A Lawyer, Joshua Nwachukwu has indicted some Senior Advocates of Nigeria for actions capable of bringing disrepute to the legal profession in Nigeria. In an article made available to TheNigeriaLawyer, Nwachukwu expressed dismay and shock at utterances made by the SANs in their responses to the ongoing controversy surrounding the Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Wole Olanipekun SAN, and the Nigerian Bar Association President, Olumide Akpata.
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He said: “It’s no longer news that the Bar President requested that Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) recuse himself as Chairman of the Body of Benchers following an earlier petition on professional misconduct filed by the NBA against one of the Partners at Chief Olanipekun’s firm.
What is indeed news and breaking news is the utterance some Senior Advocates who are supposed to be models and exemplary members of the profession are spewing.”
In the article, Nwachukwu highlighted the different reactions of the Senior Advocates, including Chief Yomi Aliyu SAN, J.S. Okutepa SAN, Chief Mike Ahamba SAN and Chief Ben Anichebe, SAN.
In criticising their responses, he said, “The first to lead the charade of the tirade was Chief Yomi Aliyu, SAN; he was alleged to have said, “President Akpata, una do well ooooo! Yoruba lawyers shall be there in full force to defend our leader and Primus inter Peres! No Yoruba son shall ever be made a sacrificial lamb like it was done to Kunle Kalejaiye SAN! Call it what you like! Tribalism! Yes! What an insult! We are Yorubas before we are Nigerians!”
He continued, “Usually, such a statement would not have a dignified response from me, but luckily two senior lawyers graciously replied to him. In countering him, Prof. Ojukwu SAN said, “the comments attributed to Yemi Aliyu SAN that attempts to divert the issues to mundane tribal discussions is terribly disappointing and unfortunate, …and if those statements were truly made, then we have a dangerous precedent in the profession especially coming from a Senior SAN. Such a statement from a senior advocate of Nigeria engages in conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner and deserves disciplinary action.”
He added, “The next act in the charade is Chief Mike Ahamba SAN; he says, “You don’t ask anybody to take steps on an issue about which he is ignorant of. I believe that the President of the Bar ought to have contacted Chief Olanipekun even though the subject matter of the crisis is worrisome to some of us. All the same, it is always good to follow procedure. He should have asked him what his comment on the issues is. He should have listened to him before asking him to step down. That the letter was written at all was worrisome because of speculations behind the move by some lawyers to the bench. It is worrisome when you see this kind of accusation”.
Finally, Chief Okutepa SAN found his voice, and he had this to say, he said: “The letter was not in the best tradition of how things are done irrespective of what anybody feels about it. Chief Wole Olanipekun was a past President of the Nigerian Bar Association, and whether we like it or not, he is a superior member of the bar; and if I were to be in the position of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, I wouldn’t write such letter. I would meet with Chief Wole Olanipekun or involve senior members of the Bar, elders, and past Presidents, and then meet with him and have a discussion because whether anybody likes it or not, he is the leader of the bar. To do a letter to him and before he gets it, it is on social media, it is a very terrible thing that he ought not to do. You may not like Wole Olanipekun as a person but the institution that we all belong to must be preserved by the decorum we accord to ourselves. I’m not saying Wole Olanipekun is above disciplinary process, and I am not going to go into any argument as to whether or not what happened is correct or not correct, but there is better and respectful way of dealing with issues that affect the profession.
The icing on the cake came from Chief Ben Anichebe, SAN; according to him, “the letter was written with underlined mischief. It was not supposed to have been written, being mindful of his status without hearing from him first. I will think as a former President of the Bar, he ought to have made a personal contact with him alongside other senior members of the Bar. “I have it on good authority that Chief Olanipekun, who I spoke with today, that up till now, he has not sighted a copy of the letter, and same has been released to the press. “The fact that a junior in the Chamber of Chief Olanipekun wrote a letter and the content was considered to have violated the rules of practice does not justify asking Chief Olanipekun to resign. Chief Olanipekun was conferred with the rank of SAN in 1991 when the President of the NBA must either be in law school or in the university. He should have shown better respect or a better approach,”
Nwachukwu did not mince words in indicting the SANs for deliberately avoiding the issue’s substance but instead focused on the mode of communication and other irrelevancies.
He said, “Unsurprisingly, none of these Senior Advocates dared to discuss the issue. Instead, they chose to focus their energies on the peripherals; even Okutepa SAN, who over the years has been known to shout of the need for ethics and discipline in the legal profession, expressly said: “I am not going to go to any argument as to whether or not what happened is correct or not correct”. Indeed, when push comes to shove, those interested in protecting the profession, not minding whose ox is gored, will be known.
Interestingly all these senior advocates are litigators and are abreast with the global best practice, in which the substantive is made not to suffer because of procedure defects. As judging on the merits is the best position that helps meet the objective of seeking justice and truth. Therefore, they should all be bold to get past the procedure defect, if any, and address the elephant in the room.”
While agreeing that Olanipekun is a lawyer of no mean stature in Nigeria’s legal profession, Nwachukwu insisted that such standing bequeaths him a huge responsibility to live up to.
He continued: “In addition, while they’ve refused to address the issue on the merits, they have hinged a lot on respect for the person of Olanipekun; according to Okutepa SAN, Olanipekun is a superior lawyer and the head of the bar; as such, he should be treated with respect. I agree that Olanipekun needs to be respected; however, Okutepa does not appreciate that respect is earned, not compelled and is reciprocal. Moreso, the height they’ve placed Olanipekun as a superior lawyer comes with privileges and duties; as a “superior lawyer”, Olanipekun should be clearly above board in his ethics, and when he falters, he should act honourably and leave the seat.
On the issue of respect, since we agree on the notion of respect, it also behoves these Senior Lawyers to admit that the Bar President, whether he/she is a SAN or not, ought to be respected, hence the statement of Chief Ben Anachebe on where the President was in 1991 is offensive, irrelevant, ad hominem and he ought to be called to order. Indeed, if a young lawyer repeated that statement against the person of Anichebe, hell would have been let loose.
Indeed, we should not propagate the notion that authority is tied to age; one does not need to be Methuselah to be respected.”
He stressed that the Legal profession currently is at a precipice, and senior lawyers are dragging it to the tipping point. He contended that the examples they leave behind are not worth seeing talk less of emulating. “Many are quiet, but we can’t because we don’t want to inherit a dysfunctional and unethical Bar that will be irredeemable. If the senior lawyers think professional ethics is now irrelevant, they should eradicate it and let’s run “jankara” practice rather than cherry-pick at their convenience. ”
To conclude, I will repeat J.S. Okutepa SAN’s words to him and his fellow senior lawyers:
- If we are not careful, we, the leaders of the Bar, will completely ruin this profession;
- We must avoid comments that are inciting and belittling our status as senior lawyers;
- We must avoid anything that will make us a laughing stock in the comity of respected legal practitioners.
- What is bad is bad. No ethics colouration can make it right.
- When you read the Rules of Professional Conduct in the legal profession, you will appreciate that as lawyers, we are supposed to be the light of society. Light and dark tolerate not one another. They cannot cohabit.
I charge J.S. Okutepa SAN and his colleagues to be the light as we want to walk confidently behind following.
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