The Head of the Service of the federation (HoS), Mr Danladi Kifasi said on Tuesday that the federal government would soon enact the Civil Service Act.
Kifasi said this at one of the sessions at the ongoing 55th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja.
He said that the law would regulate the activities of the civil service in the country.
Kifasi said this would go a long way to enable civil servants contribute effectively to national development.
“Currently we do not have an act governing operations of the civil service.
“We are working on the Civil Service Act so that we would have a law that would clearly state the position of the civil service as it relates with other arms of government,” Kifasi said.
He said the conference was apt as it was showcasing the positive role lawyers in the public service contribute to national development.
The Inspector-General of the Police, Mr Solomon Arase noted that the police could effectively contribute to national development in the area of effective prosecution of cases if they dealt with only criminal cases.
Arase said that civil cases did not fall within the competence of police officers.
“If they will assist us and not bring civil cases, if they bring strictly criminal cases, the issue of garnishee order and taking us to court for infraction of fundamental rights will not arise.”
He said the current police force was working to ensure intelligence driven investigation adding that this would minimise challenges of prosecution.
He acknowledged that the police had challenges with issues of human rights violations as police men often engaged in extra-judicial killings saying it would soon be a thing of the past.
Also speaking to newsmen, Senate Minority Whip, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, said there was need for synergy between legal practitioners and the National Assembly to review some laws.
“We have to re-jig our laws because a country is not necessarily ruled by men, it is ruled by laws and if the laws are right and well implemented, I think at the end of the day, the country will make progress.
Akpabio also noted the importance of an independent judiciary saying this was the only way they could be free from manipulations of the executive.
“I also think that the independence of the judiciary is very crucial like we are talking about first line charge for the judiciary so that they can be truly independent across board.
“That is in all the states, if they have to go begging for funds, it means the judiciary will continue to depend on the executive.”
He also noted that the recruitment process into the judiciary must be reviewed to ensure that only competent lawyers were hired.
He further called for the unbundling of the Federal Government saying the financial burden was too much on the government since most of the funds went into recurrent expenditure.
One of the panelists of the session, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, said laws were formulated to engender development and must be monitored to ensure that they meet the goal.
Tambuwal, a lawyer who was the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that lawyers must work to ensure that such laws were implementable.
His Plateau State counterpart, Mr Simon Lalong told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the session that laws must be fashioned to enhance the fight against corruption.
“We should fashion our laws in such a way that encourages a pure fight against corruption.
“If we can stop corruption every other thing will fall in place, “ he said.
Lalong also said that there was the need to review our statues to conform to the current realities since most of the laws were now obsolete.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NBA Annual General Conference is usually organized to ensure continuous legal education for lawyers. (NAN)
