Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has proffered ways to address challenges facing the legal profession in Nigeria.
Speaking at the National Judicial Institute in Abuja at the Body of Bencher Award Night where he was preferred to the prestigious rank of Life Bencher, Prof. Osinbajo said the profession needs to go back to its roots.
He explained that the adoption of a set of reforms that are hinged on reclaiming the traditions of virtuous ethics and entrenching personal and corporate integrity, among other things, are some of the requisites for addressing the many challenges facing the legal profession in Nigeria.
According to him, “the weaknesses that have recently been exposed in our profession, as disturbing as they are, have at the same time provided us great opportunity for deep introspection and self-assessment.
“This is an opportunity for reform and reclaim of that tradition of virtuous ethics; a tradition of moral inquiry and doggedness in the dispassionate and impartial application of law no matter whose ox is gored.
“Our professional practice and the courts must always measure up to the moral, ethical and statutory standards we subscribed to.
“Whether we sit at the Bar or on the Bench, we bear the responsibility for a fair and just society; a free, fair and impartial justice system that ushers in progressive reforms in governance and protects the social structure of our nation,” he said.
He noted that the law profession and its practice could either strengthen democracy or weaken it.
“Our everyday practice of law has the potential to either strengthen or weaken our democratic values and institutions.
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“The ‘learned’ that everyone ascribes to us, suggests amongst other attributes that we are- skilled not only in the art of our trade/calling, but also in the mechanics of a just society.
“That just society cannot be established by mere wishes or rhetoric. It can only be by deliberate action and sacrifice especially of those of us to whom our profession has so generously conferred membership of its highest body.
“My Lords, distinguished members of the Body of Benchers: Our greatest debt at this point in our lives and careers is to the future.
“The future of this profession that has been so kind and generous to us and to this society that has yielded leadership at various levels to us.
“That debt is one which we must discharge faithfully. First by being worthy mentors to an ever growing number of legal practitioners, but more importantly by fearlessly insisting that the bedrock of justice and the rule of law is personal and corporate integrity,” he noted.
