Agbakoba calls for review of justice administration

As a fall out of the current bribery allegations in the judiciary, the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) has reiterated the need for the review of the country’s justice administration model.
The senior lawyer who said the model should be changed because it has become out-dated, called for the establishment of administrative tribunals to handle diverse kinds of conflicts.

Agbakoba expressed the view in his state of the nation press conference organised by his chambers in Lagos.
While agreeing that the anti-corruption crusade of the federal government is yielding results as a result of the huge monies being returned to the treasury, he urged the federal government to push out the over N3trillion accumulated in the Treausry Single Account (TSA) in order to stimulate the economy.

He stated that to get the financial services sector right, the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must be limited while a financial services agency is created.
He added that the CBN is currently overburdened. According to him, the CBN should focus on lending, interest rate and exchange rate issues.

“Tied to financial services sector is the role of CBN in keeping inflation in check. Nigeria is technically in recession with her 10 percent growth rate dramatically reduced to three percent. To carry out quantitative easing, CBN should create money by buying securities, such as government bonds, from banks with electronic cash that did not exist before.

“The new money swells the size of bank reserves in the economy by the quantity of assets purchased – hence quantitative easing. Like lowering interest rates, quantitative easing is supposed to stimulate the economy by encouraging banks to make more loans. The idea is that banks take the new money and buy assets to replace the ones they have sent to the central bank. That raises stock prices and
lowers interest rates, which in turn boosts investment”, he declared.

Other critical factors he mentioned as a prerequisite to economic rebound includes job creation and stimulating small businesses. Others are reviewing the public/private sector economy as well as meeting the funding gap which involves allowing for free flow of forex. “CBN should expand the space and allow all Nigerians to participate in forex. Currently, the centralised system on this issue excludes critical stakeholders from Dangote to the ‘Mallam’on the Street”, he stressed.

He also called for the diversification of the economy, adding that Nigeria must return to ‘receivable financing option’.
His words: “The proposal that Nigeria pledges her oil to receive loan from countries like China, should be revisited. We need to fill our huge deficit gap by receivable financing. It is only such huge receipt of funds that could plug the serious infrastructural deficit that impede diversification in Nigeria”.