One good thing that came out of the conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Owerri on July 14 and 15, where Augustine Alegeh was elected its 27th president, is the public acknowledgement by lawyers that corruption is destroying the NBA.
From the views of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman, Chidi Odinkalu, to those of human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, and other legal minds like Zik Obi, Kunle Ogunba, Jibrin Okutekpa, how to salvage the situation is the point of convergence.
They expressed concern that the election cost the aspirants a fortune, making the love of money the kernel.
Odinkalu said: “Candidates spent freely on the transport, accommodation and subsistence costs of their delegates. Arguably, for the first time in the NBA’s history, some candidates deployed private jets as they rushed around the country canvassing for the delegates’ count to get them across the finish line.
“In these elections, money spoke very loudly. By some estimates, the NBA’s 2014 elections were the first in which the campaign expenditure easily crossed the one billion naira mark.”
Ogunba said: “The NBA elections have become difficult to run and conduct. There are many challenges, many of our colleagues openly made demands on contestants. Contestants spent fortunes on the elections. Honour, integrity, candour and sincerity, which are hallmarks of the legal profession, seem to have taken flight from the sub-consciousness of almost all our members, the old and the young inclusive.”
Obi confirmed that “we heard of stories of people being given money to vote for a particular candidate. Branch chairmen were alleged to have collected huge sums of money.”
I wrote in this column on July 27 that “it rankles that these are men and women of our society, some with the over-rated ego of incorruptibility and priding themselves as the last hope of the common man.
“Over the years, we have seen and heard of lawyers, including judges, who soiled their hands with sharp practices of monumental proportion. Attorneys romance with the high and mighty in government, ready to do anything to please such government officials, mainly politicians, with little concern about the impact of their attitude on the larger society.
“This year’s NBA election was key because it was coming on the heels of the country’s general poll next year, which is less than seven months away (now two months away).
“As the NBA official said, it is not possible for the government not to show interest in who emerges as the president of the NBA as the nation prepares for the general election. Lawyers, whether they like it or not, are conscious of this fact, which explains why all the candidates for the presidency of the NBA from the South West insisted on contesting, instead of the old practice of presenting a consensus candidate from the zone for an easy win.”
The reference to this piece is borne out of last week’s comments credited to Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed and three other justices of the Supreme Court that lawyers aid corruption in the judiciary.
I agree with the justices. But they should realise that lawyers are not just aiding corruption in the judiciary, they are swimming in it in the larger society.
Mohammed spoke out when Alegeh visited him in the presence of Justices Mohammed Tanko, John Fabiyi, and Bode Rhodes-Vivour.
He decried the frivolous way today’s men of the Bar handle briefs, mainly appeals, and insisted that most lawyers fail to advise their clients appropriately. “I just want to use this opportunity to urge the Bar to put the interest of the system far above the individuals.”
The justices found it incomprehensible that lawyers muddle up appeals from the lower courts up to Supreme Court to make things difficult.
“Some cases ought not to be remitted to the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court that are now causing excess baggage in these courts. The Supreme Court is still trying to clear the 2002 and 2003 appeals not to talk of recent ones.
“Yet you lawyers are equally not helping matters by not advising your clients correctly.”
Tanko argued that “there are not Supreme Court justices in the world that work like their counterparts in Nigeria” a result of baseless appeals, Fabiyi warned that “lawyers filing funny appeals just to beat the time must stop forthwith.”
Rhodes-Vivour located the anomaly within the corrupt tendencies in the judiciary. Said he: “Appeals on electoral matters were so huge due to the jumbo pay politicians pay lawyers.
“In Shagari’s days, legislatures were on part time and their remunerations were so meagre compared to the present time when they coast home with close to N20 million periodically.
“It has become an industry, hence the courts were turned to battle grounds after elections were won and lost.”
Mohammed has shown early signs of willingness to check the corruption in the legal profession. That is commendable. What is worrisome is that those who were there before him started the same way, but along the line lethargy set in and they could not continue with the campaign against sleaze in the judiciary and its bar and bench staff.
The period to test Mohammed’s willingness to tame lawyers is from next year when the elections would have been held and winners and losers emerged, and rejection of election results rent the air from losers.
Lawyers connive with friends at the Bench whose interests are linked to those of politician clients because of what they both gain. What the judiciary and the society lose does not bother them.
Obasanjo’s Watch
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday, December 9 defied an Abuja High Court ruling by Justice Valentine Ashi barring him from launching his autobiography: Olusegun Obasanjo: My Watch.
Buruji Kashamu had procured a motion ex-parte on November 29 that ordered Obasanjo to shelve the book launch pending hearing on the main suit on December 10.
Kashamu is the South West Chairman of the Mobilisation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Ogun East senatorial candidate.
He sued Obasanjo to court on the allegation that the book contains defamatory content against his person. But it was launched at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja despite the court injunction.
I was not surprised because Obasanjo is not used to obeying the courts. Even as president he never did.
I have read snippets of the book and I enjoy the unfolding scenario. I hope to read the whole book to make informed comment.
I understand the fears of Kashamu even though I am yet to read the aspect of Obasanjo’s swipe at him.
However, the portion I read is not kind to President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, former PDP National Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, and a few others.
The book is a challenge to those mentioned in it to write theirs.
 Chairman, Chidi Odinkalu, to those of human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, and other legal minds like Zik Obi, Kunle Ogunba, Jibrin Okutekpa, how to salvage the situation is the point of convergence.){kind=link}