By Joshua Nwachukwu
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INTRODUCTION
The Legal Profession has been plagued by many ills over the years. The most disastrous seems to be the impersonation of lawyers by either secondary school leavers or drop outs from either law school or faculties of law. These persons masquerade as legal practitioners and render legal services to unsuspecting clients, some of them have even had the audacity to appear in courts even in the Supreme Court. Apart from being a criminal act, the actions of these impersonators constituted a great dent to the integrity of the Legal Profession.
In order to remedy this, the Augustine Alegeh SAN-led administration introduced the NBA STAMP AND SEAL POLICY. With its introduction, it was hoped that the quacks in the profession would be fished out and eradicated, ultimately helping to preserve and protect the integrity of the profession. It is important to point out, that the idea of the stamp and seal isnât original to Augustine Alegeh SAN. Rule 10 of the Rules of professional Conduct 2007 copiously provides for the stamp and seal, one wonders why since 2007, the wordings of the provision were not given effect to. I guess we have to thank Augustine Alegeh SAN for having the political will to have saved the provision from redundancy.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE STAMP AND SEAL
When the idea was conceived it was not welcomed, as many felt that there were other and better ways to check quacks in the legal profession. In order to justify the stamp and seal the NBA through Isah Abubakar Aliyu (former Asst. Publicity Secretary) argued that:
- âWith its introduction, it will give more credence to the rule of law that court processes cannot be franked with a corporate or business name but must be done in the name of a Lawyer whose name is on the Roll. See: Okafor vs Nweke (2007) 10 NWLR (PT 1043); FBN vs Maiwada (2013) 5NWLR (PT 1343); SLB Consortium Ltd vs NNPC (2011) 9 NWLR (PT 1252).
- It will stop foreign lawyers and lawyers not entitled to practice law in Nigeria from practicing law in Nigeria.
- It will operate as a check amongst lawyers and prevent the situation whereby colleagues in salaried employment surreptitiously engage in practice which their jobs do not permit them to do. By affixing the stamp containing counselâs particulars to a processes, this will end.â
All these points though reasonable are indeed insufficient to explain the indispensability of the Stamp and Seal. Moreover, weâre quite aware that lawyers borrow stamp and seal from other lawyers to stamp the documents they intend to frank. Â If lawyers borrow, is there not a highly irrebuttable presumption that quacks can and in fact do borrow? The answer to this question will help to determine how best the stamp and seal has helped to eradicate impostors from our profession.Â
CONTROVERSIES.
Right from its operation in 2015, the Stamp and Seal was fraught with controversy. The major one was the non-availability of the stamps even after months of payment. It was so bad that in a letter by Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria dated the 21st of July 2015 and signed by its Chairman, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), the Body called on the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to temporarily suspend the implementation of the stamp programme due to the non-availability of the stamps and seals to legal practitioners even months after they have applied. But the NBA assured that the all issues will be resolved. Since 2015, things havenât changed at all, till date, lawyers still face the same issue in fact lawyers have to wait for more than 3 months to receive stamp and seal.
In a very polite gesture, Isiaka Olagunju Esq, the Secretary of the NBA on the 18th of April, this year had to apologise to lawyers for the delay in getting the stamp and seal even months after payment. He excused the producers and blamed the delay on the difficulty in getting the materials which are imported (forex difficulty). Under the same forex excuse, the number of stamp and seals was also reduced. While he simply excused the producers, there is no remedy to the lawyers whose consumer rights have been infringed upon.
In an interview with Daily Trust Newspaper online, the same Secretary of the NBA, proffered another cause for the delay. This time he said that the stamp and seals were produced 24 hours after the receipt of application but the delay comes from the NBA branches who rather than send each application as soon as they get them, prefer to send when theyâve gotten sizeable number. With all due respect to the secretary, does he think it is practicable and economical to send every application as soon as they come? Moreover his claim that the stamps are produced within 24 hours is highly contestable. Â As not even lawyers in Abuja get theirs within that period.
The inefficiency of the NBA secretariat in making the NBA stamp and seal available has also been judicially noticed. In Todayâs Cars Ltd v. Lasaco Ass.Plc, 2016 LPELR 41260 (CA) the Court per Ogakwu J.C.A held that âwhen a counsel has done all that is required of him to get the stamp and seal and he has not gotten it due to the tardiness of the Nigerian Bar Association Secretariat, such tardiness should not be visited on the counsel, to hold otherwise would be to turn justice on its headâ. As such it is sufficient if one attaches the proof of payment for the stamp and seal.
EXPIRATION OF STAMP AND SEAL
The recent controversy around the stamp and seal is the expiration of the stamp and seal every March. It has always been on the seal but it did not seem to be complied with.
Recently, at the National Industrial Court recently, I was told the processes I intended to file wouldnât be accepted because the seal on them has expired. The experience was really disappointing. But it made me think, why would the NBA want the stamp and seal to expire? Itâs obvious the stamps arenât like drugs that lose their potency after their expiration date. The only reason that came to mind, was the need to enforce payment of the NBA practising fee, since the proof of payment is a condition for applying for the stamp and seal.
But the question then is, amidst the delay in producing the stamp and seal which makes many lawyers receive theirs quite late, is it fair that the remaining seals which are unused should expire? What does the NBA intend that lawyers should do with the seals after March? Should we throw them away? Not even in the medical profession are drugs thrown away immediately after the expiration date. In fact, itâs commonly held that expired drugs can be used for a period of 6 months after expiration with the caveat that that their degree of potency may have reduced. Moreover, while the idea of expiration can be understood in relation to food and drugs. The expiration of the stamp and seal is difficult to comprehend. Or should legal practitioners desist from any legal work pending when they get their stamp and seal?
In an era of recycling, can there be a mechanism where unused stamps can be returned and recycled. This ultimately will reduce the price to be paid by the returnee.
NBA Stamp/ Seal review committee.
In a bid to resolve some of these hiccups, the Mahmoud-Led administration last year set up a committee headed by Mrs Boma Ozobia to review the stamp/ seal policy. Her committee, made five recommendations which included extending the validity period on the stamp to two years from one year, with proof of payment of the practising fee. Unfortunately the National Officers of the NBA for reasons best known to them did not approve this specific recommendation. If approved it would have gone a long way to alleviate the groaningâs of lawyers.
Conclusion
From the above, it is clear that the NBAâs national officers have a duty to consider ways in which the stamp and seal can be produced faster. Since they rejected the recommendation of the Boma-Led committee, they have to think of other ways. Â One of such ways can be decentralising the production. Many stakeholders including the NBA criticises the inefficiency of our federal structure which places too much power at the centre but the NBA is also guilt of this. Why canât the production of the stamp and seal be at state or regional levels? In the alternative, provision should be made for the use of the expired stamp provided proof of payment of current practising fees is attached.
Amidst these uncertainties, I humbly submit that the dictum of Justice Ogakwu is a right precedence in this regard. Neither the client nor the legal practitioner should suffer for the tardiness of both the NBA secretariat and Strataflex Nigeria Limited.
Nwachukwu is a legal practitioner and a writer. nwachukwujo@gmail.com
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