Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has expressed displeasure over delays in processing cases through the courts.
Prof. Osinbajo spoke when he chaired a Wole Olanipekun & Co., WOC, Justice Summit on Justice Sector Reforms, in celebration of the 70th birthday of Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, in Lagos.
Referring to the issue of delays in the judicial process as the ‘elephant in the room’, Osinbajo expressed worries over what would be the situation of Nigeria’s legal profession in “another 50 years given the gridlock in processing cases through the courts and the question of the integrity of the legal process, or better still, the integrity of actors in the legal process in Nigeria.”
Frowning at the delays in Nigerian courts, he recalled “how the UK Court of Appeal had occasion to comment in the case of (IPCO v. NNPC [2015] EWCA Civ 1144) where a challenge to the enforcement of a Nigerian seated arbitration tribunal award came before the English Court of Appeal.”
The vice president said that “the court referred to the delays in the parallel proceedings before a Nigerian Court as catastrophic and that it could take a further 30 years to resolve.
“Incidentally, the expert witness who testified on delays in the Nigerian Courts was a former Justice of the Supreme Court who testified that a case could take 20 to 30 years to resolve in a Nigerian Court.”
He advised that stakeholders must meet to find a solution to the situation.
He said, “I look forward to the conversations we will have today, and may I suggest as rules of the house that we focus on practical and implementable ideas, not a rehash of the problems. We are all experts at knowing the problem.”
The Vice President described the celebrant, Chief Olanipekun, “as one of the most consequential and influential lawyers in the commonwealth”, adding that beyond his accolades and achievements, he has impacted many lives through his kindness, philanthropy and faith.
Thanking God for giving the legal luminary “an ever-youthful physique and disposition, Prof. Osinbajo said:
“Chief Olanipekun’s great intellect, mastery of the law, its substance and its technicalities, his incredible ability to get to the heart of the matter and to let whole panels of judges see his sometimes daring points; his disarming wit and humour, his sometimes lyrical and poetic submissions, quoting from the classics and the scriptures, make him easily one of the most outstanding minds in the legal profession in this or any other generation.
“But I am sure that what must give him as much, if not more satisfaction, as his accomplishments in the legal profession is how he has affected the lives of hundreds, who cannot repay him for his kindness, his many charities and philanthropies and his several contributions to the growth and reach of the gospel.”
