Hon. Nasiru Mohammed Binji is the Sokoto State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, having been appointed in 2023 at the inception of Governor Ahmad Aliyu’s administration. In this interview, he speaks about the importance of rule of law, challenges and achievements of his ministry
Attorney General, what is the role of law in good governance?
I don’t think there can be good governance if there is no law, because law is the foundation of any civilized society. No society, no law. Law is the foundation. So, if we are talking about good governance, we must have the necessary law to guide us. They both go hand in hand. And I must also stress that adherence to the rule of law is important for good governance. The importance of the rule of law is to keep the government in check, within their legal boundaries. Good governance is essentially about what is in the best interest of the people.
Even in the animal kingdom, I have absolutely no doubt that they have laws. If you watch the Wildlife documentary you would have seen that animals establish and defend their territories for food and even mating rights. Even submissive behaviors to dominant animals indicate law and order and arbitration when there is conflict to ensure that peace reigns. On a lighter note, I am sure you have read the “Animal Farm” where the pigs came up with the Seven Commandments- “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy” and the law that no “animal shall sleep in a bed “.
You want to talk about the lion, the king of the jungle?
There are leaders, there are established principles. For example, when the more powerful animals approach the river to drink water the weaker ones give way- that is their own system, accepted by them, that is their way of life. But what is the difference between them and human beings is that we have laws- divine laws, man – made laws and agreed consensus to adopt certain principles to guide our life and relationships.
Unless when there are breaches?
And whenever there are breaches, there are sanctions. According to some philosophers, wherever there is law, there must be sanctions, because if there are no sanctions people have the tendency to commit offenses.
So, if there are no laws, there would be no breaches. Are you saying that there would be no crime without laws?
There must be law. Committing crimes is human nature …you are free to conclude that man was created to commit offenses. The safeguard is the creation of laws to stop them, and this has been philosophically and jurisprudentially proven. In the modern system, when there is no law, there is no crime. But once there are laws, there are offenses, and when you run foul of it sanctions are applied.
You are of the firm position that law is critical for good governance?
Of course, because laws are the foundation of civilized existence.
Many people, including legal practitioners, are of the opinion that Nigeria has more than enough laws for effective governance, and that the problem is lack of enforcement. I want to quote Justice Solebo, who recently retired from the Lagos State Judiciary. She said, and I quote: “Weak enforcement and not laws, is Nigeria’s challenge.” Do you agree with her submission, that’s one part of my question, and why, and if you disagree, why do you humbly disagree with Her lordship?
There is absolutely no doubt that Nigeria has very good laws and her laws can compete favorably with laws in other countries or other jurisdictions, particularly in the Commonwealth. The problem is the lack of enforcement. It’s a significant problem due to several factors- impunity, delay in court proceedings and all these contribute to the challenges of law enforcement.
But why the Commonwealth, and why not America?
Our legal system is fashioned after the English Common Law. So, we are part of the Commonwealth. And, as she said, we are not lacking in laws that can help in good governance. We have good and adequate laws to guide the conduct of our leaders and we the led.
So, you agree with her submission?
I wholeheartedly agree with her.
So, if enforcement is the issue, what is the way forward?
Allow me to shock you…Nigerians are not that lawless.
Do you mean this from the bottom of your heart?
Yes, we are not lawless, there might be instances of lawlessness, like the banditry in the North – West, the insurgency in the North -East and other forms of crisis in the South -South and elsewhere in Nigeria. But these instances are not overwhelming, because Nigerians are governed by laws. We are not lawless, as some people would think. To the contrary, we are very law-abiding citizens.
Can you confirm with statistics that Nigerians are not lawless, using record on convictions or number of cases to back up this assertion?
I can’t give you the statistics for the whole country, but based on statistics from my own jurisdiction… Sokoto State, a state of over seven million people, I can confidently insist that we are not lawless people.
Are you saying that the population of Sokoto State is seven million people by the last population census?
Like you know Nigeria unfortunately hasn’t been able to conduct a national census since 2006, so we have no choice but to resort to estimation. Back to the question, in Sokoto State maybe we have about 400 criminal cases in our high courts and other courts. So, for a state of about seven million people with just about 400 cases, you will certainly agree with me using Sokoto State as an example that we are not lawless.
But compared to Lagos?
I don’t know. I definitely won’t comment about Lagos State, because I don’t know the number of cases they have. But remember that Lagos State has a population of about 30 million, so going by their population they are likely to have more cases in their high courts. So again, I insist that Nigeria is not a lawless society and that people have high regards for laws.
By your assertion it seems that Judges in Sokoto State are not being overworked?
I want to agree with you that they are not overworked, not just because our people are law abiding, but because we have 24 judges in Sokoto State High Court. The number has helped ensure that the judges are not overwhelmed with cases.
How many divisions?
There are five divisions. We also have about 40 magistrates and many Judges of the Sharia Courts so our judiciary is vibrant.
So, they are on holiday?
No, they are not on holidays. They are performing their judicial duties as expected of them.
Because, clearly, they are not overworked….
They are significantly up to the task….it is just that they are not overwhelmed by the number of cases assigned to their respective courts.
But is this an indication that people of Sokoto State prefer using the Alternative Dispute Mechanism (ADM)?
First some background. In the olden days the traditional institutions settled disputes between their subjects through an informal dispute resolution mechanism. There were no courts as we know them now. The ADM began to gain ground from about 1976 after the Pound Conference on the Causes of Public Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice, which called for more efficient and diverse dispute resolution methods.
The ADR emerged as a social and legal reform movement in the United States due to several factors like the rising legal costs, overcrowded courts and more importantly a growing preference by litigants for faster and more efficient dispute resolution methods. So, this is the genesis of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). So, it evolved through medieval practices and has gained prominence in modern legal systems as a response to the limitations of traditional litigation, where the elders acted as trusted arbitrators. So, arbitration is the preferred method and the courts have endorsed it. …it’s faster and less acrimonious. It hardly leaves a party to a case bitter because decisions are reached by consensus and the judge only adopts it.
Will I be right to say that law is constantly evolving, which explains the need for reforms and amendments?
The main responsibility of the National Assembly and various State Houses of Assembly is to make laws for good governance in Nigeria and this function includes amendment, repeal and enactment of laws. There are also Law Reform Commissions at both the federal and state levels, which have the responsibility to review and reform archaic laws. So, laws are constantly changing because society is changing too. Take the developments in the social media …in cases where there were no laws we have a responsibility to enact laws to guide its use and where the laws are outdated, we have a duty to amend the laws to bring them into conformity with the realities of the day. There are several other examples that I can cite why amendments are necessary.
Even in terms of fines?
Of course, if you go through our laws before the various amendments were affected you will understand why the amendments became extremely necessary. For instance, we can’t have fines in pounds when our legal tender is naira. Or a situation where the fine is not in tandem with the crime. So, amendments do take into account the economic reality. So, like they say change is the only constant thing. And once this is so there must be amendments to bring the old into to conformity with the new.
What reforms are you working on in Sokoto State? In terms of your laws?
In terms of our laws? Yes, if you recollect, I began by saying that, since society is constantly evolving, and that there’s the need for laws to be amended, repealed, and reviewed, to bring them into conformity with the realities of the day….so we are dispassionately looking at our laws to see the ones that we need to subject to an amendment. And you know that an amendment can be just the change of a word “a” to “it”. If we want to change the name of Sokoto North Local Government Area for instance…that would be a constitutional amendment and that must be approved by the National Assembly and at least 24 States Houses of Assembly…amendments are not something you engage in for fun.
So, this is something that’s constantly ongoing….
It’s constantly ongoing. Last year, we got the Sokoto State House of Assembly to amend some laws and even now we are working on more laws that we think need to be amended. You must acknowledge my Governor as a firm believer in the Rule of Law and in constitutionalism.
Would they be as controversial as some of the last amendments which we would definitely talk about?
We only carried out our legitimate duties by proposing amendments to some laws and the State House of Assembly agreed with us and duly affected the amendments after engagement with critical stakeholders…it is only some mischievous people that tried to tag them as controversial. There was nothing controversial about the laws, rather they were to advance good governance.
Let’s talk about the laws that attracted attention to Sokoto State. Last year Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto pushed through the House of Assembly some consequential amendment to some laws. Were the amendments absolutely necessary, or is it that you added all these other laws to the Sokoto State Local Government Law of 2009 to hide your real intention?
Let me begin by talking about the three laws, the Discrimination against Persons with Disability Commission’s Law, the Zakat and Endowment Commission’s Law, the Tenancy Control and Safety of Persons Commission Law. These three laws were Styled by the immediate past administration of Aminu Tambuwal as commissions, whereas by their functions they can only function as agencies of government. By designating them as commissions the law created a problem for them, because commissions are typically independent, autonomous and not under the supervision of any ministry. So, we thought that for efficiency, and accountability, that we should appropriately designate them as agencies of government under the supervision of certain ministries.
Going by the provision of Section 197 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, there are only three statutory commissions for each state of the federation. And had it been the intention of the makers of the Constitution, if they had wanted all agencies of state to be commissions, they would have expressly stated so without any ambiguity. Under the 1999 Constitution as amended Section 197 provides for only the following statutory commissions- the State Independent Electoral Commission, the State Civil Service Commission and the Judicial Service Commission, which are styled as commissions – they are independent, going by their nature, the nature of their work. You must agree with me that the State Independent Electoral Commission must be independent of the supervision of any ministry for it to function effectively, for the opposition party to have faith in its impartiality.
So, the State Independent Electoral Commission must be a Commission to carry out its functions?
Yes, it must be, by the nature of its function. Another one is the State Judicial Service Commission which also needs to be independent of the supervision of any ministry for it to carry out its functions effectively and without bias. This is why the Constitution styled them as commissions. Whereas these three laws that were styled by the former administration as commissions before the coming of the Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto administration can only function as agencies. There is no doubt that their operations as commissions were hampered … there were no checks and balances, and in some instances, some of the Chairmen were acting as Sole Administrators.
Sole administrators?
Absolutely as sole administrators. You definitely have heard about absolute powers corrupting absolutely. So, the governor was motivated by the purest of intentions to right wrongs which were affecting the smooth operation of government. So essentially it was to subject them to supervision of ministries or the departments of government. That is what informed the decision of the government to forward this amendment to the House of Assembly and nothing more.
But the talk both in Sokoto State, and in some sections of the media was that the Local Government Law 2009 was a deliberate mischief that was targeted at certain quarters- was this the intention?
Absolutely no mischief was intended. Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto- may Allah bless him- is a good man and as his Attorney General I can tell whoever cares to listen that his actions are always determined by public good. He is the last person whose official conduct would be informed by mischief. For the record there was no mischief intended, and the amendment was proposed in good faith. There were about four or five amendments made to the law. The first was in respect of Section 13 of the law that changed the tenure of elected chairmen and councilors…..
From two years to three years?
The first amendment was to change the tenure of the Chairmen and Councilors from two to three years. You may wish to recall that the governor ran the 2023 governorship elections on Local Government Autonomy. It’s one of his 9- Point Smart Agenda. And as someone with good knowledge about the local government system he has always believed that the councils can deliver the goods if given the necessary support. And the question is what can an elected chairman achieve in two years? So, the governor in his wisdom deemed it fit to increase their tenure to enable them initiate and execute projects.
Again, the governor thought that it would be the best thing to align the Sokoto State law with what is obtaining in the FCT where they have a tenure of four years. It would interest you to know that before now the tenure was three years, before it was changed to two years in 2016 by the immediate past administration. The governor is a fair-minded person. His argument which can’t be faulted is if truly the local government is a third tier of government why won’t its elected officials enjoy a reasonable tenure? The President, Governors and members of the state and national assembly all have a four-year tenure so why subject the councils to a two years tenure? So, he thought the best thing to do was to revert back, to the accepted three years.
