The Chief Justice of Nigeria,

The President of the Court of Appeal,

The Justices of the Supreme Court,

The Justices of the Court of Appeal.

OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL MISS LAWSAN TO OUR MOST REVERED AND EMINENT NIGERIAN JUSTICES

My most revered and respected Justices of Nigerian courts, special greetings to you all. I feel so honoured writing this letter to you from the auspices of my strategic position as the female face of law students in Nigeria, formally known as the National Miss LAWSAN.

I would want to start by showering some well deserved encomiums on my Justices for the tenacity and steadfastness with which they have used to protect the judicial system.

However, I must not fail to note that there have been deep lacunas lurking in different angles.

First, I hope you people can see the inimical political atmosphere of the country at the moment. It’s important that I let you people know that young Nigerian law students have lost faith in the Nigerian judiciary and I humbly decry that this is not going to be good in the long run. I doubt seriously with a bleak sense of fear if there’s anything you people can do now. But I humbly ask that there be a need for a serious step up in restoring the faith of law students and common Nigerians in the law courts.

As we prepare to resume back to our different schools to continue the study of one of the most quintessential professions of the world which is law, it’s quite sad that we would be taking your judgments in cases with a pinch of salt and just for the purpose of passing exams and getting the degree and maybe leaving the country later on. I sincerely hate to admit it but that is what the situation is. We are just going to continue to caress the law reports judgments of the likes of Mary Odili JSC (as she then was), Centus Nweze, JSC, Ariwoola CJN and the others.

I humbly crave your indulgence to reflect on the recent events that have happened in the Nigerian political scene. From the judgement of Lawan v  Machina, down to the just recently conducted Presidential elections and a plethora of other cases where a majority of the Nigerian people felt they have been robbed of daylight Justice. The face of the nation has been moody following the above scenarios. Going forward, I think it’s best to restrategize well at your important form of discretion.

Again, may it be unheard of that I told my Justices to descend to the arena of the players in the field in the sense that at every seemingly outburst, they should agree to whatever has been laced to be the voice of the people. But as I write this, I remember your overwhelming voice in law reports where you talk about the doctrine of necessity and substantive justice in cases laced with overwhelming evidence and just like a child who clutches her daddy’s legs graciously when asking him for something important she needs, so have I come to you.

It is not heavily necessary that I should bore my Justices with so much words so therefore I will end with the solidified words in a plethora of cases and as Chukwudifu Oputa, one of your learned brothers, (JSC as he then was) put it, the judiciary is not final because it is infallible. It is only infallible because it is final.

God bless the Nigerian Judiciary!

Oluomachi Igwe

The National Miss LAWSAN

University Of Benin, Edo State, Benin City, Nigeria.