Tribunal Judgment: We’re Not Ready To Embrace Tech In Judicial System – Ubani
Monday Ubani, a former second vice president Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and chairman of the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), has said that it is unfortunate that the Nigerian judicial system is not ready to embrace technology.
In a chat with the Daily Independent on the rejection of the request by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the just concluded 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar’s request for the televising of the court proceedings by the Presidential Election Tribunal Court (PETC).
He 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 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 the 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 the 17th century in the 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 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.”
