From Okwe Obi, Abuja
And Associate Professor, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Tobe Momah, has told President Bola Tinubu, state governors and national assembly members to be a selfless in the discharge of duty.
Momah, who is the Chairman of the Sam Momah Foundation, gave the advice at the 2nd Sam Momah Annual Lecture Series entitled: ‘The Temple of Justice in Nigeria: Scarred Or Sacred.’
Also, a book, tilted: ‘General and a Gentle man in the last 20years,’ was launched in honour of the late minister of Science and Technology.
He said: “Nigeria leaders need to change their mentality. They are not lords. We have a leadership in Nigeria that see themselves as lords not as servants and learners. They need to sit with the people they govern and see how they can serve them”
“If our leaders change that mentality we will see the best part of President Bola Tinubu’s regime. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes we made over the last 23 years.
“This is a great opportunity for President Bola Tinubu to put his name in the golden letters of Nigerian history but he will need to stop lording it over people and start serving the electorate.”
Also, he noted that the judiciary must, as a matter of urgency, dialogue on how strengthen the legal system in order for it to be at par with global best practice.
He said: “The lecture wanted to ask questions on when the judges were highly looked up to as highly respected and as sacrosanct in their verdicts”
“The Temple of Justice in Nigeria was asking questions on the activities of our judicial officers asking if they are scarred to implement the laws or do they look at themselves as sacred cows that nobody can do anything to hurt them.
“The Judicial system my father envisaged for Nigeria was the one that was equitable and egalitarian that mean everyone had access to it.”
While speaking on the essence of the Sam Momah Foundation, he said it was set up to encourage the youth read voraciously.
“Our goal as a foundation is to see how to improve Nigerians reading culture ,we felt the issues on electoral tribunals was also a topic to discuss in this annual lecture series.
“We have been building big rooms across Nigeria, places where people can read in an ambient environment, we are building one in Unversity of Lagos ,we have one in Abuja and also in University of Nigeria, Nsukka,” be said.
On his part, President, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Yakubu Maikyau, admonished citizens to be circumspect in their response to court judgements, adding that absence of the judiciary in Nigeria will amount to chaos.
Maikyau said: “Attempts have been made to give us statistics of those found culpable on allegations of judicial corruption and this maybe about less than 1percent of the judges we have in this country and they have either had this allegations against them or have been convicted.
“Like I said, absent the judiciary in this country you will not have a nation today as the perception may be unless we get measured in the way we speak.
“Also the only way you can come to this conclusion is to pass through this same civil process of law
“Judges don’t go to the field but give judgement on what they presented to them and because of the way we have shaped the mind of Nigerians it is very easy for anyone to take a deceptive process to court loose the case on the basis.
“That is why we must be circumspect, we must be measured in the way Nigerians talk about the temple of justice.”