Akanbi, Saraki, others chart path to Nigeria’s greatness

[TGD]

 'Quality manpower critical to national rebirth'

FORMER President, Court of Appeal and first Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi, has lamented that the judiciary had inadvertently played into the hands of politicians and political authorities in the country.

Justice Akanbi, who was Guest Lecturer on Wednesday at the eighth edition of JIC Taylor's Memorial Lecture organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos Branch stated: "Indeed, public perception appears to have tilted in favour of the view that the Judiciary in the last few years has become a corrupt institution and that this is fanned by corrupt politicians with whom some judges sometimes openly hobnob and act as their agents."

He also faulted recent appointment of judges by the Federal Judicial Service Commission, saying "dishonest and unprincipled men and women have found their way to the Bench."

Akanbi said judges in the past maintained their dignity and honour by distancing themselves from those likely to drag them into doing unethical conducts.

Meanwhile, the need to refocus policy direction and pay special attention to human capital development as first step towards the nation's socio-economic and political growth and re-orientation has been stressed.

The new emphasis on the promotion of human development is based on the failures so far recorded as emphasis has been on income and economic development, especially oil though high-yielding, but which has done very little to lift the nation from under-development.

These were the views of former Governor of Kwara State and Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment, Bukola Saraki, erstwhile Minister of State for Education and President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Jerry Agada and Frank Porter Graham, Prof. of African Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (U.S.), Prof. Tanure Ojaide, at the opening ceremony of the on-going ANA 30th International Annual Convention in Abuja.

The theme for this year's convention is "Homecoming: Africa Literature and Human Development."

Saraki noted that the tendency over the years to focus development discourse on increasing national income had been based on wrong assumptions that missed the point on certain critical dimensions of human development.

These included quality education, healthcare and equity in wealth distribution. He also said that the raging debate on fuel subsidy revolved around these issues.

As governor, Saraki stated that he employed the holistic human development approach to provide Kwara with what he called, "a citizens-oriented strategy to combat poverty", stressing that "income disparity and other forms of inequality must be fully solved to address the challenge of poverty and improve the wellbeing of citizens."

He argued that literature had played a pivotal role in Nigeria's development, starting with Chinua Achebe's publication of Things Fall Apart in 1958 and Wole Soyinka winning the Nobel Prize in 1986.

Agada, noted that the association was taking stock after 30 years and would reposition itself to support Nigerian writers and urge them to greater creativity as committed members of societies. He charged the National Assembly to enact a law for a compulsory funding of literary festival in the country.

On his part, Prof. Ojaide stated that "an appraisal of countries and regions worldwide indicates Africa's backwardness compared to other continents in human development", noting that such low-level ranking reflected the continent's poor social and economic development.

According to Akanbi, the role of lawyers, particularly some senior counsel who aid or serve as agents for bribe collection either in cash or in kind has had a damaging and crippling effect on the judicial.

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Guardian