Basic Concerns of Nigerian Legal System

Before a person can be qualified as a judge of the Court of Appeal, he or she must be qualified as a lawyer for at least 12 years. In order to correct the anomalies, in April 1959, the Federal Government appointed a committee composed of the Attorney General of the Federation of the A.G., the Legal Secretary of Southern Cameroon and 6 eminent jurists chaired by the A.G. of the Federation at the time, Mr. E.T.C UNSWORTH. The law mandated by the committee can be described as a set of rules adopted by a corporation to guide the maintenance of law and order and regulate the actions of its citizens. Therefore, a legal action is considered legal if it is carried out within the limits of the law. But in any case, Nigeria cannot boast of an immaculate legal system. The profession is really dead when compared to the legal system of other major countries in the world. Today, I will list some of the issues/challenges of advocacy in Nigeria and discuss them in detail. In this context, I will propose solutions to each of the problems mentioned in this work.

So I urge you to read this article carefully, as it does justice to the topic here. Second, this rather difficult project will take place in a kind of unmanaged and worthless space where power and paternalism instead of clear rules will fairly and firmly determine the winners and losers. The long-standing national policy of deliberate seizure of power, excessive stretching and constitutional impasse, with its fruitful menu of judicial consequences and legal briefs, will keep lawyers and judges running from courtroom to hearing. In Uzo v Police (1972) 11 SCE 37 or (1972) ANLR 825. It was noted that in the Nigerian criminal trial system, the judge is not expected to descend into the arena as an arbitrator, as the trial is the acquisition that the innocence of the accused is presumed until he is found guilty by the prosecution. The procedure chosen by the trial judge is inappropriate. By personally repeating the charges and subjecting the accused to a lengthy and disturbing cross-examination to discredit him on an irrelevant issue of falsification and on charges of theft of clothes. It is impossible to argue that his guilty verdict in the indictment alone in court was not influenced by his unnecessary concern of the court with this irrelevant issue. See the case of R.V Clewer (1953) CAR 37 11) Secretary of the Council, who is a lawyer appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary on the recommendation of the Federal Judicial Service Commission In addition to the penalty of fine and /or imprisonment, the name of such a lawyer is removed from the list 10) Two persons who are not lawyers, which, in the opinion of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, have an undeniable character/ Integrity In order to improve access to justice in any society, it is also necessary to create certain basic infrastructure as well as the required number and quality of personnel involved in the system. Corruption is a major problem in Nigeria. This is not just a problem inherent in the legal profession.

Corruption plays a role in almost every sector in Nigeria, including churches. Nevertheless, the problem of tribalism, napotism and favouritism, which I classify as the different dimensions of corruption, also plays a role in the legal profession. In 1886, Lagos was confiscated to be part of the Gold Coast Colony, and the Lagos Colony and Protectorate had its own Supreme Court with provisions similar to the 1876 Ordinance. Meanwhile, the Indigenous justice system has flourished. Although it is limited to cases involving indigenous peoples, some of whom have adopted the English way of life. It should be noted that the judicial experience prior to the merger in northern and southern Nigeria is similar to that described above. A major difference, however, was that while proclamations were introduced to establish English courts to enact laws, Indigenous laws were administered by local courts established by separate proclamations. Thus, English and national laws were administered by English courts of first instance under English law, unlike the Lagos system, where the indigenous system remained largely spared from the English system.

However, after the merger of the colony and protectorate of Lagos, which was the colony of southern Nigeria in 1906, the indigenous justice system expanded to Lagos due to the indigenous court order of 1906.