The Firma Advisory Pro-bono Services and Access to Justice Initiative
The Firma Advisory (TFA) is a multi-disciplinary Law firm, located in the heart of Abuja. TFA provides a wide range of legal and business support services. The firm is passionate about providing pro-bono legal services and access to justice. In June 2018, the management of the firm approved an Initiative for access to justice in Nigeria through various programs.
Vision of the Program:
To create a free and just society, where people will have full understanding of their rights and have access to justice at all times.
Mission of the Program:
- To provide pro-bono services to indigent members of the society.
- Advocate for a just and transparent criminal justice system in Nigeria.
- To advocate for and help decongest prisons in Nigeria.
- To raise awareness on the ills of the criminal justice system in Nigeria and to advocate for reforms.
- To collaborate with organizations with similar objectives to bring about reforms in the criminal justice system in Nigeria.
The need for Access to Justice:
Access to justice refers to the substantive and procedural mechanisms designed to ensure that people have opportunity of seeking redress for the breach of their legal rights within a legal system. It includes other variables like the physical conditions of the premises where justice is dispensed and the quality of the human and material resources available.
The Penal Reform International recommended that access to justice should be considered in its broad sense to encompass: access to a fair and equitable set of laws; access to popular education about laws and legal procedure; legal empowerment initiatives, a range of civil justice and related activities that advance the rights and legal capacities of the poor; as well as access to formal courts and, if preferred in any particular case, a dispute resolution forum based on restorative justice. See the recent case of Igwe v Ezeanochie (2010) 7 N W L R (Pt. 1192) 61 at 92 where the Court of Appeal categorically stated that it is indeed the duty of the courts to protect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens.
Therefore, access to justice is a concept that embraces the nature, mechanism and even the quality of justice obtainable in a society as well as the place of the individual within the judicial matrix. It is also an important measurement for assessing not only the rule of law in any society but also the quality of governance in that society. It emphasizes that the system must be accessible to everyone, and secondly, that access must be meaningful and effective.
The importance of ensuring that majority of the people who cannot afford legal services are able to enforce their rights by legal representation through legal aid is the root of access to justice. It also ensures that indigent persons have access to the legal system. Where a person cannot get the help they need, it is said that they are being denied access to justice. Access to justice involves both an open system of justice and also being able to fund the costs of a case.
Therefore, it is important that lawyers who are the persons that understand the legal procedures and system generally should always represent a lay person. Access to justice is also important because a teeming population of Nigerians and especially those in detention cannot afford to pay for little fines ordered by the courts, neither can they afford the services of a lawyer for their representation, it is therefore needful to provide legal assistance and empowerment for those persons in need. Legal assistance is also important for purposes of facilitating proceedings in court.
- Pre - trial Detainees and Prison Decongestion Program:
Prison Inmates Statistics as at 31st March, 2016 shows the following:
Total Inmates Population: 63,142
Convicted Inmates Population: 17,897 (28%)
Awaiting Trial Persons: 45,263 (72%)
The prisons are over congested and the number of awaiting trial detainees is alarming. Prisons that were built for 800 inmates are now accommodating 5000 detainees as well as suspects awaiting trial.
There’s need for an urgent action by all stakeholders as the Constitution clearly spelt out the fact that nobody should be detained for more than 24 hours if there is a court within 30 kilometres radius or where the court is beyond the 30 kilometer radius, detention should not exceed 48 hours. But that is not what is always obtainable as people are being detained for a very long time, without been taken to Court.
The Penal reform fact sheet which is aimed at reforming the Nigerian Prison system via various legal frameworks warned that high proportion of remand prisoners leads to several administrative and practical problems among the prison establishment, the police, the judiciary, the prisoners and their families including the society in general. For the prison establishment, this include overcrowding, high cost of maintenance, increased staff stress and work load, non-qualitative prison regime, poor management and discipline. The judiciary and police also suffer problem with credibility and questions relating to poor trial of suspects. The report further advised that it is time to declare a national emergency on the crisis confronting Nigerian Prisons, noting that decongestion should be seen as a national priority.
The reform of police, ministry of justice, the judiciary and sundry stakeholders agencies as well as intra, inter and multi-agency coordination and cooperation is key to actualizing and sustaining the proposed reforms. Broader linkages between the justice sector and other sectors are also crucial in this drive. While global best practices in prison governance is key, it is hoped that effective implementation of the Administration of criminal justice Act 2015 as well as the passage of the Nigerian Prisons and correctional service bill, 2016 by the National Assembly will go a long way in ensuring that the prisons achieve the goals for which they were established, that is, to reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate prisoners.
Through this program TFA is contributing to solving this national problem.
- Free Legal Service to Victims of Domestic Violence:
Domestic violence takes many forms including physical, sexual, emotional, and mental. Traditionally, domestic violence is committed against females. Common forms of violence against women in Nigeria are rape, acid attacks, molestation, wife beating, and corporal punishment.
Domestic violence is a problem in our society today. In most communities in Nigeria if not all there is deep cultural belief in Nigeria that it is socially unacceptable to hit a woman. Domestic violence is widespread and shows no signs of lessening in Nigeria. The CLEEN Foundation survey reports that one (1) in every three (3) respondents admitting to being a victim of domestic violence.
TFA, through this program provides free Legal services and counseling for victims of domestic violence.
- Pro-bono Services to Indigent Members of the Society:
Despite an alleged rapid growing economy, Nigeria is one of the few countries where the statistics of people living in poverty is alarming.
TFA through this program breaches the gab between the poor and effective legal representation, this is achieved in collaboration with the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria.
- Human Rights Enlightenment Campaigns:
TFA will trough this program provide training and workshop on human rights, and human rights protection in Nigeria.
Join Us:
We welcome and are open to partnerships and collaborations from individuals and like minded organizations to drive home this vision. Please come join us.
Conclusion:
In TFA we believe that there is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others, the problem of delay/denial in access to justice in Nigeria is one of the agonizing issues that have continued to confront the nation’s criminal justice system. The causes of this problem are multifaceted. We are calling for urgent reform of the Judiciary which must prioritize provision of legal assistance for criminal suspects within not more than 48 hours of arrest, so as to salvage the problems of pretrial detainees thereby reducing prolong period of pretrial detention and ultimately decongestion of Nigerian prisons. Lawyers must realize that the power to help detainees/inmates and even influence the system as a whole is in our hands, it is up to us, to abuse that power or use it to help. Other members of the society, Civil society organizations and NGOs all have a role to play in ensuring that justice is accessible at all times by everyone.
Thank you.
The Firma Advisory