The just concluded primary elections by political parties ahead of the
\n2019 general elections in the country does not in any way show that
\nNigeria\u2019s democracy is advancing, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
\nHon. Yakubu Dogara, has said.<\/p>\n
Delivering a goodwill message at the public presentation of the book;
\n\u201cIntrinsic and Extrinsic Aids to the Interpretation of the Constitution,
\nStatutes and Private Documents\u201d authored by Hon Justice R. N. Ukeje in
\nAbuja on Tuesday, Rt. Hon Dogara, argued that democracy is all about
\nadherence to rule of law and due process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at it very well you begin to wonder judging from different
\nprimaries conducted by political party as to whether we are making
\nprogress in the advancement of our democracy,\u201d he queried.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy is all about laws, it’s all about due process, about the rule
\nof law. Therefore, the deeper your laws, the deeper your democracy. We can
\ndeepen our laws by deepening the interpretation of these laws to make them
\napplicable to situations that may arise after the laws have been written.
\nThere are no better ways to deepen our democracy.<\/p>\n
While commending Hon Justice Ukeje who came out of retirement to write the
\nbook, the Speaker noted that, \u201cthere is a yawning gap in this area of law,
\nand thankfully she has decided in make a concerned effort at plugging this
\ngap. The issue of interpretation of statues including the constitution is
\nabsolutely important in the advancement of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the book is a noble effort by the former chief judge of the
\nfederal high court because in all cases the Judges who interpret \u201cthese
\nlaws would not have sat in the hollowed chambers of parliament, so they
\nare not there in the contemplation of when these laws are made, and
\ntherefore they are not there when these laws are crafted. But then they
\nmust interpret them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Speaker maintained that Judges perform an overall very onerous duty of
\ngiving effect to the law \u201cand I believe this wonderful endeavor is going
\nto be very helpful, it’s going to be like a compass in the hands of a
\npilgrim, for legislature, drafters that we have in parliament, and most
\nimportantly to the Judges whose responsibility is to ensure Justice
\naccording to law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking further, Hon Dogara said, \u201cif you look at the Constitution, it is
\nnot something that is written on daily basis. The American Constitution
\nfor instance from where we borrowed ours has been in existence for
\nhundreds of years that\u00a0 some people people still refer to it as the living
\ndocument. Through inventive interpretation the Judges have ensured that
\nthe document crafted ages ago is still relevant to address the
\ncontemporary needs of the American society. Likewise, ours as well that
\nwas borrowed from theirs, through the creative and inventive
\ninterpretation of the Constitution by the judiciary. We still make of it a
\nliving document that will remain relevant now and for ages to come. This
\ncan only be the rules of interpretation of legislations as they cannot
\ngive what they don’t have.”<\/p>\n
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\u2019s democracy is advancing, Speaker of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n