Rejoinder to Johnson Babalola: The law and practice of twisting court judgments by misinterpretations would not save Nigeria’s reputation in the crucible Canadian courts of law and immigration law which have recently labelled the APC and PDP as terrorist organisations
By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
Dear Learned Johnson Babalola, Sir,
Let me commend you and your expertise in the immigration law of Canada. It is not easy to specialise in any area of law.
The year 2009 was my first experience with the legal system of Canada. I was appointed a law lecturer on the Diploma in legislative drafting programme of Canada’s Athabasca University. I was thereafter offered a visiting research position at the Osgoode Law School in the year 2013.
In all my years of interactions with the legal system of Canada, I have experienced an overwhelming and CONSISTENT attitude of compliance with the rule of law and accountability.
For example, during my teaching on the Diploma in legislative drafting programme, at Athabasca University, I discovered that Canada is perhaps the only legal system that has a 2003 legislation named LEGISLATIVE NEGLIGENCE that penalises staff including lawyers of the Parliament of Canada for drafting of poor Bills or legislation which results in litigation to decipher the meaning of such legislation. The penalty is that it is the salary of the said staff that is utilised to pay for legal fees during the course of such litigation.
Also, within the common law and Commonwealth jurisdictions, it is the Supreme Court of Canada that laid down the precedent that states that the Constitution should be interpreted as a “living tree”, as an organism that is not static but one that grows to accommodate the current realities that were not in existence when the said Constitution was drafted.
This rule of law was laid down in the case of Attorney-General of Canada vs. Edwards (1932), it was based on this precedent that the Supreme Court of Nigeria and other jurisdictions now apply the “living tree” doctrine as a rule whenever they are called upon to interpret provisions of the Constitution!
So, while it is true that the judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada (and other courts of law within Canada) are not of binding effect upon Nigerian and Commonwealth courts of law, it becomes binding when there is no other legislation or judgment on the said subject matter!
For example, there is a previous judgment (February 2025) by the same judge of the Federal Court of Nigeria that labelled the Nigerian Police (and its current and previous officials) as a terrorist, corrupt and human rights-violating organisation.
I encouraged the Nigerian Police and the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to appeal against the said judgment. They refused; now that case is being cited as a binding precedent on immigration law by the courts and tribunals of Canada.
In fact, the most recent judgment (June 2025) of the Federal Court of Canada relied upon that previous judgment of February 2025 (which disqualified current and previous officials of the Nigerian Police), and expanded the scope of Nigerians whom should be denied asylum in Canada to previous and current members of the All Progressives Congress-APC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on the grounds that the said organisations are terrorists organisation. The Federal Court of Canada stated the criterion that was used in defining the APC and PDP as terrorist organisations, namely use of violence to win elections.
To conclude, it has been a stock-in-trade for Nigerian lawyers to twist and misinterpret judgments of courts to serve their own or their clients’ purposes. Both the lawyers and courts in Canada do not adopt this approach.
From personal and professional knowledge, I am aware that as of July 2025, the officials of the Canadian government are undertaking a strict application of the court judgment regarding not granting visas and asylum to Nigerian Police officials engaged in human rights violations.
So, my free legal advisory to you is that be mindful and very careful if you give false hope to some Nigerian asylum seekers in Canada, and they lose their applications, some of them are unforgiving!
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, 16th August 2025.
- The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine
