For two days last week, eminent personalities and professionals from various disciplines gathered in Lagos to discuss development, leadership and legal systems, among others, in Africa. By the time they called it a day, it had been agreed that there is a link between law and development. Eric Ikhilae reports.

Africa has continued to be held down by bad rulers, who plunder its resources rather than positioning it to compete with its peers across the world. It has been grappling with bad leadership which has left most countries in the continent in the backwoods of development.

The white colonialists have been replaced by indigenous colonisers who relish the negative strand of colonialism in many African nations. Today, freedom and development in the continent are hampered by the leaders whose primary motivation is the despoliation of its resources, which they cart to foreign lands, to the detriment of their countries.

Devoid of visionary and selfless leadership, Africa has continually failed to effectively harness its potential – human and materials – for the benefit of not only its people, but the entire world.

Against this backdrop, evolving a mechanism for good leadership to drive the continent’s growth, through well-thought out and locally-inspired policies, in an environment devoid of injustice and impunity, engaged participants at the just-concluded Kuramo Conference in Lagos, Nigeria.

The conference, tagged: "An international colloquium on law and development", which held between November 2 and 3, provided a platform for intellectual dissection of Africa’s politico-economic and environmental problems, which draw mostly from the problem of leadership.

Participants also examined the existing legal order for trade, finance, exploitation of natural resources, environmental protection, dignity of the human race and global peace, with a view to ascertaining their suitability in the age of globalisation.

As the event wound-down, it was possible to draw a relationship between law and development; it became clear that where proper laws exist along side effective dispute resolution mechanisms, and in an environment where the rule of law is enthroned, growth and development are easily attainable.

Among the participants were Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka; former Vice President of Nigeria Dr Alex Ekwueme; former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Prince Bola Ajibola; former Minister of Works Chief Femi Okunnu; American Civil Right activist Reverend Jesse Jackson; former President of the Republic of Ireland Mrs. Mary Robinson; and former United Kingdom (UK) Chief Secretary to the Treasury Lord Paul Boateng, among others.

The Conference Chairman, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola (rtd), told participants that the event was not intended as a mere talk shop, but a forum to define the path of a new national vision, with the intention of deploying knowledge and experience drawn from various disciplines as tools.

"It is a platform to launch the new order that is shaped by right thinking, right values, right ideas and palpable commitment," he said.

Ayoola, who is the chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), regretted that, for too long, Nigeria and, indeed, most nations in Africa have failed to make better use of the wealth of ideas available to them as tools for stability and development.

He stressed the relevance of knowledge development in today’s world, noting that any nation that hopes to fit into the emerging borderless global community must be peopled by individuals whose minds are sufficiently trained to break the bonds of parochial thinking, to enlarge the boundaries of vision and to comprehend the need for the redefinition of a new vision.

Welcoming the adoption of policies that ensure societal stability and benefit the people, Ayoola said sustainable growth and development are guaranteed through the creation of proper laws and the enthronement of the rule of law.

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) advocated equality in the relationship between the developed world and the developing nations in the areas of trade opportunities and movement of goods and services.

He stressed the need for environmental justice where there is a global standard that guides the operations of organisations involved in the exploitation of natural resources and their response to environmental disasters.

Jackson, also a former United States’ Special Envoy for Africa, in his presentation titled: "Urban citizenship rights and obligations", stressed the need for purposeful leadership. He noted that a true leader must ensure an egalitarian society where everyone experiences justice and could meet his basic needs.

He said there was the need to deepen democratic culture and values in Africa, noting that though democracy is slow in bringing about changes, all its elements are beneficial to stimulating growth, competition and stability in every society.

"The basics of democracy must be practised. They include shared responsibilities, equal rights, equal protection under the law, equal opportunity and a process of adjudicating conflict and disputes amicably and fairly," he said.

He noted the debilitating effect of corruption in any society, warning that it is always more catastrophic when sleaze is allowed to creep into a nation’s court system.

"Corrupt courts can destroy the essence and integrity of democracy. After all, the common commitment to justice leads to stability," he added.

Boateng stressed the need for Africa to be inward looking as it strives to overcome its multi-faceted problems. He urged the continent’s leaders to develop its infrastructure and resources to put Africa on a better pedestal to compete in the increasingly competitive globalised world.

The key strategies for Africa’s development, he observed, would include keeping down its debt profile, developing its social infrastructure, particularly transportation, and improving its educational infrastructure at all levels.

He stressed the need for African integration and transnational collaboration, and the need for it to be self reliant in the area of revenue mobilisation, which includes ensuring a transparent, fair and effective tax regime.

"Africa needs effective fairer and more efficient taxation systems. This would strengthen the social contract between the state and citizens.

"Africa needs enabling states, creating a sustainable context for a thriving private sector and an active and engaged citizenry protected by the rule of law with effective law enforcement transparency and accountability. These are the best safeguards against corruption and mal-administration in the public realm," he said.

As a solution to the twin problem of unemployment and hunger, he advised Africa to leverage on its advantage in agriculture by creating policies meant to deliberatively improve food production practices and returns to farmers.

Boateng noted that past foreign development assistance have not yielded the desired results because they were not tailored to local problems peculiar to the continent.

"But, all too often, bad policies by donors and global multilateral institutions were made worse by Africa’s political elite who themselves failed to either challenge those actions or present viable alternatives.

"They themselves lacked the vision of their predecessors, missing opportunities to advance the welfare of their people and focusing, instead, on their self aggrandisement and enrichment.

"Africa, 50 years from the generation of our founding fathers and mothers who knew better than to neglect these issues, now has a second chance with a new generation of leadership to put Africa back on track, not just metaphorically, but literally," Boateng said.

President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), who examined the investment climate in Nigeria under the prevailing legal framework, contended that improved investment would remain elusive in the country without a wholesome reform of the nation’s legal system.

Daudu said the nation’s drive for economic development could not be achieved with existing archaic laws that not only discourage investment, but encumber business transactions.

He identified areas of the legal system requiring urgent reform to include laws relating to business registration, tax administration, access to land, long-term leases, Customs clearance, patent registration and protection, among others.

The NBA leader, who observed that the contribution of the private sector in the reformation of justice administration and legal systems was inadequate, called for collaboration between the private sector and the Bar in this regard.

He regretted that the nation’s justice system was highly under-funded, arguing that no meaningful economic development could be achieved without an effective and reliable justice administration system.

Daudu also identified the relationship between a society that protects its people’s rights within the context of the rule of law and socio-economic development. He regretted that human rights were still being neglected in the country.

He urged Nigerians to always learn to engage the leadership, and realise that they possess immense powers which could be utilised to ensure that the leadership work for the nation’s growth.

Speaking under the theme: "Strategic drivers for socio-economic transformation: The next 50 years", Mrs. Robinson identified what constitute strategic drivers, which she said include the need to ensure global climate justice.

She urged African leaders to be more involved in the global struggle to mitigate the impact of climate change occasioned by harmful industrial emissions, generated mostly in the industrialised world.

She contended that the worst problem of human right is poverty because poor people are totally deprived of their rights and all the benefits of human existence.

Prof Paul Ocheje of the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, in his lecture: "New legal measures for national restitution – Civil and criminal", identified new measures through which nations could ensure the repatriation of their stolen wealth hidden in foreign banks.

He regretted that corrupt leadership and outright theft of public funds by supposed leaders combine to stunt the continent’s growth. He cited instances where poor African nations had their already inadequate resources carted to foreign lands by inept and crude leaders.

One of the new measures developed to ensure easy apprehension of looters, she said, is the provision of reversal of the burden of proof, which now requires the looter to prove his source of wealth.