George Etomi, Chairman of the Section on Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association made his mark very early in his practice. But the poor state of the Judiciary, the weak legal system and the problems in the Niger Delta seem to have turned him into an impatient radical. Here are excerpts from his interview with Broad Street Journal's Chikodi Okereocha.

Q: What is Business Law?

A: Business Law practice entails one of the several branches of law practice that you can have. In Nigeria, when you are called to the Bar, you are a Solicitor or Advocate of the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So even the law recognizes that there is distinct solicitor practice and advocacy. Now, Business Law practice is that which is principally carried out by solicitors, and by solicitors I mean those who do not necessarily go to Court to earn a living. They principally work in the office; background research; they advice clients; they draft agreement and so many things. It is very broad.

Q: What's your area of specialty?

A: I have a flair for Aviation Law and Oil and Gas Law naturally because of the area I come from. I take active interest in other areas but these are the areas I am beginning to narrow for my interest. And you find out that increasingly lawyers are becoming slowly identified with particular areas of practice. This is something that pleases me actually because I have particularly been in the forefront of pushing for lawyers to specialize.

Q: How would you access the administration's economic reform agenda and what should be the role of the legal profession and the judiciary?

A: The Section on Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association is organizing its first conference and the theme is:  "Economic Reforms and Business Law Practice in Nigeria". The 'thrust is that if the reforms are going to work, then we must have a legal environment that protects the integrity of these reforms. The reforms again are being done so that we can become worthy members of the international business community because we hope to attract foreign investment by doing the reforms. Now, what is the challenge here? The moment a foreign investor is about to take a decision whether or not to come into the country, what is paramount in his mind is: "What is my exit strategy? Are my funds going to be trapped here? Can I get justice immediately? What's your arbitration system and your court system like? Do they understand it? That's the challenge posed on the way of these reforms, it's our judicial system. The Court system itself must be reformed to keep pace with these reforms. If you notice, we are inundated on a daily basis, with the massive nature of these reforms whether it is in the Banking, Communications, Aviation sectors and soon, but we don’t have a similar hue and cry in the judicial system. So, there is a gap, which is why those of us in the Business Section of the Nigerian Bar Association say let's try and create a convergence.

Q: The crisis in the Niger Delta appears to be getting out of hand. What is the solution to this problem?

A: The people of the Niger Delta are the most shortchanged Nigerians. I think without further assurance the Federal Government should announce a Marshal Plan. Look at the way Abuja was built. Abuja was something like, 'let there be light and there was light'. It was like somebody saying let there be Abuja and there was Abuja. Nobody could stand in the way of Abuja being built even though it met (with) massive opposition at the time. But those who wanted a new Federal Capital and believed in it and were in control made it happened and today, to our glory and pride, Abuja stands as one of the most attractive cities in the world. All I say is, do the same thing for the Niger Delta. NDDC, OMPADEC, among others, for me they are palliatives. They are not grassroots solutions. If you announce a Marshal Plan it will bring down the temperature in the area. Again, like with other Nigerians, the Niger Deltans are law-abiding because the large majority are too numbed to understand why the Federal Government has not been able to do anything to develop the Niger Delta. Now, while that Marshal Plan is been announced you now go to the root cause of the problem.

And what is the root cause of the problem? You are taking a valued product out of somebody's land, he should have a part of it. In my opinion, the exploitation of any resource - whether mineral or otherwise - there should be three partners to it: the companies that are coming to do the exploitation, the government and the people, the host community. It is like a table standing on three legs. If you deny one of them what I call constructive access by making him a partner, he will be forced to have destructive access and that is what is happening in Niger Delta. Due to pollution, they cannot fish, through gas flaring they cannot farm. They have been restrained to do any other thing. But let me tell you how deep the problem is. What has been described is the physical problem. There is a problem of the mind. If you know what some people in the Niger Delta do to survive, especially our women. You know what it is like. In Africa our women are an extension of our ego. Today, these women go on the rigs and do things, that is, all sorts of things, and you expect people to be happy? There is another social problem there. This is why I get very upset when people talk about the Niger Delta and talk about it as if it is a political problem. The Niger Delta is not a political problem. It is an environmental problem; it is a health problem; it is a social problem. Those who call it a political problem are those who are not sincere and ready to solve it. Even we professionals have betrayed our leaders and the people of the Niger Delta.

Q: But NDDC says it has a master plan for the development of the Niger Delta. How do you assess that?

A: The master plan for the Niger Delta has always been there. Someone should move in there and make it happen. If you do something similar to Abuja in Niger Delta, its fine. This issue of derivation, 18 per cent, 25 per cent and all that, they are forced to ask for those things now because they had to play within what is available. Those things will be insignificant if you cut the root of the problem. Why is the rest of Nigerian so dependent on oil when we have rich products spread through the country? The Federal Government is taking 49 per cent. They have taken the land of the people. They are not even paying compensation. Is the Federal Government such an amorphous body that it cannot out of its 49 per cent give something to the people? Today we hear somebody sold the part of oil block for $2.3 billion. Why is everybody in the Niger Delta going to be happy? Why? What is your reason? Because you fought the war? Are the Niger Delta a conquered people?

Q: Shouldn't we approach this problem through dialogue rather than this present method of hostage taking and blowing pipelines?

A: Please, nothing I say should be mistaken to mean that I support hostage-taking or whatever. No, I am just putting the blame where it lies and where the solution also lies. What those boys are forced to do is to dramatize their problems. We have to remove those things that make it necessary for people to be push to that extent. Has anybody gone to find out how they get arms? How come they are more armed than our Armed forces. They don't naturally worry or disturb anybody because if this thing deteriorates further, it will threaten the corporate existence in Nigeria and no matter all our military says they can't win a war in the Niger Delta. Because if you wipe out the people it's what I call pyrrhic victory. And if you don't take the policy of wiping out the people, you cannot fight them in combat in those terrains. At times, pulling back is not a sign of weakness, dialogue for me is the way to go.

Q: What are the issues that are to be discussed at your association's conference?

A: The major issues will be some of the laws that are being introduced to help the reform process. For
example, we shall be looking at the fiscal responsibility bill like the Tax Reform Bill, we will be looking at various sectors like, Aviation, Port Reforms, Rail and Road Transport reforms, cyber crimes, tourism (Tinapa) and others. We have a segment for the war against corruption, you know we can't talk about reforms without dealing with corruption and a good part of that will be handled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes. We are also looking at the question of the globalization of legal practice, which is peculiar to the profession. There is a threat. We consider the last round of the WTO talks strange. The ministry of commerce has actually come to commit Nigerians to the globalization of legal practice, which we consider strange.