‘BARRIERS SHOULDN’T EXIST IN AFRICAN LEGAL COMMUNITY’

"FRANCE HAS DONE PRACTICALLY NOTHING TO CHECK ITS APPOINTEE, PRESIDENT BIYA"

Judges in this category. There are also some very bad ones, who are soiling the image and good work of the Judiciary.

The Judiciary in Africa has real problems. We can’t hide from it. While I agree that we must be careful not to bring down this all important organ of the ancient and modern world, the position of AFBA is that corrupt judicial officials, must be fished out and severely punished, no shielding, no rhetorics. They must go down with their accomplices in the legal profession, no stories. If a Judge condescends to the level of collecting bribes and living in opulence, I don’t believe he should be invited nicely, wear tie and come to an air conditioned room to explain. The place to explain is at the Police Station. Like every other Citizens, Judges are not above the Law. They should not be given any preferential treatment, if they desecrate the altar of justice. However, due process must be followed. Short cuts are not allowed, like every one of us, they also have rights. Media trials are very unhelpful.

At the level of AFBA, we are working on a document that will be helpful to Governments across the Continent. We will need to look at the structures, access to justice, recruitment, slow judicial process and so on.

What can AFBA do about the plight of young lawyers with regard to poor remuneration and welfare?

The issue of young Lawyers, is a very touchy issue amongst the leadership of AFBA. Young Lawyers in many parts of the Continent are poorly paid and their work conditions are not clear. Yet, the economic situation is challenging.

These young Lawyers, are also expected to conduct themselves in the best tradition of the Bar. Dress nicely and neatly. How can they command the respect they so richly deserve? This is the paradox.

Our position at the AFBA, is that National Legal Associations must face this matter squarely, we must methodically engage our colleagues and their concerns. We had a very beautiful young Lawyers Session, at our 2017 Annual Conference which just ended in Port-Harcourt. Various solutions were proposed, and they are currently being processed by the Young Lawyers Forum. I believe we should wait for them to conclude and make recommendations, then we can add ours.

What is the relationship of AFBA with other regional bodies like the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), West African Bar Association (WABA), AHADA, etc?

The African Bar Association will like to have cordial relations with all regional bodies and Bar Associations.

The Pan African Union, is a body of Lawyers that have done well for themselves and the aims they seek to project. You will notice that of recent, some individuals who claim to be associated with them, have made it a past time to say negative things about AFBA. Our irrepressible Chairman of the Governing Council, Joseph B. Daudu, SAN, has publicly stated our position.

However, I want to add that, PALU is not a replacement or a successor of the African Bar Association. That is a fallacy and an irresponsible joke. The AFBA went to sleep as a result of several regrettable issues which the last President, Mr. Charles Idehen has spoken extensively about. You can interview him. The last known full meeting of the African Bar Association was held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Myself and the likes of Chief Ofulue, former Chairman, NBA Lagos, Late Mr. Akinola Aina also former NBA, Lagos Chair, Chief Kunle Uthman, Late Mr. Obi Okwusogu, Chief Richard Ohanaruogho, to mention a few attended from Nigeria. I remember that the present President of Ghana, Mr. Nana Akufo-Ado also attended. Mr. Josef Joof of Gambia was Vice President to Mr. Idehen, he presided because Mr. Idehen could not make the meeting due to some circumstances beyond his control. After this, Mr. Idehen never authorised any meeting again, and none was even held anywhere in Africa until 2011, when the move to resuscitate the Association began in Kampala, Uganda and I was there in 2014 at the Annual Conference of the IBA, Mr. Idehen wrote to all Lawyers present on the need to re-start the African Bar Association. This was followed through till September, 2015 when an interim Executive Council was formed in Dar es Salam, Tanzania. The Council was later confirmed at the maiden stakeholders meeting held in Abuja in 2016, and the Executive Council elected a Governing Council with Mr. J.B. Daudu, SAN of Nigeria, as Chairman. I, having earlier been elected President. The then Vice President of the Tangayika Law Society, Mrs. Flavania Charles became Secretary-General and so on. Since then, we have moved on, held the maiden Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe and recently in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Next year, the African Bar Association Annual Conference, will be staged in Nairobi, Kenya.

I need to add that Mr. Idehen, the last elected President of the AFBA, came forward and handed all properties of AFBA to me and similarly handed over to J.B. Daudu, SAN as Chairman of Council, since Mr. Idehen was also former Chairman of Council.

For the record, we want PALU to exist in its own right, and pursue its own programmes. AFBA will encourage them. It is just that, some misguided individuals amongst them, need to stop making irresponsible remarks about African Bar Association, AFBA is the father of all.

We have recently signed a co-operation agreement, with the International Institute of Human Rights and Criminal Justice formed since 1947 and based in Italy. We are in full co-operation and in partnership with the International Criminal Court Bar Association based in The Hague, and we will sign a partnership agreement this month. There is a proposal on our table for AFBA to hold a Regional Conference with the International Bar Association next year. We will work with and cooperate with all bodies, including PALU.

How does AFBA handle language issues amongst its member Associations and law societies. Some are Francophone, Anglophone and Luxaphone and of course, jurisdictional issues? Some operate civil law, while others operate common law.

As the oldest Continental body, AFBA must ensure that every part of the Continent is carried along. You have a right to be anything in the Association whether you speak French, Arabic, English or Portuguese.

We are not where we should be yet, having just been re-launched, but we will get there. At the Port-Harcourt Conference, we had French and English translations that went well. The Headsets worked perfectly. In Nairobi, Kenya in 2018, we are going to add Arabic and Portuguese.

Despite language barriers, we still communicate effectively. Some understand a little English, some speak little French. Recently, I was in Bamako, Mali as a Guest of the Malian Bar Association, and we were able to deal without language barriers. No barriers must exist in the African Legal Fraternity. AFBA will ensure this.

There are other factors responsible for this, including self-inflicted ones like brazen corruption and impunity, but the main issue was marginalisation and discrimination against them by the so-called majority. This is what has led to the problems in the Niger Delta that almost crippled the entire Nigeria. These are the problems in Somalia, in Sudan, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, etc.

The AFBA has a Women, Children and Minority Rights Committee. What has it done to stem the tide of child marriage in Africa and genital mutilation of the girl child in the name of female circumcision? How has the Committee made an impact in its field in Africa?

The importance of women, children and the minority in a Community cannot be over-emphasised. They probably represent the weakest in the society, and the most vulnerable. The Constitution protects them. However, in practice, these people are often cheated or taken for granted. The result is catastrophic.

Our children are made to do hard labour, sell recharge cards, pure water, crayfish and many other odd jobs, at such tender ages, when they should be under our loving care and should be in school or some training centres preparing for the future. Our children in the Universities fend for themselves and have to do this through all manner of ways. Some trade and have little time to study, while others go into prostitution. The rest are on exile abroad or dying in their thousands in the Mediterranean Sea, while fleeing for greener pastures.

Minority rights, have led to several conflicts in our Continent and other parts of the world. Women are often taken for granted, whereas they are the pillar of a Great Society. Children are ignored, and told to keep quiet and just obey blindly. In most African Countries till today, they are maltreated, even though their rights are constitutionally and traditionally guaranteed. Yet often times, they make the greatest contributions. Take as an example Nigeria, the so- called minority tribes of Southern Nigeria are the wealth of the Nation, but what have they to show for it? Although, we are in serious trouble in Africa. Kidnapping and money making rituals are prevalent. Some are so idle that they have to take on jobs as hired assassins to make a living. Yet our Leaders hold A.U, ECOWAS, U.N, E.A.U and other regional, sub-regional and international meetings every time. No cohesion, no concrete plan to stem these monsters.

For us in the African Bar Association, we are not only interested in passing laws, but in their practical implementation, children must be taken off the streets, women must be respected in the true sense, naturally and by positive affirmation.

Iyom Josephine Anenih is the Chairperson of our Forum for Women Lawyers. She is doing a great job and as a practical person, which she is, we are working quietly. Very soon, you will hear us loud and clear. We are working on the Child Rights Forum. In Nigeria, Lagos State is at the fore-front of Women and Children’s Rights. They have done so well, that their experience and focus is helping us in creating a methodical approach across the Continent.

Now, I can assure you, we are ready to take on Governments and Institutions, who do not respect these rights. They are scared and we are prepared to go to Legal War for them.

It seems that Africa still has quite a distance to go in perfecting the electoral processes in many of the countries. Aside from African Presidents looking for ways to become sit-tight Presidents for life, there always seem to be pre and/or post electoral issues, sometimes erupting into violence. Even the just concluded Presidential election in Kenya. The opposition who seemed to be more than dissatisfied with the results, went as far as asking the people to boycott work on 14/8/2017, while there was burning of tyres etc in some areas. What could be the reason for the incessant electoral problems?

The problem in Africa is that we think that election is an end in itself, No. election is a means of choosing people amongst us, to work for us and gain our trust. Election is about choices. It is about our future. Unfortunately, both the Politicians and those of us who vote, have a different things in mind. We want to vote in our friends, relations, tribesmen and women. We want to vote those that share the same religions, beliefs. Of course, we vote according to economic considerations. We want to be appointed into positions of advantage, and seize the economic benefits. Politicians’ eyes are fixed on how to amass wealth, to the disadvantage of majority of the citizens. Key issues that bedevil the polity are left to the dogs, but pretence is made about some manifesto. Some road maps, blueprints for recovery and all the big talk. In most African States, it is all a sham. Those who eventually get to power have no reason being there. They get there by accident or by sentiments. Some by Federal character. So you have electoral violence. Elections are manipulated. Election results are falsified. The contests are so fierce, that they have led to wars, civil strife with divesting social and economic consequences. Take Liberia, take Sudan. Look at Somalia, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Burundi, Nigeria, Gabon, Central African Republic, we can keep counting.

In the case of Nigeria my Country, it is all about looting the treasury. The sheer magnitude of corruption being revealed everyday, speaks volumes. Not that it has ceased, but the present Government has revealed more than can be imagined, but what is happening? The Citizens are quiet, struggling for the crumbs. Fighting religious and ethnic arguments. The Country keeps sinking. Nobody is punished for what has brought the Country to its knees. Everybody is discharged and acquitted. There is no evidence. The Prosecutor failed to prosecute properly. The investigation was a sham. Yet impunity reigns. There is evidence that the treasury has been looted. Nobody is held accountable. We are in a rat race. Fighting ourselves and stealing from ourselves. Killing our Country and killing our future and the future of our children. Generations yet unborn, accents yet unknown.

Kenya’s case is not different. At every election, the Country erupts in violence. The loser is unwilling to accept defeat. The seat belongs to me or no one else. I am too loved to lose an election, they mobilise religions and ethnic sentiments. Then the Government panics, and in desperation, makes Constitutional mistakes.

We need to warn all those who fan election violence in Kenya, that the AFBA will hold them accountable to the people of Kenya. Election results as announced by the electoral umpire, must be respected and the legal avenues as provided by law, should be used to redress grievances. Any other method, no matter the anger, is a violation of International Law and AFBA, will explore international and local remedies to save Africa from this dangerous malaise. We shall be working with the Law Society of Kenya, to ensure that justice is done. We support all that the LSK has done so far, and we will be monitoring the situation, and give useful advice when necessary or requested.