The NBA and the imperative of deep reform

Feelers from the just concluded Annual General Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), arguably one of the oldest and hitherto most respected civic and professional organisations in the country have confirmed that like many an organisation in the country, the NBA requires deep reform.

From the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of the body’s Secretary General to the hooliganism that accompanied the logistics challenge occasioned by the poor handling of conference bags procurement and distribution at the event, what came out was that quite a lot needs to be done to raise the template of the organisation once again.

Lawyers are not idlers. Over time they have come to be regarded as members of ‘the learned profession.’ It is a professional group that both concerns itself with matters of rules and proper behaviour and also goes ahead to set benchmarks for the rest of society in this regard. Indeed, at a point in time, the association was imbued with so much respect and honour that it occupied the moral high ground in the arena of public discourse.

In the seasons past when it was led by the likes of Alao Aka -Bashorun and Olisa Agbakoba, the NBA was a most respected voice in the arena. It stood for the popular rights of Nigerians, insisted on the observance of the rule of law and would not condone any injury to any.
Part of the challenge may be the depth of the rot in which the association may have come to be mired in.

For example, the captain of one past recent administration was heavily weighed down for a lot of his tenure in office by allegations bordering on poor ethical conduct. There have also been insinuations that the group’s secretariat has for some time now been poorly functioning to the extent that lawyers have even had to endure unacceptably lengthy delays in processing basic work gear such as the statutory practice seal.

Indeed, it is quite ironic that it is at a time when the bar was seemingly been seen as repositioning to return to the moral high ground that these travesties are now showing up. But it is no point for despair. The moral high ground is the noble ground. It still has to be taken and fully occupied.

In standing up for victims of police brutality, cautioning that EndSARS protest leaders be not unduly victimised, insisting that government follows the tenets of the law in terms of appointment and dismissal of its functionaries no matter how highly placed, intervening in the Inibehe Effiong matter, insisting on the independence of the association and raising a loud voice against alleged acts of corruption in the process of appointment of judges, the outgoing Olumide Akpata scored some notable grand points in the public space.

In organisational terms, there were also some soft victories, including moves made to internally discipline allegedly errant members of the association on a wide variety of charges ranging from sexual harassment to poor ethical conduct no matter whose ox was gored.

Though one of those attempts that involved a past President of the association and an associate was to be stalemated, the fact of its having been entertained and embarked upon in the first place was a demonstration of a willingness by the Akpata leadership to address challenges at that level.

And on the internal NBA political front, there was also the very notable fact of Akpata’s emergence as the first non-Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN to be elevated to the leadership of the bar in a long while. This was indeed a most symbolic victory for ‘the streets of the bar.’

But there were also untidy points such as the face-off with the Secretary General, the handling of the Body of benchers saga and the conference bags fiasco.

These notwithstanding, the general opinion of this paper is that the Olumide Akpata led NBA has done fairly well in getting the NBA back on course

What is now left to be done is for the new leadership led by Y.C. Maikyau, SAN, to continue apace with the evidently defined course of reforms in the association, bar and the judiciary; fix the yet observed lapses and give to Nigeria an NBA of weight and honour, more so at this critical time when millions of Nigerians expect all hands to be on deck in ensuring that the next national leadership of the country will indeed be one that is qualitatively better than the outgoing one.
The NBA must not fail Nigeria today.