The Two Billion Naira “Spent” By The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) And The Way Out

By Dan Whisky Yepa! With my two hands on my head was how dramatic the scream forced it way out of my mouth when I saw the link that broke the news to me that the Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA” or “Association” as will be later referred to) spent over 2 friggin billion naira for only Father Lord in the heavens above can bear witness to in 2018 ending in July 2018. How come? Why such an amount? Why so much, were the questions that were rummaging through my pulsating heart and mind. I mean the person who laid that curse on the black man that we would be in such terrible place in history did a damn well good job. One would expect that there cannot be any more surprises one would experience in this country and one story will just land wham! Like a backhand a mother gives a recalcitrant 12 year old. Let start the serious talk. So it’s in the public space that the A.B. Mahmoud SAN administration spent a whooping 2,359,862,430 Billion Naira running its affairs for the year 2018 ending in July 31st but spent just 836,534,736 million Naira in the previous year of 2017, if you have a rational mind like mine you may be wondering what happened that made 2,276,207,694 Billion Naira which is the difference between 2017 and 2018 expenses to be expended in 2018 alone, I mean like which of the expenses went up in more than 1000 folds that the price was only but normal the previous year. Now am wondering, was this among the reasons why conferees were denied as it were AGM materials way before the AGM started at the last Annual General Conference?, the out gone President continuously and profusely apologized for the absence of those materials during the AGM and indeed informed members that the materials were posted online, at a point I was wondering whether it was only my online space that refused to show these materials as I did not see anything before other conferees shouted out my thoughts that they did not see such materials online as claimed by the out gone President. Having now seen that among other things the Association under the enviable watch of Mr. A.B Mahmoud SAN spent 297,219,777 Million Naira on travelling, 27,873,201 million Naira on elections, 102,361,598 million Naira on meetings, 11,033,00 million Naira on security, 26,052,500 Million as legal fees only in 2018 is only but a wawu! Where do we even start? Am not an accountant but the little I know about accounting states that there are largely three types of financial statements, the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows. While the balance sheet shows assets, liabilities and stockholder’s equity at a particular point in time an income statement provides that snapshot or overview of the incomes that come into a company. A statement of cash flow on the other hand reports the cash inflows and outflows of a company and it is used to determine whether a company is accurately managing its cash from its operations and funding sources. It is no gainsaying that the Association is being run like a company, as such the financial statement as was presented by Abdullahi Aisha Ado the immediate past Treasurer of the Association would of necessity and of natural causes fall under the category called “Statement of Cash Flow” as its specie of financial statement provided its members at the last AGM. Furthermore, so that I was not misdirected by online blogs who may have posted such stories for traffic, I proceeded to compare the spending claimed by online sources with the financial statement I eventually got minutes before the Treasurer presented her report to the Association to be debated at the AGM, thus not affording me and most of those present at the AGM to adequately go through the fine prints and ask germane and relevant and earth shaking questions to the Treasurer as well as the out gone President of the Association. Perusing through the financial statement and confirming the online stories as they trended online as true one would have expected that spending up to 2,276,207,694 Billion Naira in excess of what was spent in 2017 a measure of details would have been put into the report to justify such voracious billionaire spending especially when the average lawyer had been beaten and battered left, right and center all over the country by overzealous law enforcement agent without the NBA directly intervening except for some after the thought statements issued at a time matters had already died down with resulting injuries and inhuman and degrading treatment already meted out on members of the Association. What am saying is that the very essence of the Association being set up to protect the welfare of its members and to protect the rule of law was not felt by my humble self or that average Nigerian lawyer despite such commodious spending. Thus, it is in the books of the Association that it spent 297,219,777 million Naira on travelling, one wonders whether the former Association’s officers were on frequent to and fro trips to Antarctica or Australia to attract that kind of expenses, or spending 27,873,201 million Naira on elections, whether the elections were conducted for the whole world? (The United States spent over 6 billion dollars to conduct its entire elections, the amount spent on elections for NBA in naira terms and with an exchange of 370 to a dollar meant the Association spent up to more than 2 percent of what the entire United States as big as it is spent in conducting their elections. In Nigeria, it would mean that the Association spent more than 10 percent of what the entire country spent in conducting its elections, an Association less than 200, 000 members dead or alive or even upcoming.) I cannot even begin to fathom spending 102,361,598 million Naira on meetings alone, were they having meetings with the Almighty Himself? Or the rational thought of any justification in spending 11, 033, 000 million Naira on security, does the Association’s officers now have security votes allocated to them or are they so politically exposed to justify such spending? Like that amount to guard whom or what? It is so mind boggling on so many levels the kind of justification that would have been given to justify the level of this kind of expenditure, I mean if such spending were expended with a mind set or a welfarist purpose that it would so impact on the average lawyer’s welfare one would be able to rationalize this. Despite the entire spending of 2,359,862,430 Billion Naira, still a section of lawyers particularly the young lawyers were still made to cough out more in fees for the last conference than senior lawyers and Judges alike, the question is which way are we really heading to as an Association, is this kind of expenditure sustainable without any form of auditing and a well detailed provision for inflows and outflows to be reflected in any financial statement provided by the Association’s officers of the funds of the Association? Does the current constitution guiding the NBA provide for a very strong corporate governance attitude expected of National officers holding forte on behalf of an association of lawyers reputed to be the biggest in the continent?. This leads me to a very disturbing discovery in the provisions of the current NBA Constitution which is that there is really nothing that binds or chokes any President or officer of the Association if especially in situations like this where he or they decide to go on a spending spree. There is no provision in the Constitution which provides for any accountability to the Association whatsoever. Sections 17 and 18 of the NBA Constitution are the only provisions that provide for anything relating to funds and finance of the Association, while section 17 provides for the sources of the funding that the association could get funds from it is important I reproduce section 18 as follows; 18 (1) All monies belonging to the Association shall be kept in its name with such reputable bankers as the National Executive Committee shall appoint. (2) There shall be three Principal signatories to the Association’s accounts namely, the President, the General Secretary and the Treasurer, any two of whom may sign. (3) No expenditure shall be incurred for any purpose unless such expenditure has been approved generally by the National Executive Committee in the annual budget or any supplementary budget of the Association. Provided that in any case of serious urgency, the President in consultation with the General Secretary and the Treasurer may authorise such expenditure in their discretion and afterwards seek covering approval from the National Executive Committee, provided further, always, that the exercise of such discretion shall be limited to the recurrent expenditure of the month immediately preceding. (4) The General Secretary may hold as imprest such amount as may be approved by the National Executive Committee from time to time. (5) The National Executive Committee may invest the funds of the Association in government securities or such other securities. These subsections are particularly interesting as it does not even put the burden on the National officers to even provide a financial report to any member of the Association, even the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act cannot be relied on totally for the Association’s National Officers to provide a financial report as it were not to talk of whether how much of it should be detailed. The implications therefore would be that while the President, the General Secretary and the Treasurer who are signatories to the accounts of which any two can jointly sign, they could without NEC approval do and undo in exercising their “discretion” when they feel whatever spending can fall under the appendage of “recurrent expenditure of the month” without necessarily giving details. In situations where this discretion is abused the Constitution is quiet about what sanctions during or after leaving office such an officer can or should be made to face. We obviously cannot continue like this. THE WAY FORWARD Let us ask this question first, can you ask Mr. A.B Mahmoud SAN any questions about the exact details of spending he spent that amounted to over two billion naira? Let us ask for example was the expenditure for the last Annual General Conference approved by NEC, if we assume that NEC did not approve such spending can Mr. A.B. Mahmoud SAN be sanctioned for such exercise of his discretion while in office? Well, to my mind and in line with the current NBA Constitution am not sure anyone can ask him any question neither can any sanction be imposed on him because the NBA constitution does not even have a provision for any audit of the accounts of the Association on the basis of which you could begin to ask questions, maybe NEC who has power to approve allocations could however does their powers under the NBA Constitution extend to someone who is no longer the substantive President or member of the national officer of the Association? Now that he has gone what happens? One thing is consistently certain, which is that the current provisions of the NBA Constitution with regard to finance and funding are not healthy for the Association moving forward. I would at this point direct the current President, Mr. Paul Usoro SAN to his acceptance speech, particularly the third paragraph under the sub heading “The Task Ahead-NBA” where he stated that there are four objectives of his reforms of which to me three are particularly necessary with regard to the subject matter of funds of the Association, he stated that his reforms intends to engender efficiency of the operations of the NBA, rekindle and or boost the trust and confidence of the members of the Association as well as strengthen the NBA as an institution. The current NBA constitutional framework will obviously not bring this desired uhuru of his reforms if we continue like this. A constitutional reform is thus needed by his administration like yesterday. It would not be for him to just speak or read out such acceptance speech without measurable steps taken to achieve his reforms without an urgent constitutional review so as to assess his successes at the end of his term as President. It is my prayers that God grants him the good sense, rational thought and an objective but selfless spirit to live up to the reforms he has proposed as the likes of us are eager for him to do the needful as quickly as possible and create a different path in the history of the Association. Dan Whisky is a legal practitioner based in Lagos Nigeria with transactional experience in multiple facets of law within Nigeria and beyond. He has major interests in international maritime arbitration, general arbitration, oil and gas, mergers and acquisition, antitrust and competition law and the general use of law as a tool to analyze contemporary Nigerian issues. He can be reached via mail at dan@danwhisky.com for your views, comments or inquiries.]]>