A Collaborative Project between Access to Justice and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)

On behalf of the Nigerian Bar Association and Access to Justice, I warmly welcome you all to this media conference organized to mark the inauguration of a new initiative called the Judgment/Order Compliance Registry Programme (JOCRP), which is the brainchild of a consultative dialogue between the Nigerian Bar Association and Access to Justice.

Nigeria’s transition to civilian democracy has opened up prospects for accountable governance, but the journey to democratic accountability is still torturous and remains a long road ahead. Under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, political office holders and other public authorities, for the most part, disregarded the rule of law, flagrantly disobeyed court judgments and orders, and thereby undermined the authority of our courts. In March 2006, the Nigerian Bar Association, which is the umbrella body of Nigerian lawyers, went on a two-day nationwide boycott of courts to protest the widespread disobedience of court orders by government officials. Part of the legacy of the Obasanjo government was a legacy of impunity.

The government of President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua has pledged to depart from the legacy of impunity associated with the previous administration, and a number of actions the government has taken re-enlivens hope that it will sustain its respect for the rule of law and the authority of the judiciary. However, many governmental departments, including the police force, have not changed much, and many times we receive reports that these institutions are flagrantly flouting orders of courts.  Also, many state governments are in violation of court orders even at this time. Many have backlogs of un-enforced decisions inherited from previous governments, which have little, if any, prospects of being complied with. It is now very important for us to find effective ways of putting the spotlight on these departments and governments in order to sustain our struggle for the rule of law in Nigeria. 

A major institution we will focus our attention on is the Nigeria Police Force. There are, anecdotally, thousand of judgments against the Nigeria Police Force, mostly for gross abuses, such as extrajudicial killings (including custodial killings), torture, unlawful arrests and detentions, and myriad other violations. Many of these judgments provide compensatory damages to abuse victims. Unhappily, most of the victims are often unable to enforce these awards against the police. Winning lawsuits against the police, therefore, has systematically turned into a hollow legal ritual as only few people, with privileged information and leverage can actually locate police monies for purposes of levying execution against the funds. This problem has been a recurring, insurmountable and frustrating challenge for victims and legal professionals who use legal advocacy to redress violations against law enforcement abuses.

Under this program, we will now help victims and lawyers locate assets of public institutions and make this information available to them so that they can move against these assets (money or other property) if the Police Force or other public institutions fail to satisfy any judgments given by courts against them. No longer will our people feel helpless when they get judgments anymore. They will have the information they need to enforce those judgments. This project is addressing this other form of impunity, and ensuring that we end it as well.  The rights of access to courts (and justice) and fair hearing loses currency where court judgments cannot be enforced. 

This is what the Rule of Law Initiative of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Access to Justice (AJ) seeks to address. The project called the Judgment/Order Compliance Registry Programme (JOCRP) is specially designed to ensure that all court judgments/orders/directives are complied with at all levels of government, local, state and federal, and by all agents and agencies of government. It will enable the Bar confront impunity to court orders right from the time when they manifest, so that the NBA does not wait until such disobedience has accumulated over a long period before acting. It gets the NBA engaged with each individual compliance default early on. The implementation procedure of this project is attached as an Addendum to this statement.

Through this project, the NBA will compile a list of all past judgments/orders that have, till this time, not been enforced, and then work towards enforcing them. This helps the NBA;
1) Get reliable statistical information about the state of compliance with judgments/orders in Nigeria, and oversee an improvement in the climate for the respect of the rule of law in Nigeria.
2) See that the judgments/orders are actually enforced and that the governments’ Rule of Law policy is faithfully implemented
3) Strengthen popular confidence in rule of law institutions, particularly the legal profession and the judiciary by seeing that citizens’ rights are respected and enforced.
4) Provide government with information of which of its Ministries/ agencies/ parastatals is not complying with its Rule of Law policy, so that it can take steps to rein in any such recalcitrant body or bodies.

We thank you for coming and will be counting on your support in upholding the ideals of democracy in our country as a whole.

Joseph Chu’ma Otteh    Femi Falana
Executive Director     Chairman, Rule of Law Initiative
Access to Justice     Nigerian Bar Association
 
Addendum

How Does the Judgment Registry Programme Work?
It works in a very simple way.
1. Whenever there is a judgment/order by a court, and within the prescribed period of implementing that order, a public authority to which that order is directed fails/neglects to implement the Judgment/Directive of the court, the person at whose instance the Judgment/Order is obtained sends a copy of the Judgment, (together with copies of any representations made in pursuance of the Judgment/Order) to the National Secretariat and the local branch of the NBA. Therefore, each branch of the NBA shall maintain a Judgment Registry for this purpose.

2. The local bar branch shall, through its Judgment/Order verification Committee, verify the facts of the disobedience alleged. This is important for two reasons; first, that no party misleads the NBA, at both the local and National offices, and second, that a party has exhausted his/her legal options before making the complaint.

3. After verifying the facts as alleged, the local Bar Branches would first make written representations to the Federal or State Attorney General (as the case may be) to draw attention to the disobedience, before the National Secretariat, (President of the Bar) intervenes.
 
4. Where, after representations from the local bar, (or where the local Bar fails to act and the affected party requests the intervention of the National Secretariat), the President of the NBA will thereafter address a written communication to the Attorney General concerned, a copy of which will be sent to the Governor of the State/President as the case may be. A copy of the letter will also be sent to the local Branch of the Bar concerned for follow-up action.

What if the Agency/Government Fails to Act after all this?
Two options are available where there is a continuing refusal to comply with a Court directive/Judgment after these procedures have been exhausted.

1. From time to time, (ideally monthly if the circumstances necessitate this), the NBA and Access to Justice will publish, in the newspapers, a list of delinquent Governments (State and Federal and/or their agencies) who persist in flouting orders/Judgments of court.  At the time the NBA President is making his written representations to State or Federal Attorneys General, the President would also be forewarning the public officials of the possibility that should they fail to comply with the judgments, the NBA will be sponsoring media adverts to alert the nation of the continuing situation.

2. The respective State Bars concerned will be at liberty, in the case of continuing disobedience, to take any other action it deems appropriate to draw attention to, and denounce the refusal of State authorities or agencies to comply with Court Judgments/Orders.

3. The NBA Secretariat will also run an accessible online database, which will host an index of decisions/Judgments/Orders showing at any particular time, the States which are defaulting in complying with Court decisions, including a reference to the decisions/Orders/Judgments concerned, and a brief history of efforts made to secure compliance with the Judgment/Order.

4. These are, of course, not exhaustive of the options open to the Bar. All of this will become standard procedure to tackle the menace of disobedience to court decisions. The NBA will ultimately, in its own discretion, take other action as it deems fit to tackle the problem.

Benefits of this New System
1. The new system will make the NBA more pro-active in ensuring adherence to the rule of law. With this method, the Bar keeps up the pressure on government until it complies with the judgment.

2. This system will also reinforce the role of the Bar in professional practice; when the Bar takes up and successfully fights the cases of its members, it will enhance the professional and popular perception of the role of the Bar in our Country.

3. An important aspect of this programme is also aimed at providing relevant but often missing information to public interest lawyers, civil society organizations, and legal services organizations about liquid and non-liquid assets of key law enforcement institutions so that those who represent clients with unmet awards can use that information strategically to enforce their adjudicated claims.