Barrister Yusufu Nya Akirikwen is a member of the Taraba state Judicial Service Commission (TRJSC). He was one of those recently honoured by the state government. The most productive lawyer in the state hosted a few reporters in his chambers in Jalingo to speak on the award and other national issues. STEPHEN OSU reports
Your recognition by Taraba government as the most productive lawyer
I sincerely thank the Almighty God first and foremost for keeping me alive to see when the government will recognize people who have put in so much without depending on them, to project us to the world. These are the things that needed to be done to improve the economy of the country. I was overwhelmed not because I felt I may not be qualified for it, but because I do know that shortly after the civil war, government and the Nigerian society have thrown away hard work. People are respected merely on the resources they have, as nobody borders to know how they came by the resources. And that is the reason you will see some gentle men, even though the time they were called to serve in public service, they never had a bicycle, but today when you see them, they ride in big jeeps.
I think government should address this issue by recognizing people who have toiled and climbed up the ladder. This is one of the things that made me happy. I think why I felt that I deserved the award is simply because of consistency in the service. Even though I am somebody who has interest in politics, I use to live my practices for politics, contest elections, and even though I did not clinch any of the offices, yet I would come back here and still bounce back very well. Other reasons I also felt that I was actually qualified too, is the fact that this office (his office) has chunked out so many lawyers who are doing very well on their own. Some are in Port Harcourt and are competing in that environment very well.
I am so happy because as a young man when you groom up other persons and they are doing beautifully well, it tells you that you are doing very well too because they are all your products. As you know, manufacturers are always proud of their products, and I am also proud of my products.
By this award, I am challenged to work harder. .
Advice to upcoming lawyers
For the young upcoming lawyers, my advice to them is to be fervent in serving their senior colleagues. If your interest is money, I will assure you that you would get strangulated in the practices as time goes on because when a stem is disconnected from the root, by the time the nutrients the root has supplied it before the disconnection is exhausted, the stem would die and invariably the leaves would wither away. For you to maintain continuous relationship, give respect to those who deserve it. There should be consistency in their relationship with the seniors.
We are not politicians. It is only politicians that frustrate whoever brings them up. But as professionals, live to respect those who groom you because you will still need maturing as time goes on. There is one of my lawyers here that is now serving in one big government department in Abuja. They had a professional challenge there in Abuja and he called back. I quickly went into my library and sourced the solution for him. That is how it should be. I also advise them to look at their clients with the eyes of a patient and a doctor trying the best to use the right medicine for their ailment. But all this can only be achieved when you take your practice serious.
Inconsistency of Nigerian politicians
That brings us to a very big issue of ideologies in our political system, because the political system is not divided along the lines of ideology. People who have gone to a political party and they don’t have their needs met, move back to where they are coming from.
It also brings us to the issue of when we criticize a system, what is actually our reason? Are we really criticizing the system simply because they have failed in providing or meeting delivering on their promises to the people, or we are criticizing because we are not part of them? And that is the reason I have not taken most of our political elites very serious in this country. They are people who have held offices in political parties even the ruling party, but today because they are no longer there, they criticize them. And what the political party is doing to them was exactly what they were doing when they were there.
For my good friend, Nuhu Ribadu, he campaigned, he said PDP government has failed and that is why he came to provide solutions. And for my good friend in Taraba state, he said PDP government cannot solve the problems of Taraba, but today he has gone back to that same PDP. I don’t know whether he is going there with a different manifesto other than the manifestos of the party. And politicians that are doing some of these things should be watched carefully. I also contested an election, but I was being specific because I do know that there was no ideological line that separates the political parties. I was only telling the people that the candidate brought in by PDP will not bring in any dividends of democracy.
On the just concluded National Conference
If you watch Mr. President while inaugurating the National Conference, he made reference to referendum. But when they were now submitting the reports, he now abandoned the issue of referendum and was saying the report had been given to him, and he urged all arms of government to support and ensure the report is implemented. I think he has the Attorney General of the federation who would have guided him very well. Because, if from day one, this report is to be submitted for referendum, have they cleared the warehouse in preparation for that? And if not, if it is the National Assembly that would now receive the report for implementation, have they done the right thing for them to submit the report to the National Assembly?
As far as I am concerned, I still believe that may be Mr. President wants to use this report only for his own purpose, or rather, he came to a point that he was afraid of what was about to happen in this country, and he gathered men to understand whether these people are really prepared to cheer themselves up. And if anything at all, he has succeeded in knowing that Nigerians are still comfortable living together.
What is that purpose Mr. President wants to use the report for?
What I mean here is that he cannot today sit down there as a President and dump the report on the National Assembly and ask them to make it to become laws. There are so many far reaching decisions of the National Conference, and most of these decisions touch on the provisions of the constitution, and the constitution itself has laid down the procedures for its amendment. So, at what point can they now drop this thing (report) for the National Assembly to accept and use for the purpose of amending the constitution?
His road maps to the forthcoming general polls.
I do know that many people were complaining that the number of security men at the recent elections in Ekiti and Osun were so much and intimidating. I belong to the opposition. I also would have loved the situation whereby, we should not complain on the presence of the security, we should complain on their professionalism or otherwise in handling the exercise. If they had gone there to do things that would encroach on the rights of the citizens that is when we should complain, because if you are a sincere politician and you don’t want rigging, and security men are there to really protect and block rigging, I think that is a good thing.
I would want a situation whereby if election is fairly and properly conducted, there should be no need for people going to court. As a lawyer, I feel that when people go to court, I am paid more, but for the system to work and improve, people should not go to court when election is well conducted. Why there is failure of governance today is because the choice of the masses is not always there, they are not allowed to emerge. And that is the reason you can see that instead of the masses dictating to the people they have sent as their representatives, it is the representatives that dictate because he or she never won election.
If INEC really wants to maintain the tempo, it should spread elections in the country over a period of one or two months across all each geo- political zone. If it takes you to take two states in each geo-political zones within one day so that all your workers within that zone would be deployed to the two states you are handling, that would give credibility. INEC would do well if they would go to the drawing board looking at what they have experimented recently in Ekiti and Osun states. They should reduce the numbers of these ad-hoc staff and use most of their staff and be prepared to punish whoever is involved in sharp practices during election.
