The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Tanko, has urged Justices and Judges to see the administration of justice as one of the fundamental solutions to some of the nation’s crises.
Justice Tanko, who was represented by Justice Mary Odili of the Supreme Court, spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday at the National Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
He expressed sadness at the prevailing crisis facing the country.
He said the teeming population of the youths who had nothing to fend for themselves had resorted to crimes as the only source and means of livelihood.
Justice Tanko, however, urged justices to own up to the challenge, reminding them that the peace of the nation rested on the balance of the scale of justice, adding that courts must ensure that justice was served at all times irrespective of the pressure from within.
The NBA President, Barr Olumide Akpata, who spoke on the theme, “Taking the Lead”, charged legal practitioners to rise to the occasion and chart the course of leading the country out of its woes.
Earlier in his speech, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike urged Nigerian lawyers to engage in judicial activism as a deliberate measure to address the slow dispensation of justice and attempts to stifle the rights of the citizenry.