The “Unusual” NBA Annual General Conference

In continuation of a tradition of excellence, all is now set for the 57th edition of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference (AGC), holding in Lagos from the 18th to 24th of August, 2017.

Keeping with its vision to reinvent the NBA into a Brave New Bar driven by the passion, knowledge and skills of its members as a veritable agent for national transformation, the NBA under the visionary leadership of Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud OON, SAN, has gone to great lengths to introduce transformational innovations, which are set to change the dynamics of bar conferences in Africa.

The conference which has as its theme “African Business: Penetrating through Institution Building”, will attract a host of outstanding speakers, thinkers, global influencers and experts, who are pioneering this century's most important ideas and innovations in their respective fields of endeavour.

Harnessed from government, businesses, professional services, and the academia, these speakers will at the conference moderate sessions, discuss leading edge topics, and project the conference theme to conferees with a view to accelerating economic development and social justice in Africa and repositioning the critical role of the bar in economic and social development, by building institutions as units of stability, encouraging the rule of law, and good governance.

Conferees at the 2017 Annual General Conference, will be spoilt for choice and can focus on diverse areas of interest, as the gathering will feature about 31 sessions, which will vary widely in style, and cover most sectors and practice areas.

Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, as well as declaring the conference open, will lead talks as will with other heavyweights, such as the former Prime Minister of the State of Georgia, Nika Gilauri; MD, Goldman Sachs Africa, Colin Coleman; Global CEO Consultant, Ram Charan; Nigeria’s and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and many more.

Other distinguished speakers and panelists include Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Honourable Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; Finance Minister of Ghana, Ken Ofori-Atta; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, CON; Attorney-General and Minister for Justice of the Republic of Ghana, Gloria Afua-Akuffo and AMCON CEO, Ahmed Lawan Kuru.

Representatives of the global legal community including the International Bar Association (IBA), International Trademark Association (INTA), The Law Society of England and Wales, the International Lawyers for Africa (ILFA) will also be at the conference.

The invitees who will be rubbing shoulders, or if you will minds, at the conference will include the Head of Branding Consultancy in South Africa, AttorneyGeneral of Ghana, Heads of Ghanian, Zambian and Kenyan Bars, representatives of leading law firms in Ivory Coast and Cameroon, Professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T), Princeton University, and former INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega amongst others.

Expounding the President of the NBA leadership’s hallmark tradition of excellence, Chairman of the Technical Committee On Conference Planning (TCCP) Professor Koyinsola Ajayi, SAN, declared recently, that the NBA 2017 AGC, will change the face of legal practice in Nigeria and provide a level playing ground for all lawyers, irrespective of their area or location of practice.

In this year’s edition of the General Conference, innovations such as online registration for the conference and digital access into the conference venue have replaced manual processes and paper registration, creating room for simple and seamless accreditation.

Another interesting feature of this year’s conference, is the elimination of the challenges that come from onsite registration. Conferees will be able to register and collect their conference materials from designated collection centres nationwide, well before the conference.

In addition, telecommunications services provider, Airtel Networks Limited and electronic law report providers, LegalPedia and LawBreed, have partnered with the TCCP, to procure and issue conferees electronic tablets for conference materials, instead of the conference bags and paper documents they were erstwhile accustomed to.

Registrants can expect to enjoy durability, functionality and depth in the electronic tablets, as each will provide all information and materials for the conference, and will also feature a 12 month free subscription to full Law Reports of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, National Industrial Court, all State High Courts, the Federal High Court, Sharia Court of Appeal, Sharia Courts, Rules of all the courts in Nigeria, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), Laws Of several States Of The Federation, Law Reports from Asia, America and Europe and an array of Commercial Forms and Precedents.

The Electronic Tablets will also be pre-installed with psychometric tests, provided by Thomas International in partnership with Phillips Consulting Limited (PCL).

It is beyond argument that the practice of the legal profession takes a heavy toll on the health of practitioners,

and so we need to pay particular attention to maintaining our health.

With this in mind, the TCCP has also partnered with leading healthcare service provider, Tristate Cardiovascular Associates Limited, to bring conferees, free daily comprehensive health screening services, health counselling, and other discounted fee-for service tests, during the period of the conference.

The free health counselling and screening services include Body Mass Index (BMI), Urinalysis, Blood glucose and Blood Pressure, Full Cardiac investigations [General and Cardiac Consultations]; Sleep Disorder Clinic; Laboratory investigations and Pharmacy services.

For the duration of the conference, Tristate will have its emergency station on site, and would attend to incidences that require urgent attention.

The AB Mahmoud, SAN administration, recognises that mentoring, professional development and other types of career support for young lawyers, are far more crucial now than ever before. It has therefore, created an opportunity for them to attend the 2017 Annual General Conference by sponsoring 100 young lawyers.

In consonance with the present realities, discussions on institution building and acceleration of economic development and social justice in Africa, will characterise this year’s conference.

In many African countries, the institutions of democratic governance are weak and the culture of accountability is still in its embryonic stage. Human rights are respected more in the breach, and adherence to the principles of rule of law is not commonplace.

The sessions of the conference hope to address these issues through exciting discussions and debates on legal, political, economic, social reforms and development, and will also focus on institution building as a panacea for most of Africa’s challenges.

The 2017 Annual General Conference stands to promote networking, collaboration of local and international stakeholders, with a view to building synergies and sharing experiences. It will also promote good relations and social intercourse amongst lawyers and other persons, who are also interested in the justice sector and administration of justice.

Delegates will gain practical insight into the latest developments in legal and socio-political developments, which they can key into to improve their practice.

Sessions will focus on various thought provoking and interesting topics such as “Energising Institutions, “Women Leadership”, “Legislation”, “Institutionalising African Investments”, “Military Business”; “The Business of Dispute Resolution” and “Life after Law”.

The Internet has helped speed up the globalisation process. Delegates and speakers will interrogate the intersection of easy freedoms, regulatory policy, curbing of internet rights, and the conflicting interests of personal privacy in an engaging discussion of the business of cyber law, internet policy and privacy rights. Legal practitioners can look forward to sessions which will teach, mould, enlighten and rejuvenate them to break out of the mould, and begin to consider other areas of practice, trans border practice and even begin to build multi jurisdictional law firms.

The plenary discourse "JUSTICE OR ITS MACHINERY" will x-ray current themes in justice and its delivery, the conflicting priorities of state interest and the increasing calls to subordinate the rule of law, personal liberty and property rights, in favour of the ultimate end of collective justice.

The session "Nigeria's Hidden Weapons: Generation X" will turn the spotlight on young professionals, and the significant role they play in institution building and development. Young conferees will be educated on the various means by which they can unlock their untapped potentials, to be assets to organisations and businesses worldwide, which they interact with in the course of their practice.

The Conference remains the premier event, for lawyers to network and socialise with colleagues and members of the judiciary. It also offers the opportunity to earn Continuing Legal Education (CLE) points for participation in the sessions.

In conclusion, one can say with all sense of responsibility, that this Conference heralds the birth of a new generation of NBA Conferences, which will help our legal practice attain a new level, and take us one step further in actualising our collective vision of A BRAVE NEW BAR!!!

Muritala Abdul-Rasheed, Chief of Staff to the NBA President.