ABUJA – President Mohammdu Buhari has urged legal
practitioners in the country not to defend corrupt Nigerians
as clients but expose them.
The President stated that exposing various misdeeds was the
only way to arrest corruption and restore the glory of the
land.
He stated that legal profession would achieve more
credibility if the members of the Bar and the Bench uphold
their professional ethics.
Buhari spoke at the opening of the 55th Annual General
Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in
Abuja on Sunday.
“I am convinced that law, law-makers, lawyers, law courts
and the law enforcement agencies all have pivotal
responsibilities to discharge, if the change we seek is ever to
materialize.
“As you all know by now, this administration has taken on
the challenge of improving security, fighting corruption and
revamping the economy, among many others.
“The fight against corruption is in reality a struggle for the
restoration of law and order. Corruption and impunity
become widespread when disrespect for law is allowed to
thrive in society. Disrespect for law also thrives when
people get away with all sorts of shady deals and the court
system is somehow unable to check them.
“Ability to manipulate and frustrate the legal system is the
crowning glory of the corrupt and, as may be expected, this
has left many legal practitioners and law courts tainted in an
ugly way.
“In a gathering such as this, I do not need to elaborate on
the way that corruption and impunity have damaged our
economy. But I would like to say more on what, I believe,
should be your role as legal practitioners, in helping us back
to the path of rectitude.
“First, we need to make our courts functional and effective
again. This means that we must have lawyers who take the
ethics of the profession very seriously; lawyers who will not
frustrate the course of justice, even though they defend their
clients with all legitimate means and resources.
“Nigeria needs ethical lawyers who always keep the end of
justice in mind and will never sacrifice the integrity of the
legal system to cover the misdeeds of their clients, no matter
how lucrative the brief may be,” President Buhari said.
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