By Henry Ojelu

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Dr. Monday Ubani, has issued a clarion call to the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, urging its leadership to urgently rise to the defence of its members and reposition the legal profession for dignity, relevance, and sustainability.

In a statement titled “Reinventing the Nigerian Bar Association: Urgent Imperatives for Reformative and Caring Leadership,” Ubani decried what he described as the NBA’s glaring silence on critical issues affecting the welfare and career progression of Nigerian lawyers.He warned that unless the association wakes up to its responsibilities, the future of legal practice in Nigeria could face irreversible decline.

According to Ubani, a growing number of legal practitioners, especially those in public service and private litigation, have become disillusioned with the NBA’s failure to proactively engage with the daily challenges confronting them.

He noted that while other professional bodies such as those for doctors and engineers have successfully lobbied for improved entry levels and benefits, lawyers in the public sector continue to stagnate without NBA support.

Worse still, Ubani said, is the discriminatory rule that excludes public sector lawyers from contesting for certain NBA offices — a restriction he believes violates the provisions of the Trade Union Act, which protects members of professional associations from such political marginalisation.

Beyond internal politics, he lamented the NBA’s failure to intervene in the widespread injustices and inefficiencies lawyers face in Nigeria’s judiciary.

He listed arbitrary and exorbitant court filing fees, extortion at court registries, undue disciplinary actions by court staff, and the near-impossibility of post-judgment enforcement as examples of systemic dysfunctions that the NBA has failed to challenge.

“The Bar’s silence in the face of these indignities is not only disappointing but deeply troubling. A legal profession that cannot defend its own is doomed to irrelevance,” Ubani stated.

He also criticised the procedural decline in the National Industrial Court, where delays in filing, service, and assignment of cases have become rampant — a trend now mirrored in many State and Federal High Courts.According to him, this judicial inefficiency is pushing many litigation lawyers into what he termed “professional poverty.”

Ubani expressed further disappointment over the NBA’s failure to push for the inclusion of the Nigerian Law School in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, noting that while institutions like the Nigerian Defence Academy benefit from the fund, law school campuses remain underfunded and burdened with rising tuition.

More concerning, he noted, is the harassment and intimidation of lawyers by security agencies while carrying out their legitimate duties.

“It is shocking that lawyers are still barred from entering certain security establishments with their phones — a barbaric and unconstitutional policy that the NBA should have long challenged in court,” he said.

Ubani also raised the alarm over the long delays in appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, where cases often remain unheard for six to ten years.

He described the impact on justice delivery, investor confidence, and the livelihoods of lawyers as devastating.

“What becomes of litigants who die or lose everything before their appeals are heard?” he asked.

Despite this grim picture, Ubani acknowledged a few bright spots.

He commended the NBA’s recent push for a harmonised and realistic scale of fees in property transactions and conveyancing, describing it as a welcome move that could improve the financial standing of lawyers if properly enforced across jurisdictions.

He also praised the current NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, for his energetic and responsive leadership since assuming office.

According to Ubani, Osigwe has shown a clear understanding of the profession’s pulse and has already achieved notable milestones in just one year.

“This critique is not to undermine the good already done,” Ubani clarified. “Rather, it is an appeal to Mazi Osigwe to use the remainder of his tenure to confront these urgent issues head-on.”

He called for a complete reorientation of the NBA’s leadership philosophy — one that prioritises inclusion, assertiveness, and unwavering advocacy on behalf of lawyers across the country.

“We need a Bar that does more than organise annual conferences and elections. We need a Bar that will stand with its members in the trenches of everyday practice, challenge injustice wherever it exists, and defend the legal profession with courage and clarity.

“The time to act is now. The survival of the Nigerian legal profession depends on the NBA’s willingness to reform, to lead, and to protect its own,” he concluded. (Vanguard)