Ejagham Author: Ntufam Dr. Joe Ekpe Edet

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOSEPH EKPE-EDET was born in Oban Town, Akamkpa Local Government Area. Akamkpa Local Government Area is host to Ejagham Akamkpa Cluster, one of the seven clusters of Ejagham Nation. Joe is the seventh of the fourteen children of the Late Ntufam Stephen Ekpe Edet and Ntunkae Etieka Immaculata Mmaoffiong Edet JP. The father was a seasoned school administrator who rose to the height of his career as Superintendent of Schools. Young Joe attended various primary schools as the transfer of his itinerant father as a civil servant meant a change of school for Little Joe. He later gained admission into the prestigious Immaculate Conception Seminary, Mfamosing, Calabar where he nursed the idea of becoming a Catholic Priest. The childhood dream waned almost immediately after he left the Seminary.

L-R: Llittle Joe and Big Joe with his mother Ntunkae Etieka Immaculate Edet

He holds a first degree in law from the University of Calabar in 1997. He attended and graduated from the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja in 1999 as one of the Pioneers of the Abuja Law School where he was called to the Bar, becoming a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

L-R Young Joe at convocation, serving the nation and call to bar

The lure for further studies saw him embarking on a journey to acquiring a master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) in 2004. He thereafter enrolled in a second master’s degree program and obtained a Masters in Law, LL.M. Still not satisfied he went on to bag a Doctor of Laws, Ph.D. from his alma mater. His quest for continuous education saw him enrolling in Goldsmith’s, University of London obtaining a Certificate in Academic Writing and Publishing and another Certificate in Contemporary Writing from the same University of a London and yet another Certificate in Creative Writing still from the Goldsmith, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators; a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom; a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Administrators and yet a Fellow in Institute of Resource Management of Nigeria.

L-R: Ntufam Dr. Joe Edet and wife at PhD convocation, Joe at Author Jarvis University and Joe in his Knighthood outfit.

Ntufam Joe Ekpe Edet is Head of, the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law and formerly Head, of the Department of Private Law, University of Calabar. He is the Acting Vice-Chancellor, of Author Jarvis University, Akpabuyo, Cross River State having served variously as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and the Acting Dean of Law. He is the Principal Partner, of TRINITAS SC ATTORNEYS a law firm with offices in Calabar, Abuja and the United Kingdom.

L-R: Joe with HE Donald Duke, President Obasanjo and HE Liyel Imoke

He has been a consummate player in the public sector having served as Special Adviser to successive Governors of Cross River State since the inception of the Fourth Republic. He was the special Adviser to HE Donald Duke, Governor of Cross River State in 2007; the Cross River State Liaison Officer in Abuja in 2012-2015 and was equally the Deputy Chief of Staff, Governor’s office, Calabar in 2007-2012. Special Adviser Intergovernmental Affairs and Liaison; Special Adviser, Mineral Resources, Senior Special Adviser Strategic Policy Advisory Council (SPAC). He was the Chief of Staff in the Cross River State House of Assembly and had served as Legal Adviser in the Akamkpa Local Government Area. He has had a brief stint with the defunct Mercantile Bank of Nigeria. He equally served as Chair of the Cross River and State of Maryland Sister State Project, coordinating the Cross River State’s signing of a sister state agreement with the State of Maryland, United States of America. The first of its kind.

He is well-published in both local and international journals and recently his book The Rule of Law and Constitutional Immunity in Nigeria was sponsored and published with support from TETFUND. It was one of the 50 Books unveiled by the Federal Government to mark the anniversary of the establishment of TETFUND.

L-R: Joe and Mary at their Church and Tradition Marriage

Joseph is a devout Catholic and has been a Grand Knight of the Order of the Knights of a Saint Mulumba. He is a Jerusalem Pilgrim raised to power three and a Marian Pilgrim traversing almost all Marian Pilgrim sites in Europe inter alia, Fatima in Portugal, Lourdes in France, and Avila in Spain. He has been a regular visitor to the Vatican City in Italy; San Giovanni Rotondo, the town where St. Padre Pio lived; Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis and St. Clare; Monte Sant’Angelo; the city of Milan and Venice.

Joe and Mary and their Children

He is an initiate of the coveted Mgbe institution and holds two traditional titles of Ntufam Onor Mfam (Jewel of the Kingdom), Eyeghanjim Akachak (the Pillar of Akachak Festival) and Patron of Oban Akachak Monenkim dance group. He is married to Mrs Mary-Joe Ekpe Edet, a seasoned banker and they are blessed with three children.

Ntufam Joe Ekpe Edet with Oban Akachak Monenkim dance group

ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S BOOKS

NOTES ON CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

The Constitution, known as the grundnorm by Kelsen, referred to as the alpha and omega, the fons et origo by Niki Tobi, and the birth certificate of any nation by Mike Ozekhome is one document every Nigerian ought to have. It protects the rights of individuals and helps maintain the balance of power between the various branches of government. A firm knowledge of the constitution is knowing the law. Equally, understanding the Constitution helps both individuals and businesses protect or defend their legal rights in a country. Topical and contemporary issues regarding citizenship, fundamental rights, fundamental objectives and directive principles of State policies, separation of powers, rule of law, legislative, executive, and judicial powers inter alia are exhaustively discussed.

Having taught Constitutional Law for many years, it became imperative to break it down, in an easy-to-read and understandable textbook. It became even more imperative as the National University Commission improved on the core curriculum with the introduction of the CCMAS. Thus, this textbook, Notes on Constitutional Law is primarily intended to addresses the paucity of legal text on the subject matter especially as it relates to the new addition. It is equally intended to serve as a veritable reference point for law students, law teachers, and everyone who wants to understand the basic features of the Nigerian Constitution.

THE RULE OF LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL IMMUNITY IN NIGERIA

Despite its antiquated feudal origins, the doctrine of immunity has continued to find relevance even in the most modern republican states. There has however been a striking change in the content of justifications often advanced for it. In the beginning, it was simply assumed that the king of England could do no wrong. Thus, an action against His Majesty was out of the question; more so where the venue for adjudication was the king’s court and the presiding judge was the king himself or one of the courtiers. In addition to this quaint rationalization, the king had the full status of a sovereign, approximating the state all by himself. The perceived impossibility of subjecting a sovereign state to legal action found expression in the phrase “sovereign immunity”. On these grounds, the crown in England and Wales was wholly immune from proceedings right up to the mid-20th century. Similarly, foreign diplomats enjoyed immunity under international law as representatives of their home states.

Today, as the author, Mr. Joseph Ekpe- Edet informs us, sovereignty resides with the people and political leadership is well separated from judicial functions. Thus, new reasons have to be found for the perpetuation of the immunity clause in our federal constitutions. According to the Supreme Court in the case of Collins Obi v. Sam Mbakwe (1984) 1 SCNLR 192, the constitutional provision is simply to prevent specified public officers from being inhibited in the performance of their respective functions while in office. This, I think, is a sensible rationale. If a sitting Governor or president were to be denied the privilege, he might well spend his entire term responding to suits filed by conscientious litigants and, perhaps, mischief makers.

Some oppose this argument, insisting that the immunity concept contradicts the ideas of justice for all and equality before the law. As the author notes, many commentators also argue that the immunity clause detracts from the court’s jurisdiction to adjudicate on all manner of disputes. Against the background of some reported cases of corruption and executive recklessness, these arguments easily garner some weight. After all, as Lord Acton puts it, “there is no heresy greater than the argument that the office sanctifies the office holder.” However, I believe that these arguments must bend to the fact that the immunity conferred by the constitution is not at all absolute immunity but simply one that inures during the tenure of office. As one eminent jurist put it, it is a “procedural immunity”.

Be that as it may, there is an absence of unanimity over the meaning and scope of this modified immunity, in consequence of which the subject has tended to recur in constitutional discourse and real-life cases right up to the present times. This also provides sound justification, if any is required, for the timely expose now offered by our distinguished author.

It is my enlightened view that it is not the lack of appropriate laws that encourages corruption, but the lack of political will to fight it. A list of legal interventions against corruption endorses this claim. Most significantly, it is important to point out that the palpable functionality of a constitution largely depends on the practitioners. I have an implicit believe that Nigeria can still produce honest and committed politicians, who can conform to the norms set out in the Constitution for the prosperity of the state. To enhance democratic governance, the book proposes a series of political reforms, including the widening of the political space through participatory democracy, entrenchment of the principle of probity in government; institution of an electoral reform which will lead to a massive political re-orientation, ensuing that only people with impeccable character are elected to public office.

Other measures proffered in this book are the removal of the travesties of elective principles, such as the sales of votes, vote rigging, and biasness toward ethnic politics. In this cause, policy and ideological convictions must be the cornerstone of political association, and ideas and policies should be the currency for choice in the multiparty system. What is of primordial importance, is a conscious movement towards political and policy stability, thereby ensuring the rule of law and well-being for all Nigerians.

IMMUNITY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS UNDER THE NIGERIAN CCONSITITUTION

Very few constitutional questions have remained as topical in contemporary Nigerian political cum legal discourse as the issue of what to do with the constitutional immunity conferred by section 308 of the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria, 1999, on a specified set of elected public office holders. While some influential commentators have called for the abrogation of the immunity clause, hinging their stance on the need for all to be equal before the law and the overarching necessity to stamp out the culture of executive impunity, yet many others have called for the retention of the immunity clause in the constitution. Its abrogation, they submit, will leave the class of public office holders it protects totally exposed to all manners of fanciful litigations, and in the end, distract the incumbents from the Herculean task of governance. To this latter class of commentators, the raison d’etre of constitutional immunity therefore is the need to have the wheels of governance absolutely unencumbered by the whims of the overly censorious litigant, who will never hesitate to exploit the machinery of adjudication to score a political point.

There is indeed great merit in both arguments, which have been delivered with uncommon insight. In this very seminal work captioned, “The Rule of Law and Constitutional Immunity in Nigeria”, the author takes us on an excursion through the historical origins of the doctrine of “sovereign immunity”, the various phases of its development and its eventual adaptation and incorporation into democratic institutions including the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. The book is an important intellectual contribution to constitutionalism and constitutional development. The author has drawn admirably from constitutional developments in the more matured jurisdictions, notably the United States, whose case law development in this key area is carefully analyzed.

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