Corrupt Practices among some Courts’ officials in Nigeria: How some Lawyers are instrumental – Hameed Ajibola Jimoh
In our Nigerian courts, whether in the magistrate courts, Area/Customary Courts, High Courts and beyond, some of us in the Nigerian public are always quick to comment and criticize that there are a lot of corrupt practices ranging from illegal financial demands, bribery, among others, among some court’s officials. And these blames have always been shifted to some courts’ officials and nothing more. Even though there are those among the court’s officials who are worthy of moral emulation and are incorruptible, contented and adamant on the protection of their integrity; honour and the defence of national oath of office and the national development.
This paper is an attempt at considering how some lawyers have been greatly instrumental to the corrupt practices found among some of the courts’ officials or some of the corrupt practices, so that at the end of this discussion, one can then determine and decide whether lawyers too are to be blamed for the rising corrupt practices.
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The Court or a court of law is a court of law and equity. It is a court of competent jurisdiction. It is a court of justice, for justice and by justice. It is an avenue for the dispensation of justice. It is a ministry of justice in itself. It is a venue for the settlement of disputes and the interpretation of laws, among others.
In this court, apart from the Judge or judges, there are court’s staff in the administration of the responsibilities and or duties of the court. For instance, a judge cannot assess the fees for filing of court’s processes, collect fee chargeable on the processes, commission the same processes, issue hearing notices to parties, etc, yet, to still create the time to adjudicate on the matters brought before it. That will be suicidal and the very impossibility! Therefore, there is the need to engage some persons who are staff of the court and employed to carry out some of these functions of the court leading to an effective administration and discharge and or dispensation of justice. That is why before a matter that is brought to the court gets to the judge, some of these administrative duties and or procedures will have to be followed either by lawyers or the litigants themselves. It is at this stage that some of the court’s officials get carried away by corruption. And at various occasions, lawyers, especially, will appear before some of these court’s officials in order to fulfill the procedural requirement of which non-compliance might be detrimental to his case or the case of his client and may suffer unprofessional conducts, but not all the staff directly deal with the public or clients of the court, so to say.
It must be stated with great disappointment, the disappointing attitude of some lawyers. Some are in haste but want their works to be done with no waste of time and without following the procedure to the latter. There are also some who are late but will go to any extent to have their ways. There are also some who give and or offer some favours to some of the courts’ officials, especially moneys, all in the name of appreciation, with the intention to be favoured in return for assistance. There are also some who offer tangible sum of money for a minute duty carried out by some of the court’s staff. There are also those who are out of time but offer some moneys to push the file into the court’s own file that is to be presented to the judge in respect of the matter. There are also those who just want to be nice and relate well with the court’s officials with the expectation that if you have a good relationship with the court’s officials, then, you have no problem to get whatever you would like to be done for you, even the most difficult act at the most impossible time, etc. In fact, there are those who like to carry out their acts by ‘express’.
This ‘express’ procedure was of recent introduced to the writer of this paper in one of his suits by an official of one of the High Courts in Nigeria if he wants his file transferred to appropriate quarters without any delay, else, he would have to be patient until other files are taken to the quarters. The writer of this paper declined to be dragged into corruption. So, he did not pay the money rather, he had to await the time of official transfer of the file. To some of these court’s officials, any lawyer who declines from patronizing them, will be regarded as poor and ‘charge and bail’ who has not done well in the profession.
This attitude is possible because there are some of the lawyers who patronize them for their ill-needed wealth. It is therefore, the suggestion of the writer of this paper that there should be CC-TV cameras around the various courts in Nigeria so that both the patroniser and the one being corruptly patronized can be arrested and prosecuted criminally.
Furthermore, lawyers should understand their place in the profession and as a Minister in the temple of justice.
This role of lawyers in the legal profession has been taught by Rule 1 of the Rules of Professional Conducts for Legal Practitioners, 2007-herein after referred to as RPC-, which provides that ‘A lawyer shall uphold and observe the rule of law, promote and foster the cause of justice, maintain a high standard of professional conduct, and shall not engage in any conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner’.
The point being made here is that such corrupt practices and instigating such corrupt practices is tantamount to ‘conducts which are unbecoming of a legal practitioner’.
Therefore, the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee established under the Legal Practitioners’ Act, 2004, has roles to play in the punitive measure to be meted on those lawyers where found to have been culpable and or in violation of the RPC, as such is a professional misconduct under RPC.
For clarification, Rule 55(1) of the RPC provides thus ‘If a lawyer acts in contravention of any of the rules in these Rules or fails to perform any of the duties imposed by the Rules, he shall be guilty of a professional misconduct and liable to punishment as provided in Legal Practitioners Act, 1975’.
Also, it is the duty of every lawyer to report any breach of any of these rules that comes to his knowledge to the appropriate authorities for necessary disciplinary action. See Rule 55(2) of the RPC.
The writer of this paper has been making great efforts in eradicating all these corrupt practices being perpetrated by some of these lawyers. The first step is to admonish those lawyers so that they would desist from such conducts as they embarrass the writer of this paper as a lawyer and all lawyers in Nigeria, else, they should expect necessary actions being followed in accordance with Rule 55(2) of the RPC (supra).
Finally, it is believed that the reader of this paper is convinced that some lawyers are truly instrumental to the corrupt practices found to be practiced by some courts’ officials. Also, it is hoped that those concerned among these lawyers have taken the hint in this paper by advising himself to desist from these misconducts and turn a new leaf.
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