NBA Ota Branch Led By J. T. Ogunniyi, Inaugurated

The Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ota Branch, popularly known and referred to as the ‘UTTER BAR’ has been inaugurated.

The officers sworn in were Mr. J. T. Ogunniyi, FICMC as Chairman and Adewale Olumide Adegoke Esq. as Vice Chairman

Other officers include Lekan Daramola (Secretary), Funmi Ajele (Welfare Secretary) Funmi Akintola Williams, Okeowo Rotimi (Provost), Isiolatan Ayodeji (Legal Adviser), Pius (Ex-Officio/coopted member), A. K. Abdulkareem (Financial Secretary), Olayinka Akinwole (Asst. Secretary), Chinelo Olayanju (Publicity Secretary), O. S. Coker (Social Secretary), Isaac Ogbah Esq (NEC Rep) and O. A. Pius (Ex-Officio/coopted member)

The inaugurated officers will pilot the affairs of the Branch for the next 2 years, effective 24th July, 2020

In his Inaugural Speech, the new Chairman of the Branch, J. T. Ogunniyi, thanked past leaders and Secretaries of the Branch and promised to build on the tremendous progress accomplished during their administration.

He thanked members of the Branch for choosing him to lead the Branch, the Electoral Committee for the free and fair election and his campaign team and others lawyers and groups for working tirelessly for his victory. He solicited for support in the task ahead of him.

“The learned silks of the great Utter Bar, Mr. Sola Ojutalayo, SAN, Chief Oluseun Takintayo Akinbiyi, SAN, our noble outgoing Chairman, Mr. Isaac Omuta Ogbah, FICMC, our Royal father, His Majesty Oba Olufemi Ojugbele, Past Chairmen and Executives of our dear Utter Bar, our amiable elders at the Bar, great YLF members, gentlemen of the Bar.

“Today, I and other members of the Executives have taken the oath of office and the mantle of leadership has been handed over to us to lead and serve our great Utter Bar in the next two years, 2020-2022.

“It is a special kind of feeling that is hard to put this feeling into words to be given this unique opportunity to serve the great Utter Bar and the noble profession. Nevertheless, on behalf of the great men and women of the newly sworn in executives, I am very glad to deliver my speech on this important and momentous occasion in my life. It is huge honour for me to be elected as chairman of this great Bar. I am deeply honoured by my superiors and all of you for this responsibility bestowed on me. I would like to thank all the past leaders and the secretaries of our great Bar, it will be an honour and a privilege to follow you and build upon the tremendous progress which all of you have accomplished during your tenure. Permit me to mention in particular; Mr. Sola Ojutalayo SAN, Chief Oluseun Takintayo Akinbiyi SAN, Honourable Justice Olugbemi, Honourable Justice S.M. Owodunni, Honourable Justice Laja Rafiu Durojaiye, Honourable Justice H. O. Oyajimi, Alhaji Hibatullahi Salako, Mr. C. A. Nwikpo, Otunba Olumide Akinbinu, Alhaji T. G. Adeosun, Mr. Isaac Omuta Ogbah FICMC, Mr. F. O. Kehinde, Mr. Fagbayi, Mr. Abraham Adeoye, Mr. Akin Sanni, Mr. Adebayo Adesanya, Mr. I. O Akinfenwa, and Mr. O. A. Pius and our late Mr. Zakariyau. You all have been great champions for Utter Bar and have helped Utter Bar not to simply weather some stormy seas, but to emerge stronger every time. I salute your steadfastness and how far you have defined the character and greatness of Utter Bar. I have come to love and admire you all. Before my coming on board to lead this our dear Bar, I have not only understudied all the past leaders of Utter Bar, but fully supported all their administrations. I am honestly thrilled and genuinely honoured by the opportunity to serve Utter Bar. Therefore, from time to time, we shall call for your support, contributions and directions. Please open your doors and make available your resources, especially your fountain of knowledge, for us, We shall ever remain grateful. I am confident that we shall also leave behind a legacy of success at the aftermath of this administration.

“I would like to thank every other member of our dear Utter Bar for choosing me to serve you as Chairman of our beloved branch. It is such an honor to be elected as your next chairman. I am humbled that you would place your faith and trust in me. This is a responsibility that I do not take lightly, and I will endeavor to serve you with utmost transparency and boldness. I shall ensure that with your support and the priceless support of other members of the executive in council inaugurated today, all our yearnings shall be timeously and adequately looked into. We shall complement on the efforts of our founding fathers, elders and past officers of this great bar in positioning our dear bar branch to where it truly belongs in the comity of Bar branches.

“I would like to thank the Electoral Committee for running such a fair election and in particular the immediate past chairman for the smooth transition and for opening my eyes to so many new perspectives regarding this office.

I would also like to thank my campaign team, my juniors in Chambers and various other groups who worked tirelessly to help us achieve this accomplishment, I need that your unflinching support more now, we are definitely in this together.”

J. T. Ogunniyi listed several challenges and needs of the Branch to include violation of the provisions of the NBA constitution and Uniform Bye-laws, completion of the Branch’s Bar Centre, procurement of boss, swindling relationship between the Bar and the Bench among others.

He said meeting those challenges will require sacrifice and therefore called for support and commitment from members of the Branch.

J. T. Ogunniyi pledges to release structure for the implementation of agenda of the new leadership in the next few days.

The inaugural speech reads in part:

“I am not unmindful of the enormous challenges staring at us as we whole heartedly pledge on oath to put the interest of the Bar first and above our personal interest. As I go forward with other elected noble officers to meet the great challenges we face, I will listen, for listen we must as we all go forward, listening together as we meet these great challenges.

“What are these great challenges? I will come back to this question. For now I pledge that we will go forward to meet those challenges not from tomorrow or next week or next year, but from this moment. Let us rise as one to meet these defining challenges of our time, so that our members now and those of incoming generations, basking in the sunlit uplands of tomorrow, might thank us and say truly this was their finest hour.

“My noble colleagues, our Utter Bar is a growing one and being rooted in industrial seat of Ogun State and Nigeria in general, our prospect of greatness in term of numerical strength and financial standing is in no too distance a time, realizable. The present challenges which you and I have to face are but not limited to: (1) Our disciplinarian attitude in term of keeping to terms and provisions of the Constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association (as Amended) and adopted at the Annual General Meeting held in Lagos on 29th of August, 2019, and in particular the Uniform Bye-Law for the Branches; (2) The identification of individuals members of Utter Bar should not be a mirage or confusion but rather the certainty to meet our programs and facilities to be put in place; (3) The urgent need to sanitize and rebrand all the three platforms of Utter Bar for the purpose of information, impacting knowledge and continuous legal education for which they are meant for; (4) The urgent need to complete our Bar center to enable us have a seat of our administration in place rather than floating from one Chairman office to another as seat of power; (5) The procurement of Bus for conveyance of our members to conferences and to project our image is far overdue; (6) Putting up a genuine structure to help our young lawyers in aid of their practice cannot be over emphasized; (7) The dwindling relationship between the Bar and the Bench must be fashioned out and urgently addressed; (8) The need for Utter Bar to use our position to implement and enforce social justice for our community is most desirable in view of the decaying infrastructures around us. My noble colleagues, the list are endless.

“The great men of Utter Bar, if we must overcome these challenges, it requires a great deal of sacrifices on our part. I must say with sense of responsibility that certain decisions to achieve the expected results may look strict and may not go down well in term of demands from your end, I appeal passionately that your support and cooperation is most needed by us all. We need that your unflinching support more now, we are definitely in this together. I am sure you are curious to know what exactly I hope to do when I said earlier that we are starting now, which is understandable. We shall see to the execution of our set agenda and put in our best to ensure these agenda are executed. I believe they are all possible with our commitments, hard work, undying spirit and most importantly the cooperation and support of every member of our bar branch. As a sign of the good things to come, I have said we are starting right now and in fulfilment of this promise, this new and young administration shall be launching NBA OTA website today.

“Also in the next few days, weeks and months we are putting in place all necessary structure to implement our set agenda. I want to specially call on you all members of Utter Bar to join hands with this new administration in moving our dear bar branch forward, together we shall effect greater things for our beloved branch.

“Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unending love and support throughout the electioneering period. Above all, thank you to every member of our Ota Bar for using your voice to express your confidence in me. We shall deliver.

“Long live NBA!

“Long live Utter Bar!!

“Long live NIGERIA!!!”