A top bureaucrat whose work ethic permits to be seen but not heard, could barely bottle the thrill of a well-accomplished tough task on Monday, 4 December 2023 while her boss, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, spoke at the opening of a court session resuming delayed trials of suspected Boko Haram members.
None other than the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba, mni. By the way, have you been to the ministry lately? By Jove, I think people still have vision! The ministry’s reception foyer, now looking really remodelled and resplendent, enthralling hordes of visitors, explains her humanity, in depth and richness.
It’s a measure of a humble public servant’s passion to impact her environment in every positive way since April 28, 2023 when she assumed duty with a pledge to lead her staff to work for Nigeria’s greater interest.
Since then, with less head-scratching, she had dared all to dive into addressing the hydra-headed trial of arrested Boko Haram suspects under the Kainji Prosecution Phases which last held in July 2018, five odd years ago.
Knowing that she had at stake her career profile and rights activism status which earned her a 2014 Nigeria’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP), a United States’ honours award for outstanding anti-human trafficking advocates, she had so much worry, and had even, upon assuming duty, assured that the trials would resume by end of March 2023, believing that things would work her way and at her pace. But it didn’t happen.
So what happened to her calculations, even as former President Muhammadu Buhari had given special intervention funds and other logistics to the Ministry to resume the trials, even stoking it with firm directives to the military, para-military, intelligence and security agencies to boot? Flooding questions.
As leader of the prosecutorial machinery, she had settled within herself that it was either no retreat or no surrender, in a bid to raise the bar far beyond the expectations of such global human rights body as Amnesty International which, in 2018 had praised the Ministry, describing the Phase 3 trial of the suspects at Wawa Military Cantonment, New Bussa, Niger State which held from Sunday, July 8, 2018 to Wednesday, July 11, 2018, as a “good progress for the justice sector”.
So her quiet prayer was answered (or shall we say, her hope was renewed?) by President Bola Tinubu who deployed Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, an accomplished lawyer with distinguished private legal practice spanning over 40 years, to the Ministry as minister.
Four months ago, specifically on Monday, August 21, 2023, she rolled out the carpet leading her staff, to welcome the minister, saying they were lucky to have him. Somehow, she fired something in Fagbemi, like a firebrand father.
The minister does not politick much, especially on matters of law. Nor does he pander to political correctness. He embraced the openness, sincerity and integrity he met in the system but with a pledge to lead the ministry from the front and secure for the staff a better working framework to achieve the major goal of meeting President Bola Tinubu’s plans and policies for the Nigerian people whose expectations he maintained were high.
But he emphasized that he would sometimes go overboard, step out of the box, and hold respective staff to their tasks, just to get the job done faster, neater and smarter to meet the high expectations of Nigerians whose welfare and wellbeing remains the primary purpose of every government.
It was clear to Prince Lateef Fagbemi that his appearance and speech at the opening of the resumed trial of Boko Haram suspects was a good place to place his cards on the table, a right moment to tell the world that only justice could bring peace and order, so he used it as strategic display of government’s political will and commitment to the rule of law.
To that extent, it sent the clear and unambiguous signal that President Bola Tinubu is irrevocably committed to the security and safety of lives and property of Nigerians as well as the stability of the nation.
Instrumental to the success of the trials in meeting constitutional provisions and global standards is government’s prosecutorial capacity which details the quality and quantity of the bureaucracy of the Federal Ministry of Justice headed by the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary having been Director of Planning, Research and Statistics in the ministry, a position that offered her unfettered access to the ministry’s capacity.
Part of the detailed arrangements for the trials were the participation of the Office of National Security Adviser, the Armed Forces and other law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies towards the successful prosecution of all persons charged with terrorism under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
It was gathered that adequate and conscious efforts were made to provide comprehensive technical training and capacity building of investigators and prosecutors towards an evidence-based trial and witness protection under the laws.
The trainees were also said to have taken specific modules on keeping to timeline for the completion of the trials within a human rights framework to reduce time in the entire judicial process to strengthen Nigeria’s counter-terrorism architecture.
Analysts in the nation’s justice sector and civil advocacy community believe that this time around, there’s so much speed to expect from the resumed trials. They argue that the current process will achieve much because it is a moral, personal and professional challenge to both the attorney general of the federation and his solicitor general of the federation based on what is seen as an excellent chemistry between them. The world is waiting.
To the well-respected Attorney General of the Federal and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, it is a question of professional integrity and image, earned over 40 years through outstanding private practice without blemish. His office as Attorney General and Minister of Justice is the only ministerial office specifically mentioned in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
To the well resourced Beatrice Jedy-Agba with her smoking guns, it is a question of how she converts the assignment to attest, affirm and prove that her recognition as a serious-minded rights advocate by the United States, the world’s self-acclaimed champion and defender of human rights, was not a fluke or ruse. She was at the time Executive Secretary of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) where she notified the world that Nigeria was not all bad news after all. Everybody was proud.
And stretching it a little further for gender advocates, backed by the cerebral First Lady, Senator (Mrs.) Oluremi Tinubu, Beatrice Jedy-Agba, appears poised to make a mark in that office as the nation’s third female Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, 19 years after Nigeria had the last female occupant in the person of Mrs. Titilayo Asabi Osinuga from Lagos State (2001-2003) and Mrs. Turi O. Akerele, (2000-2001), also from Lagos State. The office was created in 1958 and has recorded past 16 occupants.
For both Fagbemi and Jedy-Egba-great patriots and bright legal minds in their respective rights, it is walking the tight rope in deploying law to end terrorism’s lingering blight on the nation.
Hear Fagbemi: “Terrorism has cost us a lot as a nation. From the communities directly affected, to the staggering losses in human and material resources, displacements, political and economic instability and the general atmosphere of fear it has created, all point to how crucial this exercise is to our progress and prosperity as a nation.
“Conversely, if the process is mismanaged and, as a result, the security situation is allowed to fester, it may lead to existential crises in the very long run. I, therefore, pledge my total support to the cause as I urge the stakeholders once again to continue in the good job”, the minister said.
According to observers, Prince Fagbemi chose the event to speak to the issues. He said that safety and security does not just happen but that it is the result of synergy, collective consensus and public investment. He was spot on.
They said the minister’s comment was a vote of confidence in the preparation and processes which Beatrice Jedy-Agba and her team put in place before his arrival to the ministry, and that it was Fagbemi’s recognition of the drive and doggedness, spanning over twelve months which went into building trust, institutional confidence and networking among several participating stakeholders.
For greater effect, the minister singled out, for due praise, specific stakeholders such as the Federal High Court, Office of the NSA, Defence Headquarters, Army Headquarters including the GIWA and Wawa Projects in Maiduguri and Kainji, Nigeria Air Force, the Joint Investigation Centre, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, National Human Rights Commission and British High Commission.
Others were the Embassy of the United States of America, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Nigeria Correctional Service, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Nigerian Bar Association, the media and several other stakeholders.
The justice minister who, recently at the National Assembly, sought increased budget for the ministry, promised Federal Government’s readiness to continue to deploy resources to enhance its prosecutorial capacity and the highest levels of professional standards as well as support efforts towards deradicalisation and reintegration of repentant terrorists.
“We have made tremendous efforts to ensure that the trials are conducted with due regard to the provisions of the constitution regarding openness as much as can be permitted, and in the circumstances provide the suspects with adequate opportunities to make their defence”, he said.
Stressing the need to sustain the current momentum owing to the size, scope and seriousness of the national exercise, he disclosed that the first phase of the Kainji Prosecution Project which took place from October 2017 to July 2018 hauled 366 convictions while 896 others were discharged for lack of sufficient evidence, and 61 cases were adjourned for further hearings.
At the end of the just-resumed exercise in which 24 Boko Haram suspects stood for trial before three judges of the Federal High Court, 13 convictions were secured while another 9 who were arraigned had their cases adjourned till January for further hearings.
