Voice of Nigeria: Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said that the endorsement of virtual court proceedings by a Supreme Court ruling has saved the country’s system of justice another catastrophic round of technical decisions around the constitutionality of such proceedings.
The Vice President stated this on Thursday at a webinar on media coverage of virtual court proceedings in Nigeria, organized by the Gavel International Ltd.
He said that the computerization of court proceedings, which has been contemplated over the years, has also been quickened by the Supreme Court decision, which resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“By and large, my belief is that we are at a very interesting place in court proceedings, we have all been talking for years about computerizing our court proceedings (e-filing etc.), no one knew that we will quickly come to the place that we are in today.
“So, in some sense, it’s thanks to COVID-19, we have been very quickly dragged to the virtual space, and it is a good thing that it is the case.”
“We are at a point where at least we know that virtual hearings are legal. This means that the Supreme Court is satisfied that appropriate means can be found to ensure that hearings are public and that the press and indeed members of the public can access the proceedings,” he explained.
According to the Vice president, the ruling has provided the Nigerian justice system an opportunity to get rid of the issue of technicality as much as possible.
“And I am so pleased that the Supreme Court did not even hesitate in saying that virtual proceedings are legal.
“It is really a breath of fresh air considering the ways that we tend to magnify the issue of technicality to the point where you wonder where justice is.
“I am hoping that the opportunity we have in virtual proceedings will also be an opportunity to dispense with several of the unnecessary technical rules that we have in our adjectival law, laws of procedure, evidence and all that.
“And hopefully, we are able to get to the heart of trials and the heart of the matter such that we are buck down unnecessarily by technicality,” the Vice President stated.
On the issue of court proceedings reporting, which is a crucial exercise of the right to fair hearing, Osinbajo said the technical issue around it was straightforward.
“If for example, the Zoom platform is the preferred option, the host, the registrar of the court will simply invite the press by making available the relevant coordinates of the meeting to enable the press (not just the print media) log on to the proceedings.
“Just as the physical court can only sit a determined number of persons so the virtual court, depending on the platform being used, would probably have a stated number of persons who can access the proceedings.
“Practice directions may have to indicate how and in what order invitations would be issued specially to the public.
“News Reporting today is of course no longer the preserve of traditional media.
“Every blogger, microblogger and other social networking services are now entitled to describe themselves as the press.
“And I can say that they have the same constitutional protections as the traditional media would have, given that our definition of freedom of expression does not restrict this to the press as we understand that expression.
“But this also means that all of the bloggers and microbloggers and other social networking services are also subject to the same restrictions and liable to the same sanctions as the traditional media if they violate issues of confidentiality, avoidance of prejudging of cases, scandalizing witnesses, jeopardizing fair trials by media trials, and all of the various violations that are possible,“ VP Osinbajo added.
He noted that sanctions against the traditional media for publicizing the proceedings of a court should apply to the social media for such infractions.
“Clearly, no one is allowed, except with permission, to publish proceedings of the court but we really need to determine how this will work.
“We need to ask the relevant questions, and I think that in developing this practice direction, the media has to very quickly occupy the space, so that the courts do not, without adequate information, and sensitivity to the rights of the press, develop a set of practice direction that create more trouble than they are designed to solve,“ he said.
Standardized Equipment
Vice President Osinbajo said there was a need to ensure the standardization of equipment being used for virtual proceedings for efficiency.
“It is not enough for one to simply say that he or she has access, we have to look at all the system requirements.
“What I have found, in the past few months where I have been involved in quite a few zoom meetings, Webex meetings and all of these different platforms, is that very often, if the devices on either side are not adequate or the bandwidth is not adequate, the whole thing becomes a mess and it is impossible to actually get the best quality.
“I think it is also important that there should be some kind of standardization so as to ensure that the equipment that used is the right kind of equipment that should be used for this virtual court proceedings,“ he emphasized.
He commended the Gavel International for organizing the event and expressed hope that more conversations would be held around virtual court proceedings in order to arrive at a system for the ends of justice.
