigeria is that after we started road transportation, we more or less skipped rail travel, and we went to air, without perfecting rail travel. All over the world, in the developed countries, there are those options of the rail, the road, the sea and the air. One area that I think Nigeria certainly needs to improve on is the rail. I ask myself everyday and I do not understand why there is no fast train that goes from Lagos to Abuja. That is from the commercial centre of the country, to the capital. I would have thought that by now, we would have had fast trains that will just take you straight to Abuja non-stop. I hope and pray that whoever God says will be there, would be able to make such improvements in the country generally. lawyers with interests in banking and finance practice. In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the NBA-SBL Banking & Finance committee, Dr Tominiyi Owolabi, made a case for legal expertise in banking and financing processes, stating that there was need to ensure the younger generation of lawyers in Nigeria were equipped with the requisite skills for purposes *From left: Dr Adeoye Adefulu, NBA-SBL Secretary; Cynthia Lareine, Executive Director, ILFA; Theodora Kio-Lawson, Chair, NBA-SBL Committee on Media & Communication; Mr Seni Adio, SAN, Chairman, NBA Section on Business Law and Mr Tominiyi Owolabi, Chair, NBA-SBL Committee on Banking & Finance. of financing. The market involves massive structuring skills and the panacea for these projects are foreign lenders. We do recognise the gaps in our training system and note that the average young lawyer does not having the key exposure or the sophistication in financing which the “market” requires,” he said. In her remarks, ILFA’s executive director, Cynthia Lareine expressed excitement at the collaboration with the NBA-SBL, stating that both organisations have had a long and rich history of partnerships, with Nigerian lawyers being the largest beneficiaries of all ILFA programmes within African jurisdictions. According to her, these benefits include, internships and programmes for secondment. She said: “When my predecessor sought to launch the Intra Africa secondment programme in 2016, it was to Nigeria that she initially looked and we had six Nigerian law firms hosting lawyers from various West Africa jurisdictions. We have hopes of replicating this programme in future. “I am personally very excited about the Academy and about our blossoming relationship with the NBA- SBL which also extends to our online legal education platform called Angaza Africa law training. The partnership model we have with the NBA-SBL is a template for what we want to achieve in other parts of Africa. I believe that through relationships like this one, ILFA really is well positioned to build legal excellence & strengthen the rule of law across Africa,” Lareine added. In closing, the ILFA director described Nigeria as a fantastic place with some of the most established and sophisticated law firms across Africa, which according to her, has continued to attract international interest. NEC should do more to ensure future peace Nigerian elections —AFBA The African Bar Association, AFBA, has called for more to be done by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure that future elections in the country are credible, noting that preliminary observations indicate that the 2019 general elections experienced difficulties from the very beginning, led by the arson attack on three of the offices of INEC, and concluded with the postponement of the elections. Team Leader, Afba Election Observers, Justice Mama Singhateh in a report on the poll, said: “Despite the complications observed, in many instances peaceful and problem-free voting were reported.” On the way forward, he said: “INEC should plan far ahead of the next general elections to address those problems that are easily addressable. Such problems include the network problems on the card readers, updating the register of voters and design the voting booth in a manner that would ensure privacy. *INEC must also provide sufficient ballot boxes for all polling units, in order to avoid a situation where one ballot box is used for different categories of offices. *The INEC premises at the state and local government should be properly secured in the months leading to the election period to avoid arson or any other attack on the property and electoral materials. *INEC should recruit staff with requisite knowledge and provide extensive training to same in order to ensure an effective and efficient delivery of service for the next cycle of elections. *INEC should also ensure an extensive and effective training for its ad hoc staff well in advance of the election cycle to ensure an efficient service delivery and avoid many of the confusions some staff in some polling units exhibited. It must be noted however that this does not apply to all ad hoc staff as in most cases, many of them performed admirably well. *INEC must also provide a better way of locating polling units. Many of the voters complained about being unable to locate their polling units on election day. “On security agents, only accredited security agents on election duties must be allowed near the polling and collation centers. *All stakeholders must ensure that members of the armed forces are kept away from civilians and around polling units. Many incidences were reported of personnel of the military interfering with the voting process and with the ballot boxes. Citizens and Voters The responsible use of social media platforms must be strongly encouraged in order to avoid heated political rhetoric and related violence. The foregoing consists of our observations thus far. Bearing in mind that INEC had declared inconclusive results in the gubernatorial elections in some states, AFBA will publish a final report which would contain full analysis and recommendations after the conclusion of all the elections. EDITORIAL Innocent Anaba ( Head) Ikechukwu Nnochiri Contributors: Henry Ojelu, Onozure Dania C M Y K
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28032019 - NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP:All clear for Lawan; fresh crisis brews over Gbaja

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