PHOTOS: NIALS confers honorary fellowship on ex-AGFs Agabi, Adoke

The Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) has conferred its honorary fellowship on four individuals at the 2025 lecture and the 19th conferment ceremony held in Abuja.

Those honoured were Kanu Godwin Agabi, former attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice; Muhammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation; Yusuf Olaolu Alli, senior advocate and renowned jurist; and Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, professor of law and former NIALS director-general.

In her opening remarks, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) and chairman of the NIALS governing council, said the institute remains “the index academic and research institution for law”, having shaped Nigeria’s legal evolution through rigorous scholarship and policy engagement.

“The law is not an abstract ideal confined to courtrooms or classrooms. It is the anchor of political stability, the guarantor of economic confidence, and the framework within which freedoms are exercised and responsibilities enforced,” she said.

Kekere-Ekun noted that the theme of the 2025 Fellows Lecture, ‘Law, Politics and Economic Development: Nigeria at Its Crossroads’, mirrors the urgent questions confronting the country.

She said as Nigeria navigates socioeconomic pressures and shifting political expectations, the “primacy of the rule of law becomes even more evident”.

She congratulated the four honourees, describing their elevation as “an affirmation of the Institute’s belief in their continuing capacity to enrich the legal profession and strengthen the nation’s intellectual foundations”.

Delivering the keynote lecture, George Etomi, a fellow of NIALS, warned that Nigeria risks breeding a “generation that believes more in the rule of force than in the rule of law”.

He decried the prevalence of insecurity, corruption and weak enforcement mechanisms, saying these undermine public confidence in institutions.

“We fought for the return to democracy and attained it in 1999. But 25 years after, we are still asking where this democracy is leading us. Unless our leaders understand the intersection between law, politics and economic development, we will continue missing the point,” he said.

Etomi argued that the country has no shortage of good laws, but weak institutions and poor implementation remain major obstacles.

Citing the Business Facilitation Act, he said provisions such as “deemed approval” for regulatory applications could be transformative “if given teeth”.

He urged NIALS to take the lead in championing institutional reforms that would strengthen governance and attract investment.

Also speaking, Abdulgadir Ibrahim Abikan, the director general of NIALS, welcomed guests to what he described as “an eminent assembly of our nation’s legal and intellectual aristocracy”.

He said the Institute remains committed to interrogating the intersection of law, politics and national development, even as it faces infrastructural challenges.

“NIALS has continued to perform its statutory mandate despite the lack of a conducive office space,” Abikan said.

“Government alone cannot do it all. Private intervention offers an opportunity for those who wish to immortalise themselves or their loved ones.”

Abikan commended the honourees as individuals whose careers demonstrate “that the law in the hands of wise and principled leaders is the most powerful tool for nation-building”.

Below are photos.