I have a daughter who is an up-and-coming specialist in International Arbitration. My discussions with her on her field have opened my eyes to the legal travails of Nigerian business men in their joint ventures with foreign firms. Our problem is endemic. First we are very lousy when it comes to reading documents. Secondly, we do not engage lawyers and when we do, it is often lowlife lawyers.
Over all, we are not thorough and have “a jack of all trade” approach to whatever we do. My daughter, who works with a top law firm in the country, shared her experience with me that when expatriate firms engage them, they often pair them up with a foreign law firm. At the negotiation of the legal fees the foreign companies haggle the fees of the Nigerian firm to so low but with the foreign law firm they literally never negotiate but accept the bills they give.
Of course it has been said that when you want to hide something from a black man, hide it in the book and he would never find it in a lifetime. We never heed the saying that “The devil is in the detail.” Even at international trade engagements involving agreements, our government officials spend time prancing around the town for shopping with their estacodes and starched caftans, only to show up at the point of signing the documents to just “sa hannu:” (Hausa word for append one’s signature.)
Our lawyers should aspire to specialize in various aspects of law. For instance, how many Nigerians are specialized in maritime time law. Once I was a master of ceremony at a maritime workshop for judges and lawyers at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja. I was surprised that as at that time, there was just a handful of lawyers who were specialists in the industry.
In negotiations, there is the saying that “you never get what is fair, but what you negotiate.” The Court, no matter in what country, is not a Father Christmas and cannot give you what you didn’t ask for. Here in lies our problem. The foreigners doing deals with you is a business man and not a priest. If we cannot swim with the sharks we should either choose to end up in her belly or get out of the water.
