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MY THOUGHTS ON SOUTH AFRICA’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Wait, why on earth did I wear a white wig that made me look like a fetish priest just to get licensed? I remember walking down an aisle that felt like we were being cleansed of our individualities and bestowed a whiteness that we had to have. These were my thoughts when we were discussing the extent of wisdom and specificity that went into the South African Constitutional Court building. The building was centered around dismantling the remains of the apartheid regime and establishing something new. It was streamlined to their culture and echoed that they were ready to start afresh. In Nigeria, anyone who wants to get licensed to practice law must purchase a white wig and a black gown. Additionally, they must wear it on the day of call by the Nigerian Body of Benchers. Although this practice dates to the 17th century in England, it started towards the end of the British colonization in Nigeria when she decided to adopt the legal system of Britain, and by extension, all the paraphernalia...

Africa is not in need of a Savior!

              My thoughts on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness -  There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to Marlow’s story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ship’s captain. Heart of Darkness centers around  Marlow , an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet  Kurtz , reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, Marlow encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill-treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents. (Joseph Conrad, Spark Notes) The writer witnessed the shooting and fight with the natives in Congo and their eventual slavery, but ev...

WHAT LAW SCHOOL COULD BE

                      I knew what success was or at least, what it should be. Law School success meant the same in my different legal studies across three continents but when I arrived in America, specifically in the JD program, success looked like it was taking a totally different turn. While success is highly based on respective perceptions, there are common baselines that could apply to the average person. For example, good grades would always mean success, but “good grades” are subjective. For a person who had an average or above-average background, with good schools and educated parents, good grades may mean the really top of the class. On the other hand, for a person from a below-average background and first-generation, good grades could mean just being better than where they used to be.                ...

Ethical Dilemma on the Nigerian legal loyalty.

Is the legal practitioner's loyalty first to the COURT? Or his CLIENT?  To state the obvious, Rules 14 to 25 of the Rules of Professional conduct speaks on the general and specific duties that a legal practitioner owe to his client while Rules 30 to 38 devotes to a lawyer’s duty to the court. The former provides that lawyers must dedicate to the cause of his client and the later provides lawyers being officers of the court. It arouses a twist as to whom the lawyers first loyalty must be to, Is it to the court, alternatively, his client? In reality, a lawyer who has his overriding interest as the court, his client is most likely to suffer, seeing that even though he wants justice to prevail, he also wants that his client is happy. He is made a compulsory officer of the court and in much so, was enrolled to the bar to serve the court but does this effect much on his client? Yes! A client does not want a lawyer who goes to court and instead of being by him, is saying yes to...

BIO-ETHICS AND PATENTING

               Ethically speaking, living beings are creations of God, which cannot be owned by human beings through patents. God is the only owner of all living things on this planet. Living beings are vested with an inherent dignity and integrity which is protected and guaranteed. Human beings cannot also play with the wisdom of God by manipulating living beings since this manipulation hits on human integrity and dignity. Genetic manipulation of organisms and its protection by patent system has always raised an issue and cry on moral and ethical issues. WHAT IS ETHICS AND MORALITY? The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition. Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct. Ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and...