PRIVATE LAW

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) is vested with exclusive original civil jurisdiction over labour and employment disputes. Its practice and procedure are regulated by the Court's Civil Procedure Rules and other Statutes particularly the National Industrial Court Act, 2006. One of such statute is the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act (SCPA), sections 97 and 99 thereof, which requires that an originating process to be served outside the jurisdiction of the court it was filed, would be endorsed indicating this fact. This requirement shows that the service of the process is outside the territorial jurisdiction of the issuing court especially with regards to courts that have limited territorial jurisdiction. The NICN is of equal status with the State High Courts (SHCs) and the Federal High Court (FHC) which the issue of the applicability of the SCPA has been adjudicated upon but not the NICN. The issue is, is this requirement of the SCPA (which applicability to the SCH and FHC has been adjudicated upon), applicable to the NICN? What is the effect of failure to comply with the SCPA in proceedings before the NICN? These issues came up in Johnson v. Eze. This paper adopts doctrinal method in examining the impact of the position taken by the Court of Appeal in this case on the territorial jurisdiction of the NICN as well as its mandate as a specialized court. It found that the NICN has a singular nationwide territorial jurisdiction. It concludes that the decision is a welcomed development as it insulates the NICN from the technicalities associated with the application of sections 97 and 99 of the SCPA.

This paper adopts analytical methodology in interrogating the effect of frustration of contract on an employee's earned salary under Nigeria's labour jurisprudence analysing the Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) decision in National Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission & Ors. v. Ajibola Johnson & Ors. The paper examines the rationale, effect and extent of applicability of frustration of contract on a vested right under an employment contract. It also discusses the nature of the employer's duty to provide work as well as the legal effect of failure to do so especially when an employee reports to work and is willing to and able to work. The paper examines the impact of this decision on employment relationship in Nigeria especially the manner in which courts should reconcile split interests. The paper observed that the SCN in the judgment, has laid down a rule to guide courts in balancing accrued rights of individuals and directives of government to engender a mutually beneficial outcome.

In recent time, the world has experienced an unprecedented upsurge of emerging national, transnational and international crimes perpetrated by individuals and groups. Perpetrators of these crimes sometimes escape to another country and evade immediate arrest, detention, prosecution, conviction, sentence and/ or punishment. Nonetheless, such individuals are sometimes formally surrendered to the requesting state, where the crimes were committed, upon request made to the requested state for their return through extradition in accordance with extradition laws. These laws place responsibilities on the requesting and requested states regarding the protection of rights of requested persons. This work examines state responsibilities for the protection of rights of requested persons. Using the doctrinal methodology, this work found that many state parties typically fail in their responsibilities to protect the rights of requested persons, which results in the violation of those rights. The work recommends strengthening of extradition laws on the protection of rights of requested persons by state parties; provision of clear penalties on involved states; establishment and strengthening of a realistic enforcement mechanism against involved states and provision of compensation for requested persons where their rights are violated.

There is a desperate search all over the world for, not just a good system of government, but for good and exemplary leaders. Thus, there is always an interplay of the quality of a system and the character of the human operators of the system. Democracy is rated as the most popular system of government in the world; regrettably, the media of many countries is awash with stories of leaders of different categories being indicted for misconducts bordering on corruption, abuse of office, highhandedness and other vices. An interesting, though novel system of government, which seems to address concerns about exemplary leadership is called Tupocracy. Tupocracy is a system of government, founded by Reverend (Dr.) Godwin Amaowoh, that focuses on leadership by example. The author advocates that when a leader operates with the qualities of integrity, discipline, and accountability, among other virtues, it resonates in the followership and the effectiveness of the entire system. This paper carefully examines how Tupocracy can be used to deepen democracy. While it draws examples across the globe, it focuses more on Nigeria. The paper argues strenuously that the democratic institutions in many societies have been badly disrespected, not just for want of vision or good policies, but because of bad leadership example. It further argues that if exemplary leaders with the right vision are put into leadership positions, the confidence in the leadership system can be largely restored.