Aminu Tambuwal

The governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, has charged African lawyers to lead the fight against the arbitrary exercise of power by elected leaders and promote respect for the rule of law on the continent.

Tambuwal said this in a keynote address he delivered at the 2020 Virtual Conference of the African Bar Association with the theme, “Resetting Africa`s Socio-Economic and Political Agenda in Post Covid-19 Era”, which was held in Niamey, Niger Republic, on Tuesday.

This was contained in a statement titled, “Tambuwal tasks African Lawyers to fight against arbitrariness in governance,” signed by his Media Office.

Specifically, the governor challenged lawyers on the continent to provide leadership by ensuring that requisite policies which will promote effective business support, capacity building, technology, and product innovation, and access to sufficient financing of small and medium enterprises, were given pride of place.

Tambuwal, was quoted as saying, “As lawyers who are trained to promote the rule of law and ensure that the society is governed in accordance with the laws, we have a burden of responsibility to speak out on the side of the people.

“For far too long, our continent has continued to lag on all known indices of human development. Yet, after over 60 years, after political independence, Africa ought to have made the desired impact. Regrettably, we have continued to wallow in economic underdevelopment.

“We must, therefore, say no to arbitrariness in governance. Given our training as lawyers, we are better positioned to fight against arbitrary exercise of power by elected leaders in the continent.”

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