Must Read: Not All Lawyers Are Liars , See Reasons

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<b>Twisting liberties in order to provide ones self with a meal ticket is one of the hanky-panky activities we see gentlemen and ladies of our legal profession engage in these days! It's a shame that a lot of observers are beginning to believe the pejorative: All lawyers are liars (and when they die they lie still!") The ambivalence of this statement has followed me from classes in English semantics right through post graduate education into communication and performance seminars in several environments.

It seems that our law courts are beginning to encumber the course of justice with the most trivial of technicalities presented by lawyers which result in legal gymnastics. It often seems that an accused person who is as guilty as hell can get away with anything as long as he can pay a good lawyer. Note that the term "good lawyer" here refers to a lawyer who can twist the matter to favor his client, even when the client is guilty.
You ask, is this not what lawyers are hired to do? Not particularly! I recognize the age long prerogative of the law which states that a person is innocent until proven guilty, but I frown at the tapestry of justice in cases where judgments should be declared are delayed because of a lawyers ability to deflect, delay and therefore deny an applicant justice.
In order to avoid controversy which this piece might court, I will not refer to any case in particular, but would make a sweeping reference to 419 advance fee fraud cases and embezzlement of government funds that are making a snails pace progress in our courts and are wearing out the applicants because of the costs and sheer effort of coming to court to stand as witnesses.
Ghana has the fast track court in which nuances and strands to cases which could cause delays are avoided. Nigeria ought to have the same. The other reference is the election tribunals in which lawyers are engaged to prove cases.
Evidence is requested and often produced with the dexterity of a tortoise. Appeals, delays and denials take it to another court. Eventually an incumbent is removed from office and walks the road of freedom sparkling clean. Are there no such laws under which a person who assumed office through outright rigging of an election can be punished? Can a governor, a representative or a local government chairman who attained office when he should not have done so be labeled a thief, imposter or at least a perjurer? Could he be ordered to return salaries, expenses and benefits he accrued or incurred during his falsified time in office? Jean Girandoux, French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright wrote: "you're an attorney.
It's your duty to lie, conceal and distort every thing and slander everybody and no poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets truth." Today in Nigeria, we have spokesmen of the two major political parties who both have legal training, causing unlimited confusion on the political landscape with double speak, ambiguity and ambivalence unlimited.
The training of a lawyer, I hope, teaches to defend liberties not to twist them. Litigation ought to broaden our respect for the law not belittle it! Beware of a lawyer who doubles as a spin doctor. He will hail you good morning and you might have to check the time to be sure he is telling the truth! In order to make our objective clear here, let's look at a brief definition of who a lawyer is, or at least who he ought to be.
The Webster's Dictionary gives the description as "a person who has been trained in the law, especially one whose profession is advising others in matters of law or representing them in law suits". Sometimes, however, the role the lawyer plays might make the meaning change: section 23 of the legal practitioners Act No 15 of 1975 says a legal practitioner is "a person entitled in accordance with this decree to practice as a barrister or as a barrister and solicitor, either generally or for the purpose of any particular office or proceedings."
J.P Morgan, financier, banker, philanthropist and art collector said concerning lawyers: "I don't want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do; I hire him to tell me how to do what I want to do!" Jonathan Swift, novelist and poet, gave the description that we are all too familiar with this present day. He described lawyers as "a society of men bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose that white is black and black is white, according as they are paid".
(Now doesn't that read like today's politician in Nigeria?) Both within and outside of our law courts we see Swift's description being played out on a daily basis. It is disgusting to keep witnessing a torrid twisting of facts for the result of confusion and delay.

Every society needs the law and law enforcement agencies, but do we really need lawyers who cause injustice to thrive? Dr. Martin Luther King Junior said "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!" When the law is not obeyed by the very people who should defend it, society is in jeopardy.
We all know what the law is. If a society is to develop and achieve its various goals, objectives and visions, it has to be ruled by the law. Is Nigeria ruled by the law? Granted that certain top government officials have immunity in some respects, but does that mean they are above the law? I am confident that not all lawyers are liars.
There are a few honest ones who are ready to earn a living that will not trouble their conscience. I am not looking for angels to redeem our judiciary. There are no such beings. But let the lawyers stop touting the law court as the last resort for the common man. Its not. God is.
Author: Alex Ogundadegbe