The 23rd of August 2022 ushered in the second day of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Annual General Conference holding in Lagos. This year’s Conference themed “Bold Transitions” featured in its 2nd day a session with the title “NBA in Transition; Conversation with the NBA Presidents”. The panelists at the session were the former NBA Presidents A.B Mahmoud SAN, Paul Usoro SAN, current NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata and incoming NBA President, Y.C. Maiykau SAN.

Speaking at the session, the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata spoke on the need to have a strong secretariat that can deliver the promises of the NBA to its members. He noted that without a strong secretariat all the plans and agenda of the administration are dead on arrival. Mr. Olumide further stated that at this year’s conference the NBA would unveil its NBA App which members can use to order stamp and seal, pay for fees and enjoy other secretarial services. The NBA President expressed optimism that the deployment of such technology would aid service delivery within the Association.

The NBA President-Elect, Y.C. Maiykau SAN, in his comment at the forum stated that the previous administrations of Mr. A.B Mahmoud SAN depicted an administration strong on regulation, whilst that of Mr. Paul Usoro SAN represented an administration strong on transparency and accountability. He noted that both administrations laid the framework for what current President, Olumide Akpata, has built on. Mr. Maikyau went further to commend the current NBA President saying in his own words “you have done very well in building on what our predecessors had done”.

Mr Maikyau observed that on his own part, he would maintain and consolidate on the various achievements of the current administration particularly highlighting the welfare schemes put in place by the current administration. He noted that his administration upon its inauguration would work assiduously to increase the number of lawyers registered to benefit from the National Health Insurance scheme put in place by the Olumide Akpata-led administration. He said that whilst the current number of 1000 registered lawyers for health insurance is a significant feat, his administration would work to increase that number to 3000 within his tenure in office. Mr. Maikyau further assured delegates and members at the conference that the money set aside to provide access to finance for lawyers by the current administration will be consolidated upon to ensure it does not deplete. He referred members to his manifesto and campaign promises, assuring them that he is willing to be held accountable by those promises.

Speaking to a question regarding Mr. Maikyau’s capacity to see through the gains of the current administration, particularly on the backdrop of what is feared to be a “SAN-to-SAN collabo” in the face of the on-going probe relating to alleged professional misconduct by a partner in the firm of Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN and the backlash ushered in by the refusal of the respected Chief to recuse himself from his chairmanship of the Body of Benchers to allow for effective prosecution of the case by the Legal Practitioner’s Disciplinary Committee, Mr. Maikyau noted that “there is nothing like ‘SAN-to-SAN collabo’. It is an issue that bothers on alleged professional misconduct and the NBA President is duty bound to act. My administration will not tolerate professional misconduct by anyone no matter your status. We do not have a different set of rules for senior advocates and younger lawyers, in fact the scrutiny is even higher for senior lawyers”.

Mr. AB Mahmoud SAN in his closing remarks noted that there is a need to address the indiscipline of Branches. He recommended that there should be State Bars responsible for interacting with branches rather than leaving the national NBA to manage the entire 128 Branches across the country. Mr. Paul Usoro in his final contribution on the challenges he faced during his tenure noted that the negative public image given to the Association by members either wrongly or based on misinformation dealt badly on the Association and there is urgent need for lawyers to re-evaluate and re-think such interactions with their own Association and sundry issues.