Mazi Afam Osigwe Endorses Olumide Akpata for NBA President, Says the Bar Needs Someone Who Will Not Discriminate Based on Status, Age, Niche or Origin
It is another election season in the Nigerian Bar Association. Many candidates are reeling out their programmes to convince Nigerian lawyers that they deserve to be entrusted with leadership positions in the NBA. I am convinced, now more than ever, that the leadership issues which agitated my mind to embark on my truncated pursuit to lead the Bar are still very much around.
I believe that it is the unmet quest for purposeful leadership (which according to John Rohn seeks “to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better”) that fuels the apathy if not disdain for the affairs of the Bar among many professional brethren.
Our Association deserves to be led by someone who will, in title alone, be called President, but in nature, conviction, vision, practice and antecedents, remain a reliable brother and friend to his professional colleagues regardless of status, age, niche or origin. I believe we should improve the standing of the NBA, proactively address issues affecting lawyers, fashion ways to promote the welfare, working environment of lawyers as well as ensuring that, no matter their status, all lawyers benefit from their membership of the NBA.
As the elections draw near, I have had to ask myself who, among the candidates aspiring to lead the Bar, possesses that quality of leadership that members of the Bar rightly desire and deserve. Who would make tremendous impact in our dear Country and cause the Bar to play a pivotal role in nation-building especially in sustaining our democracy and reinforcing the various efforts towards improving our justice system? Who has been of service to the Association with unquestionable zeal and commitment regardless of whether he is leading or being led in any given assignment? Who has used every opportunity of service to the Bar that he is offered to promote the cause of the average lawyer who, even without positions, opportunities, or connections, is still deserving of a voice in, and value from, the Association? Who would devote the long hours, personal sacrifices and resources required to push for fundamental and positive changes in the present and future direction of legal practice? Who would positively project the image of our profession by fostering relationships that will represent the true position of things in the legal industry? Who would better the lot of young lawyers, to help them achieve their full potential, better encourage continuing legal education and to ensure that the members of the Bar are seasoned, competitive and highly compliant in the fast changing and globalizing legal practice of today?
I find that my answer to each of these questions is always Olumide Akpata — the kindred spirit whose vision for the Bar I always shared. This is why I will, with full conviction and no hesitation, gather support and also vote for him to be the 30th President of the NBA. And, for the Association’s sake, the ghost that haunted the most recent elections into NBA national offices must not be allowed to return in this election.
Mazi Afam Osigwe
Senior Partner, Law Forte (Legal Practitioners, Arbitrators, Corporate Consultants and Notaries)
