On Thursday, March 12, 2020, members of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) will converge on Abuja for their quarterly meeting to deliberate on a number of issues. By the amended Constitution of the NBA, the NEC is about the highest decision-making organ of the Association, vested with the following powers:

‘a. Exercise control and management over the finances of the Association including the Appointment of suitable Banks for that purpose;

Exercise the powers of the Association with respect to the appointment of representatives to any Statutory, Executive/Judicial Commissions, or other bodies;
Express the views of the Association upon any matters of public interest or upon any matters of general interest to the Legal Profession;
Make all necessary arrangements for the Annual General Meeting through the Membership directorate of the National Secretariat of the Association;
Appoint an Executive Director and such other staff for the Association, under such terms and conditions as may be prescribed in their respective letters of appointments. The Executive Director shall be a person who has been called to the Nigerian Bar or who holds a University Degree in any of the Social Sciences and, in either case, also has a post-graduate degree or professional certificate and experience in any of the following study areas: finance, accounting, or business administration;
Cause the accounts of the Association to be audited annually by a professional firm

of auditors, appointed by the Annual General Meeting;

Appoint one of their members or a suitable member of the Association to fill and/or perform the duties pertaining to a vacant national elected office, which said vacancy may occur due to mental or physical infirmity or any other cause;
Generally exercise all the powers vested in the Association (except those powers reserved for an Annual General Meeting or Extraordinary General Meetings of the Association) so as to promote and carry out the aims and objects of the Association as contained in this Constitution, and in particular, when the need arises, to apply for and receive donations on behalf of the Association.

By its aims and objectives, the NBA is to be pre-occupied with ‘maintenance and defence of the integrity and independence of the Bar and the Judiciary in Nigeria, improvement of the system of administration of justice, its procedures, and the arrangement of court business and regular law reporting, promotion and protection of the principles of the rule of law and respect for the enforcement of fundamental rights, human rights and people’s rights’, amongst others. This is why the NBA is different from all other professional associations and pressure groups, because it is also an interventionist agency for the protection of the rights of others beyond its registered members. For this and many reasons, the NBA has become the mouthpiece of the oppressed of the society, the official defender of the judiciary and judicial officers and indeed the conscience of the nation.

We are presently in very challenging times in the life of our nation and it is important that those who are saddled with the onerous responsibility of salvaging the country should not be found wanting at the most critical time that they are needed. This is why this piece is solely dedicated to the NBA NEC meeting holding this week. For a start, the meeting should be convened and organised with utmost sobriety, given the state of affairs in Nigeria presently. Thus, there should be no repetitious felicitations by candidates presently jostling for one office or the other, none of them should be allowed to sponsor any of the programmes connected with the NEC meeting and their agents and foot soldiers should keep off the venue of this epoch-making meeting, being about the last one before the end of the present executive council of the NBA. This admonition is warranted by the task imposed upon the NBA by some of the aims and objectives highlighted in the NBA Constitution, as reproduced above.

It is my candid opinion that the bulk of the issues confronting us as a nation have a link with the failure of the judicial system and the falling standard in the legal profession. Impunity is at the core of most of our problems, manifesting in lawlessness, disregard for simple agreements, disobedience of court orders, unwillingness to follow the rule of law and due process and total disregard for the rights and freedoms of others. In such an atmosphere of utter lawlessness, the economy cannot thrive, as businesses will not grow and investors will be wary to put their funds at risk. Thus, if we can get it right within the legal system, then we can also steer the ship of the nation back to its right course. If I am not sure of how government will react to the judicial resolution of commercial disputes arising from contract, why waste my time to invest money in any uncertain venture? This is at the core of it and it must be addressed. So, what should NBA NEC be discussing at its meeting?

State of the Judiciary

We have never had it so bad, in our history as a nation, where judges have become totally traumatised and conquered by the executive arm of government through open intimidation, brazen blackmail and at times outright coercion. Just a single example of this malady will suffice. Just recently at his valedictory service upon retirement, the Honourable Justice Ifiok Ukana, of the Akwa Ibom State judiciary said that Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Security (DSS) trailed him for two years, after he delivered judgment in a particular case in which a former governor of the state had an interest. Let us hear from the judge himself.

“The last two and a half years for me has been one of great pain and regret,” the retired judge said to a large audience which comprised judges, lawyers, politicians and ordinary Nigerians who came out to honour him. I have shared with many of my learned brothers and they know my travails on the bench.

“The SSS was released against me from July 2017 up till this morning. If you come to my neighbourhood you’ll see them there. What are they looking for? What is their mission? I sit next to the chief judge, a believer, and a friend. But I regret to say in this moment of trial, he did not come to my aid.

“Several learned brothers raised the issue pointblank, I complained (to the chief judge) but the retort he made at a particular occasion left me pained. He said, ‘Who will believe you that these men are after you?’

“In this country, a serving attorney general was killed and nothing happened! Let me reveal to you, I had to pay for my casket. I had to because these same men masquerading can kill me anytime.

“If a matter is decided and the principal litigant did not like it, why did he not appeal? Why resort to guerilla tactics and abuse of state authority to intimidate, to harass and cause me sleepless nights?

“A judge cannot be subservient, there is only one oath of allegiance which is to dispense justice without fear or favour, with ill will to none. And if I have done that and somebody sitting somewhere believing he is connected politically and hide under the shadow of rehabilitation into a new caucus and do this to me, then he has failed. The rehabilitation is one thing, being fully in control is another thing.

“All of us will not join the ruling party, all of us will not join the opposition either. But some of us will remain the conscience of the society – men who are driven by higher goals that will reform our society. If we are privileged to have three square meals, let us remember those living next to us who cannot afford one meal. High fences, iron gates, protectors are useless if the masses revolt.”

This is what most judges go through in Nigeria presently and it just should not and cannot continue. The Bar must take a stand. Very close to Akwa Ibom is the executive recklessness going on in Cross River State, where the executive and legislative arms of government have both conspired against the most senior judge to deny her due promotion to the office of the Chief Judge, simply because of ethnicity. She started her career in Calabar and got married to her husband who is from Cross River. At the creation of Akwa Ibom State, judicial staff were given a choice to move to the new state or remain. She opted to remain and there has not been any complaint ever since, except now that she has been recommended to occupy the office of the Chief Judge. Do we then set aside all the judgments that she has delivered these many years?

The Supreme Court is overburdened with work and yet there are about seven vacancies to be filled in the apex court. For months now, the National Judicial Council, NJC, has recommended six candidates to the President for his consideration and nothing is being done about it at all. The same is the case with the Court of Appeal and indeed all other superior courts of record. Then is the negative effect of election petitions on the due administration of justice in Nigeria and the Constitution Review Committee of the National Assembly, for which the Bar can never be silent. What is the position of the NBA on restructuring, for instance? What about the outdated Electoral Act, when are we going to insist on a new law that will guaranty free and fair elections?

Nigerians await the voice of the Bar and the actions of lawyers to rescue our dear country. This should be the focus of the NBA NEC and not just the coming Bar elections. We owe our people this sacred duty.

•Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, writes from Lekki Lagos.

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