Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo has called for measures that would help in speeding up
the “crawling” judicial process in the country.Yesterday, at the third annual
judges
workshop, organised by the International Institute for Petroleum, Energy
Law and Policy (IIPELP), in collaboration with National Judicial Institute
(NJI), Osinbajo described the present slow judicial process in the country as a
nightmare for investors.
“We need to
evolve measures that will speed up the judicial decisions. We also need these
decisions not to be too complicated for investors to easily understand,” he stated.
Represented
by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, the acting president
further expressed the need to align decisions of various courts with some level
of credibility so as to avoid complicated decisions from unnecessary forum
shopping.
Noting that
both petroleum and the power sectors provide 80 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue
and over 80 per cent of foreign direct investment, Osinbajo expressed worries
that as critical as the sectors are, if the country is not positioned to supply
the necessary power supply essential for driving the economy, the country will
not make much progress.
Declaring
the workshop open, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen,
stated that judges must not allow technicalities to stand in the way of justice
in order to sustain public confidence in the judiciary.
According to Guardian, The CJN
however noted that conflicting judgments were a necessary part of the judiciary
as they helped to strengthen the system.He urged the judges across the
federation to invoke their powers under respective rules of courts to issue
practice directions on arbitration clause.Onnoghen emphasised that endless
litigation has grossly affected foreign investment in the country.
According to
him, “no investor, whether domestic or international, would want his investment
tied down in seeming endless litigation, especially where there is an
arbitration clause in the contract.”
The CJN
consequently requested that no court should entertain an action instituted to
enforce a contract, or claim damages arising from a breach thereof, in which
the parties have, by consent, included an arbitration clause and without first
ensuring that the clause is invoked and enforced.
He urged the
court to insist on enforcement of the arbitration clause by declining
jurisdiction and award substantial costs against parties engaged in the
practice.
Executive
Director IIPELP and visiting Professor of Energy Law, Niyi Ayoola-Daniels,
stated that the workshop was to intimate judicial officers and judges on the
appropriate legal, fiscal and regulatory issues in recent policy decision by
the oil and energy stakeholders.
He added
that a lot of reforms are currently ongoing in the petroleum, gas and power
sectors, including the recently passed Petroleum Industry Governance Bill
(PIGB) as well as the lingering GenCos payment issue.
0 Comments