Getting justice in Nigeria can take as long as 2 years or more and the economic implication of such delay is huge, as the presence of such anomaly could scare investors.
On Channels Television Law Weekly, the Director General, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Professor Epiphany Azinge, stressed the need for the judiciary to tackle the challenge.
Professor Azinge said that the bane of the administration of justice in Nigeria was the fact that cases were not speedily adjudicated.
“If we can change that, it will go a long way in earning the judiciary a lot of recognition in Nigeria and internationally.
“People believe that because our judicial system is very slow, foreign investors are deterred from coming into Nigeria and that has economic implication,” he said.
The Judiciary in Nigeria made remarkable improvements in 2013, a development that Professor Azinge said was as a result of the efforts the leadership of the the Judicial Arm of Government was making to ensure that the anomalies were corrected.
“Based on empirical report, there is every reason to believe that there was a remarkable improvement in 2013. I can score the judiciary 70 per cent in terms of their performance in 2013 as against 2012 and 2011.
“Public perception of the judiciary seemed to have improved considerably. Many can now identify the Nigerian Judiciary with integrity to a large extent, he said.
The professor in law said that a good number of lawyers were sanctioned for gross misconduct in 2013, an unusual incident.
“More judgements were written in 2013 as opposed the 2011 and 2012.
“We have started seeing speedy dispensation of justice at the Supreme Court and other courts, both on criminal issues and other matters.
“We moved into 2014 with a lot of hope and expectations that things will improve. We are moving very close to politics, that is the 2015 General election, and all the machinations and tricks in the book will be brought to bare,” he stated.
Professor Azinge pointed out that it would be a tempting period for the judiciary, as there might be some compromise in the process if things were not well managed.
“This is a trying period for the judiciary and we are urging them to remain focused and make sure that there are no compromises. If they do, we will gain international recognition and acceptability as the case may be,” Professor Azinge said.
Asked why there are incidents of delayed justice, he said that a pattern had not been established and that the prosecutors were trying to establish one.
“They are doing that fairly well.
“They are working on a pattern can only be predicated on rules that will be put in place for such to flourish.
“The terrorism case involving the Lebanese has been successfully tested that something can happen within so short a time.
“If we are able to replicate that with the help of judges it will go a long way,” he said.
The lawyer emphasised the need for the judiciary to develop the pattern of ensuring that in all cases, “things are handled with dispatch effectively and efficiently as the case may be”.
“It behoves the judges, prosecutor and to a large extent the defence.
“Once we get prosecution right together with the judges we can achieve what we want to achieve because the two can push the defence to a point where they can no longer sufficiently and successfully extent the scope of a defence,” he said in enthusiasm.