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By T. Akinola Aguda, C.F.R., LL.M.,
Ph.D. (Lond.). [London: Sweet &
Maxwell 1980. [xxxix and 1139 pp.
Price: £55 net.]
AIDOO E. S.
THIS book is written by the
Director of the Nigerian Institute
of Advanced Legal Studies who was
formerly the Chief Judge of Ondo
State, formerly Chief Justice of
Botswana and formerly Judge of the
High Court of the Western State of
Nigeria. It is primarily for
practitioners; for it is the
“result of a deep-rooted desire on
(his) part that someone should
produce a book for the use of the
courts and the legal practitioners
in the area of practice and
procedure in civil matters before
the Superior Courts of Nigeria.”
The book is one of considerable
“magnitude and complexity.” But
that, let me add quickly, is not
because of the style of the author
or the arrangement of the
material. It is primarily because
of the political history of the
country with which it deals. There
are “20 different High Courts—19
State High Courts and one Federal
High Court—with 20 different Rules
of Civil Procedure.”
Nevertheless, Dr. Aguda has by
careful analysis grouped the Rules
into six sets and shown how to
find one’s way through all of
them, allowing for important
variations throughout. He rightly
draws attention to the importance
of “Chapter 1 which may be
regarded as the key to its use.”
That introduction explains the
historical milieu which threw up
the many courts of Nigeria. But
there are 70 other chapters in the
book. Each is divided into
short-numbered paragraphs and it
is these that state the Rules and
comment on them. This makes the
book easy to read and convenient
to use, especially because
adequate cross-references are
provided.
The comments on these Rules are
particularly helpful. Any young
practitioner will understand not
only how to bring his case within
any rule but also the principles
underlying any apparently
complicated twist in its
statement. And the experienced
practitioner will find these
concise explanations helpful.
Examples taken at random are the
sections on form and commencement
of action, parties, affidavits,
injunctions, declaratory
judgments, judicial review and
contempt of court. Some of these
comments are of course taken from
the English Supreme Court
Practice. But the necessary
adaptation has been carefully done
and local cases are given more
prominence than English ones—which
is quite proper. In most of
these, careful attention has been
paid to the provisions of the
present 1979 Constitution of
Nigeria; and where these have
introduced some doubt, that has
been frankly stated (see e.g. the
comment under “Jurisdiction of the
court to give declaratory
judgments” at para. 67.05p. 791).
Decisions of other Commonwealth
courts (including very many of the
erstwhile West African Court of
Appeal and the English Privy
Council) are cited in appropriate
places throughout.
The author points out at every
stage the matters that call for
special attention. All
practitioners in West Africa will
no doubt be interested in his
brief comments on filling briefs
of argument under the Rules that
came into force in Nigeria on 1
September 1977. This practice is
not common (except perhaps when we
had our appeals decided in the
English Privy Council). Its
merits are attractive; but not
many think that it will solve the
problems for which it is often
recommended. Perhaps in the next
edition Dr. Aguda may be persuaded
to make fuller comments and even
provide a precedent somewhere in
the appendix.
The section on the Supreme Court
does not contain many comments.
This is understandable, since the
Rules are new. A preliminary note
(chapter 62) however, gives an
explanation of the set up that is
very useful. After those Rules,
come the Court Forms fully
reproduced with short explanations
of their use in some cases. The
relevant sections (212-227) of the
Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 1979, are
reproduced in Appendix IV; and
that is followed by the Legal
Practitioners (Remuneration for
Conveyancing Matters) Order, 1971.
So, as far as this review is
concerned, if there is any
important matter that the author
has left it is “not wilful, and .
. . is in the interest of justice
that such (omission) be
waived”—using the words of the
rule at para. 71.01.
This last rule is familiar to
practitioners in Ghana. They need
special mention here; for they
will find much that will be
helpful during this period when
consideration is being given to
the Rules of their one High Court,
single Court of Appeal and only
Supreme Court which is new and
(like the Nigerian) has been
assigned special tasks under the
Constitution, 1979. There are
bound to be spotted some slips
here and there: For example, some
words have probably been omitted
from the sentence at page 6, para.
1.18 beginning with “The order . .
. ;” “draws” at page 735, para.
60.07, line 24, is clearly meant
to read “drawn.” The case
[Shell-BP Petroleum Development
Co. of Nigeria Ltd. v. His
Highness Pere Cole and Others]
(1978) is referred to differently
at pp. 739, para. 60.17 and 757,
para. 60.60. And there is no
mention of [stay of execution] in
either the table of contents or
the index although (happily) the
subject is discussed several times
in the book. But these too, as the
author himself modestly notes, are
“imperfections which are not
uncommon in first editions of
major works of this nature,” and,
considering that much of the area
covered is virgin land, are not
difficult to overlook. Both Dr.
Aguda who faced up to the
challenge of writing this book and
the publishers who “goaded” him in
to undertaking the task have
earned the gratitude of all
interested in the practice of law
in Africa (at least). This book
which carries a satisfactory index
is an impressive work attractively
printed and bound, and is fully
recommended—even at that price.
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