3rd May, 2012
The former Chief Judge of Nigeria, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi(rtd), has described the dedication of the 17th edition of The Jurist to him as a great honour, the magnitude of which has not come his way since his retirement from the judiciary in the year 1999.
Kutigi said this while speaking at the public presentation and launch of The Jurist, an annual journal of the Law Students Society (LSS), University of Ilorin Chapter, last week at the Faculty of Education Lecture Theatre.
The jurist appreciated the University of Ilorin and the Law Students Society for the recognition of his services to his fatherland.
“Since my retirement in 2009, I have never had it like this. It is very great indeed and I really feel grateful to Almighty Allah,” he said while commending the students for making the occasion a reality.
The reviewer of the journal, Dr. Kayode Adams, observed that the choice of the honouree, Justice Legbo Kutigi, is good and right on account of his personality and the variety of themes examined in the journal, which is divided into seven sections.
He disclosed that the 2012 edition of The Jurist examines issues of Private Rights under which the legal dimension to homosexuality and bestiality, statutory and church marriage, copyright law, succession under Igbo customary law, company formation and company registration were examined. Under the second group of articles on Human Rights issues, the rights of the unborn child, citizenship and indigenes including the enforcement of fundamental rights are examined.
The third group of articles examines Islamic banking, with the articles espousing the banking system in the context of social security, main streaming principles of Islamic banking into the Nigerian banking system and Islamic perspective of social justice.
A group of articles in the fourth section also examines contemporary policy issues and the environment with such articles elucidating on the concept of sustainable development, the greater city of Port-Harcourt and contending environmental issues and challenges to environmental space laws.
While the fifth section discusses Legal Education, with its articles dwelling on efficiency in time management by academics, achieving teaching and learning standard and English Language, the sixth section contains articles that examine dispute resolution, with focus on the appraisal of the roles and patterns of questioning in dispute resolution processes in Nigeria and an analysis of the Garnishee proceeding of dispute resolution. The final section presented by the reviewer examines criminal responsibility.
Speaking at the occasion, which was chaired by the presiding judge of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin, Justice Tijani Abdullahi, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. I. O. Oloyede, who was represented by the immediate past Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. K. L. Ayorinde, congratulated the honouree on his meritorious service to Nigeria just as he commended the Law students for bringing the great personality to the university.
He subsequently announced that the university website is available to host the journal and purchased five copies of the journal at the rate of N50,000.
In his speech, the Acting Dean of Law, Dr. Abikan Abdulqadir, noted that The Jurist is the most consistent journal in the university as it is published every year.
Barrister Sheu Wada and Company purchased copies worth N600,000 while the Registrar of the Niger State High Court bought N600,000 worth of copies on behalf of the Niger State Government.