Foremost civil rights lawyer, Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) has said that Nigeria as presented structured does not have a future.
The 65-year-old legal luminary made this known while lamenting the alleged systematic collapse of every facet of the nation’s socio-political-cum-economic life in an interview published by Sunday Vanguard.
Reminiscing about his last 40 years of law practice in Nigeria, Agbakoba said:
The experience has been very fulfilling. I have been doing this for 40 years. The later part, that is, the last 10 years, has been downward spiral because the Nigerian state has disintegrated. Nigeria doesn’t exist except on paper.
All the institutions have collapsed; so the fulfilment that came in the early years of law practice is no longer there. You go to court, the judge is not there. You go to court, the judge is there but he doesn’t understand the law. You go to court, the judge is there but he is distracted. You go there, the judge is there but he has over 60 cases and just can’t cope. You go there, there is no electricity and so we all find ourselves in the heat wearing our fake white hair that has been abolished in the UK. So the little bit I regret is the failure of the legal and judicial institutions. So many lawyers are frustrated about what is going on.
Agbakoba blamed failure of leadership for the nation’s downward spiral, saying:
“It worries me that we have natural, human and financial talents but no one is interested. Unfortunately the wrong people keep going in (as leaders)”.
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He lamented the failure of the youths to take their future into their hands despite worsening conditions.
Agbakoba said:
“Let’s be honest, I am not the kind of person to be engaged in argument on patriotism. On the current form, all the systems have broken down and I am unable to see a future. Look at my friend Charlie Boy for instance. He was saying the other day that he couldn’t understand why when he calls for protest, the youths he is speaking for don’t come out. But they are on social media abusing each other. Where are the youths? They are not employed, they are in misery. Life is not good for them. When we organize to assist them, when we look back, we don’t see anybody.”