My early thought was to write something else this week, but having read the interview granted by the Newswire Magazine to Professor Akin Oyebode, a guru of International Law and Politics I decided to change the topic. TheNigerialawyer and Newswire among other bloggers have been doing wonderful job going about seeking the opinions on those that matters in the profession on who should be the next NBA President. If actually things are working well in the NBA, the new President ought to have emerged by now. But since NBA believes in fire brigade approach in doing things, we may have to wait for more days in this month of August to actually know the new National Officers. The only fear I am entertaining, if any is whether those who may lose in the elections will be ready to accept the outcome of the elections, bearing in mind the kind of country we live where people want to eat their cakes and still have them . By the NBA Constitution, under the second schedule 2:3 (a) , it is provided thus : “Election of National Officers shall be held in the month of July of the election year of the Association or at such time and place as may be ratified by National Executive Committee” The ECNBA having unable to conduct the election in the month of July, I am not aware whether a NEC meeting has been conveyed to ratify the conduct of the election outside the month of July this year. All we have been seeing is rescheduling and rescheduling of the elections time table by the ECNBA, this apart from qualifying and disqualifying or disqualifying and qualifying some of the candidates for the elections. Back to the interesting interview with our learned Professor which made me to make U-turn this week, the former University of Lagos Don said: “….From my own experience, the NBA is no longer what it used to be – certainly not like when Alao Aka-Basorun was President ,Chairman Mao was his nickname, he was something of a follower of Chinese Communism .Also ,the late J.O. Omotosho in Ibadan .They imbibed radical tendencies ,which they brought to bear on the outlook of the NBA” . “… Like the rest of the society, the Nigerian Bar is witnessing an end to ideology. People vote you based on your clout, financially speaking” . “….We cannot afford a Bar that is compromised and cannot stand for the truth and cannot engage the powers that be in the country on issues that affect the people.” Was the Professor not absolutely right? To me I believe the leadership we need are those that will be concerned about the plight and welfare of lawyers as well as the Nigerian people. We do not want leaders that will be selfish and only interested in taking titles to boost their personal profiles. This time around the people that are matters in the profession are no longer keeping quiet as they are now speaking out. As if Obasanjo has now created a legacy with his art of letter writing, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN , a former President of NBA has writing a letter to the President of NBA, Mr. Abubakar Mahmud advising against the planned amendment of the constitution slated for the end of this August, that wide consultation must first be put in place. According Chief Olanipekun : “….I am taken aback by this development, and I kept on wondering why you ever brought up the topic at our meeting of Friday, 20th July 2018, if you knew you would not respect our opinions. Mr. President, you have not been fair to us to put it mildly. As a person, I protest this attitude and action of yours…No one possesses the monopoly of wisdom, and it is only courteous that you respect the objection raised to some of your amendments…..No leader, however brilliant, industrious, good intentioned, or pragmatic can ever resolve all problems of his association ,society or country in his life time or within his tenure, you cannot be an exception…” The Chairman of Lagos Branch, Mr. Chukwuka Ikuwazom has equally written to ECNBA complaining on the hitches we are facing on the verification exercise. With the way things are going on with this exercise, I just hope the Premier Branch will not be forced to go to court. Some other branches are also complaining. This is one of the issues the NBA Constitution amendment must address to avoid the kind of the problem we are now facing in the future. As it is now, that amendment must be left for the incoming regime. The Constitution needs to be taken back to the drawing board to review the composition of the future ECNBA and how it should work efficiently. The political inequality in NBA and some other important issues need to be revisited. The future ECNBA must not be allowed to work in haste as it must be given enough time to do serious work and the needful. Our NBA Card must be designed in such a way that it will be useful for everything in NBA including the elections. All lawyers that are concerned must be allowed to express their views on the needed innovations that must be brought into the Constitution. The immediate past NBA President, Mr. Augustine Alegeh, SAN has recently raised some important issues that must not be ignored. According to him: “The Constitution says there is universal suffrage and zoning of offices. If an office is zoned to the Mid West, let people from that zone vie for the position, so anybody who wins from the Mid West makes it work”. “…When position is zoned, the idea of adoption of candidate from that zone is totally against our constitution”. “…Some people are of the opinion that that a young lawyer cannot become President .Is the man not paying his due (practicing fee and branch dues)? Can lawyers not have free choice? When Macron became President of France, he was the youngest.” Although some of our colleagues may not be comfortable with this home truth, this was exactly the view I expressed many years back in my article titled: REFORMING THE BAR POLITICS published in the DAILY INDEPENDENT Newspaper of December 24, 2009 where I submitted that: “The zoning of the NBA presidency at the national level as it is being presently done is commendable. The process of the election must even be made to be more transparent by allowing every interested and eligible candidate irrespective of whether the candidate is of inner bar or outer bar in the zone whose turn is to produce the president to have a level playing field for the best to emerge after facing the congregation of lawyers. If this is done it would go a long way to take care of the criticism that the members of the inner bar have or are taking over the bar. We must allow the bar electoral processes to be a lesson and a good precedent for the entire Nigerian society. The bar politics at any level must be purged of godfatherism and the do or die syndrome.” If we want NBA with good and positive ideology, we must learn how to do things in the right perspective. If NBA bids farewell to good ideology, it will be at her own peril. God bless NBA! God bless Nigeria! CELEBRATING ALHAJI LATEEF JAKANDE AT 89 Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande recently celebrated his 89 years on the surface of the earth. For the benefit of those who were not born between 1979 and 1983, Jakande was often referred to as the ‘Action Governor”, “Baba Kekere” or “LKJ” while some people referred to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, his boss as “Papa Awo” or “Baba Awolowo”. He was the first Executive Governor of Lagos between that periods and did very well as the Governor. Jakande was so-called (Baba Kekere ) because of the way he went about performing his duties as Governor,and people saw him as the political successor of Chief Awolowo. Just like the way Awolowo established the first Television Station in Africa in the old Western Region in Ibadan, LKJ also established Lagos State Television (LTV) .Awolowo established University of Ife, Jakande also established Lagos State University at Ojo. Jakande during his tenure as Lagos State Governor built several Housing Estates in different parts of Lagos State which people today referred to as Jakande Estates or “Ile Jakande”. With this singular act of his, many Lagosians became house owners. He built several schools and hospitals apart from the massive Secretariat he built at Alausa ,Ikeja which now housed the Lagos State Government offices. Today, Jakande remains an example of what an action Governor and a visionary Leader should be. He belongs to the class of leaders who actually knew what they were going to do in government when elected, unlike today when we have many people who are only interested in power but do not know how to make use of it to positively touch the life of those who elected them. Today will only have politicians who only believe in jumping from one political party to another. As LKJ marks his 89th Birthday, we wish him long life and prosperity as well as in good health and happiness. HAPPY BIRDAY TO ALHAJI LATEEF KAYODE JAKANDE! REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON ELECTION PETITION “Learned Senior Counsel for the appellant claimed in his submission, that the result of election showed that there was no winner and no loser .If election produced neither winner nor loser against who, by who and upon what grounds can an election petition be brought? It is a candidate or a party who lost the election that can file a petition against the winner as respondent .See S. 137 (1) (2) of the Act…A no –winner, no-loser situation does not constitute a ground of presenting an election petition under the Act or the Constitution.” Per NGWUTA , JSC in C.P.C. Vs. INEC (2011) 18 NWLR (Pt. 1279) Pg. 578 Paras G-H On whether a literate adult would be allowed to deny appending his signature on a document “It is settled law that a literate adult of sound mind, and capacity is deemed to know the nature and contents of the document he signed. He is therefore presumed at law to understand what he appended his signature upon whatever the content of the documents is. It will not avail him to deny it” See Egboose Vs. Oriaregun (1985) 2 NWLR (Pt. 10) 884 at 889; Okoya Vs. Santili (1994) 4 NWLR 257 (Pt. 338) at 256; AFRIBANK Vs. ALADE (2000) 15 WRN Pg. 27 Line 20 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. 5th August 2018]]>
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