Don calls for redrafting of Nigerian Constitution

A Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, John Oluwole Akintayo, has called for the rewriting of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria in simple and plain English.

Prof. Akintayo made the call in an inaugural lecture he delivered at the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Law, entitled, “The Lawful Use of Law”.

He said the use of plain language in legislation should also be encouraged.

According to him, research in customary law should be intensified, while states should begin the process of documenting customary laws from ward to local government and produce a restatement at the state level.

He stressed the need for constitutional documents to be examined periodically by a body of technical experts in the broader context of social justice to ensure its continued relevance and to ensure that the document inspires confidence in the people it is to govern.

He submitted that once the people lose trust in the Constitution, it is almost impossible to regain it.

Akintayo stated that the issue of justice permeates all types of adjudication, but emphasised its significance in constitutional adjudication because of its propensity to have a multiplier effect.

Courts, he said, are obliged to dispense even-handed justice to all categories of litigants before them – be they private persons or government functionaries or institutions. This, according to Prof. Akintayo, makes it imperative that adequate machinery is put in place for the dispensation of even-handed justice in such proceedings.

The academic stated that the legislature must draw inspiration from the spirit of the Constitution to advance justice by enacting laws that will improve the welfare of the average citizens and others who are at the margin of society.

He submitted that indifference to existential problems might push citizens to the wall, warning that when this happens, violent changes may become inevitable.

He said judges and lawyers who are custodians and dispensers of justice must be conscious of their enormous responsibilities to preserve, defend and protect the law and their sacred duty to dignify it by clothing it with justice at all times.

Akintayo said citizens must keep watch over elected officials and public officers to ensure their fidelity to the law.

He said professionals of all disciplines, intellectuals of all learning, as well as credible politicians of all persuasions, in and out of government, must see their privileged position in terms of access to wealth and/or knowledge as imposing a binding duty on them to use their best endeavours to make the law honourable and to seek its overhaul or modification where it has become a vehicle of injustice and has outlived its relevance.