* Appointment Of Publicity Secretary Lacks Justification A lawyer has condemned the appointment of the new Publicity Secretary Bukar Waziri Esq by the NBA president AB Mahmoud. The lawyer strongly believes that the action of Mr. AB Mahmoud is illegal, as he acted ultra vires. He predicated his position on two grounds; being that the constitution of the association makes provision for election of officers into the executive council and the association has a duly elected subsisting assistant publicity secretary in the person of Chukwuemeka Mbamala who is constitutionally vested with powers to act in the absence of the publicity secretary. Since, the position of publicity secretary of the association has remained vacant after the flawed general elected, the legal thing to do is for the assistant publicity secretary to carry out the duties and functions of office of the publicity secretary . However, instead of this,we have a situation where press releases and statements of the association are being signed by a media manager, a position which is alien to the constitution of the association. He also iterated that the statement from the immediate past Secretary General of the Association Mazi Afam Osigwe, over Bukar Alhaji Waziri appointment as the publicity secretary of the association by the National Executive Committee of the association in the exercise of its powers line with the provisions of section 7(i) of the constitution of NBA, still remains that it lacks justification.‎ The same constitution in section 8 (5) (m) provides for the assistant publicity secretary to act in the absence of the publicity secretary. “No, the position of publicity secretary has been vacant since the inception of A.B. Mahmud, however, the same election that threw up the president also produced an assistant publicity secretary who constitutionally can carry out the duties of the vacant office of publicity secretary. Instead of the assistant publicity secretary performing his duties as provided for by law, a media manager was hired and now a publicity secretary appointed. With due respect, I believe like many, that there is no justification for such appointment as the constitution has made provision for the person that can act for the publicity secretary” he said. He also pointed out that reminiscence of what happened in the All Progressive Congress (APC), when Lai Muhammad was appointed Minister, and his assistant in the person of Mr. Timi Frank was sidelined from performing the duties of publicity secretary . According to him Chukwuemeka Mbamala has been sidelined and a media manager hired to perform his duties. The appointment of Waziri is illegal and a terrible precedent that may likely destroy the already shaky foundation of the association, if not checked.]]>