The just concluded primary elections by political parties ahead of the
2019 general elections in the country does not in any way show that
Nigeria’s democracy is advancing, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said.
Delivering a goodwill message at the public presentation of the book;
“Intrinsic and Extrinsic Aids to the Interpretation of the Constitution,
Statutes and Private Documents” authored by Hon Justice R. N. Ukeje in
Abuja on Tuesday, Rt. Hon Dogara, argued that democracy is all about
adherence to rule of law and due process.
“If you look at it very well you begin to wonder judging from different
primaries conducted by political party as to whether we are making
progress in the advancement of our democracy,” he queried.
“Democracy is all about laws, it’s all about due process, about the rule
of law. Therefore, the deeper your laws, the deeper your democracy. We can
deepen our laws by deepening the interpretation of these laws to make them
applicable to situations that may arise after the laws have been written.
There are no better ways to deepen our democracy.
While commending Hon Justice Ukeje who came out of retirement to write the
book, the Speaker noted that, “there is a yawning gap in this area of law,
and thankfully she has decided in make a concerned effort at plugging this
gap. The issue of interpretation of statues including the constitution is
absolutely important in the advancement of our democracy.”
He said the book is a noble effort by the former chief judge of the
federal high court because in all cases the Judges who interpret “these
laws would not have sat in the hollowed chambers of parliament, so they
are not there in the contemplation of when these laws are made, and
therefore they are not there when these laws are crafted. But then they
must interpret them.”
The Speaker maintained that Judges perform an overall very onerous duty of
giving effect to the law “and I believe this wonderful endeavor is going
to be very helpful, it’s going to be like a compass in the hands of a
pilgrim, for legislature, drafters that we have in parliament, and most
importantly to the Judges whose responsibility is to ensure Justice
according to law.”
Speaking further, Hon Dogara said, “if you look at the Constitution, it is
not something that is written on daily basis. The American Constitution
for instance from where we borrowed ours has been in existence for
hundreds of years that some people people still refer to it as the living
document. Through inventive interpretation the Judges have ensured that
the document crafted ages ago is still relevant to address the
contemporary needs of the American society. Likewise, ours as well that
was borrowed from theirs, through the creative and inventive
interpretation of the Constitution by the judiciary. We still make of it a
living document that will remain relevant now and for ages to come. This
can only be the rules of interpretation of legislations as they cannot
give what they don’t have.”