At its National Executive Committee meeting held on February 18, 2016 in Jos, Plateau State, the Nigerian Bar Association formally lifted the ban on political activities.
In other words, candidates interested in contesting for various offices and positions in the bar association for its election scheduled for July are now free to canvass for the votes of the members of the association. The newly elected President and members of the executive will serve the association for two years.
There is no doubt that the Nigerian Bar Association and its members face a delicate choice and if the association does not get it right, it may lie prostrate for the next two years or be embroiled in endless litigation and press war on account of having elected a president with unexplainable baggage that will constantly be a guest of law enforcement agencies.
This entails that members of the Nigerian Bar Association must be very careful, reflective, deliberate and rational in the choice of the president and other national officers of the association.
There are a few innovations that have been introduced and which will hopefully assist the bar association in making the right choices.
The principal among the innovations revolves around the Nigerian Bar Association Constitution (amended and adopted at the Annual General Meeting held in Abuja on August 27, 2015).
Some of the provisions of the amended NBA Constitution will have profound implications and impact on the outcome of the election scheduled for July as some of them are novel, far reaching and with geographical and sectional implication.
By the amended NBA Constitution, election into national offices of the association shall be by universal suffrage and electronic voting shall be employed. In other words, all members of the association shall be eligible to vote at the general elections for national executives, provided that such members must belong to a branch and must have paid both their practising fees and branch dues as and when due, and are duly registered to vote at the election.
The second innovation introduced in the amended NBA Constitution is the division of the association into three geographical zones for the purposes of the election. These are Northern Zone, Eastern Zone and Western Zone.
The Northern Zone comprises Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, and Abuja. The Eastern Zone comprises Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Enugu, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Cross River, Imo, and Rivers. The Western Zone comprises Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo.
By the geographical zoning formula, the positions of the president, 1st vice-president, 2nd vice-president, 3rd vice-president and general secretary shall rotate among the three zones. In determining the eligibility of a candidate to contest for any of the rotated offices, regard shall be to a candidate’s geographical zone of origin and not the geographical zone where he/she carries on legal practice.
The geographical zone that produces the president of the association shall also produce the 1st vice-president and where a position is zoned to any particular geographical zone; the position shall be rotated and held in turn by the different groups and/or sections in the geographical zone.
As pointed out, the issue of universal suffrage will play a critical role in the determination of who become the president and general secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association. Prior to the adoption of the amended constitution, only statutory, elected and nominated delegates voted at the elections of the Nigerian Bar Association.
It was easy then to more or less literally kidnap some delegates, shield them, induce them and get them to vote in accordance with predetermined guidelines.
With universal suffrage aided by the Stamp and Seal Policy of the association, it is now possible for a large number of legal practitioners to pay their practising fees and be eligible to vote.
Universal suffrage reduces the possibility of hijacking delegates, shielding them and inducing them to vote in a particular direction.
It is also difficult to do the business of inducement and kidnapping of eligible voters with the innovation of electronic voting.
By the amended constitution, voting at the election shall be by electronic means (E-voting). In other words, elections shall be conducted electronically and eligible voters shall cast their vote electronically in accordance with the guidelines stipulated by the Electoral Committee of the bar association.
It is therefore important for the candidates in the election to conduct their campaigns in such a way that they can endear themselves to the members of the association. This they can do by setting out in great detail their programmes and policies.
The members will judge them and vote for them based on their past record, pedigree and articulated programs. Unfortunately, rather than articulate a clear programme, some of the candidates are running round regional and ethnic blocks looking for cheap endorsement.
This will not in any way help any of the presidential candidates. It is immaterial that the offices are zone D; at the end of the day, it is the entire members of the association that will cast their votes. At a personal level, I think the policy of geographical zone of origin in determining those eligible to contest election is retrogressive.
It may satisfy the temporary political ambition of some individuals at this point in time. It does not and will not promote national harmony, inclusiveness and a sense of belonging as some of the legal practitioners have stayed and continue to stay in their geographical place of practice for over 30 years and to now insist that what matters is their geographical zone of origin is to fall into the same ethnic and religious web that has held our country down.
But as at today, the constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association is the law and we must submit to it. I believe that Nigerian lawyers have a duty to elect a president they will be proud of. Nigerian lawyers must elect a president that has the intellect and the staying power to give progressive and courageous leadership to the Association.
Nigerian lawyers have a duty and an obligation to elect a president that will continue with the innovations introduced by the current President of the association, Augustine Alege (SAN). Nigerian lawyers must elect a president that will identify with the challenges of the young lawyers that a waging a battle of survival in a challenging economy.
The bar association needs a president that will speak for the association, maintain its respectability, defend the bench and root the activities of the association firmly within the ambit of the rule of law and due process and rebuff attempts at making the association an appendage of any grouping.
The bar association needs a president that will restore its dignity while at the same time assisting in the fight to clean the profession and the judiciary of those that want to bring it to disrepute. It will also be the business of the new leadership to lead in constitutional and electoral reform.
A tainted president or a president with a lot of professional and business baggage will damage the national and international reputation of the bar association and this must be avoided at all cost.
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