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BY SAM OMATSEYE KEY NOTE ADDRESS AT THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION, JOS BRANCH LAW WEEK   When I was told that the topic of this address was Restructuring: A Panacea For Nigeria’s Development and Cohesion, I mused on the word sequence of the second part of the topic. That is, development and cohesion. I thought the word order needed to be redeveloped to make sentence cohere. I thought it should have been reversed. Cohesion before development. How do we develop without cohesion? As Amos said in the Bible, Can two walk together unless they be agreed?   We shall go into this later, but suffice to say that the reason this year’s hallmark of discourse and tempest of controversy have smoldered without let or remission is that those who advocate restructuring believe that without it Nigeria will be mired in the 20th century without a foot forward. Those who have been known to oppose it are those who are irritated that the opponents are not allowing them to make the progress t

  Back from court that same day, I learnt of a colleague, Mr Fred Sruss who was involved in an accident and was lying helplessly in the hospital. Consequently, I realized how complicated life must be for him in that condition, particularly, in our world of today where men still live in caves, where dinosaurs’ and saber tooth tigers still exist in various forms, where the average lawyer has to be physically present before the court or his client to earn a few pennies, where it is survival of the craftiest and the system is designed to reward those who do less, who have no skill, who arrogate to themselves the wealth of others. In contrast, lawyers are thought to be hidebound to rules, theories, ideologies and guidelines, to thrive under difficult conditions, to survive impossible calamity and to solve complex problems. Conversely, with little or no pay, no employment contract, no pension or health insurance benefits. In this situation it is obvious that lack of specialization, la

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