BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Nigerian Bar Association has said that the climate of fear instilled by the executive arm of the Federal Government is undermining the independence of the judiciary and the ability of judges to act confidently without fear or favour in dispensing justice.
This is just as the NBA decried what it described as the “systematic erosion” of the independence of the judiciary by the executive arm of the Federal Government.
The body of Lawyers in Nigeria also noted that judges and legal practitioners in the country are being intimidated, and blackmailed by the Government to an extent that they are presently nursing the fear of being visited with “inquisitorial terror” should they rule against the government or take briefs considered to be anti-government.
National President of the NBA, Mr Paul Usoro SAN, who stated the position of the judiciary at the National Executive Committee of the association at its meeting held on Thursday, stressed that the attack on the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession constituted a threat to the rule of law and by extension the country’s democracy.
Usoro also lamented the pervasive insecurity of lives and property in the country, saying that without the rule of law and security of lives and property, society will gradually descend into a state of anarchy and democracy becomes a mere pretension.
The NBA President said that there is no way democracy can survive without the rule of law, adding that the twin elements of rule of law and security of lives and property, are what drive the society and the economy.
He further said; “It would be revealing if we were to have proper and verified statistics on the investment opportunities that have been lost by Nigeria because of these twin pervasive challenges: insecurity and the erosion of the rule of law.
“Our judges are threatened, intimidated and blackmailed mostly by the executive arm of government and their agencies both at the federal and state levels.
“So, we have judges literally walking on egg-shells, notably where governments and their agencies have interest in matters that they adjudicate upon,” the NBA said.
