AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
Professor John Akintayo of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, on Thursday, advised that the Constitution of the country should be rewritten in simple and plain English.
The Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law counselled that the Constitution should also be re-examined periodically by a body of technical experts in the broader context of social justice.
This, according to him, would guarantee its continued relevance and inspire the confidence of the people being governed.
Akintayo made the recommendations at the inaugural lecture, entitled, ‘The lawful use of Law,’ which he delivered on the University campus on behalf of the Faculty of Law.
He stated that the use of plain language in legislation should be encouraged and that research in Customary Law should be intensified. States should begin the process of documenting Customary Law from ward to local government and produce a restatement at the state level, he recommended.
The professor, who warned that once the people lose trust in the Constitution, it is almost impossible to regain it, said that justice permeates all areas of adjudication and has multiplier effects.
He said, “Courts are obliged to dispense even-handed justice to all categories of litigants before them, be they private persons or government functionaries or institutions. This makes it imperative that adequate machinery be put in place for the dispensation of even-handed justice in such proceedings.”
Akintayo further stated that the Legislature must draw inspiration from the spirit of the Constitution to advance the course of justice by enacting laws that would improve the welfare of the average citizens and others who are at the margin of society.
He submitted that indifference to existential problems may push citizens to the wall, adding that when this happens, violent changes may become inevitable.
He said that judges and lawyers, as custodians and dispensers of justice, must be conscious of their enormous responsibilities to preserve, defend and protect the law and their sacred duty to dignify it by clothing it with justice at all times.
He added that the citizens must keep watch over elected officials and public officers to ensure their fidelity to the law. He also said that “Professionals of all disciplines, intellectuals of all learning, as well as credible politicians of all persuasions, in and out of government, must see their privileged position in terms of access to wealth and/or knowledge as imposing a bounden duty on them to use their best endeavours to make the law honourable and to seek its overhaul or modification where it has become a vehicle of injustice and has outlived its relevance.”
