ADDRESSING THE NIGERIAN ECONOMIC CHALLENGES THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE LAW AND FUTURE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
BY
JOASH OJO AMUPITAN, SAN*
“Under the new dispensation, lawyers should be more involved in political and social engineering. Being the light bearer by virtue of their special training, they should bear the light at every dark enclave to show hidden attempts at the lawyer in misgovernance, misrule, and maladministration. The new dispensation must be dogged and determined fighter for freedom and equity and to ensure that the ordinary citizen is protected[O1] from threatened abuse of his fundamental rights through reckless and arrogant exercise of state powers the lawyers should take their pride of place in society. They should jettison the garb of egg-heads living like strangers in a splendid isolation in his own society oblivious of important development in the economic and social affairs of his country. The lawyers` role in the new policy should be that of an active participant in the platonic search for common good”. Aare Afe Babalola, SAN[1]
INTRODUCTION There is no better way to start this Lecture than the above quotation of our most respected celebrant, Statesman, Legal Luminary and a person likened to a deep sea flowing with majestic silence. This is a statement calling on us (Lawyers), by virtue of our special training, to act and be more involved in the political and social engineering that will rescue Nigeria from misgovernance, misrule and maladministration that has thrown the country into the present economic and social challenges. Nigeria is, no doubt, presently passing through its worst economic depression. Hence the choice of this year’s theme “THE LAW AND THE ECONOMY: Finding a Pathway for a Prosperous Post-Election Nation Nigeria” of the NBA, Ado Ekiti Branch is no doubt appropriate.
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* Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, a Fulbright Scholar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, University of Jos and former Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria. Email- amupitanj@yahoo.com or amupitan@unijos.edu.ng. Being the text of a Paper delivered at the 12th Aare Afe Babalola Annual Lecture of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ado Ekiti 2023 Law Week on Wednesday 24th day of May 2023.
[1] Afe Babalola, SAN, “Nigeria in search of a new polity: the role of lawyers”. Essays in honour of Hon. Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais: Edited by: J.A. Yakubu, Malthouse Press Ltd. P.70
