VP Osinbajo At SimmonsCooper Advocacy Development 2018 Compete On 03/11/2018

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT SIMMONSCOOPER ADVOCACY DEVELOPMENT (SCAD) COMPETE 2018 ON THE 3RD NOVEMBER 2018

PROTOCOL

Before I speak about the panel, let me just say that I was actually quite impressed by the fact that the panel was so engaged with our presenters and the quality of what you have to say to them was so very encouraging.  I think that it is so great that you really devoted a lot of time and gave them so much attention.  This is a thoroughly well-done judging of the SCAD competition.  Thank you all so very much for the great help that you have been.

Let me say very quickly that this has been a long journey for us, all of the members of our law firm and all of our partners who have worked so hard at SCAD through the years.  At the back of our minds though is the fact that we want our law firm to be one that is able to give back to the law profession.  At the end of the day, yes, money is important, profit is important.  But we felt that institutions such as law firms have a duty to do something for the profession, to give something to the profession.  And we felt that this will be our special way to give back to the profession and encouraging young lawyers, young advocates to really do the best they can do especially in presenting their arguments, presenting their cases to panels whether those panels are the distinguished panel that we have today or individual judges or judges of the appellate court.

The point that I would also want to note is really the fact that today when you look at the quality of the profession, the quality of advocates, the quality of legal practitioners, you can see that we are doing a lot better than many years ago because we have perhaps better-trained people.   But in terms of actual numbers, we are still falling far behind.  So, if you have ten lawyers, you might find two who are doing well, who are able to present their cases in a way they ought to present them.

At the same time, as I said, we are doing a lot better than ever before because listening to our presenters today, at the least the four I listened to, I agree with the panel of judges that at their age, I don’t think that I could have done anything more in quality than the presentation they made today.

So, there is no question at all that things are certainly getting better.  One is sometimes always suspicious of people who have the good-old-days idea. Certainly, you can see a greatly improved quality of lawyers, a greatly improved quality of lawyers, a greatly improved quality of individuals who are doing so much better.

So, I really want to congratulate our presenters today. They did an excellent job, they did very well indeed.  I was quite confused after listening to the last four, and I prefer I didn’t listen to the others. I think that one of the reasons people like me never became judges or will never become judges is because we take a side very quickly; we decide very quickly what we are going to do. To be a good judge like the distinguished panel, you have to wait until the end and then decide who will win.

So, I want to thank you all so very much for taking the time to come and for sitting through all this.  But importantly, for our profession, and I’m glad that the NBA President himself is here, is the very fundament of democracy.  If we are not able to improve ourselves, if we are not able to do better for our profession, then our democracy, in fact, our whole system of justice and governance is at risk.

I think that what we are seeing today are important building blocks in ensuring that our society is better and also our system of justice is also better.  And I hope that with the great quality that we have seen today the legal profession and our system of administration of justice will greatly profit and benefit by all of this.

Thank you very much.