Increasing security challenges in Nigeria have continued to task the capacities of leaders, defence chiefs as well as security experts across the country. Also, various strategies, including force and appeasement, have been proffered by many Nigerians. Dr. Paul Obianaso, a Lagos-based legal practitioner, who is also a criminologist, who specialises in security and counter- terrorism matters, however, has a different view. In this interview with BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA, he says the country?s security challenges could be tackled through a proper classification of the judicial, criminal and penal justice system. He also spoke on the need to reform juvenile prisons, among other issues. Excerpts
THERE seems to be a misinterpretation of the Judicial System and the Criminal Justice System. The legal system constitutes what could be termed a general framework for the law, the application of the law and so on. But when it comes to the judicial system, it specifically refers to the court system. In Nigeria, we begin with the Magistrate?s Court, the High Court comprising the states and Federal High Courts, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court. We also have, apart from the Magistrate Courts, the tribunals and quasi-tribunals, there are also the Sharia Court and the Sharia Court of Appeal. The judicial system, when carefully defined, refers to the system of courts that are saddled with handling and managing legal matters. They hear and give judgments. They also interpret the law, that is why sometimes, people approach the court to make a declaration on certain provision of the law. When the court is called to make a declaration, we are simply asking the court to interpret the law and ?declare that Section A, B, or C of so and so law is so?. Often times, this happens when there are ambiguities or when there are conflicts of law. Conflicts of law can occur at the local, state or the national levels. We must also know that all laws that are promulgated or passed in Nigeria, whether they are local council laws, state laws or national laws, in so far as they are in consonant with the constitution, which is the grund norm, remain valid and enforceable. But in as much as they are contrary to any portion or section of the constitution, to that extent, they are contrary, ultra-vires and will be declared null and void by the court.
What about the criminal justice system?
Before we move to the criminal justice system, the judicial system as I pointed out, comprises of the courts, the judicial officers, including the National Judicial Institute (NJI). It goes beyond litigation. There is also the administration of the court and others, that provide the checks and balances, such as the National Judicial Council (NJC) and of course, the Body of Benchers and others, which comprises the bulk of the judicial system. What I have described now in law is the judicial system, that is the court, the administration of the courts, various courts and in their various hierarchies, the administrative organs of the judicial system such as the National Judicial Institute (NJC), Body of Benchers, the Legal Practitioners and Privileges Committee, these are part and parcel of Nigerian judicial system.
But are they the same with criminal justice system? The answer is No! Whereas a judicial officer will encounter the judicial system by being employed in any of the organs of judicial system, pointed out earlier. For example, whether you are an administrative officer in the office of the Body of Benchers, NJI, NJC or courts, you have encountered as an employee, the judicial system and when you as a litigant goes to court, you encounter the judicial system.
But the criminal justice system is different. Though there is a nexus between the criminal justice system and the judicial system, because of the criminal law, but in terms of framework, the criminal justice system stands apart.
An individual encounters the criminal justice system upon running foul of criminal laws, and that begins with an arrest, where you see the Police arresting a suspect. Not only the Police, because we have the States? Security Service (SSS), the Army, Air Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Immigration and Customs, Defence Intelligence Agencies and others. So in defining the criminal justice system, we are talking about law enforcement agencies saddled with crime prevention and control.
If you are accused of a crime, the process that you will go through is the criminal justice system. You don?t just-jump and land in the court. It is the criminal justice system that processes an individual into the correctional or penal justice system?
How about the correctional system or the penal system?
The correctional system comprises of all the institutions and organs that are put together to receive criminal convicts. Don?t forget that criminal justice system picks up criminal suspects or accused, where as the correctional system receives the criminal convicts. It is, therefore, the job of the correctional system to attempt to correct and rehabilitate the criminal convict.
By definition, the correctional system is that system or organ that has been established to receive the criminal convicts, process and receive the criminal convicts, attempt to correct that individual and ensure he or she is eventually rehabilitated into the society.
Again, it does not stop at the correctional system, that is the prison There is more to the prison, for example, even prisons are categorised, there is maximum facility, the medium prison and there are entry points facility prison, what is called in America as work release, half -way house etc.
What is wrong in our criminal justice and correctional system?
If you want to understand what is wrong with the system in Nigeria, you have to listen to those who should know, to understand the decay.
Recently, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) organised a conference where they talked about the criminal justice system, they spent most of the times talking about the laws and their applications. In other words, the judicial system, if we really want to make our system work and make it functional, a lot of reforms are to be done, and of course, the criminal justice system. We may have to do something with our Police. Why I started with the Police is that the Police is the one that has the primary constitutional mandate to protect lives and property. In other words, by nomenclature, the jobs of the security agencies are similar. There should be clear-cut reforms in the correctional system, the criminal justice system and the judicial system. What we have done in Nigeria is to muddle up the water and none of them is working fine. Functions are sometimes confused. They are not clearly defined.
As a criminologist, what should the country do to move the judicial system forward?
The Attorney -General is recently trying to do something in this regard by setting up a panel to look at some issues. But when you look at the terms of reference, you would find out that they have not done their home work very well. We have had law reforms in the past, but my worry is that people with the appropriate background are not involved in tackling these problems.
If we want our penal or criminal justice system to work, we should do a holistic classification, that holistic classification will differentiate the judicial system from the correctional or penal system and the criminal justice system and vice-versa. When the lines are drawn, responsibilities properly shared, there will be that sense of shared values, because they are all working towards one singular objectives: crime prevention. When it has happened, punish crime, and when punishment has been declared, do the best to rehabilitate or correct convicts. So, when the classification is properly done, I think that is when Nigeria will get it right.
There is what is known in criminology as taxonomy of crime. In the global index of the taxonomy of crime, a country or a place can be described as crimino-genic, when environment is saturated with crime of certain measure, and you see it to be unchanging again. We also have garden-variety crime, like white-collar crime, fraud and hard-core crimes such as armed robbery and terrorism. We need to do a proper crime classification, so that we will not have functions that are monopolised by the wrong agencies or the wrong people. Another thing is that in this present age, there is no university in Nigeria where you can study first degree in criminology. Lack of foundation framework or platform, where people could be trained, is responsible for the mix-up.
Don?t you think that the multiplicity of security agencies is responsible for their working at cross-purpose?
The classification that I talked about can take care of all these. Nigeria is one of the most sensitive nations on the planet. We are faced with both the issue of national, local and global terrorism but people are rather appointed into sensitive places where they do not have passion or qualification. People are appointed into committee on security and they go on a jamborees and our situation remains the same.
Are you saying we should get professionals involved in these committees?
Not just to get professionals, but those who have shown interest and commitments. If I studied law, practicing and researching on that area, it is clear that it is my area of interest. It is a different matter for somebody who has a degree and moved on to something different.
There have been calls on the federal government to dialogue with the Boko Haram sect with a view to solving our security problems. Do you support that?
Negotiating with the sect will be successful when either of the parties is in the grave. One party has to resurrect from the grave and one will be inside the grave.
How do you mean?
Who do you want to negotiate with? The group says it does not embrace Western education. It doesn?t want this and that. It doesn?t want the Nigerian state the way it is. What are you negotiating? Is it about forgoing Western education, or is it about the Nigerian state? There is no basis for negotiation with Boko Haram, what are you negotiating about? Of course, the group means business and it is doing what it threatened do: Killing Police men and innocent citizens. I think what happened is that the case of global terrorism just hit us like a breeze and we are still dazed and confused and we can?t pick ourselves up.
You will recall that an American General had earlier warned that the people are linked with Al-Qaeda, and they are familiar with their activities. I flagged off the first national conference on terrorism in this country and I said that we had terrorism in Nigeria long time ago, and they said No! We didn?t have terrorism, what we had were religious, political and ethnic crises.
How do we tackle the Boko Haram menace as a terrorism expert?
Take it that I am not speaking yet, because I have made a formal presentation to the Federal Government. I can only make it public if the government fails to do anything about it. For now, the government is groping in the dark with the problem and does not even know how to start. The problem we are facing is that even if you start shooting every Boko Haram member, it will not solve the problem. The problem is ideological and religious. Look at the panel, the government is putting together, you will see retired old faces, and you ask yourself, if we are committed to fighting terrorism, are these the people we should use?
There have also been complaints about the juvenile criminal justice system, what is your take on it?
Nigeria, as you know, is a geopolitical contraption that was put together by the colonial masters, and part of the hangover or contraption had fettered down to the criminal justice system and the judicial system. Nigeria is in a nightmare when it comes to the juvenile system. In a well-established system, the juvenile justice system is well-analysed. In fact, often times, more attention is given to it than the adult criminal justice system, because this is how to catch them young, correct them and rehabilitate them to a better future generation.
I brought it out because the juvenile system in Nigeria is almost non-existent. It is commonplace to find an 11-year-old boy inside the cell with hardened criminals and so on and so forth.
Do you support the idea of restructuring the country to address some of these issues you enumerated?
The problem is that we are caught up in a system that is highly dysfunctional. So when you are talking about restructuring a dysfunctional system, you will run into a nightmare. Restructuring proposes that you have a structure that is working but not working well. The question is: is the Nigerian system functional? And if it is functional, to what extent does it need restructuring? I think that is the whole gamut that needs to be addressed. Systems that were originally over- lapping and had maintained organic nexus and had been left to rot. I said organic nexus, because they are dealing with human beings.
In your view, how do we solve the crisis in the judiciary?
Speaking of our apex judicial personalities washing their dirty linens in public, the president ought to go beyond what the NJC did and allow a thorough investigation to be conducted to know what happened between the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and suspended President of the Court of Appeal. The investigations should involve forensic examination by forensic experts.
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