The Hon. President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Benedict Kanyip, PhD, OFR on Tuesday said incompetence of counsel is why the Government at all levels is losing cases in the Industrial Court.
Justice Kanyip made the remark at the opening session of training on proceedings of the Industrial Court organized for State Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja.
Justice Kanyip expressed concern that many government lawyers appear in court unprepared and ignorant of new developments in labour jurisprudence.
According to the Hon. President, while FG was lamenting its inability to win most industrial-related disputes, labour unions, on their part, accused the court of favoring the government, and re-assured that the Court would continue to give justice in accordance with the rule of law.
Justice Kanyip noted that many state counsel approach the Industrial Court with the wrong notion that it shares similar procedural guidelines and practice directions with the Federal High Court, and admonished counsel to study the principles of labour jurisprudence carefully that Section 254 of the Constitution is a game-changer.
While declaring the training open, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN said the training aimed to build the capacity of lawyers in the Ministry of Justice on the resolution of industrial disputes either through the litigation or mediation window offered by the Industrial Court.
The AGF maintained that the Industrial Court being a specialized court with expertise in the increasingly complex field of labour law, employment matters and trade unions, plays a critical role in the protection and balancing of employer and employee rights, ensuring socio-industrial stability, and economic development of the country.
“As an administration, we will continue to invest in capacity development initiatives for our law officers in all recondite/specialized areas of public law to substantially improve upon the quality of prosecution and defence conducted on behalf of the government, to meet contemporary demands of good governance,” the AGF said.
