Some legal practitioners have highlighted compliance to court orders and professionalism as what they expect the new Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, to embody in order to lead the nation to progression from its challenges particularly in the area of rule of law and justice.
The AGF ministerial position is one of the federal government offices that is reserved for lawyers.
Fagbemi will be sworn in on Monday after being screened by the Senate following his nomination by President Bola Tinubu.
On his part, Barrister Noah Abdul said that executive lawlessness has allegedly been the order of the day in the years past but that the new AGF should change the narrative for the betterment of the society.
“We know the Lateef Fagbemi SAN to be a thorough bred legal practitioner, a full-fledged litigation lawyer who knows the importance of obedience to court orders and judgement.
“What we have been witnessing in the past years is executive lawlessness; court will give orders against the executive and then the AGF who is supposed to advise the president and members of the Federal Executive Council properly will not obey it.
“But this time around, I think we will see a change because the new AGF has been a legal practitioner and so we expect that his tenure will witness obedience to judgements and decisions of court,” he said.
Abdul also suggested that more judges should be appointed to conclude the numerous pending cases before the courts.
“Again, we are expecting an increase in the number of justices in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
“At least, the 1999 Constitution requires a minimum of 20 Justices in the apex court but presently we have about 11.
“I don’t see any reason why the AGF cannot advise the president to have the numbers increase or even to amend the Constitution so that we can have more than 20 Justices and several panels at the apex court so that cases that have been pending for more than a decade can be dispensed of,” Abdul said.
For Wale Balogun Esq, he stated that the justice sector needs overhauling due to several allegations against officials in the three arms of government.
He advised the new AGF to be visionary and treat every corruption allegation without fear or favour.
He stated that the combination of AGF and Minister of Justice is professional and political, noting that Fagbemi must be focused on reforming the system.
“Our legal regime needs a total overhaul, and we need an AGF who is visionary and reform minded. This is more imperative in view of the unimpressive performance of the last few AGFs.
“They were inundated with series of corruption allegations but no single legal reforms, no professionalism, but politics,” he said.
THE WHISTLER
