As expected, Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) will conduct elections before the national elections in July. ISHAYA IBRAHIM and ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA spoke with the contestants and a former chairman of the branch on the election
TheNiche can authoritatively reveal that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja branch elections will hold between June 13 and 20 as directed by the national body.
Four learned gentlemen – Wale Ogunade, Gloria Nweze, Adesina Ogunlana and Bartholomew Aguegbodo – are in a battle. This is not their usual courtroom battles to defend their clients. This time around, it is a battle; to become the chairman of Ikeja branch, Lagos State. It is an election that has been seen by those who know as too close to call.
One of the leading contenders, Ogunade, the president of Voters Awareness Initiative (VAI), said he is vying for the position because Ikeja branch, known as the Tiger, has gone to sleep.
For Nweze, another strong contender, Ikeja branch is too polarised, hence she is running to build bridges.
The other two, Adesina and Aguegbodo, did not speak with TheNiche. While Adesina declined to speak, Aguegbodo was unreachable.
The election, which comes up in June, is a prelude to the national election of the NBA to elect the successor of Augustine Alegeh, the president.
Nweze’s clincher
The only female contender in the pack, Nweze, seems confident of clinching the post because, for her, the criterion for the election is competence, not gender.
She added that she was running because she has a lot to offer.
“We will try and build bridges because the branch is too polarised for my liking. We will build bridges and initiate reconciliation and truce. Then the welfare of our members will be put at the front burner,” she said.
Nweze boasts of being well-grounded in the NBA to offer effective leadership.
“I was previously a treasurer of Ikeja branch. The template with which every other treasurer since 2010 has worked with was what I put down in 2008 and 2010 when I was a treasurer.
“Between 2010 and 2012, I was the second vice chairman, by extension the chairman of the welfare committee. And under my watch, a lot happened. It was under my watch that people who got married as well as the ones that put to bed in the branch were presented gifts. People who were bereaved also benefitted from our welfare package,” she said.
She is currently the first vice chairman of the branch and by extension the chairman of the human rights committee.
Two years ago, she said, her committee activated the discourse on human rights.
“We organised the first ever seminar of the human rights committee in September 2015, with the theme ‘The Constitution, Law Enforcement Agencies and You’. Basically, the target audience of that seminar includes the various law enforcement agencies, with the police at the forefront. And I stand to be corrected, over 100 policemen from the various divisional offices were in attendance.
“The one we had two months ago was ‘War Against Corruption and Observance of Constitutional Rights – Striking a Balance’. The main speaker of that event was the immediate past chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). If you look at the track record, you will see that we have paid our dues.”
Ogunade banks on years of active service
Ogunade, a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, told TheNiche that the slumber of the branch has affected its activism, welfare towards members, being mouthpiece to the downtrodden, and many other areas.
He said he is well suited to steer the ship, given his antecedents as someone who has spent all his years preaching the gospel according to good governance, and an active member of the bar.
“I‘ve been involved in the activities of the bar for more than 16 years. And that has given me a very good advantage of knowing the problems of the bar first hand, in terms of welfare, in terms of the practice,” he said.
Once elected, Ogunade said he would launch a welfare scheme for lawyers, particularly the younger ones because, as it were, lawyers have benefitted nothing from the bar.
“I am lawyer to Okada people (commercial motorcyclists), traders, artisans among others. If they have issues either with the police or land people or other persons, I come in. And in coming in, it is their various unions that intervene on their behalf.
“This is lacking at the bar. Every lawyer is on his own whenever we have issues. This is one of the things I am going to correct. We can’t have a bar which leaves everybody on his own.
“As I am talking to you, one of our own had an accident. He is just there. The national body gave him a bail-out. But that is nothing. The guy has been on bed in the last eight months. But there must be a system to protect our own,” he said.
Ogunade plans to set up health facilities in the various Lagos courtrooms, beginning with the Bar Centre, to attend to lawyers regularly because many of them are too busy writing briefs and attending court sessions to check their health.
On housing, he said “it is an error that we are the ones that managed people’s estate; we draft the agreements; we have the expertise but we don’t have our estate. What stops lawyers from having estate. That is one of the first things I am going to do.”
On how he hopes to raise the money for all the projects, he said: “The money will be sourced. Lawyers are rich. It is just to mobilise them. I mobilised Nigerians to vote and defend their votes. So I am not new to mobilising.”
Credible polls expected
Speaking with TheNiche on his expectations, former chairman of Ikeja NBA, Monday Ubani, said he would ensure that the elections are free and fair as it was done under his watch as the chairman.
His expectation is that the electoral body would conduct credible elections, devoid of rancour and acrimony.
“As lawyers, we must show example. We are supposed to show the light,” he said while advising the electoral body to be transparent and ensure that all the contestants are given equal treatment.
To the would-be executives, Ubani advised them to be ready to work.
“During my tenure, I laid a very solid foundation and showed the light, which has continued to shine. The new administration should take the branch to a higher level,” he charged.
Ubani, who seems to be aspiring for a higher office at the national level, urged the contestants to play by the rules.
