The Law Belongs To The People- Vice President

 The Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said that Justice belongs to the people and not the legal profession.

Osinbajo stated this at the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) Annual Dinner and Scholarship Awards, which was held at the Lagos Continental Hotel last Saturday

Emphasizing the impact of the legal profession in fixing societal ills and building a just society, the vice president noted that “our system of justice is a public resource, it does not belong to the legal profession, it does not belong to the bar or to the bench. It belongs to the people.

“We are paid operators of a service that our constitution created to resolve their disputes and give justice. We are custodians, not owners. When this public resource is not working effectively on account of delays, or it is being discredited by corruption, we the operators have a moral, legal and civic obligation to fix it.”

 Quoting from the Bible, Osinbajo said that “we must not become defensive or thin-skinned. If we do not fix it, we would have failed in our most important task; we would have failed to speak up for the voiceless and vulnerable.

He noted that the custodians of justice and fairness in society, the role of the Nigerian Bar goes beyond the development of an effective and efficient justice sector, it must also be at the forefront of championing reforms and deepening discourse that will continually uphold its excellence and prestige, and the rule of law.

“Every one of us seated here today knows that there is a lot wrong with our system of justice today, history beckons us to fix it.”

Speaking further on the need for the legal profession to continually uplift its prominence and prestige, the Vice President noted that “some of the reputational damage suffered in recent times by our profession and our system of justice is one that could have been avoided with rigorous and sustained introspection on our part.”

The Vice President observed that one of the ways to improve the standard of legal practice in the country was to enhance the quality of legal education, including adopting a hybrid approach, so as to prepare the next generation of legal minds for the future.

For instance, Osinbajo noted that “there is no country with the number of law graduates we have yearly that provides in-person lectures and accommodation for those taking bar examinations.”