The NBA has a big role to play in ensuring that our democracy is sustained and the Rule of Law remains sacrosanct. The NBA remains a conscience of the people and a driving force for the continuous promotion of our collective interests. However, the NBA will continue to fail in its duty woefully, if the current trends are not nipped in the bud.
As the NBA 2020 Elections come closer, it is no surprise that the debates and social comments have become heated, while this is expected, it comes as a surprise that some of the aspirants seek to promote a sharp division among lawyers and aim to benefit from this division rather than to promote the unity of members within the Association.
Some candidates have resulted to pitch junior lawyers against senior lawyers and hope to coast to victory over a divided house. It should be noted as succinctly put by Abraham Lincoln that a house divided against itself cannot stand. We may just have begun to witness the crumbling of the ethos and values of the legal profession which NBA exists to protect and uphold, but which is currently being sacrificed on the altar of selfish interests.
It is most crucial that as Lawyers, whether young or old at the Bar, we must stay clear of any candidate who seeks to exploit the division within the NBA. Such persons have always been described as Demagogues, they exploit a fundamental weakness and if elected to power are quick to unravel limits on executive power and attempt to convert their leadership into a dictatorship.
We have already begun to see illustrations of this as one of the candidates for the office of President of the Bar was reported to have allegedly directed one of his patriots to man-handle a senior member of the Bar because that person tried to take a picture of him while he was committing an act tantamount to a breach of the NBA Campaign Guidelines/Rules as released by the ECNBA.
This is what they have turned our dear bar association to. A house divided, and as lawyers, it is our duty to resist what would naturally lead to our implosion.
Femi Fafowora Esq.
Chairman, Ilesa Branch
