Promoting social justice and rule of law as panacea for economic growth By Ken Ahia (SAN)

BEING EXCERPTS OF A KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY MR. KEN AHIA SAN, FBR AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 2024 LAW WEEK OF THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATON (NBA) ABA BRANCH HELD ON THE 26TH OF JUNE 2024 AT THE BAR CENTRE, HIGH COURT COMPLEX, ABA, ABIA STATE.

PROTOCOL:
Introduction:
Permit me to convey my sincere appreciation to the Leadership of the Aba Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association as well as members of the 2024 Law Week Organizing Committee for the kind invitation extended to me to speak at this auspicious event in the capacity of Keynote Speaker.

This occasion is a sort of homecoming for me, for many reasons. First, I like to think that I am a bona fide Aba-Boy, having spent a significant part of my childhood and adolescent life in this very historical city. Second, because of the long, rewarding personal and professional relationships I have with many practitioners in this jurisdiction. I also imagine that not many of us in this room know that my journey in law started at the Aba campus of the then Imo State University (Now Abia State University).
There is no question that the occasion of a “Law Week” has become an annual fixture in the calendar of the Branches of the NBA.

It is indeed a tradition which has been honoured by time and which provides practitioners and stakeholders in the justice sector alike, opportunity to reflect on issues pertaining to the practice of law; both as a profession and as a key instrument of social engineering particularly in a democratic setting. But beyond its technical component in the form of panel discussions on varying issues of significant import to the profession and society at large, the social component of it affords legal practitioners avenue to take time out of their excruciating and laborious practices, to network and unwind; usually culminating in a dinner/cocktail party where we wine and dine in the most cherished traditions of the Bar.

The theme of this year’s event: “PROMOTING SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RULE OF LAW AS A PANACEA FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH” is most appropriate for these times.

To properly situate our thesis in this regard, it is important to contextualize the three key terms in the theme, namely: “Social Justice”; “Rule of Law” and “Economic Growth” as we attempt to explore their interplay in shaping an egalitarian society.
Social Justice
As a concept, “Social Justice” is used to denote a state where the ideals of justice – as an innate human desire, is democratized on a large scale so that every member of the society feels a just sense of belonging. As an element of justice, it is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. According to the Black’s Law Dictionary, it is “justice that conforms to a moral principle, such as that all people are equal”. Under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “Social Justice” is listed as one of the National Ethics upon which the Nigerian State is ordered along with other values such as Discipline, Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Religious Tolerance, Self-Reliance and Patriotism.

In the inimitable words of the Hon. Mr. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (of blessed memory) in his address, “Towards Justice with a Human Face”, “when we speak of justice, we are reaching for the very foundation of human existence. Justice is the cornerstone of human togetherness. To try to define justice is thus to address the most profound question ever to agitate and challenge the human mind, for in our definition of justice is contained, also, our definition of person, of society and of the relationship between the individual and the state, the individual and society”.
It was the great Sardauna of Sokoto and former premier of Northern Nigeria -Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, who famously proclaimed that a “nation can thrive in unbelief. However, no nation will thrive in injustice” to underscore the importance of social justice in the socio-economic context.

It follows therefore that social justice stands between us and self-destruction and where it fails, brings about the most untoward of outcomes. Social justice compels us to take the rights of others seriously, namely, the rights of women, the rights of the poor, the rights of the socially disadvantaged in our midst, the rights of children and young people, the rights of minorities etc. It ensures equitable access and opportunities in social and economic activities to all, especially the downtrodden.

Rule of Law
The origins of the Rule of Law theory can be traced back to the Ancient Romans during the formation of the first republic. However, it would later be championed by several medieval thinkers in Europe such as the English Philosophers – Thomas Hobbes and John Locke; and Swiss-born Philosopher and Writer – Jean-Jacques Rousseau through the social contract theory.
Indian philosophers such as Chanakya have also espoused the rule of law theory in their own way, maintaining that the king should be governed by the rule of law.
As a concept, the expression was derived from the French phrase ‘la principle de legalite’ i.e a government based on the principles of law. But it was the British Philosopher – Albert Venn Dicey (1835-1922) that gave the concept the ‘fame’ it now enjoys in modern literature. According to Dicey in his seminal work- Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885), “the rule of law means the absolute supremacy or predominance of the regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power and excludes the existence of arbitrariness or even of wide discretionary authority on the part of the government”. He further described the rule of law as the “bedrock of the British Legal System” and set out three parameters of assessing the principle thus: (i) Supremacy of the Law; (ii) Equality before the law; and (iii) Predominance of the Legal Spirit.
Other features used to assess the principle today are: an independent judiciary; a parliament exerting needed checks on the activities of the executive, certainty of law; respect of fundamental rights, respect of property rights, etc.
In a nutshell, the concept of Rule of Law is what the phrase says: rule, according to law. It connotes the centrality of law in social engineering; particularly in providing the basis of reward and/or sanction. The opposites of rule of law, are totalitarianism, dictatorship, authoritarianism, fascism, etc.
In Nigeria, our judiciary has had so much to say in contextualizing the principle in a long chain of cases. Few of those cases capture its essence more than the locus classicus – Military Governor of Lagos State v Ojukwu (1986) NWLR (Pt. 18) SC. 21 wherein Hon. Justice Obaseki intoned with magisterial finality thus:
“The Nigerian Constitution is founded on the rule of law the primary meaning of which is that everything must be done according to law. It means also that government should be conducted within the framework of recognized rules and principles which restrict discretionary power which Coke colourfully spoke of as ‘golden and straight and of law as opposed to the uncertain and crooked cord of discretion’ (see 4 Inst. 41). More relevant to the case in hand, the rule of law means that disputes as to the legality of acts of government are to be decided by judges who are wholly independent of the executive….that is the position in this Country where the judiciary has been made independent of the executive by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 as amended by Decree No. 1 of 1984 and No.17 of 1985.
The judiciary cannot shirk its sacred responsibility to the nation to maintain the rule of law. It is both in the interest of the government and all persons in Nigeria. the law should be even handed between the government and citizens”.
The summation from the above apt dictum is that the rule of law requires that all institutions and persons are subject to the same laws, fairly and independently applied, where access is defined and accessible to all, irrespective of social or economic class, with strong and independent judiciary.

Economic Growth
Investopedia – the world’s leading source of financial content on the web, defines “economic growth” as “an increase in the production of economic goods and services in one period of time compared with a previous period”. It is usually measured in nominal or real terms and often denoted by the gross national product or gross domestic product. In simpler terms, economic growth can be used to refer to an increase in aggregate production in an economy, which generally manifests in a rise in national income.
Within the context of our intervention here, the following algebra thus necessarily follows:
Social Justice + Rule of Law = Economic Growth.
In other words, for societies to achieve uptick in economic growth, the allocation and distribution of resources as well as governmental decisions and actions must demonstrate respect for the values of social justice as well as subservience to the cherished rule of law principles. Where the contrary is the case, the tendency for such an economy to witness stunted growth is rife.

The Interplay of Rule of Law and Social Justice as Panacea for Economic Growth
Background
A free-market economy requires a legal structure to function effectively. A market economy consists of many private actors who establish consensual economic relations to promote their separate and mutual advantage. Therefore, a strong legal system and lawyers are needed to provide the foundation for a superstructure made up of reasonable expectations that a particular transaction can be respected. By the same token, a market economy also needs regulations to internalize the costs of doing business. Further, the business law system needs to be widely known and accepted as a foundation for economic activity in order to provide an atmosphere of predictability and minimization of disputes.
To achieve the above, it is imperative that a strong understanding of legal dynamics is required.
As argued by one author, “in order for a market economy to function properly, the people must learn how a market economy is supposed to function, and they must come to accept the legal structures that make a market economy possible. Until this learning takes place, neither a market economy nor a system of legal structures on which it is based is likely to take root”. Equally, important in this connection is the need for certainty and predictability of judicial outcomes based on the principle of stare decisis. Therefore, for a legal system to engender economic growth; when disputes arise, the legal system needs to provide a systematic approach for the resolution of differences to minimize transaction costs involved in resolving disputes. A strong and predictable legal system is a panacea for positive economic growth as it ensures the protection of property rights.
Indeed, it has been submitted that legal systems that promote predictability, limit government interference, and protect the economic rights of citizens may be a necessary adjunct of economic development in today’s global market economy.
It is to be stated too that it is important that the rules apply equally to foreign as well as domestic actors to encourage foreign investment and the export of goods and services. All of these, create an avenue for the economic system to participate in the broader economic world in today’s largely globalized marketplace.

Rule of Law and Economic Growth
For the purpose of this address, I shall distill the interplay between Rule of Law and Economic Growth around three distinctive features namely (i) Legislation; (ii) Administrative Systems and (iii) Judicial System. Together, the various branches of government must enact and administer a legal framework that provides a structure for efficient economic activity and provide a dispute resolution system that is independent of external influence, efficient, predictable and expeditious.

Legislation
Legislation lies at the heart of commerce and industry. The network of legal relations necessary to support a market economy has both public and private law dimensions. Private law structures may include contract law, property law, company law, agency and employment law, secured transactions law, tort law, etc. For example, contract law provides a framework for the regulation of the obligations of parties within a contract and the remedies for a breach; property law regulates the ownership of properties and the economic framework for dealing in properties; with separate legal regime for movable and immovable properties; company law regulates the dynamics of operation of companies, businesses, partnerships and other business vehicles within an economy; employment law regulates the employer-employee relationships within the business community; secured credit transactions provides the mechanics for secured financing while tort law contemplates the rights of businesses against third-parties arising from breaches of duty of care and associated tortious liabilities.
The public law dynamics of it becomes relevant in the regulation of private transactions and protecting the public good. Some of the public law required to support a market economy includes insolvency and bankruptcy law, tax law, environmental law, securities law, banking law and public international law. Government regulations on these diverse subjects must be tailored in such a manner that they do not unduly hinder business development.
The point being made in a nutshell is that properly curated legislations in a free-market economy can help to engender economic growth. In situating this discourse in our local context, there is a sense in which it may be said that one of the banes of our national economy is the poor legislative responses to the structural imbalances that have been held responsible for trapping the wealth of the nation. For example, the age-long squabble over restructuring and fiscal federalism have not received the much-needed constitutional backing to unleash the full economic potentials of the country.
The current structure of our Fiscal Federalism has been held culpable for the seeming unviability of States as the Federal Government continues to play a dominant role in the politics of who gets what, when and how. Whilst there have been recent legislative interventions in this regard; such as the passage of the Electricity (Amendment) Act 2024 which for the first time laid the framework for the States to effectively participate in power generation, transmission and distribution in their respective domains, there is no question that more of such legislative interventions are required on other deep seated issues such as VAT collections and distribution; local government autonomy; ownership of mineral resources contained in the States; land ownership and acquisition; regulation of companies and businesses etc.
It is my submission therefore, that we must direct our local and national legislations towards policies and interventions that help to bolster economic growth and not those that stifle the little gains that have been made, such as the obnoxious Employment Expatriate Levy (EEL) which sought to impose humongous tax liability on expatriate staff of foreign companies doing business in Nigeria or local companies requiring foreign expertise; until it was rescinded by the Federal Government following overwhelming stakeholder-backlash.

Administrative Systems
The regulatory philosophy of a government can either be a catalyst to economic growth or retard economic growth and development. Government regulatory oversight is surely needed to ensure the effective application of the laws regulating economic activities enacted by the legislature. Also, government makes interventions in the market to deter monopolies, secure investor confidence and prevent capital flight. This regulatory intervention includes monetary policy, fiscal policy and government spending. Laws made with social justice as the guiding principle invariably promotes increased economic growth and participation, improved human capital development and enhanced smooth flow of capital into the country.

Judicial System
All of us gathered in this room, should know that the judiciary is the guardian of the Rule of Law. An effective and independent judiciary is a sine qua non for the resolution of business disputes (including disputes over governmental regulation) that arise in an economy. But for such a system to be effective and engender public confidence, it must provide for an independent determination of disputes shorn of external influences; guarantee access to justice; compel compliance with Court orders; provide a framework for expeditious determination of disputes etc.
Judicial independence is an essential cornerstone for the Rule of Law and for the proper functioning of a market economy. A marketplace economy can only operate effectively and efficiently if disputes arising therefrom are resolved by Courts on the merit based on legal rules duly adopted and evidence properly presented to the Court. In Nigeria, the perception of the judiciary as inefficient, opaque and partial for the purpose of dispute resolution has hindered its capacity for sustainable economic development. Seemingly indeterminable legal proceedings, overburdened dockets, outdated and ambiguous laws and general lax sense of mandatory compliance with Court orders and historical tendency to evaluate subjectively the moral worth and justness of legal norms increases transaction costs, deplete scarce resources and obstruct effectiveness of the judiciary. But more importantly in the context of this discourse, these outcomes have the tendency to arrest development by impeding production-factor accumulation, economic productivity and financial development.
I must not fail to speak to the widespread allegations of corruption against the judiciary. According to a report by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) in 2020, titled ‘Nigeria Corruption Index: Report of a Pilot Survey’ the sum of N9,457,650,000 (Nine Billion, Four Hundred and Fifty-Seven Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-Million Naira, Only) was corruptly demanded, offered and paid as bribe in Nigeria’s justice sector between 2018 and 2020.
All of these, added to the recurrent problem of abuse of ex-parte orders; challenges with enforcement of court judgments; delays in the determination of disputes across our Court system; perceived interference of the executive and corporate bourgeoises in the adjudicatory system conduce to create a negative impression of Nigeria as a sustainable environment for investment. Of course, no serious investor would like to throw in capital into a jurisdiction where disputes arising from commercial transactions may take a lifetime to be resolved in its court system or where there is no trust in the judicial system therefore having a negative social justice. This must be so, for a weak judiciary is an anathema to social justice and as a Rtd Justice of the Supreme Court ​Hon. Mr. Justice Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo, JSC once declared, “a corrupt judge is more harmful to society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street.”
It thus emerges that a linear relationship exists between an efficient and independent judicial system, and economic growth. And the earlier governments and stakeholders in the justice and economic sectors begin to appreciate the dynamics of this relationship the better for the national economy.

Panacea for Economic Growth
I have found the statement credited to a former United States Secretary of States – Mr. Colin Luther Powell (1937-2021) very apt in the context of our discourse here. The trailblazing general said, “Capital is a coward. It flees from corruption and bad policies, conflict and unpredictability. It shuns ignorance, disease and illiteracy. Capital goes where it is welcomed and where investors can be confident of a return on the resources they have put at risk. It goes to countries where women can work, children can read and entrepreneurs can dream”.
Whilst we can unpack so much in the above timeless wisdom, I like to identify ‘conflict’ and evaluate its role or otherwise in economic development. Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia defines “conflict” as ‘a situation in which inacceptable differences in interests, values, expectations and opinions occur in or between individuals or groups”. It thus follows that one of the major drivers of conflict, both in the family, workplace, community and society at large, is the perception of social injustice. When these feelings of injustice (which may range from marginalization, inadequate distribution of wealth and opportunities; racism, sexism, tribalism etc.) attain unbearable dimensions, they might snowball into large scale armed conflict with great consequences for economic growth and development.
The United Nations highlights that social justice should enable all to bear fruits of economic growth. This covers political, economic and social justice. According to the global institution, social justice involves equality of rights, opportunities and equity in living conditions. It goes on to emphasize the importance of distribution of income and assets, opportunities for work and remuneration, access to knowledge, health services with fair civic and political participation and fears that the neglect of these social causes will lead to future repression and chaos.
Where chaos snowballs out of conflict, it is a no brainier that its first casualty is capital flight and economic retrogression. And this is the gist of the matter. Bringing the point home, it is the view of many commentators; and I want to associate myself with those views, that the crisis witnessed in several parts of the country, with great implications for economic growth, are traceable to social injustice. Whether it is the herder-farmer crisis in the Middle Belt; militancy in the Niger Delta; banditry in the North West or secessionist agitations in the South East where we are having this discussion, one finds social injustice written all over it.
Whilst it is not within the purview of my task here, to interrogate the historical and socio-political nuances of these conflicts; what has been established however, is that they have operated to affect the economic growth in the respective regions where they are rooted. The situation in the South East; where economic activities every Monday have come to a halt with attendant loss to the economy of the region, is a particularly worrying dimension. Of course, the over 10 years Boko Haram crisis in the North East has also tremendously impacted the economic growth of the region. Ditto, the herder-farmer crisis and banditry in the Middle Belt and North West, respectively.
I therefore hope that the government and relevant stakeholders would look in this direction with a view of winning the peace and returning various regions of the country currently witnessing one form of conflict or the other; to the path of economic growth and prosperity.

Conclusion
As I draw the curtains on this address, permit me to reiterate that the Rule of Law and Social Justice constitute an indispensable foundation for a market economy, and provide an essential instrument for the creation and preservation of wealth, economic security, well-being and the improvement of the quality of life. The structural framework upon which the rule of law operates to engender economic growth anchor on legislative, administrative and judicial process. I should say that without a fair and business-oriented approach to the application of this structure, our expectations in terms of economic growth would be distant and forlorn. I dare say that this hypothesis is also true for social justice. To the extent that justice is the first condition of our humanity, government across all levels must demonstrate emotional intelligence and historical awareness towards resolving the deep-seated issues that have often been fingered as the root cause of the conflicts being experienced in different parts of the country.
What remains for me to point out is this: as lawyers, and critical stakeholders in government and community, much expectation lies on us to help to midwife and shape the Nigeria of our collective aspiration. It was the first Nigerian Lawyer, Sir Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams who once said that “the legal practitioner lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country”. I like to think that our dignified role as legal practitioners puts us at a strategic position in the enthronement of Rule of Law and attainment of social justice. Whether in the handling of personal briefs; or in the advice we give to our clients – particularly the national and state governments on the legal dimensions of the several conflicts that litter the face of our Nation, we can become true champions of Rule of Law and Ambassadors of Peace true to our cherished calling as ministers and worshippers in the Temple of Justice.

I wish us all constructive and result-oriented deliberations during this event, and I hope that the outcome will drive us closer towards building a nation and society where the Promotion of Rule of Law and Social Justice will become the raison d’ etre of governance and the Panacea for Economic Growth.
Ken Ahia, SAN