To Hold National Summit on Law Revision
By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
Abuja-The Nigerian Law Reform Commission(NLRC),has disclosed, that Federal Laws in Nigeria have not been revised in the last fifteen years, contrary to international best practices which requires that law revision exercise be undertaken every ten years.
Making the disclosure on Tuesday at a Press conference in Abuja, the Chairman, Nigerian Law Reform Commission, Kefas Magaji, Esq, noted that the delay creates a huge gap in the body of laws and negatively affects the smooth operation of government institutions and the effective administration of justice, particularly in terms of awareness, access, implementation, citation, referencing and use of extant laws.
Magaji, while announcing the upcoming National Summit on Law Revision, organised by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission and slated to hold on 19th June 2018,said that the desire for the law revision exercise was informed by the fact that the last law revision exercise was done in 2002 and published in 2004 as the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
According to him, “The purpose of the Summit is to elicit the buy in support and co-operation of all relevant stakeholders, and the Nigerian community to ensure a successful law revision that will engender good governance, produce the best set of laws of the Federation of Nigeria ever, which will encourage a sound democratic culture based on the knowledge and application of the rule Of law.
“It is also important to note that there are currently about 552 Acts of the National Assembly published in the laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. Many of these laws have undergone series of amendments while others have been repealed in the last fifteen years.
“Within the same period, several new laws have also been enacted with little or no publicity, thereby making the use and referencing of these laws difficult. It is imperative that these amendments and new laws be revised and incorporated into the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria to facilitate their effective use” he said.
He stressed that the growing phenomenon of indiscriminate printing and sale by private persons of inaccurate and distorted versions of extant laws, which tends to create uncertainty and confusion in the system, particularly in adjudicatory process by the courts, appears to have been unwittingly encouraged by the absence of a comprehensive and revised edition of the laws of the Federation which could serve a repositioning of all federal laws.
The Chairman said, that the Summit is to further sensitive the Nigerian community on the need to support the law revision exercise and suggest on how best to avoid the errors in the past exercises, so as to come up with Laws of the Federation that embody the exact laws of Nigeria that will engender the smooth and effective operation of all organs of government and the administration of justice.
“A successful law revision exercise such as this requires the support and co-operation of all stakeholders which includes: government ministries, departments, agencies, parastatals and other statutory bodies. This is because a lot of changes have been made in the body of our law through the enactment of existing laws, issuing of subsidiary laws which includes: new Acts, Amendments, Regulations, Guidelines, etc and all these need to be reflected and consolidated in the law revision exercise.
“It is our desire to produce laws of the Federation of Nigeria that is easily accessible and user friendly by non-lawyers. We strongly request all the relevant statutory bodies to make available to the Commission the authentic version of their laws in hard or soft copies for incorporation into the body of laws of the Federation” he stated.
He also hinted that the Commission at the end of the exercise, intends to establish a department for law revision which shall be charged with the sole mandate of tracking and maintaining records of legislation that are made for purposes of future law revision, adding that the Law revision exercise is to culminate in the production of Laws of the Federation 2018.
The Summit will be held at the National Judicial lnstitute, Abuja on Tuesday, 19th June, 2018 and will have the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the Special Guest of Honour among other important dignitaries.
