Chief Wole Olanipekun Presents Account Of Stewardship As BoB Chair As The Curtain Is Drawn On His Tenure

*Galvanizes Support and Pledges Solidarity For Incoming BoB Chair
*Counsels NBA Leadership To Shun Rift With Body Of Benchers, Says Body Plays A Fatherly Role
*Lists Resuscitation of LPDC And Granting It Autonomy, Revival of Legal Practitioners Amendment Bill, Commissioning of New Complex, Tarring Of Road to Complex Amongst Others As Achievements In Office

Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the immediate past chairman of the body of benchers has in his valedictory address on Thursday, 30th march, 2023 addressed certain issues that bothers his administration as the chairman over the past one year. He had also recounted his achievements as the Chairman of the Body of Benchers and also, the crisis with the Nigerian Bar Association during the past one year when he held leadership.

He began by recollecting his “vision from the get-go” upon his swearing in as the Chairman of the Body of Benchers:

In the address I delivered at our first Statutory Meeting on 21st June, 2022, I set some goals for myself, working closely with the Body as its Chairman for the year. They include: reconstituting and resuscitating the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee and also isolating it from any control from the Body, since appeals from the directions of the Committee go directly to the Supreme Court, and not to the Body of Benchers; combatting the menace of forum shopping in the legal profession and the need for the Body to make regulations to stem the threatening tide, falling on the jurisdiction vested in the Body by Section 10 of the Legal Practitioners Act; setting up of Judiciary Advisory Committee saddled with the responsibility, amongst others, to always and constantly interface with members of the Bench at any level, and at anywhere, whether at the Federal or State level in order to earnestly address all concerns and complaints and, where necessary, take such concerns and complaints to the appropriate authorities; ensuring that the long-shelved Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill which has now perpetually positioned itself as the ‘elephant in the room’ was fine-tuned and transmitted to the National Assembly for its prompt passage into an Act; ensuring that the access road to the Complex were tarred; completion and formal commissioning of the Body of Benchers Complex; setting up of a Body of Benchers Prayers Drafting Committee to work out unified and acceptable prayers for commencing and closing our meetings; holding the regular Statutory Meetings, with a plea that in view of the exigencies we were in, I would be invoking my powers under paragraph 5 (2) of the Body of Benchers Regulations to call for emergency meetings, as occasions demanded

Giving his stewardship on the legal practitioner’s disciplinary committee, the 50^th Chairman of the body of benchers had mentioned that:

I understand that in the course of the year, the Committee attended to 143 Originating Applications showing the establishment of prima facie cases; 43 applications showing that there were no prima facie cases against the Respondents; 55 cases are ongoing, 404 petitions are awaiting assignment, and 31 Applications yet to be assigned for the Initial One Member Review. 9 cases were concluded between 30th March, 2022 to 13th March, 2023

As chair of the body of benchers, he recounted that he had six meetings with the leadership body and recounted how he constituted the prayers committee of which he wrote justifying its existence:

The reason behind it was, and still remains, that whatever might be one’s religious inclination or belief, we all believe in one sovereign God who is omnipotent. The Committee came up with draft prayers, which, as usual, were presented to the Body, and which the Body deliberated upon, modified and finally ratified. Since then, the prayers have become part of our traditions.

One of his landmark achievements as the Chairman, body of benchers was to get the president of the country to address the financial devastation of Supreme Court justices and the commissioning of the new complex for the body of benchers on 29^th of September, 2022, as he had led a delegation to meet the President.

Mr. President graciously welcomed us, and listened to our presentation, as made by me, including bringing to his attention the unimplemented 2018 Report of the Committee on the Review of Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service. At the end of our presentation, Mr. President agreed with us that a democracy like ours, that is sustained by three arms of government, cannot afford not to pay careful attention to the welfare of members of the Judiciary, and he immediately directed that the 2018 Report should be fetched out for immediate implementation in the interim, pending the outcome of the Report of the Firm to be engaged by the Body to work out a peer review of packages of the judicial personnel of the superior courts in Nigeria. Mr. President also promised to come and personally commission our Complex, come September, 2022

On the issue of the justices’ remuneration, he had, with kind support of Prince Lateef O. Fagbami, SAN, life bencher, employed and paid the firm: Messrs. Ernst & Young (E&Y), a sum of N10 Million Naira and N5 Million Naira respectively, for auditing and making recommendations for enhanced packages for Supreme Court Justices. The Firm submitted an Interim Report, and later yielded in a Final Report which was made available to members for consideration at the Emergency Meeting held on 24th January, 2023. Afterward, the report was sent to the President of the Federation and tagged: Re: Enhanced Packages for Judicial Officers of our Superior Courts of Record”

Addressing the issues and clashes of the NBA and the Body of Benchers last year on the amendment of the Legal Practitioners Act, he consequently made mention of how the then NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata, had sent a letter “praying that I should not hand over the management of NBA to the BOB, ‘a body funded and controlled by the Federal Government” this broke into a major headline across the annals of the country’s media, with headlines like: “BREAKING: Don’t Allow FG take Over NBA or Regulation of Lawyers – NBA President begs BOB Chairman, Olanipekun SAN, in Explosive Letter” Mentioning in his address that:

I cautiously and courteously responded to the NBA letter by my letter of 27th June, 2022, assuring him that I would never, as a former President of the NBA, support the transfer of NBA management to the Federal Government, and that nothing of such was in the offing; except that the Body of Benchers was/is not under the control of the Federal Government. I also added that the Legal Practitioners Act as presently constituted needs urgent amendments, as it cannot cater for the practice of law in the present times. I pleaded for his cooperation and understanding, just as my predecessor-in-office did

Recollecting the intervention of the Body of Benchers in last’s year NBA elections, he rebuffed the NBA for refusing the intervention of the body of benchers to ameliorate the rising tension between Chief. J. K Gadzama, SAN and Mr. Y.C Maikyau, SAN, who had both contested the election of which he captured that:

Surprisingly, Mr. Y. C. Maikyau, OON, SAN turned down the recommendation, querying the decision and jurisdiction of the Body to reconcile feuding parties, as it were. Most unfortunately as well, immediately after the meeting, uncomplimentary articles, write–ups and comments littered the mainstream and social media, accusing the Body of wanting to dabble into the NBA election imbroglio.

Click here to download the full valedictory address

According to him, the body of benchers was the ones that fought for the reinstitution of the NBA after its almost-demise in 1992 he had urged the NBA to maintain a cordial relationship with the Body of Benchers, as the body has played a statutory, fatherly and leadership role since the mid-90s.

In case some younger elements in the legal profession do not know, let us all remind ourselves that but for the Body of Benchers that played the fatherly, statutory and leadership roles in the mid-90s, leading to the resurrection and resuscitation of the NBA after its descent into the valley of death at the Port-Harcourt Conference in 1992, there would not have been an NBA so-called or so-constituted today

Also, he conferred and appointed two members of the legal profession as life benchers—Chief Kalu Agabi, SAN, CON and Chief Akin Olujinmi CON, SAN—and subsequently made 9 life benchers; and 13 honorary benchers respectively. Similarly, he joyously stated that he had, during his time admitted, 6,215 new entrants into the Bar in the course of the year. “…Statutorily, I signed all their certificates and also presided over all the sessions of the Calls, to God be the glory”. He also asked that students of law at the National Open University should be allowed to the Law Shool and called to bar as “I do not think we can continue to justify our refusal to allow them proceed to the final programme”. He called for the maintenance of the seniority culture within the legal profession, both at the NBA and the Body of Benchers and concluded that:

I plead that you extend more cooperation and solidarity to the incoming Chairman, Honourable Justice Mary Peter-Odili, JSC, CFR, Life Bencher, who I believe will not only take off from where we stopped, but also surpass our humble achievements. While I now leave the stage to join the Committee of Elders, I promise my loyalty to the Body of Benchers and my unalloyed support for my successor-in-office.

Click here to download the full valedictory address