Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has called for stricter sanctions “by a more intentional regime for the award of adverse and wasted costs” for court adjournments and delays.
Osinbajo, who spoke on Friday evening at the 20th memorial anniversary symposium in honour of renowned legal practitioner, Mr. Bankole Aluko, themed, ‘Administration of Justice: the Ideal Standard, the Nigeria Reality and Our Potential,’ said there was no greater waste of taxpayer’s funds than for a scheduled case to have to be adjourned.
The Vice President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, on Saturday titled, ‘Reform work in progress, expect real justice system changes, Osinbajo assures,’ said addressing delay of justice delivery should “involve imposing sanctions by a more intentional regime for the award of adverse and wasted costs.”
“The court is a taxpayer-funded public resource. The wasting or abuse of its finite time and resources without strict consequence will eventually discredit the system. Adverse costs are paid to the successful party in a civil case and wasted costs are directed against legal practitioners for poor professional standards in the conduct of a case.
“Severe costs should attend adjournments, there is no greater waste of taxpayer’s funds than for a scheduled case to have to be adjourned. It is only heavy costs that will discourage this malfeasance,” Osinbajo was quoted as saying.
He noted that certainty or predictability of judicial outcomes was one of the major strengths of the common law, adding that the challenges affecting the administration of justice in Nigeria are being addressed and “there is much hope for the positive reform of the system as more result-oriented work is going on and some real changes expected”.
Regarding the impact of the law on democracy, Osinbajo noted that “the democratic rights of the people and their confidence in the notion of a government of the people, by the people, for the people, suffers when the system of electoral justice fails to see itself as a handmaid of the democratic process.”
Citing the decision of the Supreme Court in the 2019 elections in Zamfara State to buttress his point, he noted that “to make sense,” judicial decisions and reasoning must in most cases meet the common notions of fairness and justice.
He added, “The system of justice must recognize the larger principles that it serves. In judicial interpretation, the spirit is as important as the letter of the law. Otherwise, judicial decisions become technistic applications far removed from common sense.
“The notions of justice that would meet public expectations of fairness and equity are those that promote substance over form. The observance of technicality over merit will always alienate the system of justice from the people it is meant to serve.”
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