Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has warned that the Nigerian Bar Association must not be allowed to fall under government control, recalling how lawyers resisted attempts by military dictators to hijack the leadership of the Association.
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Falana, in a statement titled “How We Prevented Military Dictators From Hijacking The Leadership Of NBA,” said the independence of the NBA had faced repeated threats from successive governments, beginning from the military era.
He recalled that in 1985 and 1991, former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, appointed two serving presidents of the NBA as Attorneys-General of the Federation and Ministers of Justice, a development he said compromised the independence of the Association to the detriment of its members.
Falana, however, said the late Alao Aka-Bashorun, who served as NBA President from 1987 to 1989, rejected an offer to become Attorney-General and Minister of Justice because he considered it a ploy to compromise the independence of the Bar.
According to him, despite the co-option and corruption of several civil society organisations by the state during that period, the integrity of the NBA remained intact under Aka-Bashorun’s leadership.
Falana said the Babangida regime later made a desperate attempt to hijack the NBA during the Association’s Annual General Conference held in Port Harcourt in August 1992.
He said the situation compelled some lawyers to approach the Rivers State High Court, where they secured an ex parte order suspending the conference and averting violence.
According to him, after the military government failed to capture the NBA through that route, Babangida promulgated the Legal Practitioners Amendment Decree No. 21 of 1993, which set up a caretaker committee to manage the affairs of the Association.
Falana said the decree also contained an ouster clause which criminalised any challenge to actions taken under it, providing that anyone who challenged anything done or purportedly done under the decree would be liable, upon conviction, to a fine of ₦10,000 or one year imprisonment.
He explained that, on the instruction of the Ikeja Branch of the NBA, lawyers approached the Lagos State High Court for the enforcement of the fundamental right of Nigerian lawyers to freedom of association.
Despite the ouster clause in the decree, Falana said the court granted leave and restrained the caretaker committee from interfering in the internal affairs of the NBA pending the determination of the motion on notice.
The defendants, however, challenged the ex parte order at the Court of Appeal.
Falana recalled that Chief F.R.A. Williams, SAN, who appeared for himself and other members of the caretaker committee, argued that Section 23A of Decree 21 of 1993 had completely ousted the jurisdiction of the lower court.
Falana said he argued in response that the decree merely amended the Legal Practitioners Act of 1975 and could not override the unsuspended provisions of the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which remained superior in the hierarchy of laws.
He said a special panel of five justices of the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld his submissions, dismissed the appeal and set aside Section 23A of the decree, which had attempted to oust the jurisdiction of the court and criminalise legal action connected to the management of the NBA by the caretaker committee.
He cited the decision in Williams v. Akintunde (1998) 3 NWLR (Pt. 381) 101.
Falana noted that in the judgment, Justice Pats-Acholonu, JCA, as he then was, observed that the military regime might have enacted the decree to restore sanity to the NBA, but cautioned the legal profession not to wait for military dictators to put its house in order.
He said the NBA later took that advice seriously by reorganising itself under the Body of Chairmen and Secretaries coordinated by Chief Gboyega Awomolo, SAN, and Chief Richard Ahonaruogho, SAN.
Falana, however, lamented that like bourgeois political parties, the NBA later broke into ethnic groups for the purpose of electing national officers.
He said the situation had again worsened, with the foundation of the Association now under serious attack from ethnic groups that have resorted to adopting candidates, with what he described as dire consequences.
The senior advocate further recalled that, to prevent government from turning the NBA presidency into a recruitment ground for the office of Attorney-General of the Federation, the NBA Constitution was amended to bar elected officers from accepting political appointments.
He said that provision was breached in 2006 when an NBA President was again appointed Attorney-General and Minister of Justice by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
Although the NBA averted another major crisis at the time, Falana said elections into the office of NBA President had since become an expensive political contest largely funded by governments or other external interests.
Turning to the ongoing controversy over the 2026 NBA National Officers’ Election, Falana said the Federal Government, through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, had purportedly announced the postponement of the election scheduled for Saturday, July 18, 2026.
He said such purported postponement could not be justified in law.
Falana, however, added that the electoral body should consider all valid objections with a view to conducting a credible and transparent election.
“Since the defunct military junta did not succeed in taking over the NBA, the current civilian administration must not be permitted to control it under any pretext whatsoever,” he said.
He urged Nigerian lawyers to defend their fundamental right to freedom of association at all times.
Falana also said the NBA had apparently lost focus and relevance in national affairs, urging the progressive wing of the Association to intensify the defence of human rights and public interest cases with renewed audacity, courage and commitment.
He concluded by invoking the words of Sapara Williams that “a lawyer lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country.”
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