A Lawyer lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country – Sapara WilliamsTo a large extent, the constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) hereinafter referred to as the Bar or NBA, is hinged on this Christopher Sapara Williams’ creed.
He was the first indigenous Nigerian lawyer who was called to the English Bar on November 17, 1879.
He started practising in Nigeria on January 13, 1888. During his legal practice, he held on to the precepts of being an advocate of the people and society’s watchdog.
Williams was a pathfinder whose creed has come to define the essence of legal practice and shaped the minds of other lawyers, many of who held him in awe, even though they never met him.
One of such lawyers was the irrepressible Gani Fawehinmi who had Williams’ immortal words framed and well placed in his law chambers and Ikeja, Lagos home.
Gani took Williams’ creed to heart.
That was how he became the Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM), and the people’s lawyer, an appellation which was the exclusive preserve of Kanmi Ishola-Osobu in the 70s and 80s.
Sapara Williams was a leading light of the NBA which he chaired between 1900 and 1915, when he died. Under his watch, the Bar was the upholder of the truth.
It never strayed from the right path. It took up causes that affected the masses at no cost to them, giving them a sense of belonging and being. NBA earned the people’s trust without lobbying for it.
Under him, the Bar was never enmeshed in any scandal that besmeared it.
The Bar was the Bar – upright and not beholden to any elected or appointed office holder. It earned the public’s respect for its integrity, decorum and decency, the cherished values held dear by lawyers like Gani and another Bar leader, Alao Aka-Bashorun, who both came after Williams.
Though Gani was never an NBA leader, he lived his life for a Bar with a banner without stain.
He was always quoting Sapara Williams in everything he did.
He and his hero and Gani had few heroes who can be counted off the finger tips will be turning in their graves over the way the Bar is being run today.
Even before the scandal over NBA’s collection of N300 million from the Rivers State Government for the hosting of its 2025 annual general conference in Port Harcourt, which has been shifted to Enugu blew open, the Bar was already treading on slippery grounds.
It was always involved in one politically-motivated cause or the other, taking sides in matters in which it should be neutral.
It must, however, be emphasised that the collection of ‘unconditional’ monetary gift for the hosting of its conferences did not start today.
It is an age-long practice which predates the present NBA leadership.
The only difference is the controversy that is dogging its decision to shift the conference to Enugu after collecting what the planning committee called the N300 million ‘unconditional gift’.
Truly, no conditions are attached to such gifts and other miscellaneous and logistic freebies that the state where the event is billed for is always willing to dole out for reasons best known to it.
though a pressure group, will see no evil and speak no evil about the state, no matter how bad things may be there, at least during preparations for the conference; as well as while the event is on and shortly after it.
But the NBA breached this unwritten rule when it sou moto moved the conference to Enugu because of what it described as the ‘unconstitutional rule’ in Rivers. ‘Unconstitutional’? How did the Bar arrive at that conclusion? I am unaware of any court declaring the present administration in Rivers unconstitutional.
NBA writes police, protests member’s alleged harassmentWhat we have in Rivers is a state of emergency as provided for under Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The suspension of the democratic institutions under the emergency rule is galling to many people, among them lawyers.
But until the court which has adjudicatory powers speaks on the Rivers emergency no other person no matter the number of SAN titles they may have, can declare it unconstitutional.
At best, they like any other professionals, can only bellyache over the matter, no more, no less.
The prerogative of holding the annual general conference in any part of the country is the NBA’s. So, it can decide to move it out of one state to the other, if it so wishes.
But in so doing, it must be mindful of the fallout of its action, which we are all now witnessing.
With the exception of its inner circle, many of its members and other Nigerians never knew that the Bar got N300 million from the Rivers government for the conference.
So, having moved the conference to Enugu since it no longer finds Port Harcourt conducive, what should the NBA do with the gift cash?Retain it? Return it? For its own good and image, it is better it returns the cash.
The money is not that of suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara whose cause it is openly fighting by its insistence that it cannot gather in a state where there is no democracy.
The money belongs to Rivers and whether NBA likes it or not, there is a government in place there. It may call the administration by whatever name it likes, but that will not detract from the fact of the government’s existence.
The owner of the money, the government of Rivers is asking for a refund.
Rather than run its mouth over the propriety or otherwise of its action, NBA should just quietly return the money the way it got the cash and stop ridiculing itself in public.
Enough of its show of shame.
As the self-styled voice of the voiceless and defender of the defenceless, NBA should not be seen engaged in matters belittling of a professional group of its stature.
It is disheartening seeing the way it is defending its indefensible action.
NBA messed up big time.
Though the damage has been done, it is still not too late for the Bar to redeem itself by returning the money to its rightful owner.
If its problem is Sole Administrator Ibok-Ette Ibas, NBA should not see itself as returning the N300 million to him, but to the government and people of Rivers that are the rightful owners of the money. NBA has not fared well at all in its handling of this case.
How can the Bar say that it would not refund the money because it is an ‘unconditional gift’?Yet, it has attached condition to the hosting of the conference by moving it from Port Harcourt to Enugu on the grounds of unconstitutional government in Rivers.
The Bar cannot have its cake and eat it.
It is in its own enlightened self interest to return the money and make do with whatever the Enugu government provides for moving the conference there.
The money belongs to Rivers and the rightful place to return the cash to is the state since it has a sitting government.
NBA should not allow this matter to go to court because the outcome may not favour it.
A giver, whether an individual or an institution can take back his or its gift, if the recipient is not appreciative. It is as simple as that.TAGS:Nigerian Bar Association .
Source : The nation news paper .
