A recent public comment by a notable figure to the effect that the NBA had become an opposition party inspires this excursion into the contemporary historical imperatives of a vocal and activist Bar. (Picture shows Barrister Ikeazor Akariwe, 1st Vice President, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA)September 2006. The then newly elected officers of the NBA had summoned a summit comprising Chairmen and Secretaries of the 88 Branches as well as other Bar leaders and former Presidents. The current President of the NBA Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN was one of the Bar leaders so invited. The challenge was rebranding the NBA and at the end of the two day Summit held at the Abuja Hilton, if anything was crystal-clear, it was that all wanted a new NBA.
The following principles also emerged at the end of the exercise. Firstly, a Conceptual Definition for the NBA: That the NBA would be at the vanguard for the promotion and defence of the rule of law, good governance, social justice and the dignity of all persons.
Secondly, a Vision. For NBA to rank among the foremost Bar Associations in the world. And a Mission. For NBA to use the Law as an instrument for social change. Fourthly and significantly, our time-worn Motto Ubi jus ibi remedium, meaning “Where there is a Right there is a Remedy” was jettisoned and replaced with Promoting the Rule of Law. I must add that this point is still in contention. Fifthly, as our Core Values: Integrity. Excellence. Courage. Professionalism and as our Brand Responsibility: Courageous. Assertive. Independent. Leader. It was truly comprehensive.
The Summit having no legal teeth, these principles were presented for approval to National Executive Committee or NEC as it is better known at Bauchi in November that year. NEC is, so to speak, the Parliament of the Bar and comprises about 400 persons including 14 National Officers, 88 Branch Chairs, 88 Branch Secretaries, 88 Representatives of 88 Branches and 120 co-opted persons representing various interest groups within the Bar. And it was to NEC that the decisions of that Summit were taken and overwhelmingly adopted. Permit me to call those decisions, henceforth, the ‘Bauchi Declaration’.
At the effluxion of the Olisa Agbakoba led regime in 2008, Mr. Akeredolu SAN wearing the mantra “Prosecuting our convictions with courage” emerged as contestant for the office of President. And based on his pedigree of a courageous and dogged fighter for principle, was returned unopposed as fit and proper to carry the torchlight of our collective convictions so aptly articulated in the ‘Bauchi Declaration’.
In returning Mr. Akeredolu SAN unopposed, the members gave him a 100% mandate. But some have suggested that it was the geo-political Western caucus of the association, which decided to present Mr. Akeredolu SAN unopposed, the Presidency having been zoned to that zone. This is at best a half truth in my view because zoning of the Bar Presidency in 2004 to the geo-political `North’ and in 2006 to the geo-political `East’ did not prevent candidates from other zones from contesting the NBA Presidency, zoning not being enshrined then and now in the NBA constitution. Rather, it is a gentleman’s agreement and lawyers are gentlemen.
In other words, there was some kind of consensus within the Bar that the kind of leadership best suited for a just-rebranded association was one which already had antecedents for “prosecuting our convictions with courage.” But this is not to suggest that before the “Bauchi Declaration” there was no credo of service. Far from it, for in recent memory we had Presidents like Wole Olanipekun SAN and OCJ Okocha SAN to mention but two who like colossuses bestrode the national stage in vehement promotion of the Rule of Law. In not too recent memory, there was also Alao Aka-Bashorun of the blessed memory! However, what the ‘Bauchi Declaration’ did was to establish a documented template built on the precedents set by our heroes past.
And it is in the spirit of our credo that the NBA has tackled several issues recently confronted by it viz. massively rigged elections; the unacceptable conduct of certain key government personal; the targeted kidnapping of Lawyers and Judicial Officers in Abia State; who represents the NBA in the NJC; arbitrary sack of certain persons irrespective of unexpired tenure in office while keeping proven incompetents in other offices on ground of unexpired tenure; and in general, the apathetic and peripatetic state of governance in Nigeria.
Specifically, it is on this note and in this spirit that the Nigerian Bar Association shall continue to live out, irrespective of whose ox is gored, its Conceptual Definition - to be at the vanguard for the promotion and defense of the rule of law, good governance, social justice and dignity of all persons; its Vision and Mission - to rank among the foremost Bar Associations in the world and to use the Law as an instrument for social change, respectively; its Core Values - Integrity. Excellence. Courage. Professionalism. And its Brand Responsibility - Courageous. Assertive. Independent. Leader.
We have no doubt that the road ahead is rough and strewn with the thorns of misunderstanding; both deliberate and contrived, not to mention ethnic and geo-political blackmail. Those who will keep Nigeria a third-world country in the midst of so much first-world potential are tenacious, perhaps more so than those who desire for Nigeria to achieve its rightly place in the comity of socially developed nations, but press on we must, always bearing in mind, those famous words of the Nobel Laureate, “The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny and such a man shall be given the hottest place in hell”.
We are trained advocates. Silence is no option to an advocate. It is not only acquiescence, it is capitulation and compromise. Our advocacy is by no means restricted to the courts. We are a voice of the voiceless; priests in the temple of justice; a breath of fresh air in the polluted hallways of compromise and self-interest; an oasis of truth in the deserts of mendacity; an island of hope in the oceans of despair.
And to fail to live out our credo for whatever reason is to commit hara-kiri. In this, we shall never be daunted, our cause being defined and shaped, not by hope of reward or self-interest but by the will of the Nigerian People.
Scripted by: Ikeazor Akaraiwe, Esq. Ch.MC
1st Vice-President, NBA
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