Ifeanyi Agwuncha and Isah Abubakar Aliyu

The Augustine Alegeh SAN-led administration hit the ground running in delivering the goals it promised during the electioneering campaigns. One of such goals is protecting the integrity of the Bar and saving the profession which has since sunk to its lowest ebb. It is an understatement to say that the Profession is in dire need of revival; all hands must be on deck if we are to save this profession we call our own from further decline. The reality on ground demands a total cleansing of the Augean stables, a measure which should be applied to all facets of the profession with no stone left unturned.

The Stamp and Seal Policy introduced and sought to be enforced by the current crop of NBA executives is one of such means of salvaging the dwindling standards of the profession. The adhesive stamps are of two types: the green stamp for lawyers in private practice, and the red stamp for those in public practice, government parastatals and various Ministries. The Stamp whether for those in public or private practice has security features with the Lawyer's name and enrollment number embedded on the face of it.

There are several advantages of this laudable project. It will assist in no small way in eradicating the menace of quacks in the profession. Every now and then we are inundated with sad tales of non-lawyers masquerading as legal practitioners and rendering legal services. This is in no small way erodes the fees lawyers ought to earn. It is sad that despite spirited efforts by the law to checkmate this menace, some lawyers even encourage the practice by unabashedly shielding, assisting, aiding and/or abetting the quacks for financial or other reasons.

There have been marked collective efforts to stamp out quackery from the profession. For instance, the Supreme Court and other superior courts of records have seized several opportunities to reiterate the principle that court processes cannot be signed with a corporate or business name but must be done in the name of a Lawyer whose name is on the Roll. Some of these decisions include: OKAFOR v NWEKE (2007) 10 NWLR (PT 1043); FBN v MAIWADA (2013) 5NWLR (PT 1343); SLB CONSORTIUM LTD v NNPC (2011) 9 NWLR (PT 1252).

However it is apparent that much needs to be done to protect the profession and achieve the goals of the apex court as highlighted in these aforesaid cases, hence the Stamp and Seal policy will ensure that it is only lawyers who can frank documents.

The Policy will stop foreign lawyers and lawyers not entitled to practice law in Nigeria from practising law in Nigeria. The Stamp will ensure we get good value for our services; our colleagues tardy in charging for the services they render may now be forced to have a rethink because spending four thousand naira only (N4, 000) to buy 120 pieces of stamp which has an expiry date, means that you need to recoup your expenses and by so doing insist on getting a just remuneration for the services one renders. Thus, the stamp and seal policy serves to also raise the standards of the profession.

Also it will operate as a check amongst lawyers and prevent the situation whereby colleagues in salaried employment surreptitiously engage in practice which their jobs do not permit them to do. By affixing the stamp containing counsel’s particulars to a processes, this will end. These are some of the highlights of the advantages of the policy.

The Rules of Professional Conduct 2007 made pursuant to the Legal Practitioners Act 2004 makes detailed provisions for the usage of the Stamp and Seal. In this regard Rule 10 of the RPC 2007 provides inter alia that a Lawyer acting whether as a Private Practitioner, Legal Officer or adviser or any Government Ministry or any corporation shall not sign or file any document except it is affixed with a stamp and seal. Legal documents envisaged by this Rules includes Pleadings, Affidavits, Depositions, Applications, Instruments, Deeds, Letters, Memoranda, Reports, Legal Opinions or any similar documents. The Rules most importantly provide at Rule 10(3) that non-compliance renders the documents invalid and improperly filed. It is suggested that by the usage of "includes" and "any similar documents" which is all encompassing, thus by a parity of reasoning and by virtue of ejusdem generis, several law processes like Notice Of Appeal, Briefs of Arguments not expressly mentioned are envisaged by the Rules.

Worthy of note is that the Rules of Professional Conduct has valid legal standing. It is a subsidiary legislation made pursuant to the Legal Practitioners Act 2004, indeed by virtue of Section 12(4) of the Legal Practitioners Act 1990 as amended, the Minister of Justice/ Chairman, General Council of the Bar has the latitude to make the Rules of Professional Conduct. The current RPC of 2007 was made by Chief Bayo Ojo SAN when he was the Attorney General of the Federation. Being a subsidiary legislation it has just as much potency as the principal enactment, the Legal Practitioners Act. Our courts have held in a plethora of cases including ABUBAKAR v B.O AND A.P LTD (2007) 18 NWLR (PT 1066) pg, that a subsidiary legislation has the force of law.

More so a community reading of Sections 18,19 and 37 of the Interpretation Act, LFN, 2004 drives home the point that subsidiary legislation has the force of law as a principal enactment.

The Court is indeed empowered by an aggregate of these laws to wit- Sections 2 and 24 of the Legal Practitioners Act which provides that only lawyers whose names are on the Roll are entitled to practice law in Nigeria, also Section 122(a), (b),(e) and (j) provides that the court shall take judicial notice of the following amongst others to wit- Laws, Acts, Seals of court cum as allowed by Acts/ Laws, names of Lawyers who appear before it. Section 122(4) provides that if the court is called upon by any person to take judicial notice of any fact, court may insist on proof before so doing. Thus a Court in line with the Rules of Professional Conduct, Legal Practitioners Act, Evidence Act and Case Laws cited above in this piece can ensure that it is a lawyer who in consonance with Rules of Court, which permits Lawyers to sign processes, that it is signed by a qualified lawyer and the Stamp and Seal is the legal visa to ensure that.

To further amplify the ills of the lack of the stamp initiative and infiltration by quacks, a non-lawyer in one of the leading Bars in Nigeria applied for the position of Treasurer and was elected before he was discovered to be a fake lawyer. Also in Gwagwalada branch, another person was arrested and prosecuted after holding himself out for years as a practitioner before he was discovered to be a fake lawyer simply as a result of the verification exercise embarked upon for the stamp and seal policy.

The apex decision-making body of the NBA, the National Executive Council (NEC) further met and approved the enforcement of the already-statutorily provided requirement for stamp and seal without any objection from any Branch of the NBA in addition to the legal provisions backing same. Frankly, the stamp and seal project can only do well and not harm to members of our esteemed profession.

Learned Gentlemen let us embrace this laudable project for our collective good!

Agwuncha and Aliyu wrote from Abuja