A lawyer has questioned the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association over restrictions on access to parts of the NBA National Secretariat in Abuja, recounting how he was allegedly prevented from going upstairs for about two hours unless he had an appointment with either the President or the General Secretary.
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The issue arose during the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Association, where the lawyer asked outgoing NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, whether the National Secretariat was freely accessible to members of the Bar or whether lawyers were required to book appointments before gaining access to certain offices.
He said he had visited the Secretariat and spent about two hours there but was denied access to the office he intended to visit.
“I want to know if it’s accessible to all lawyers, or you need to book an appointment, because I came there for two hours, I was denied access to that office, and I wondered why that was the case,” he said.
When asked to provide further context, the lawyer explained that security personnel at the Secretariat had told him categorically that he could not proceed upstairs without an appointment involving either the NBA President or the General Secretary.
“They told me categorically that I cannot go upstairs unless I have an appointment from either Mr. President or the Secretary himself. I was there for two hours,” he said.
Responding, Osigwe rejected any suggestion that he had directed security personnel to impose such a blanket restriction on members.
“Alright, I don’t know who told you that story. It’s not true,” the NBA President said.
@thenigerialawyerLawyer Says He Was Barred From Going Upstairs At NBA Secretariat — Osigwe Denies Ordering Restriction, Ojibara Explains Stamp Unit Controls
Osigwe maintained that he had not issued such an instruction to the security personnel, adding that he did not personally interfere with the day-to-day access arrangements operated by the Secretariat.
He, however, indicated that access to the area where stamps were processed could be restricted, depending on the purpose of a member’s visit.
The NBA General Secretary, Dr. Mobolaji Ojibara, subsequently provided a broader explanation, stressing that the National Secretariat was not designed to shut members out and that the offices of the Association’s principal officers remained accessible to lawyers.
Ojibara said many members had visited the President in his office without difficulty, describing Osigwe’s office as particularly accessible.
“I’m sure a handful of people have visited the NBA President in his office. It is one office that I know that people don’t even knock to enter,” he said.
According to the General Secretary, even where several lawyers wanted to see the President at the same time, Osigwe was generally willing to accommodate them and attend to them in turn.
He said a similar approach applied to his own office.
“The same thing with my office,” Ojibara said.
The General Secretary, however, explained that access to particular operational areas of the Secretariat, especially the section responsible for processing stamps, was deliberately controlled.
According to him, staff working in the affected section deal largely with NBA branches rather than individual lawyers walking directly into the production area.
He said allowing unrestricted traffic into the office would create congestion, interrupt staff and considerably slow the processing and delivery of stamps.
Ojibara illustrated the challenge by asking members to imagine every lawyer attending the AGM arriving at the Secretariat simultaneously to collect stamps and entering the small workspace where they were being processed.
He said such unrestricted access would disrupt the employees’ concentration and productivity.
“It delays their work so much that what they could have done in one day, if they allow members to be coming into that office, they will not do in one month,” he said.
According to him, restricting direct access to the processing area was one of the measures that had enabled the Secretariat to improve delivery and meet the turnaround time promised to lawyers for stamps.
He maintained that if everyone who visited the National Secretariat were permitted to enter the operational office where stamps were being processed, “they will not get anything done.”
The exchange therefore clarified that, according to the NBA leadership, there is no general policy barring lawyers from accessing the National Secretariat or meeting the President and General Secretary. Rather, the restrictions explained at the AGM relate principally to access to certain operational areas where staff require controlled working conditions to process members’ requests efficiently.
Osigwe also distanced himself from the specific instruction reportedly given to the lawyer that he could not proceed upstairs without an appointment, saying he neither gave nor authorised such a directive, while Ojibara attributed some access controls to the need to prevent disruption of Secretariat operations.
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