2018 NBA Election: As Lawyers Go To Poll By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, LL.M

As things stand at the time of putting this write-up together, lawyers seem to be at cross-roads on the elections of National Officers slated for 27th and 28th of July 2018 according to the ECNBA’s the election schedule. Whether the elections will hold as scheduled or will be shifted is a question to be answered by the ECNBA that is shouldered with the conduct of a credible election. Before I was stopped from running for the position of National Publicity Secretary on the ground that I was or am not a NEC member, I had earlier stated in my declaration of intention to join the race that : “Our involvement in this race must be with the spirit of sportsmanship. When winners emerge through free and fair elections, the losers must be ready to embrace and congratulate the winners. The losers today may be winners tomorrow. When we go on with our campaigns, such must be done with the high sense of maturity and remember that we are all colleagues at the bar.” One of the innovations that has been brought into the NBA electoral system is the electronic voting .The great controversy that is now raging and solution being sought is on this issue of e-voting. The information technology company known as CHAMS PLC already engaged by the NBA to conduct the e-voting is now being challenged by some aspirants on the ground that one of the Presidential aspirants has a link with the said company. The fear now by some is that if the election goes on the way it is presently there is every likelihood of compromise along the line. Although there have been series of meetings chaired by the incumbent NBA President to resolve this issue among the presidential aspirants. A compromise is yet to be arrived at. Some past Presidents of the NBA have equally been involved. According to some reports, they were said to have suggested that the CHAMS PLC should be retained to conduct the election while the IT experts of other presidential aspirants should be incorporated into the system to monitor the exercise to ensure that the election results are not compromised. It was equally suggested that the election should be shifted for about two days for further steps to be taken. With all these we are still waiting to hear from the horse’s mouth and that is the ECNBA. Speaking for myself, one of the things am not comfortable with is the exclusion of the other aspirants vying for the various positions in the forthcoming elections. Ironically all the other aspirants have maintained silence as if the issue at stake does not concern them. Is it only the position of the NBA President that matter? Are our aspirants afraid to speak for the fear of unknown? The fact still remains that there must be an election and the incumbent regime must vacate the office in August. If we must call a spade a spade, a lot of things are going wrong in our NBA, which we must all begin to find solutions to. We need to revisit the issue of INEQUALITY as far as the franchise of lawyers is concerned in the NBA politics. Why lawyers are mandatorily required to pay various fees to the Association but they cannot vie for any position they are interested in? As lawyers, must we continue to retain the principle similar to that of George Orwell’s Animal Farm containing in the NBA Constitution? Must NBA continue to retain the motto PROMOTING THE RULE OF LAW while the same is not rooted in its midst? If lawyers are asked by the people whether they are being for a ride by NBA, what should be our response? We need to find answers to all these questions if the populace are to take us serious by our claim of being the learned people. In those days many lawyers are not concerned or interested in the NBA activities and as such they did not consider it necessary to pay the necessary fees because they believe that the NBA is not adding value to their lives and law practice. The Bar politicians then used to pay branch dues for those lawyers during the election year for the purpose of the branch elections. Unlike now that you are required to pay your fees to the banks and obtained tellers, then issuance of back dated receipt was possible even if the fees were not paid as at when due. These kinds of things were used as advantage over the others. This time around things are now changing but this change is yet to be absolute. Today more lawyers have begun to lose interest in NBA because of some ugly things happening that are not expected of the learned people who ought to be role models to non-lawyers. This is more the reason why we need total revolution and put a “Born Again” NBA in place. In this election, everyone must shine his or her eyes to elect those who are ready to serve all of us selflessly. We need NBA leadership that will be servant leader and not emperor .We need leadership that will be attentive to our clamour and yawning that the present NBA Constitution we are operating must be sent back to the drawing board to expunge all those provisions that are discriminatory to all lawyers .We want a Constitution that will promote political equality and unity. Not a Constitution that is prone to crisis, dispute, disunity and litigation. NBA must be fully democratized. To avoid the present type of impasses, I am of view that the future ECNBA must be truly independent in the true sense of words wherein a provision should be inserted in the NBA Constitution that the Committee should be chaired by an impeccable retired Justice of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal for a better conduct of an election at the National level. At the branch level, an impeccable retired Judge or Chief Magistrate should be equally invited to chair the branch electoral committee. Rather than allowing co-option of members into the NEC by the NBA Presidents or Branch Chairmen, let branches or state branches elect lawyers to the NEC. Any lawyer whether young or old, whether male or female interested in being a NEC member should be able to contest election for the NEC membership We, must play politics like learned people and not like market men and women. The future ECNBA must be allowed to choose the IT Company it wants to use for the election. I have said it severally that the ECNBA should be empowered to organize live televised debate for the candidates as it is done in the United State of America. As we go to poll, many of our colleagues are still being faced the problem of choice of whom among the candidates running for various the positions to vote for. I have overheard this many times among our colleagues when they were asking one another the candidate to vote for. On one occasion, a lawyer said he should be allowed to keep his choice to himself. With the way politics is being played in Nigeria and to some extent in NBA, you may not need to blame that person for keeping his choice to himself. You know the late Professor Chinua Achebe wrote many fine novels. He was once asked which of those novels he loved best and his response was that it was like asking a man that had many children which of them he loved best. The Professor must have learnt a great deal of lesson from the Biblical story of Jacob and his children. In the Holy Quran he was referred to him as Prophet Yakub. The story had it that Jacob (Yakub) had twelve children but when he showed his preference and love for Joseph (Yusuf), his other brothers conspired against and threw into a well where he was eventually sold into slavery to the Egyptians. Too much of loyalty in Nigerian or NBA politics may sometime put you at the receiving end. If I am wrong please go and read the court judgment in the case of JOHN AUSTIN Vs NBA delivered on 17th October 2017 where the learned judge observed that: “The NBA is an association of distinguished gentlemen who have a responsibility to lead and live by example … Unlike the conventional political party where morality and obedience to such party constitution has no place, the Nigerian Bar Association cannot afford to expose itself to such ridicule and embarrassment. No member of the NBA shall be disqualified on the basis of loyalty or disloyalty to any person or group. The constitution of the NBA is the ground norm. All allegiance shall be to the constitution of the NBA and not individual or group. Any act done in disobedience to the provisions of the NBA constitution or constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as in the present case, remains a nullity.” Unless steps are taking by those in charge of NBA leadership to do the right thing for us to have a “Born Again” NBA where things are done in the civilized way, we shall continue to agitating through all lawful meanings including pen and the court of law until the required revolution is achieved in the system. According to Martin Luther King Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we keep silent about things that matters” FAREWELL TO HON. JUSTICE KATSINA-ALU AND PA GOMEZ The Legal Profession in Nigeria has again recorded the demise of two of her own in person of Hon. Justice Katsina-Alu , a former Chief Justice of Nigeria who died at 76 and Pa. Tunji Gomez who died at 90 .Few months ago I wrote an article titled PA GOMEZ: SALUTE TO A GREAT BAR MAN AT 90 to celebrate the old man on this platform when the NBA Lagos decided to honour him for his contribution to the profession. Pa. Gomez was a “One Squad” particularly in his struggle to get the Rank of the Senior Advocate abolished. To Pa Gomez, anything you embark upon must be as a matter of conscience. On the issue of conscience Pa. Gomez and Sheikh Usmanu Dan Fodiyo whom my university, formerly University of Sokoto was named after seemed to be on the same pedestal. According to Sheikh Fodiyo “Conscience is an open wound only the truth can heal”. This is what the GUARDIAN Newspaper adopted as its Mission Statement. Although the tenure of the Hon. Justice Katsina-Alu as the Chief Justice of Nigeria may be controversial in some ways particularly in his relationship with the NBA and the field day had by the politicians in hatching a Coup against his Second-in-Command in person of Hon. Justice Ayo Salami, a former President of the Court of Appeal who once likened himself to the biblical Joseph that was sold into slavery by his brothers. One thing that is very clear and cannot be taken away from Hon. Justice Katsina-Alu and is that he was one of our brilliant Jurists. Many of his judgments both at Supreme Court and Court of Appeal can testify to this fact. For those who may not know, Justice Katsina-Alu early chosed to be an Army officer and had the same military training with President Muhammad Buhari (PMB) before he later decided to call it quit and found his way to the Legal Profession where he eventually reached the peak of his judicial carrier. We express our condolence to the respective families of Pa Gomez and Hon. Justice Katsina-Alu as well as the Legal Profession. ADIEU PA GOMEZ! HON. JUSTICE KATSINA-ALU! REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON REFUSAL TO BE BOUND BY DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT “The conduct of the learned trial judge … is to say the least most unfortunate. This court is the highest and final court of appeal in Nigeria. Its decision binds every court, authority or person in Nigeria. By the doctrine of stare decisis, the courts below are bound to follow the decision of Supreme Court. The doctrine is a sine qua non for certainty to the practice and application of law .A refusal, therefore, by a Judge of the court below to be bound by this court decision, is gross insubordination and I dare say such a judicial officer is a misfit in the judiciary.” Per KATSINA-ALU JSC (as he then was ) in Dalhatu Vs. Turaki (2003) 7 SC at Pg. 10 SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On principle guiding grant of interlocutory injunction “The generally accepted principle of law is that except in recognized cases, in an application for interlocutory injunction, a beneficiary of such an order must provide an undertaking to pay all damages cause to the opposing party if the order so granted ought not to have been made. A trial court has the discretion depending on the nature of the case, on the question, whether or not to order an undertaking as to damages. The discretion however, must be exercised judicially and judiciously.” See ADEYEMI WORKS CONST. NIG LTD Vs. OMOLEHIN (2004) ALL FWLR (Pt. 232) Pgs. 1577- 1578 Paras H-A For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735 or email:rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com. Your library is incomplete without these books.]]>