The NBA Needs to Realign And Prioritize Key Issues Affecting the Profession, Tobenna Erojikwe Says in New Year Message
Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2025.
At the end of every year, most people reflect on their journey during the year, look at the good, the bad and the ugly and in most cases focus on what they could do better in the New Year.
On Christmas Day, a colleague posted a Christmas message from a Lagos-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria on a popular WhatsApp platform for lawyers that i belong to. The Secretary of one of the largest branches of the Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA” or “Association”) immediately jumped on the post stating that he heard that the SAN who was wishing colleagues a Merry Christmas plans to run for office of President of the NBA in 2026. This Secretary then went further to request that the SAN should donate to the digitisation of the Secretariat of his Branch. On reading the post by this Secretary the story that I would use as fulcrum for my own reflections on the state of our dear profession became apparent.
In my view, in 2024 there were many worrisome reports and moments in the legal profession, including (i) the report by the National Bureau of Statistics that the Nigerian Judiciary was the most corrupt institution in the country; (ii) the Annual General Meeting of the NBA which ended without an approval of the audited accounts of the Association (for a second year in a row); (iii) the failure of the Electoral Committee of the NBA to abide by the provisions of its own Constitution regarding an audit of its elections; (iv) the shameful abdication of its duty to hear a challenge of the NBA elections by the Appeals Committee of the NBA, amongst others. Perhaps, the watershed is the ongoing imbroglio that concerns Chief Afe Babalola SAN and Mr, Dele Farotimi that has generated such furore locally and internationally. Whatever anyone says about the issue of Aare and Dele, the book in question and the entire episode stands out as a damning criticism of the Nigerian judicial system.
I would also mention that the most widely reported activity of our dear Association in the last year was a visit to Tompolo (a former Nigerian militant leader and ex-militant commander of the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta) during which our National Officers were seen showing off that they flew in private jets to the location. Interestingly, it speaks to the culture of impunity of the leaders and silence of the led that no one bothered to ask the purpose of the trip, the justification for it, how it was funded and so on.
As is the case with our Association, immediately after an NBA elections and the swearing in of elected officers, the so called NBA politicians start announcing attendance at one event or the other at different branches, congratulating and felicitating everything including the hosting of meetings of branches, condoling with any and everyone and becoming emergency philanthropists willing to do literally anything in order to catch the attention of the voters.
To make matters worse, it has, very unfortunately, become the case that our Association now appears to have been captured by party politicians and government officials who fund elections of the NBA – forcing one to question what exactly their interest is in our Association or whether the NBA would ever be able to live by its own motto of promoting the rule of law. Plainly put, the NBA elections are now run in a way that NBA politicians seek support from governments in Nigeria for their elections and there is no way the NBA can effectively play its role as a watchdog if it continues to rely on those that it should check for its sustenance.
Whilst we struggle with the contradictions of identity and what our role in the wider context of society ought to be, I believe that, at the minimum, the very simple issues that pertain to the individual and collective advancement of the members of the profession should continue to agitate our minds. I am convinced that as part of our New Year resolution we must all individually and collectively work to make our profession, and our Association better and aggressively seek to restore its dignity. We should all commit not to keep quite if things are going wrong or not to do our bit in public or private capacity – whichever end of the divide that we find ourselves. There are a number of issues that we must, in our enlightened self interest, pay attention to. Some of them include:
1. The Minimum Wage Question: About 4 years ago, the Tony Nwaochei led Remuneration Committee of the NBA carried out extensive research and consolations on the issue of the living wage for lawyers and also the scale of fees and charges. To my mind, these two issues still stand at the core of the issues that the NBA must tackle in order for it to truly play its representative role to its members. The prosperity of every hardworking lawyer must be at the core of the agenda for growth and development. We must seek ways of taking forward the extensive work that was done in this regard or tell ourselves that we are simply not prepared to face the issue head-on.
2. Access to Finance: As President of the NBA, Olumide Akpata announced to the that his administration had set aside the sum of N1.5B (the equivalent of about US$3,500,000 at the time) and the National Executive Council of the NBA had passed a resolution that the funds should be used as foundation for setting up the Access to Finance Scheme which would allow lawyers to borrow up to specified sums from either First Bank of Nigeria or Access Bank PLC, at a hugely discounted single digit rate of 9%. One wonders why nothing has been heard of the funds and the scheme in the last two and half years and counting.
3. Court Monitoring Scheme: There was also a Court Monitoring Scheme that the NBA had invested N18,000,000 in developing an App to facilitate. This scheme was structured to provide real time statistics on the performance of our courts and help the NBA in engaging more constructively in conversations on the Justice Sector. The scheme already had the buy-in of the judiciary and there is no reason why it should be abandoned. In spite of the importance of this scheme in improving the efficiency of our courts, nothing has been heard or said about it since September 2022.
4. Protection of Lawyers Work: How much of the work that should come to Nigerian lawyers are given to foreign lawyers by Nigerian Government and its agencies that are involved in large transactions and disputes? What are we doing to ensure that these things don’t happen and that the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act and other laws that seek to protect the turf of Nigerian lawyers are followed to the letter? We must do everything to ensure that we check the excesses of government and others who send work that should come to Nigerian lawyers elsewhere.
The list goes on and on. It is my view that, as stakeholders in our profession, we owe ourselves a duty to participate in its affairs and to push for the reforms that would transform our profession for the better.
As I close, let me return to the fellow that was openly asking for financial assistance (from a perceived aspirant) for the digitization of his Branch. The constant demand by the Branches of the NBA for financial support from non-members of the Branch is, perhaps, one the most despicable and corrupt part of our politics at the NBA and may end up destroying the polity. Turing those that seek to lead you into emergency philanthropists or blackmailing them for votes can only further diminish the Branches and indeed the Association. Branches and indeed the NBA must learn to cut their respective clothes to their cloth. There is absolutely no point in embarking on projects that we cannot fund ourselves.
I hope that this year is a year that we identify our purpose and pursue the same vigorously.
Tobenna Erojikwe
Former Chairman Governing Board ofNBA Institute of Continuing Legal Education
