….Supports Atiku to push appeal to Supreme Court
Former second Vice President Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and chairman of the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), Monday Ubani has lamented lack of readiness by the Nigerian judicial system to embrace technology.
In a chat with our reporter on Monday about the rejection of a request by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the just concluded 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar to televise the court proceedings by the Presidential Election Tribunal Court (PETC).
Ubani said, “It is unfortunate, we are still not ready to embrace technology in our judicial system because of the argument that it will turn the court into a football stadium. How does information sharing turn the court into a stadium? It is the kind of mentality that we have which is why when other nations are bringing ICT into the legal system we’re still battling with everything manual.
“I’m not surprised that the court took that position. I know that one day all these things will be corrected.
“The conservativeness of law where we borrowed it from, that is Britain, things have changed there. If you go to Britain and America you’ll see that they are more open, everyone participates in court proceedings.
“The other time when the House of Lord gave judgment on political issues we watched it live. We are still very scared about opening up the system here, maybe because of vested interest.
“Technology is advancing, anyone still thinking that we are in 17th century, should know that technology has taken over. Every second there is one innovation or the other.
“We cannot afford to remain behind, we cannot afford to be making arguments of 17th century in 21st century because technology has broken all barriers.
“The world is disseminating information by the second. Everyone wants to know what is happening, there is much participation of the people in the process.
“It is good that a move has been made by a party to a suit for a televised proceedings. I’m sure that they’ll get to the Supreme Court. We’ll also see what the Supreme Court will do regarding the matter.
“We knew when the system was made of not allowing televised proceedings. Now that technology has broken the barriers, all those reasons that were genuine then are no longer genuine in the light of the present reality.
“We are on a new normal, where things are happening by the second and we are still holding the idea of the 17th century in the 21st century, especially in the influence of heavy innovation in technology, something is wrong. I believe that someday it will give way.
He added, “The world has moved on and it is not waiting for anyone. A lot of progress has been made in the judicial sector in Rwanda and Kenya. If you see their judicial system in terms of application of ICT, they have gone far.
“We’re the giant of Africa and we’re still arguing if we can televise our court proceedings. They have a right to their decisions and they must have cited authority. Even as they continue with the proceedings they should still push the Appeal to the Supreme Court.Recall that the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has dismissed the application by Atiku Abubakar for live televising of the court’s proceedings.
The court, in a unanimous ruling, held that the application was without merit, adding that televising court proceedings is not provided for in any extant law in the country.
Justice Tsammani, who read the lead ruling, held that the requirement that the court sits in public did not mean that it should sit in a stadium or in a marketplace.
Justice Tsammani added that there was no way televising the proceedings could advance the interest of fair hearing or advance the interest of the petitioners in relation to issues raised in their petition.
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