By Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Tuesday inaugurated the National Depository of Treaties, the first ever to be be established by the government of Nigeria.
Speaking during the epoch making event, the a minister said, “the electronic National Depository of Treaties will serve as the depository of all treaties entered into between the Government of the Federation and any other country, in line with Section 4 of the Treaties (Making Procedure, (etc.) Act Cap. T20 Laws of the Federation (LFN) 2004, which domiciled the National Depository of Treaties in the Federal Ministry of Justice.
He called on “all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to transmit to the National Depository of Treaties, all executed agreements, Memoranda of Understanding, and treaties in their custody and those to be entered in the future in their original form.”
According to Malami, the request to do so “is in further compliance with the Service wide, Circular Reference No. HCSF/LU/FEC/ M/938 dated 2nd March, 2017 issued by the head of the civil service of the Federation as directed by the Federal Executive Council.
“It is our hope that very soon the NationalDepository of Treaties will be in the cloud for a more global outlook and accessibility from any part of the world.
“It is about transparency, accessibility and order in line with the tenements of Open Government Partnership and access to justice, which the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to uphold,” he emphasised.
He explained that the goals of the noble project, include to:” Achieve functional National Depository of Treaties; Maintain a comprehensive/updated Register of Treaties and Ensure that all Treaties, Agreement and Protocols entered into by the Government are preserved.”
Earlier in his speech, the Solicitor General of the Federation, Mr Dayo Apata, stated that with the enabling law, “all treaties entered into before the commencement of the Act between the Government of the Federation and any other country by any Ministry, governmental agency, body or person, shall be deposited with the Federal Ministry of Justice for record purposes.
“It is also the duty of the Federal Ministry of Justice to prepare and maintain a register of treaties. The register is open at all reasonable times for inspection by members of the public on the payment of such token fee as may be determined from time to time.
“The Federal Ministry of Justice to the exclusion of any other Ministry or authority, has power to give notification on the conclusion of any new treaty to the Federal Government Printer for purposes ofpublication.
“The electronic depository of treaties is one of the ways, the Federal Ministry of Justice is utilizing in taking advantage of technology to make accessibility to the depository easy and faster,” he emphasised.
