By Demola Akinyemi, Ilorin
Former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria (NHRCN) Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu has bemoaned the colonial legacies in Nigeria, describing it as deeply shameful, urging the people to disconnect from it and take a fresh path to regenerate a genuine leadership system for the country.
Odinkalu said this at the 2nd KWASU Prof Yusuf Olaolu Ali SAN annual lecture titled:,”Decolonising legal briefs: Towards effective implementation of the local content law for the benefit of Nigerian lawyers.”he delivered in ilorin on Thursday.
According to him:,”We’ve got to understand that we have got a deeply shameful colonial history that actually was designed not to make us human beings and a united community.”
He added that,”If we make that knowledge available to our people, the likelihood is that people would react to it differently rather than accept the myths that we have been given.
“So teaching is important and reforming not just general curriculum but the teaching of law which is very urgent. What that has meant is that although colonialism has ended we are still mentally and ideologically dependent on colonial rule in too many ways.”
He noted that,”If we can address that ,it will give us an opportunity overtime to regenerate leadership. Leadership is the other level which we’ve got to address .
” Leadership as in access to government,politics and so on , and my hope is that addressing this at different leadership stages would take us to path of great nation.”
He also described Law as a journey in memory, and a journey in history and urged
the law students to stop externalising their idols, instead of Lord Dennings, why not Idol Yusuf Ali,and other legends in law practice in Nigeria he queried.
He also noted that Colonial power thrives under Cohesive power,Power of liquidation
Control and Power of ideation, stressing that
Nigeria law was structured on colonial type that never had the interest of Nigeria people.
He however urged the law students, to begin to change the way they think about themselves, and never allow anyone to set a bar on what they can achieve.
“I Want young Nigerians to be angry because a lot of things have been hidden from them.”he also said.
Odinkalu further tasked the upcoming lawyers to fight for the independence of judiciary, saying that,”There’s nothing like judicial independence,it took me Twenty five years after becoming a lawyer to discover this,so it’s over to the incoming lawyers to fight for it.”
He also took a swipe at what he described as commercialisation of admissions into universities, particularly states and private universities as long as the guardians and parents can afford it .
He said it’s a killer to nationhood, when core professional courses are offered to students who’ll grow up to become monsters against the growth and development of the country.
Former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who was chairman of the ocassion in his remarks interrogated the pros and cons of lawyers usage of technicalities,citing relevant cases.
He nevertheless cautioned that technicalities should not be used to deny court the right to serve people good judgement, which is what judiciary is all about.
The celebrant, Professor Yusuf Olaolu Ali SAN in his remark about lawyer’s use of technicalities said that,”It is what we take to the court that the court will decide on,so it’s the lawyers that try to persuade the Judges to go in that direction.
“So may be we should just appeal to ourselves as well,it is not all about Judiciary,it is about the lawyers that actually take all the matters to court and the court make a pronouncement.”
Yusuf Ali on the independence of judiciary said,”if you read the lecturer’s book,the one just published,his theory was that when the colonialists came and set up the judicial system,it was to favour their activities.It was not meant to be independent to the level of giving justice to the natives.
“Unfortunately even after independence,we’ve not been able to win ourselves away.So those who succeeded the colonialists too saw the judiciary as an instrument to be used to perpetuate themselves in positions.
“It is the same thing with all our institutions today.The police for example,was set up as a repressive force in colonial days and it has remained so up till today.So it’s a lot of issues that we have to interrogate to get out of all these.”he said.
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