By Ojo Toluwatope Alex

Before I state my mind in brief, over the sad incidence that led to that public statement by the President, Mr. Olumide Akpata, which, unfortunately, has seriously denigrated the entire Bar, I want to humbly state that I am not impressed over the handling of the crises.

The ability to carefully manage crises is one of the major yardsticks by which leadership is measured, and sadly, Mr. Akpata and his leadership team failed here by all standards. And, to me, the face-saving public statement worsened the issue, unfortunately.

Without querying how Mr. Akpata arrived at the conclusion that the people responsible for the alleged looting are lawyers, especially in a conference attended by both lawyers and non-lawyers alike, I believe it was too hasty, for him to openly admit before the cameras that those responsible are lawyers.

And, I am not sure he listened to himself carefully before making the statements he made.

In a single breath, he concluded the culprits are lawyers, claiming his team has seen some videos, but he contradicted himself almost immediately, saying forensic experts will be invited to analyse the videos to prove he was right.

What was most baffling to me, however, was that some persons in the audience were clapping for him, perhaps for his obvious inability to manage his emotions.

Now, going to the issue. I hold the view that the bulk stops on the President’s table when incidents like this happen at a prestigious conference of this nature, with echelons, dignitaries and VIPs in attendance.

Planning is everything for important conferences of this status. And to my mind, it is either that the planning failed in some respects, or that corruption was directly at the root. So, rather than emotionally heaping the entire responsibility on “our colleagues”, he should have simply taken responsibility, apologize to his audience and promise to investigate what led to the unfortunate incidence, ensuring that such a thing never happens again at “our conference”.

From my experience, shoddy distribution of conference materials and poor arrangements have always been a problem at the annual general conference. And, when this happens, lawyers complain.

Unfortunately, however, the NBA has never provided a platform to register such complaints at the conference with a mechanism to promptly deal with it right there, even as lawyers often find some of the ad-hoc staff contracted to register attendees very disrespectful. I don’t want to comment on the attitudes of many of the executives themselves, and what they become as soon as they are sworn-in, often making us feel they are now higher than us because we voted them in.

Back to my points. I sincerely think, that as part of the solution, it is high time the NBA changed the way they handle this most important area of the annual general conference.

Unless corruption is at the roots, the NBA has evolve over the years, and there is nothing wrong in having lawyers volunteer with minimal rewards, to handle registration and distribution of conference materials.

For instance, if you separate the registration of invitees and VIPS from the general registrations of lawyers,….

….handle the registration of lawyers and distribution of materials on branch basis,…

…while ensuring the officials handling the process for each branch are volunteer members of the branch who are familiar with themselves

…the type of scenario witnessed in Lagos would have been avoided.

Only the insincere among us will deny the facts, that the rowdiness and complainants almost always happened on annual basis, and that Mr. Akpata represents the leadership that failed to deal with it, allowing same to snowball into this embarrassment.

Yes, you may say “what is the big deal about conference materials”?, but none can deny that we are coming from so many diverse backgrounds, and that our orientations and levels of tolerance are not the same.

Yes, you may also say “but lawyers are supposed to comport themselves, no matter the level of provocation”, and I agree. But we don’t have proof that lawyers did this. At least, NOT YET. And I won’t jump into that conclusion hastily, like Mr. Akpata.

And, assuming lawyers were indeed responsible, the failure is not that of the lawyers to my mind, it is that of NBA Leadership.

NBA Leadership in Nigeria fails in many respects. Principally, it has failed over the years, to raise the decency of the profession to a deserving enviable standard.

The failure to standardize the profession to give lawyers a decent life in a society where wealth is unevenly and unfairly distributed is at the root of our problem, and indeed at the root of our problem as a nation.

Firstly, not everyone should become lawyers. And I say this with every sense of responsibility. A nation that breeds lawyers with deficient characters, will breed a corrupt and weak judiciary, and ultimately a morally bankrupt society.

Law, is a profession that should be jealousy guarded, and apart from ensuring that lawyers earn fair and just wages for decent living, the government should have a strong welfare arrangement to protect their sense of self-worth and esteem, knowing that it is from this pool that judges emerge, upon whose shoulders the entire balance of the society rests.

In the end, the failure is not only that of NBA Leadership, it is the failure of a nation, and it represents how low the society has descended.

So, Mr. Akpata, before you sanction “our colleagues”, look inwards and accept the facts, that this incidence is a byproduct of the failure of a society you represent, and that the bulk stops on your table.

Written by OJO TOLUWATOPE ALEX, A legal practitioner.