A Court For Kangaroos

 By Chidi Odinkalu

“Because judges are part of government, acting on our behalf, we are entitled to require them to abandon their priesthood and to present their activities for assessment by laymen.” David Pannick, KC, Judges, p. 17 (1987)

The Guardian’s obituary on Bernard Levin, the celebrated Times columnist who died in 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, described him as “a passionate and eclectic journalist with a legendary capacity for work, whose career made him a host of friends – and enemies.” Among these enemies, few were as determined as the legal profession.

David Pannick, KC, recalls that Mr. Levin’s settled view was that “the legal profession had an infinite capacity for deluding itself.” He had good reason. When Rayner Goddard retired as Lord Chief Justice in 1958, Bernard Levin’s evisceration of his judicial record inspired “a clandestine meeting at which the higher judiciary considered whether the uppity columnist might be done for criminal libel.” The idea was eventually dropped. 

A Case For Women’s Participation In Governance, Decision-Making

 By Moruff Adenekan

Globally, women are under-represented in leadership and decision-making within political, public and corporate spaces. According to UN Women, gender disparity, low participation in elective and appointive positions and gender-based violence are major setbacks for women worldwide, especially in developing countries. In Africa, patriarchy and societal norms overtly and covertly subjugate women and girls and contribute to inequality and exclusion.

*Pauline Tallen, Women Affairs Minister 

Nigeria, currently without comprehensive legislation that protects or advances women’s rights, exemplifies this inequality. These inequalities manifest in the poor numbers for girl-child education, low numbers of women in leadership, and abysmal representation in public life. The manifestation continues in the high numbers of maternal and child mortality, high numbers of exclusion, widening pay gap between men and women, and alarming numbers of sexual and gender-based violence.