The Future of Nigeria’s Justice System

Prior to joining the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Uchechukwu Ngwaba worked as a sessional lecturer in three Australian Universities (Macquarie University, Sydney; University of Western Sydney; and Deakin University, Melbourne).

His research engages multi-disciplinary, comparative and socio-legal methods in exploring complex questions affecting health governance frameworks in the Global North and South. He draws appropriately from multiple disciplines (law, humanities, economics, medicine, etc.) to redefine problems outside disciplinary boundaries and explore solutions based on shared understandings of complex situations in the area of health. His work in the area of transitional justice engages Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) as a useful theoretical lens for critical internationalism to interrogate claims about universalism in the pursuit of international criminal justice, whilst pushing for better representation for the subaltern in international thought and action.

Ngwaba began his career in commercial legal practice in Chief Ladi Rotimi Williams Chambers, Lagos, where he was involved in a number of high-profile litigations before Superior Courts of Nigeria. He subsequently took up an academic position as a Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS). As one of the principal institutions for legal policy discourse in Nigeria, Ngwaba’s work at NIALS exposed him to policy-oriented research, which traversed a broad field of legal enquiry unified by the focus on achieving policy and systemic changes in Nigeria.

Anthony Ikemefuna Idigbe is the Senior Partner at PUNUKA Attorneys & Solicitors. He is also involved with consultancy, business and human capital development through its Canadian affiliate, PUNUKA Consulting Inc.

Idigbe has 39 years of experience in insolvency, business restructuring, arbitration, dispute resolution, privatization, capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, etc., and has advised clients on several complex transactions. He was licensed to practice law in Nigeria in 1983, appointed Notary Public in 1989 and elevated to Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in July 2000. Idigbe was licensed to practice law in Ontario, Canada, in June 2016. He holds a doctoral degree in cross-border insolvency from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Idigbe's dissertation was on the role of INSOL International in global norm making with the 1997 UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency as the case study.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Association of Nigerian Lawyers (CANL) and chairs the Board of Trustees of Dominican University, Ibadan. Idigbe is also a fellow of INSOL International; the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London; the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN) and the International Bar Association (IBA). In addition, he is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN); London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA); Lagos Court of Arbitration (LCA); International Chamber of Commerce, Nigeria (ICCN); Institute of Directors Nigeria (IOD) and International Insolvency Institute (III).

Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji is a Distinguished International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law and a Special Advisor to the President’s Office at Toronto Metropolitan University. The Nigerian-born Judge Eboe-Osuji recently completed his term as President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. He was also concurrently serving as a senior judge in the Appeals Division of the ICC from March 2018 to March 2021.

Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Eboe-Osuji served as the Legal Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva where he anchored the High Commissioner’s interventions in cases involving human rights questions. Earlier in his career he worked in various capacities at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including as prosecution counsel. Before joining the international public service, Judge Eboe-Osuji practiced law as a courtroom advocate before the courts in both Canada and Nigeria.

Judge Eboe-Osuji is a visiting professor at Stanford University Law School. He has also taught international criminal law as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa.

Osai Ojigho is a human rights expert, gender equality advocate, lawyer, and civil society leader with extensive experience working on the African human rights system, gender justice and good governance.

She is currently, the Country Director of Amnesty International, Nigeria. Prior to joining Amnesty International, Ojigho served in various roles with Oxfam including as interim Pan Africa Director of Oxfam GB’s Pan African Programme. She was the Coalition Coordinator for the SOTU (State of the Union) Coalition; a human rights observer to the African Union Mission to Mali and the Sahel; and Deputy Executive Director of Alliances for Africa.

Ojigho is well travelled and widely published. She contributed a chapter in Gender, Judging and the Courts in Africa: Selected Studies (Routledge) 2021. She is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Institute for African Women in Law (IAWL), and a life member of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU). Ojigho is also a consulting editor with Open Global Rights.

She holds a LLB degree from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a LLM from the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and a practice diploma in International Human Rights from the College of Law England and Wales, UK.

In 2014, Ojigho brought with other partners, a case of gender discrimination and gender-based violence before the ECOWAS court to challenge state agents abuse of women in Abuja, Nigeria. This led to the first judgment (Dorothy Njemanze v Nigeria) on the Maputo Protocol by a regional court in 2017. She was named one of 100 Most Influential Civil Society Leaders in Nigeria in 2021.

Laura Alakija is the Managing Partner of Primera Africa Legal, a top tier commercial law firm with offices in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. She has over 15 years of post-call experience with expertise in the disparate yet connected fields of dispute resolution and transaction. Alakija has sector-specific experience in hospitality; energy and natural resources; project finance; transport; real estate & infrastructure; and information & communications technology.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom, an Accredited Mediator of the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse and a certified Online Dispute Resolution expert. Alakija is also a member of the Panel of Neutrals for the Lagos Court of Arbitration; Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; Shanghai Arbitrators Commission; Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. She is an active member of the international arbitration community serving as Member, ICC Africa Commission; Member, Advisory Board of the Lagos Court of Arbitration Young Arbitrators’ Network (LCA YAN) among other positions and memberships. Alakija served as the ICC YAF Representative for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey from 2019 to 2021.

She has received numerous awards including Africa’s 50 Most Promising Young Arbitration Practitioners 2020 by the Association of Young Arbitrators (AYA) and 40 under 40 Nigerian Rising Star 2019 by the Nigerian Legal Awards.

Leke Kehinde is a Partner at Kehinde & Partners, a modern, multidisciplinary law firm in the heart of Abuja, Nigeria. Before joining Kehinde & Partners, he worked at Afe Babalola & Co., where he represented clients in many high profile cases.

Kehinde holds an LLB degree from the University of Exeter, UK and an LLM from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. Prior to obtaining his law degrees, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nottingham. Accordingly, Kehinde brings the exactitude and thoroughness of Science to Law practice. His experience spans several practice areas, including Construction, Arbitration, Election Petition, Commercial Law, Employment and Labour matters and Family Law.

Kehinde is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) and focuses on the construction and engineering sectors. At the front-end, he has deep experience on matters like advising on the most appropriate procurement method, drafting contracts and negotiating contracts. He is also vastly skilled at drafting pleadings, advising on the level of proof required as well as court room and arbitration advocacy. Kehinde has worked on large and complex claims on quantum, delay and engineering issues.

Sebastine Tartenger Hon is the Principal Counsel at S. T. Hon (SAN) & Co. (Lawshield Partners) with offices in Abuja, PortHarcourt and Markudi, Nigeria.

He is a leading dispute resolution expert with 31 years post call experience, and recognised for his immense contribution to constitutional law, jurisprudence, law of evidence and civil procedure law in Nigeria. Hon has practised before all superior courts of record in Nigeria including the Supreme Court. He was educated at the University of Jos, Nigeria between 1987 and 1990 and the Nigerian Law School between 1990 and 1991. In recognition of his astute advocacy and excellent litigation practice, Hon was elvated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) (equivalent of the Queen’s Counsel in the UK) in 2008.

In addition to his legal advocacy work before courts, tribunals and arbitration panels, Hon is an avid legal researcher and widely published author. He has researched and written extentivesly on different legal subjects including Nigerian constitutional law and jurisprudence; law of evidence, civil procudere law and immigration law. Hon is also a regular speaker at legal conferences and a frequent guest on tv, radio and newspaper to provide insight on complex legal issues.

He has served on several justice industry-wide committees and working groups including the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Special Appeals Committee (2014); Court of Appeal Rules’ Drafting Committee (2016); and Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (2019-2020).

Mazi Afam Osigwe is a legal practitioner and the Senior Partner at Law Forte, a full service law firm located in the heart of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999; appointed a Notary Public of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in 2006; and conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in December, 2020.

Osigwe holds two Masters of Laws degrees (LL.M) from the University of Jos, Nigeria and the Centre for International Legal Studies, Austria (in collaboration with the Lazarsky University, Poland). The later degree focused on transnational commercial practice. He also holds a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) after studies at the Keble College, Oxford, United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK).

Osigwe has extensive experience in advisory and litigation practice. Particularly, he offers a wide-range of specialised legal services in respect of banking and commercial transactions, securitization, syndication of loans, regulatory advisory, telecommunications, corporate, commercial and financial matters, cross-border commercial matters, intellectual property law, money laundering and financial crimes litigation.

Chioma Onyenucheya-Uko is a lawyer, mediator and arbitrator, gender rights advocate and public speaker with over 14 years’ work experience. She is the Principal Legal Consultant at Zest Legal Consults, a law firm based in Abuja, Nigeria.

Onyenucheya-Uko is an expert in family law and engages in a lot of work around combatting sexual and gender-based violence. She passionately represents women and children in seeking protection from abusive situations and actively promotes advocacy for the enforcement of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act and other women and child rights laws.

In 2018, Onyenucheya-Uko was part of the small team that represented Nigerian CSOs in drafting and presenting a shadow report to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in Bamako Mali, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

She was the Vice Chair of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Chair of Human Rights Committee (2020 – 2022), and in this capacity, she established the Police Duty Solicitor Scheme (PDSS). In addition, Onyenucheya-Uko was the Public Relations Officer of FIDA Nigeria, Abuja Branch (2016 – 2019) where she remained actively involved.

She is a regular speaker at conferences on women, child rights and other rights issues. She hosts daily family law enlightenment program through her social media handles. Since 2020, Onyenucheya-Uko has been mentoring young female lawyers seeking a fulfilling career in law through different platforms.

Sirajo Yakubu is a legal practitioner and academician with specialty in anti-money laundering, world trade and dispute resolution. He is the Principal Partner at Sirajo Yakubu & Co and is the Head of Department of Public and International Law at the Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja.

Yakubu holds an LLB and an LLM degrees in International and Commercial Law (World Trade Specialization) from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom and a PhD in Law from the University of London, UK.

He was a legal advisor to the Federal Government of Nigeria and represented the Federal Government in courts. Yakubu also advised the government on commercial contracts and has negotiated a number of complex deals and settlements in this regard. Prior to joining the legal profession, he qualified as a Quantity Surveyor and worked for the three tiers of government in Nigeria at different times.

In addition, Yakubu sits on the boards of many companies and is currently promoting a Joint Venture ports dredging business in Nigeria. He is a member of the Secretariat of the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime; the Nigerian Bar Association; a Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Scholars, and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK).

Yakubu is the co-author of the book titled “Assets, Crime and the States: Innovation in 21st Century Legal Response”.