NBA 2016 Annual General Conference Highlight of Wednesday's Sessions

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF SHOWCASE SESSION (WEDNESDAY, August 24, 2016). SETTING STANDARDS: THE FUTURE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION SESSION CHAIR – T. J. O. Okpoko SAN, Past President, Nigerian Bar Association LEAD PRESENTER – A. B. Mahmoud SAN, President-Elect, Nigerian Bar Association SPEAKERS – 1. Dr. Koyinsola Ajayi SAN, Olaniwun Ajayi Law Practitioners 2. Muhammed Hassan Liman SAN, Hassan Liman & Co 3. Barbara Omosun, Paul Erokoro & Co 4. Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN, Onyechi Ikpeazu& Co 5. Layi Babatunde SAN, Layi Babatunde & Co 6. Andrew Odum, NBA, Asaba Branch 7. Ope Olugasa, Managing Director, GIT-LawPavilion SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR – His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, Governor, Rivers State The Chairman, Chief Okpoko SAN started the session by welcoming the distinguished Speakers and other Conferees and called to the mind of everyone the essentials of the topic at hand which centres on the future and development of the legal profession. In his modulation, he introduced the speakers in no particular order. A. B. MAHMOUD SAN He expressed his gratitude to all members of the Bar for being given the opportunity to share his thought on the topic aforementioned. He started by highlighting important sub-topics with respect to the day’s session discourse, these were; 1. The historical evolution of the legal profession 2. The current trends/challenges facing the legal profession 3. The external threats 4. The challenges facing the Nigerian Nation 5. The failure of the legal profession 6. The vision of #ABraveNewBar The Historical Evolution of the Bar He ran a brief chronicle on the evolution of the legal profession which dates back to the 19th century particularly in 1862 when the British introduced the court system in England. With respect to Nigeria, what could be deduced from the historical trace were; • That the 1st indigenous Nigerian lawyer called to the English bar in 1879 was Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams • That Court system in this country was introduced pursuant to the 1876 Supreme Court Ordinance and amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate • That the first Faculty of Law in Nigeria was first built in the University of Ibadan Accordingly, he stated that presently, we have 40 Law Faculties in Federal Universities, 20 in State Universities and 10 in private Universities. It is important to know that Nigeria produces 6000-7000 Lawyers annually who are trained in these tertiary institutions. Challenges Facing the Legal Profession The relative challenges as mentioned are: Declining ethical and professional standard Declining quality of legal education Growing number of lawyers Loss of confidence in the legal profession External Threats Globalization Increasing inter-connectedness Intrusion into the Nigerian legal market (directly and indirectly by foreign law firms) which has posed a major challenge for lawyers in the country The obligation of Nigeria as a member of the World Trade organisation (WTO) New technologies and New knowledge and skills Disruptive legal innovations – Most Universities in Nigeria still do orthodox and less important courses while in other parts of the world, there are new models of legal education and courses Disruptive legal innovation in legal services delivery Automation Challenges facing the Nigerian legal profession Poverty Corruption Over population compared to productivity and GDP reduction Inequality Youth unemployment Internal conflicts (for instance, the insurgency in the North East region, Niger-Delta clash) Failure of the Legal order The Nigerian Legal Profession has made huge contributions to national development but failed to achieve basic goals. The vision of “A BRAVE NEW BAR” He stated that the vision of the ‘brave new bar’ is basically to create a legal order that will guarantee the right to development for Nigerians. The creation of the brave new bar will be focused on key areas; • Regulation: In the aspect of regulation, the question to be asked is whether we need a new model of regulation or whether we could modify the already existent regulation model. Thus there is need to interrogate the regulatory architecture of the legal profession to ensure that the required changes are made for the legal profession to move forward. • Representation: Here, he stated that our focus should be on what the NBA needs to do to ensure that the legal profession is well and adequately represented. He added that the representative role of the NBA needs to be re-engineered in order to bring it up to date with new innovations. • Public Interest: This entails the need for the NBA to remain courageous in speaking out on national issues and also having a clean judiciary. He finally advised all lawyers especially the senior lawyers to remove the notion that they can get richer in an ailing economy. MR. OPE OLUGASA He re-established the need for immediate adoption of ICT as the world has gone global and Nigerian lawyers ought to be attuned to modern technology devices and migrate from the tunnel of analogue modus operandi. His points are presented as follows; • That LawPavilion is the official ICT partner of the NBA • That by virtue of LawPavilion’s ICT services there is the introduction of the NBA mobile App available on android devices, which can be used for the following; Conference Management, Payment of Bar Fees, Download Conference Papers, Manage Conference Sessions, Questions and Polls, Capture Contact Details, Get in touch with other lawyers and much more • He traced the history of law which dates back to the time where there was inscription of laws on tablet of stones, then to scrolls, books afterwards before the introduction of the computers • Since inception of the computer, lawyers across the globe have tried to make legal practice easy and fast by putting those legal authorities in electronic form • That with the invention of LawPavilion Prime, legal research and law reporting has become much easier and our judgments more predictable by the introduction of “Legal Analytics” which the product, Law Pavilion Prime is all about. Hence, it cannot be said to be overstretched that LawPavilion Prime is geared towards assisting the Bench and the Bar to meet up with the evolution of legal practice in the digital world • That the LawPavilion Prime is launched today and is available at the LawPavilion exhibition stand in the Civic Centre BARBARA OMOSUN She spoke from the young lawyers’ perspective on the future of young lawyers. She stated that young lawyers need to have the consciousness to thrive in the legal world in order to stay relevant. She advised young lawyers to engage in a lot of pro-bono services required to build up the necessary experience and skills and in addition to this she encouraged the need for mentorship and support for young lawyers. In conclusion, she stated that the graduation of lawyers need to be strictly scrutinized in order to reduce the over-population of lawyers which has posed a threat to their employments and welfare. Lastly, she was of the view that young lawyers need to be respected and well remunerated because they have needs to cater to. LAYI BABATUNDE SAN He stressed on the fact that our well being is based on the well-being of the society and that as legal practitioners we cannot live in isolation. He furthermore added that; • Friendship needs to be restored in all sectors of the legal profession • There should be synergy between the elected officials of the NBA and the people who work with them. • The NBA officials should be accountable MR. ANDREW ODUM His focus was on the regulatory bodies of the legal profession and urged the NBA to help fight corruption in this profession. He made it clear that the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which spells out the ethics of the profession, needs to be highly complied with. He expressed his dissatisfaction towards the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee (LPRC) whose activities in the country cannot be boasted about. QUESTIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS We need a department in our Association called the research and development department which should contain full time staff. Young lawyers need job security There should be a static vision of our bar and should not depend on the new president elected There should be a breakdown of our regulations into manual for compliance Pupillage is a means of slavery and should be scrapped What about law clinics in our Law schools Mr Layi’s reaction was that young lawyers need to be patient for he was once a young lawyer before he became a SAN. NBA President-Elect reacted to some of the contributions as he stated that there are very good law clinics in our schools but they need to be improved and well equipped. He also explained that the vision of a brand new bar is not set to upturn the vision of the NBA but it is the vision of his campaign which tends to drive his ideas to the mind’s eyes of all legal colleagues. NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF PARALLEL SESSION – VIP HALL, CIVIC CENTRE (WEDNESDAY, August 24, 2016). A CONVERSATION WITH THE CONTROLLER-GENERAL OF PRISONS LEAD PRESENTER – Alhaji Jafaru Ahmed, Controller-General Nigerian Prisons Service SESSION CO-CHAIRS – 1. Hon. Justice Adamu Turaki, Federal High Court, Abeokuta 2. Chief Honourable B. M. Wifa, B.M. Wifa Chambers SPEAKERS – 1. Tony Ojukwu, National Human Rights Commission 2. Uju Agomoh, Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action 3. Theresa Eghe-Abe, NBA Benin Branch 4. Nathaniel Ngwu, Legal Resources Consortium The comptroller General of Nigeria Prisons was duly represented by Dr. Ifediora Orakwe; while Hon. Justice Adamu Turaki was duly represented by Mr Ibrahim Mukhtar. The session began with a presentation by Chief Hon. B.M wifa, he gave his introductory remarks and called the representative of the Controller General of Prisons to make his presentation. DR. IFEDIORA ORAKWE Dr. Orakwe gave his presentation on the nitty-gritty of the Nigeria Criminal Justice of Nigeria. He began by speaking on the inevitability of crime in every society. According to him imperfection in the society makes crime inevitable but the defence between one society and another is not on the quantum of crime committed but the way and manner the crime is handled. He stressed the fact there is an inter relationship between the police that effects the arrest, the judiciary and the prisons as they all make up the criminal Justice system. When convicts are brought into the prisons they are classified and subjected to the various treatments for their reforms. He stated that in the prisons there are so many accused awaiting trials. He stressed on the need for classification in the prison system e.g minor, Major and provincial. Another challenge faced by the prisons is congestion, so many awaiting trial. He concluded by stating that the major role of lawyers is to ensure that awaiting trial inmates are not kept in the prisons. He also stated that it bestows on the Bar and Bench to champion the restoration of the criminal justice system so that we can have sanity in the society. MRS. UJU AGOMOH She began by stating that there was a time we did not have prisons in the African Criminal Justice System. She took our minds to the Rwandan Society where the “Gachacha system” was employed. She explained that it aided the fastracking of prisoners who had pleaded guilty and within 3 years the Rwandan society was able to reduce the number of awaiting trial inmates drastically. She stressed the fact that the cost of the prison system includes more than the cost of maintenance of the inmates and the prison staff. She asked a salient question “Does everyone who commits an offence deserve to be in prison?” She concluded by saying that the time has come where lawyers and other law enforcement agencies invest in the rehabilitation of prisoners. THERESA EGHE-ABE She started her presentation by lamenting on the welfare of the Nigerian prisoners. The stressed the fact that our prisons harden criminals instead of changing or rehabilitating them. She focused on youth empowerment scheme in the country. With this scheme, youths will be gainfully employed. She concluded by urging lawyers to take on Pro Bono cases to reduce the number of inmates in our prisons. NATHANIEL NGWU He stressed on the need of the Nigerian prison system. He stated the need to build up the prisons to international standards. He also stressed the need to reform the Prison Service Commission. He condemned the phrase “imprisonment with hard labour” stating that it goes against the ethics of the prison system. MR. IBRAHIM MUKHTAR Representing the Hon Justice Turaki, Mr. Muhktar stated over congestion as the problem of our prison system which is caused by the police force and the Judiciary. He condemned the nonchalant attitude of some prosecutors who prosecute their case without due diligence. He also, gave an opinion on “if corruption eliminated from criminal justice system, the system will function as it ought to”. SEE TODAY’S PROGRAMME OF EVENTS BELOW ]]>