NBA: Are Lawyers Afraid Of Revolution? By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

..“Ye shall speak the truth and the truth shall set ye free”-Holy Bible ..“O ye who believe! Be ye staunch in justice, witnesses for Allah, even though it be against ..yourself or your parents or your kindred”-Holy Quran ..“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth”-Plato ..“Our lives begin to end the day we keep silent about things that matters”-Martin Luther King Junior While still awaiting the pronouncement of the Honourable members of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) on my appeal against the decision not to run ( IF it will ever come ), a situation has arisen that warrant me correcting some misconceptions by very few among our learned colleagues. To start with, while I do not have anything against our noble members of National Executive Committee (NEC) including those who have served and still serving, my only concern is that we should be more democratic in everything we do as a reputable Association which we want it to be a model for all other associations at large as well as those involving in the Nigerian politics. I must confess many lawyers and non-lawyers have seen this new clamour as very genuine any necessary. The encouragement has been very overwhelming. The fact still remains that this new clamour is not without opposition from very few of our lawyer colleagues. A lawyer has described the situation I found myself now as “Self-Inflicted Injury as NBA has its rules and regulation”. Another lawyer said “You are only preaching sentiment, not law as NBA Constitution cannot be interpreted with the 1999 Constitution ” while another lawyer said “You are desperate”. This is the cold war I have been battling with underground but my consolation has been the fact that majority of those who dared to speak out or react are on my side. My repeated response to those on the other side has been that: “Any lawyer that decides to continue living in the ‘Animal Farm’ without protest has the right to do so and anyone that decides otherwise should equally have the right to do so”. Should any law, rules, and regulations be in conflict with the spirit of the 1999 Constitution as amended? To my utmost surprise those against my position underground have not been able to rationally answer my curious question that : “ I cannot comprehend a situation where having been paying all the necessary fees, dues and discharging other obligations expected of me only now be discriminatorily disqualified from taking part in what I consider am entitled to”. They have equally not been able to be specific whether the disqualification is fair and just. In an article titled: SUSTAINING THE NBA REVOLUTION published in the THIS DAY NEWSPAPER of 13.09.2016, which I wrote after the first NBA electronic voting that replaced the delegate system, I had observed that: “…Also, there is this position in every branch of the Association usually referred to as Branch Representative at the NEC, apart from the incumbent branch Chairman and Secretary.One is of the view that this position should be subject to election rather than allowing the immediate past Chairman to automatically step into that position. This will allow for transparency and accountability so that if at any event there are issues that needed to be clarified by the immediate past Chairman as to his stewardship while in office, his new position as NEC representative will not hinder this.” My NBA Lagos branch recently did wonder and play maturity by making this position elective. By this, we are not saying that the immediate past Chairman is not eligible but what we are saying is that any other financial member of the branch who is interested in that position can sluggish it out with the immediate past Chairman in an election for that purpose. This is what transparency and democracy are all about. One of those who is opposed my position underground had said that I should have before now lobbied to be co-opted into the NEC so that I could be eligible to contest for a National office. My response to that was that it is not in my character to lobby for a position as I always refer to be elected. I said there was a time in this country when some lawyers did not apply or lobby to be elevated to be bench but they are rather chosen as a result of their brilliance and comportment. I have done a write up on this where I asked a question that SHOULD OUR JURISTS BE APPOINTED OR VOTED TO THE BENCH? As to those who accused us of being desperate, if I have been desperate for positions all this while I would have spent more than one singled term in my NBA Lagos branch Executive Committee but after a singled term between 2013 and 2015, I said I was Ok with that. For the record and those who do not know, I am facing unfair and unjust disqualification for the second time, if I had been desperate in the first unjust disqualification and decided to go to court, I strongly believe I would have won the legal battle against those who are always afraid of ABDULRASHEED IBRAHIM but I decided not to make a court case out of that. When was the first unjust and unfair disqualification? In 2005, just about three years at the bar I decided to contest for the position of the ASSISTANT PUBLICITY SECRETARY at my NBA Lagos branch. In the This Day Newspaper’s interview of the Legal Personality of the Week of 5.12.2017, there was this question: What was your worst day as a lawyer? I answered thus: “I think my worst day as a lawyer was sometime in 2005 when I applied to contest for the position of Assistant Publicity Secretary in the NBA Lagos branch but was eventually told by the then Electoral Committee that the position was unknown to the Bye-law of the Association contrary to the letter and spirit of the said Bye-law. I had the temptation of going to Court to file Originating Application seeking for the interpretation of all the Sections relating to the composition of the Executive Committee at that time. But after much thought, I threw in the towel and decided to sleep on my rights by not going to court.” Now let us do a little Court Room Exercise. By SECTION 5 (a) & (b) of the NBA Lagos Bye Law approved by the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association on 24th August 2003 at the NEC meeting in Enugu, Enugu State which was in operation then: “5 OFFICERS (a) The officers of the Branch shall be elected every 2 (two) years at Annual General Meeting (b) The officers of the Branch shall be as follows: (i) Chairman, first Vice-chairman, second Vice-chairman ,Secretary ,First Assistant Secretary, Second Assistant Secretary, Social Secretary, Assistant Social Secretary ,Publicity Secretary ,Assistant Publicity Secretary, Financial Secretary ,Assistant Financial Secretary, Treasurer, Five unofficial members of the Executive, one of whom shall not be more than five years post-call.” After I had obtained the nomination form and it had become as clear as daylight that I would emerge unopposed, the Chairman of the Electoral Committee came up with a circular (Election Announcements) dated the 20th day of June 2005 wherein he stated in paragraph 3 thus: “…The offices listed below, to which some candidates had applied, are unknown to the constitution of NBA (Lagos Branch). Therefore, applications received for such positions were not processed: Positions: (i) Assistant Publicity Secretary (ii) Assistant Social Secretary (iii) Ex-officio” Now, can you please spot the difference between this and the annulment of June 12 1993 when MKO Abiola nearly breasted the electoral marathon race’s tape and the election was annulled. The crisis that engulfed the Lagos branch then shook it to its root. I sent a Letter of Complaint to then the Secretary-General of the NBA at the National Secretariat, then at the Victoria Island, but the Secretariat looked the other way pretending as if it was not in receipt of my letter. That was the NBA for all of us. What can those who accused us of desperation say about this? As for those who say NBA has rules and regulations that cannot be interpreted by the 1999 Constitution, let us ask then, can NBA Constitution or any other law be superior to the 1999 Constitution (as amended)? If I have the power, I will go round the law offices of those promoting those watery arguments to inscribe boldly the words CAVEAT EMPTOR in their offices. Are these colleagues not capable of selling the right of their clients for pots of porridge? If this happened to a non-lawyer in another association, and they are briefed to take up the matter, will they maintain such watery argument? If the people involved in the case of INEC Vs. MUSA had kept quiet would the court have allowed them the freedom to form political parties to freely exercise their rights to vote and be voted for? If our Mr. John Austin of Lagos Branch who was disqualified from contesting in the NBA 2016 elections for the position of National Publicity Secretary on the ground that he was not in private law practice had kept quiet, would the court of law have restored his mandate and ordered his immediate swearing in? If spade must be called a spade, Lawyers in this country are seriously in need of a “Born-Again” NBA. The NBA that talks and promotes the true concept of the “Rule of Law” both outside and within because it will amount to hypocrisy if we preach this outside but the same thing is absence in our midst. We want NBA that champions equality and not the concept of “Animal Farm” where you can only vote but you cannot be voted for.NBA needs leaders who are ready to serve selflessly, be servant leaders and not emperors. The NBA needs leaders who are ready to declare their assets before assuming the positions of leadership and do the same after leaving the offices. Lawyers do not need the NBA where the leaders are becoming very fat and the members becoming very thin nor the leaders that are comfortable with the ways lawyers are being chased out of business of law practice. NBA must do away at any level with the irrational arranged succession to leadership.The elections to various offices whether at National or Branch level must be transparent and every interested lawyer must be allowed to test the popularity and acceptance by other lawyers without irrational restraint. We want NBA where lawyers and non-lawyers are not being taken for a ride. We want NBA that is listening to the complaints and grievances of any of its members. Except all these are done, the NBA will only continue to chase shadow. Do you remember James Hardly Chase’s IN A VAIN SHADOW! Whether I am cleared to run in the race or not, I believe I have succeeded in raising a BIG ISSUE for debate among lawyers. The ball is now in the court of the lawyers whether to revolutionize the system or not. Everyone has the right to agree or disagree with us on this issue but when doing that please let us be objective and rational as well as not to be abusive. According to a Yoruba Musician, Chief Ebenezer Obey Commander, “DO YOUR BEST AND LEAVE THE REST.” FAREWELL TO JUSTICE PIUS OLAYIWOLA ADEREME This year alone the legal profession has lost to the cold hands of death Hon. Justice Nwokedi, Hon. Justice Muntaka –Coomassie, Hon. Justice Dahiru Mustapher all of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. On 3 /6/18 that of Hon. Justice Mustapha Akanbi, a former President of Court of Appeal came and on 18/8/18, Hon. Justice P.O. Aderemi also departed the world and joined the league of the dead. Also this same year we lost some of our colleagues both from inner and outer bar who among these lawyers I vivid remember Alhaji Adetola Kazeem, SAN. This again reminds us of what happened in 2013 or thereabout when Hon. Justice Kayode Eso, Hon. Justice Saidu Kawu and Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa all of the Supreme Court also followed one another to depart this world. The lessons from all these are that no person can live in this world forever no matter how great, knowledgeable, powerful or wealthy the person is which is the reason why we all must be conscious of the death at all time . The late Hon. Justice Aderemi while in private practice as a lawyer was actively involved in the bar activities of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ibadan branch. He later became the Chairman of the branch before he was elevated to the High Court bench of Oyo State Judiciary in 1986. He later rose to the Court of Appeal and from there to the Supreme Court where he retired on reaching the statutory of 70. It is on the record that after Justice Aderemi was elevated to the bench as a judge he still continued to pay his branch subscription to the NBA Ibadan branch. The contributions of the late Justice Pius Olayiwola Aderemi to the development of law and jurisprudence in Nigeria are contained in our various law reports. We hereby express our condolence to the family of the late jurist and entire member of legal profession in Nigeria. You will find below one of the remarkable pronouncements of this great jurist while on the Supreme Court bench. REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON DUTY OF JUDGE TO LAW “It is the duty of the judex to expound what the law is and we should loyally follow the doctrine of stare decisis. Our problems as judges should and must not be to consider what social and political problems do today require, that is to confuse the task of a judge with the task of a legislator. More often than not, the law, as passed by the legislators, has produced a result which does not accord with the requirements of today. Let that defective law be put right by legislators but we must not expect the judex, in addition to all his other problems, to act as Lord Mansfield did, and decide what the law ought to be. In my humble view, he (the judex) is far better employed if he puts himself to the much simpler task of deciding what the law is.” Per ADEREMI ,JSC in Dapianlong Vs. Dariye (2007) 4 SC (Pt. 111) Pgs. 216-217 Paras 35-40, 5 THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On how statute barred of an action is determined “The law is clear that where the issue whether an action is statute barred has been raised, the starting point is to determine when the cause of action accrued”. See Adimora Vs. Ajufo (1988) NWLR (Pt. 80) 1; KOLO Vs. FIRST BANK OF NIGERIA PLC (2003) FWLR (Pt. 179) Pg. 1315 Para B 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. Your library is incomplete without these books.]]>