By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

The 63rd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) held in Abuja between the 25th August and 1st September 2023 has come and gone but it left behind some memories which any stakeholder in the legal profession will not just ignore without making any remarks. The theme of the annual conference was : GETTING IT RIGHT : CHARTING THE COURSE FOR NIGERIA’S NATION BUILDING. Mr. M.C. Maikyau (SAN), the President of the Association pointed it out further in one of his addresses that: “The responsibility of the nation building is on us. The country is a creation of the law. Outside the rule of law, we cannot have

economic growth.” Honestly, this kind of rhetoric has been on for long and it would have been a different thing today if we lawyers have collectively lived up to the expectations.

I once contended that if lawyers are not getting it right, I doubt it if the non-lawyers can get it. Do not mind someone like Mr. Faruq Kperogi who is now arguing that: “Law is not the only Learned Profession”. I know Mr. Kperogi is always very jealous of the law profession and I will advise him that anytime someone infringes on his rights or encroaches on his land or property, let him go and argue his case by himself or hire a Medical Doctor to do that for him.

Lawyers can only justify their claim to being learned if they are truly ready to lead by example for others to follow or emulate. It was the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) that asserted: “There is no better profession in this country. There is no profession that is more opportune to solve Nigerian problems than the lawyers.” But the question now is that are lawyers truly living up to expectations to justify that claim? If lawyers are to live for the direction of the people and the advancement of the cause of the country as once advocated by the first Nigerian lawyer, Sapara Williams, then the contemporary body of lawyers (NBA) must try to get it right.

If a spade must be called a spade, the way politics is being played in the NBA for sometimes now is becoming too embarrassing to the legal profession. Ordinarily, the way politics is played at the

Bar ought to be a decent precedent to be followed by others in the society but regrettably this is not the situation in Nigeria of today. We once had a situation in NBA when the National Officers were elected by the minority through a delegate system but today through subsequent amendment to NBA Constitution the election is now by the Universal Suffrage (electronic voting) where the financial members vote to determine the leadership of the Association. With this system now in place, the NBA election is yet to be freed from one controversy or the other.

It is surprising and embarrassing that incessant allegation of usurpation of power that is meant for a particular officer by another officer is becoming very rampant among the National Officers that ought to know better. Are the National Officers not familiar with their respective duties or functions under the said NBA Constitution? Are the provisions of the Constitution being deliberately violated by the concerned National Officers to rock the boat? Just as seen in this year NBA Annual General Meeting, some National Officers i.e. the 2nd Vice President, 3rd Vice President and Treasurer accused the President of undermining their offices by short changing them with his Person Assistants to carry out the duties assigned to them by the Constitution. In reaction the President opened the can of worms by accusing the National Officers that it was because of his refusal to play along with them to deplete or misappropriate the funds of the Association that brought about the allegations being laid against him by the other National Officers. That scenario had gone to show that all was not well with the incumbent National Officers of the Association.

It is very unfortunate that this kind of thing is becoming a norm in the NBA. This was the same way Mr. Paul Usoro SAN during his regime as the NBA President was accused by one of his Vice Presidents, Dr. Foluke Dada, of turning the NBA Presidency to the position of the Sole Administrator. Likewise under the immediate past regime of Mr. Olumide Akpata, the General Secretary, Mrs. Joyce Oduha had issues with other National Officers and was purportedly suspended under a questionable circumstance.

One of the root causes of these problems in NBA whether at Branch or National level may be attributed in my personal view to lack of political maturity among the NBA Officers in the sense that the Bar politics is being played like the conventional politics if not worse than that. Most NBA Officers still carried their pre-election rivalry to the offices after the election has been concluded. Rather than putting their pre-election differences aside after the election and come together to see themselves as one to face the task of moving the NBA forward, they begin to engage in the act of settling the old scores. With this in their minds, a National President or a Chairman of a branch who is not politically mature would turn himself to an Emperor and develop the false sense of being the Alfa and Omega of the Association by beginning to set up various Committees to be headed by his own friends and loyalists that assisted him during the election campaigns.

There you see the National President in collaboration with the Chairmen of the various Branches he considers loyal to him would now decide those to be co-opted into the NBA’s National Executive Council (NEC) as well as the legal practitioners that will represent the NBA at the various government agencies. Some of these things may be done by the National President without consulting the other National Officers in their meetings. Sometime you will wonder, why will the NBA President or a Branch Chairman set up a Committee whose assignment is related to the office of a particular officer in the executive and such officer is not considered necessary to be a member of such Committee. For instance, will it be rational at the National or Branch level setting up a committee like Law Week Committee or Annual General Conference Committee and the Officers in charge of Publicity or Social is not considered necessary to be a member of such Committee? Or a Publication Committee is being set up and you consider it that the National or Branch Officer in charge of Publicity should not be at least a member of that Committee?

I absolutely subscribe to the view expressed by Mr. Sylvester Udemezue, that there should be a stop to “the now notoriously rampant politicisation of NBA Committee assignments, it is respectfully suggested that the NBA national and branch leaderships should forthwith desist from appointing as heads or chairmen of NBA Committees, anyone who is known to be aspiring to any elective position in the NBA in the immediate next election”. The role being played by those aspirants in the assignments given to them are more of marketing themselves for the coming election rather than positively projecting the image of the Association as you have seen during the last conference where the followers of these aspirants were trying to discredit or de-market one another’s candidate.

I have sometime in the past suggested that it is better to make the NBA more democratic by making membership of the National Executive Council (NEC) more elective than co-opting. It is surprising that while the world is moving towards democratic tenets, the NBA was trying to go oligarchy by contemplating succession through ascension to the office of the NBA President rather than through a democratic election which in Kperogi’s estimation: “Everyone should at least in theory if not in practice, have the latitude to aspire to the highest level of leadership”.

The President of NBA expressed great surprise after the new proposed amendment to the NBA Constitution was thrown overboard at the AGM. He baffled why would such amendment trying to increase the percentage of the funds due to various branches be turned down. It may not be a bad idea trying to increase the percentage due to the branches of the NBA but such amendment came with and in a bad cargo as it was mixed with those amendments that were very unpopular like the one trying to make the NBA embraces oligarchy rather than democracy particularly this time around when some African dictators are being sent packing for mistaking monarchy for democracy. How did you expect to get support for such amendment? When the said proposed amendments were initially made public, I had personally expressed the view that those provisions trying to introduce succession by ascension rather than election into the office of NBA President as well as the provision that was aimed at further disenfranchising lawyers from taking part in the NBA politics would be seriously in conflict with the spirit of the Rule of Law which the NBA is priding itself on. The reason being put forward by some lawyers for opting for succession by ascension rather than election as being done by some professional or non-governmental organizations to me is not sound enough. In any organization or association, every qualified member must be at liberty to aspire and contest for the position of the leadership and the choice of making the person to be must be left with other members of such association.

The desire to be a leader in one’s nation, community or association must be primarily to render selfless service. But it is very unfortunate that politics this time around whether in the NBA or in the conventional politics has become more of self-serving rather than to serve the interest of the people. To the best of my knowledge, I know for sure that unlike the elected conventional politicians, the officers of the NBA whether at National or branch level are not on fixed salaries or emolument but are always entitled to allowance for whatever duties or assignments given to them to undertake. Where an officer spends his personal money on the activities of the NBA assigned to him/her, he/she is entitled to have the refund upon cogent proof of evidence to back up such claims. It will not be proper or appropriate if the NBA officers whether at National or branch level are trying to unnecessarily feed on the purse or on the fund of the Association.

Following the allegations of the NBA President against other National Officers, one of the officers, Habeeb Lawal Akorede, the National Publicity Secretary has come out to defend himself of any wrong doing as according to him: “I have watched the video of the President’s referenced comments at the AGM over and over again and it will simply suffice to state unequivocally that I am well groomed and I am not a thief. As a National Officer, I may not be stupendously rich, but I am contended and I do not live off the NBA funds. And in asking for your votes, I did not target our Association’s funds. I have no reason to do this as the Almighty God has been kind and gracious to me and my modest law practice.”

Any lawyer who desires to go into the NBA or the conventional politics for the purpose of self-enrichment is advised not to get nearer to the corridor of powers. There is a lot of wisdom in the assertion that “good name is better than gold”. It was the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo (SAN) that said: “One great ambition of mine since my boyhood days is to be a lawyer, a politician and a journalist, rolled into one. I cherish politics and journalism as a career, and desire advocacy as a means of livelihood.” Awo was a great lawyer, politician and one of the Nationalists that fought for the independence of this country. Many people continue to talk positively about Awo till date because of his vast contribution to the development of law and politics in Nigeria. He was even rated as the best President Nigeria never had because of his brilliance and visionary leadership that have remained indelible till date. The contemporary lawyers can only get it right in politics whether at the bar or in the conventional politics if they live up to the expectations and the yarning of the people by continue to do the right things and stand up for what is right. In everything they do whether collectively or individually, they must live by example.

The NBA and lawyers will only get it right when they begin to engage in positive revolution of making politics to look like a carnival rather than a battlefield. It was once said that the best politicians are lawyers. This position can truly be justified, if lawyers in politics are ready to lead by example.

NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and objective rebuttal.

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11th September 2023

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