Human rights activist and renowned legal practitioner, Femi Falana (SAN), on Monday declared that contrary to assertions that the country is in dire financial straits, Nigeria has money that run into millions of naira that it has not recovered.
Femi Falana made this assertion while speaking during the Owolabi Afuye Memorial Lecture, a part of the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan branch Law Week which held at the Aare Afe Babalola Bar Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan.
Falana said “Nigeria is not broke, it is a lie. I wrote about N34.2bn which has been recovered by the NNPC and after my letter, an additional 1.1bn dollars has been paid to NNPC; the money is destined for the federation account but the NNPC hijacked it and we are going to collect it. There are others, we have some judgments and money that isn’t recovered from oil companies.
“For 18 years, the government has engaged a team of accountants who came up with a figure of 62 billion, we also have to recover this huge sum from six international oil companies. Between June and now, the three tiers of government have shared about a trillion naira per month. By April this year, it was 655bn and that must reflect in the living standard of our people. For instance, the Federal Government has given N35,000 to every worker, what’s is the state government giving? What of local governments?
“And also when this regime came on board, Nigeria was barely producing one million barrels of crude oil, today, it is 1.7 million barrels of oil at 100 dollars per barrel. There is no basis for poverty. Look at Oyo State, I have said it publicly and I want to be challenged, Oyo State has about 20 solid minerals; one of them can set the state on the part of prosperity; you have gold, lithium and so on,” he said.
Falana further charged lawyers to rise up and help the poor masses, adding that “we must all as lawyers demand accountability from all tiers of government. To fight corruption in Nigeria is the business of lawyers but lawyers, even senior lawyers have been accused by the ICPC of sabotaging efforts to fight corruption. Senior lawyers have gone to court to get life immunity in the form of perpetual injunction stopping antigraft agencies and security operatives from investigating and arresting high profile suspects
“If care is not taken, terror suspects will go to court to stop investigation and prosecution for their crimes. NBA should liaise with Legal Aid Council and stop illegal arrests and detention. No Nigerian should go to court without legal representation and prosecution of criminal cases should be carried out by legal practitioners and not lay police officers.”
He also charged the judiciary to expose lawyers that want to bring disrepute to judiciary.
“Fight for financial autonomy for judges, governor’s should not be buying cars for judges, they should have their budget and be independent. We should all fight for autonomy of the judiciary,” he reiterated.
In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Law Week, Justice Peter Olabisi Ige, JCA (Rtd), said the bench and Bar must continue self regulation and cleansing, adding that “we need a sharp depart from infamy in the legal profession. All judges are first and foremost lawyers. Thus, the bench and the legal profession must continue in internal regulation and self-cleansing.
“This, in my view is to save the legal profession and invariably the entire structure with which justice is administered in this country. The justice mechanism essentially includes all legal practitioners, and by direct implications all those who practice as solicitors, transaction advisors or as in-house counsel and law academics. They all belong to the category of ‘Legal Practitioners.
“This is because their avoidable professional indiscretion, misconduct, imprudence or lack of probity in written agreements, transaction or advisory and other forms of professional engagements may, and have often formed basis of or cause of action in several suits and appeals,” he said.
According to him, like Caeser’s wife, legal practitioners must endeavour to be above board in all they do in and out of court particularly in the practice of their law profession, reiterating that there is need to promote and facilitate good laws.
He said lawyers complain of bad laws and while they can be exonerated during the Military Rule on the ground that no one was being consulted before laws called Decrees or Edicts in military Era, the same cannot be said under Civil Rule as we have in Nigeria.
“Lawyers have every opportunity to come together and facilitate the making or enactment of good laws that will be beneficial to the members of the larger society. This is squarely within the purview of duties and responsibilities of Lawyers. Lawyers can tremendously assist the National Assembly to pass Laws or Act that will drastically ameliorate the general suffering of the masses and pervasive hunger starring the majority of Nigerians in the face.
“There is now a great need to take advantage of the ongoing, review of the LPA at the National Assembly to set things right and to produce the right LPA for today’s legal practitioner. This done, the courts will no longer find themselves in a position where they have to rely on erroneous compilations to declare null, void, repealed or dead, laws which are otherwise fully in existence,” Justice Ige said.
He added that it is the bounden duty of all legal practitioners to ensure compliance with the rulings, orders and judgements of the courts in the course of their practice, even if such orders, rulings and judgment are against them, emphasising that “we the members of the legal profession cannot afford to ignore our nobility by publicly denigrating or ridiculing the judiciary and by extension the profession by our actions and utterance.”
