A certificate issued by Nigeria’s apex legal regulatory institution, the Body of Benchers, has sparked widespread concern and criticism within the legal profession after a copy surfaced online, revealing a glaring grammatical error.
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The contentious line on the official certificate reads:
“…in recognition of been an eminent member of the legal profession…”
Legal experts quickly pointed out that the correct phrasing should be:
“…in recognition of being an eminent member of the legal profession.”
The misuse of “been”—the past participle of be—without an auxiliary verb is widely regarded as a fundamental grammatical error. In this context, “being,” which denotes a state or condition, is the correct usage.
A senior lawyer whose boss received the certificate during a formal presentation in Abuja on May 22, 2025, described the mistake as “a major embarrassment to the legal profession.” Speaking with TheNigeriaLawyer on condition of anonymity, he said:
“He was genuinely embarrassed and couldn’t bring himself to display the certificate in his office. For such a revered institution, this is simply unacceptable.”
When asked why the error was not officially reported to the Body of Benchers, the lawyer replied, “I don’t know oooh.”
“What has further heightened public dismay is that the certificate in question is co-signed by the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, who now serves as Chairman of the Body of Benchers, along with the Secretary of the institution. Many lawyers argue that this makes the oversight even more serious and inexcusable.”
While some members of the legal community acknowledge that typographical errors can result from misread handwritten drafts or printing glitches, they insist that such mistakes have no place in documents issued by Nigeria’s most prestigious legal institution.
“Even though it’s just a grammatical error, it casts a shadow on the credibility of an institution tasked with upholding the highest standards in the legal profession,” one Lagos-based lawyer commented.
Several lawyers are now calling on the Body of Benchers to withdraw the affected certificates and issue corrected versions, while also undertaking a comprehensive review of its document vetting procedures to prevent future lapses.
TheNigeriaLawyer understands that internal sources believe the error may have originated from a printing vendor who possibly misinterpreted handwritten content. However, many insist that such flaws—regardless of their origin—should not appear on documents of such high significance.
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