By Onozure Dania

GOVERNOR Simon Lalong of Plateau State has promised to support and promote programmes that would improve the quality of life and deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state. He spoke while declaring open the 2015 Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Law week and Justice Dauda Azaki memorial lecture in Jos.

Lalong

He said: “The theme for this year’s event titled “Law, Corruption and National Development” is timely, seeing that it keys into the change mantra anchored on using the instrumentality of rule of law to check corruption in public and private life, so we can drive the process of national development.

“Let me at this point; commend the leadership of the NBA, Jos Branch, for putting up a befitting 2015 Law Week/18th Justice Dauda Azaki Memorial Lectures. The benefit of starting the Legal Year with a Law Week that allows time for reflections on our calling as legal practitioners cannot be over-emphasized.

“I have said it repeatedly, that Plateau State Government will continue to support every laudable programme that will enhance good governance and by extension catalyst the delivery of the dividends of democracy to our people.

“My acceptance to identify with this programme therefore, goes beyond my being a lawyer, to the value your contribution in the practice of law, will make in getting our state and country to work. You will no doubt agree with me, that as we strengthen the law, and fight corruption with the instrument of the Law, our development as a Nation is guaranteed. It is in this, that I find a charge for you as Ministers in the Temple of Justice.

“Permit me to use this medium to recount the virtues in the sacrificial life of service, of the Late Justice Azaki, who had lived his life dispensing Justice and reconciling people for the good of humanity. I am excited by the feeling that, year in – year out, we have used the character of courage, commitment, incorruptibility and the fear of God in the life of this Icon, to encourage the Judiciary and Legal Practitioners, to live by their oaths of service and call.

“While commending the NBA -Jos Branch for sustaining this lecture, in memory of Late Justice Azaki, I challenge the society to evolve a mechanism for acknowledging good works when somebody is alive, as Berton Bralley says, “now is the time to slip it to him for he cannot read his tombstone, when he is dead.

“As we celebrate the lives and times of this legal titan and Jurist, who was courageous and fearless in the dispensation of justice, and contributed in no small measure to the growth of Judiciary in Plateau State, I urge all to emulate his virtue of Truth, Equity and Justice which brought dignity to the Bench and bar.

Infrastructuralchallenge

“Be rest assured that on our part, our government is committed to enhancing the Justice Delivery System.  By some stroke of providence the activities of Government in the last one month have revolved around the Justice Delivery System.

“We have as a government, not only addressed partly, the issue of infrastructural challenge in the judiciary, but have gone further with the swearing-in of three  new High Court Judges, proved our unflinching commitment to improving the lot of the Judiciary. Further to this, is that we will do all within our means to complete the High Court Complex under construction

“As a practitioner in the temple of justice, I am very conversant with the role of the judiciary in enhancing the Practice of Democracy. Law as the fulcrum upon which democratic principles and practices are accentuated, requires a functional Judiciary that gives interpretation to the Law and justly dispenses Justice according to the interpretation of that same law.