Defending Citizens’ Rights .Task Before Rivers Justice Ministry

Last week Friday, the Rivers State Ministry of Justice took a bold step forward to filling the huge gulf between what it owes members of the public, in terms of quality legal service delivery and how much of its reputation it is now set to redeem. It organised a refresher course for arrow heads of the establishment deliberately intended to prepare them for the task of making the helpless citizenry know that they are not alone and  that  the Justice Ministry would always be there for the weak and oppressed as they would for the rich and influential.

Although the state Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Dame Mina Benebo, modestly called  the interface, Enlightenment Campaign on Will-Making and  the Choice of Right Next-of-Kin, the programme covered virtually all aspects of the ministry’s responsibilities and actually signalled the birth of a pro-active justice administration with specific target on the most gullible crop of society-dehumanised widows and children.

The permanent secretary later shed light on the choice of the main theme which she said was deliberate as it sought to address most urgently, the increasing cases of intra and inter family quarrels over administration of estates upon death of their principals.  So crucial, has been the need to confront the protracted dehumanisation of widows, children and dependants, that the ministry intends to launch an aggressive campaign that will cover all ministries parastatals and most importantly all the 23 local government areas of the state.

But why extra emphasis on “Will-Making” and Choice of Next of Kin? In most African Cultures, to even contemplate Will-Making is to suggest pre-knowledge of one’s death.  It is even worse to have someone enquire of a loved one, if he or she has made a Will. Such an individual is at once pre-judged as either a wizard or a witch, and disgraced.

For instance, in the late 1980’s  there was a typical local court session bordering the subject matter when a youngman returned to his hometown Ibaka, in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, after a 13-year stay in India, in search of the Golden Fleece. Graduating in law and getting ready for legal practice, the youngman thought that the first social service to render to his people was to encourage them to make their Will and choose the right kind of Next of Kin, as that was the only way of preventing the near frequent and sometimes bloody disputations among family extended members on one hand and widows children of a deceased bread winner over inheritance.

The first three members of his immediate family tried to enlighten on the numerous advantages of Will-Making dragged him before the community’s local arbitration assembly, with the accusation that he planned to try his India-sourced wizardry on them.  After all, the entire panel resolved unanimously that only a dying man, tells his family what to do and how to administer his estate and not one still hail and hearty as that clearly revealed ominous plans to harm such individual or should have pre-knowledge of plan to kill such a person.  Expectedly, that young lawyer’s elaborate explanation that everything that has life must someday die and and therefore, the need to prepare elaborately for life of loved ones after death, was dismissed as merely academic.  He was accordingly found guilty, fined heavily and made to swear to an oath that he be held liable should any of his three contacts die within that year.

Such is the phobia for Will-Making among many Nigerians, particularly, the not-too-legally-informed lot in our society and even many of the enlightened few who ought to appreciate the enormous advantages of Will-Making.

Dame Benebo said the Justice Ministry has been aware of these negative views about Will-Making and feels compelled to launch the aggressive enlightenment campaign with superior arguments that will help eliminate the familiar phobia for the noble choice.

Harping frontally on the disadvantages of not making a Will the Solicitor General asked if anyone had ever bothered to keep a register of children who lived a comfortable life with well-to-do parents, but who, upon their benefactor’s death lost their choice homes at the GRA for  the slums? The ministry says such cases are many and may continue to increase if society fails to take action now.

The Justice Ministry, Dame Benebo assured would continue to educate and re-educate the citizenry on not just the need to make a Will, but the choice of the appropriate Next-of-Kin.  Intrinsically, most cases of children falling from Grace to Grass after the death of either a parent or parents could be traced to greedy and wrong choice of Next-of-Kin by a Will-Maker to administer his or her estates.

But Dame Benebo says Will-Making and choice of appropriate Next-of-Kin will not be the only focus of the public enlightenment campaign. The Crusade, she said, would instead cover virtually all aspects of the constitutional services which a Justice Ministry ought to offer the citizenry and they are many.

This mindset indeed informed the wide and varied topics addressed by experts at the ministry’s edition of the warm-up campaign, last week Friday, appropriately kick-started by the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ken Chikere who in his remarks said that the programme was  to enlighten staff of the ministry on the activities and functions of various departments in the ministry.  He urged all staff to see the public enlightenment as an opportunity to learn, as no knowledge was lost.

Curiously, how could an ill-informed ministry staff be depended upon to step up confidently to educate others?  The attempt, therefore, was to properly equip the ministry’s foot soldiers with the right kind of knowledge, drive and enthusiasm needed to achieve set targets in the fresh attempt by the Justice Ministry to redeem it self. 

That thinking actually informed the choice of topics addressed at the forum by departmental heads.  The Director of Estate Administration and Public Trustee, Mrs. E.P. Kingston in her presentation on Will-Making and Appointment of Next-of-Kin, urged the public to choose wisely, while the director in the office of the Public Defender, Mrs Esther Eze in her talk, Functions of the Office of the Public Defender emphasised that police bail is free and advised members of the public to report to her office through the state Attorney-General where any demand for money is made before bail is granted.

On her part, Director in the Directorate for Citizens Rights, represented by Mrs. Mma Agetua dwelt on the Benefits of Mediation as an Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism, while, the Director, Department of Environment, Miss Queen Goodwill in her presentation on Environmental Law and Compliance, enjoined all members of the public to be vanguards for environmental safety, saying, “we should use the environment in such a way that generations yet unborn may still benefit from it.

This is what a Justice Ministry ought to do-educate the people on issues of law, defend the weak and most gullible and above all constantly enlighten the citizenry on the services they should expect and enjoy from a vibrant ministry.

It is that vibrancy that the ministry is injecting into its staff, says the state Solicitor-General, Dame Mina Benebo, who assured that the ministry will also do everything constitutionally possible to address the frequent subversion of the people’s rights to choose who and who represent them at all tiers of government,  by targeting habitual electoral offenders for appropriate sanctions.

As the electoral year 2011 approaches, nothing but a well-prepared, pro-active, dutiful, humane and dedicated Justice Ministry is required to protect the citizenry from those who at all times seek to exploit the ignorance of many to hijack justice in the land. 

Soye Wilson-Jamabo