2023: Presidential Aspirant Speaks on Delivering Justice, Restoring Peace to Nigerians
- A media mogul and the Social Democratic Party's presidential aspirant, Adewole Adebayo has said that justice is the pathway to restoring peace in Nigeria and the world
- Adebayo, the chief executive officer of Kaftan TV said that the downtrodden must be able to access and afford justice in the society
- According to Adebayo, sabotaging the provisions of the constitution in the interest of a few Nigerians must come to an end
An aspirant in the 2023 presidential race, Adewole Adebayo, has said that there can be no peace until justice is made available and accessible for all Nigerians and people across the world.
Adebayo said this during a meeting with the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HIIL) in Abuja on Monday, March 28. The meeting was attended by Legit.ng reporter.
Source: Original
Receiving delegates from the institute, the presidential aspirant said should Nigeria get everything right with its justice delivery system, the country can by extension serve as an example of the ''most just'' society in the world.
At the meeting themed, A People-centred Justice Programme as a Component of Justice Vision for Nigeria, the aspirant on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) revealed his measurement of what can be referred to as a just society.
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His words:
"My measurement of a just society is with what happens to the lowest person in the society. We need help in our (Nigeria's) access to justice, not because we don't have access to justice but because the lowest people in my society do not have access to justice and when they do, it is even not affordable."
Adebayo added that a country has to define itself, not by its Gross Domestic Product or economic strength but by how justice is delivered to the downtrodden.
Nothing that the resource to do justice is inherent in man, Adebayo said that people can be taught how to live by justice.
He said:
"There was a time we did not have many lawyers in Nigeria but we were getting more justice delivered; that was because what we practised at the time was not the justice of the law but the justice of conscience."
Nigeria's constitution and efforts to deliver justice to the people
Further speaking, Adebayo admitted that the Nigerian constitution as amended makes room for fundamental objectives that could help Nigeria to become the "most just" country but these objectives are not been followed through.
Adebayo added:
"If we follow it, we'll be the most model country for justice but again, if you do so, you would be disappoint politicians in the country because they are afraid of justice; and as a lawyer I would be out of job. But this sabotage has to end and we must join hands to say enough is enough."
Also speaking, Senator Ugochukwu Uba, a former lawmaker who represented Anambra south senatorial zone stated that justice is central to every activity of humans.
Uba submitted that once a country or society manages to get it right with justice - from issues of land dispute, inheritance, abuses, conflict resolution among many other forms of injustices - the majority of the world's problems would be solved.
He said:
"Anyone who is serious about turning society around must hinge such efforts on justice."
In his address, Samuel Muller, the chief executive officer of the HIIL said that there is a staggering 95 per cent of people around the world who do not go to court not because there are no courts but because they cannot access or afford these service.
According to Muller, 5.1 billion people which translates to two-thirds of the world's population do not have access to justice.
He said:
"When you look at the data out there, you ask questions like what is the state of justice in the world."
For Theresa Smout, the programme director at the HIIL, the people-centred initiative looks at bringing all the leaders of justice delivery institutions together to review data, what the justice system looks like in Nigeria and develop pathways to deliver affordable justice to the people.
She said with a pilot test of the initiative in three states - Imo, Ogun and Kaduna, the HIIL has learnt a lot about convening leaders of justice institutions and how to consolidate the lessons learnt from the state to the national level.
Listing some of the indices for measuring the justice process, Smout said it is important to take note of what solutions the victims of injustice are seeking, did they find them; were they able to move on; was the process free of stress and how affordable was it too?
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The media mogul also emphasised the need for leaders to pay attention to the needs of women and vulnerable groups.
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Source: Legit.ng
