I read the statement credited to Professor Olawoyin SAN, a Senior Member of the Legal Profession of Yoruba extraction. According to the statement, he said that he believes that Egbe Amofin has outlived its usefulness. I will not believe that he made that statement as an elderly Yoruba Lawyer. If it is true however, it will be grossly unfortunate because in truth and in fact, that belief is totally wrong. I wish to inform him that every Zone within the country has one Forum or the other that seeks to protect their professional interest. Not only in the affairs of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) but in many other areas. For instance, the Northern Lawyers have Arewa Lawyers Forum, the East has the Eastern Bar Forum, the Midwest has the Midwest Bar Forum, while the South-West has Egbe Amofin. The Yoruba values we met are that Yorubas exalt their own. They do not pull down their houses. They join hands together to pursue their joint affairs and protect their common interests. Collective interest supersedes individual interest in Yoruba Land. This election is not the first time that the Yoruba Lawyers have adopted a candidate. After the resuscitation of the NBA in 1998, the Yorubas adopted a candidate in 2002 and 2008. Both candidates won. They were unable to adopt in 1989 and 2014 and all the three (3) Yoruba candidates in the two elections, three each, lost the elections.
If the Egbe Amofin, in the opinion of Professor Olawoyin SAN, has become “essentially irrelevant, … and has lost its proper direction and focus”, simply because his preferred Candidate, Dr. Tunde Ajibade SAN, who also submitted himself for the adoption process and pledged to abide by the decision of the Forum, was not the candidate who was adopted by the Egbe Amofin and because of that Egbe Amofin has lost its relevance and focus, once again I state that the opinion of the Learned Professor is extremely unfortunate.
It is one thing if we as Yoruba Lawyers cannot agree on a single candidate, which in politics is perfectly fine, it is however completely a different thing for us to use our own hands to destroy the very last vestige of unity that we have as Yoruba people. This election will come and go, whether we as Yoruba Lawyers will have a representative body to protect our own collective interests after the election because of this totally uncalled for negative comments, aspersions and accusations remains to be seen. I wish to remind us all that in 2016 the Arewa Lawyers adopted a candidate. In 2018, the Eastern Bar Forum adopted a candidate. I never read a single accusation, destructive comment or aspersion against their Forums or their Leaders. We may wish to learn from this.
A.A. Ogunba Esq.
