Four Years Later: NBA-SLP Bounces Back with a Bang
The Nigerian Bar Association’s Section on Legal Practice (NBA-SLP), was one of the three pioneer Sections created by the NBA in 2003, and it remained vibrant, until its Council came under the hammer of the parent body in 2014. Some were sceptical, when the NBA-SLP Council was reconstituted, and it resumed activities recently. However, last week, its first Conference after its resuscitation, cleared any doubts, as the two-day Conference stood as an eloquent testimony of the sterling leadership qualities of its Chairperson, Mrs. Miannaya Essien, SAN, who along with her Council Members, delivered an A-Class Conference in Port Harcourt, to the admiration of Nigerian Lawyers. THISDAY LAWYER was present, to report on the activities
Thank you for inviting me to your Conference, and for the opportunity to make some welcome remarks.
On behalf of the Government and People of Rivers State, I wish you a very good morning, and a warm welcome to Rivers State the treasure base of the nation, and in particular, to Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s only garden city.
As a responsible State Government, we consider ourselves as stakeholders in the progress of the legal profession, which with an independent judiciary, constitutes the legal substructure for achieving the consolidation of our apparently fragile democracy.
This is why we have always identified with the programmes of the NBA, when called to do so. We have also on our own initiative, executed several projects that have advanced the legal profession and legal practice in Rivers State.
Some of these projects include the Port Harcourt Law Centre, the newest Federal High Court complex in Nigeria, and the new State High Court complex. Others are the ultra modern judges quarters, the renovated Port Harcourt Court of Appeal complex and the Industrial Court complex, which is due to be commissioned in a months time.
It is for this this same love for the legal profession that has inspired us to sponsor this conference in partnership with the Section on Legal Practice of the NBA on the strength that conferences of this nature do offer the opportunity for making the legal profession to be cohesive and forward-looking.
Over the years, the legal profession in Nigeria has undergone substantial changes in the way we practice or do the business of the law.
Apart from the emergence of the legal industry,
“FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS, IS THE BEDROCK OF EVERY DEMOCRACY, AND THE 2010 ELECTORAL ACT WAS OSTENSIBLY INTENDED TO ADVANCE JUST THAT. HOWEVER, IT WAS CLEAR FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF RIVERS STATE DURING THE 2016 RE-RUN ELECTIONS, THAT THIS PIECE OF LEGISLATION WAS EFFECTIVELY INEFFECTIVE FOR THE PURPOSE”
alternative service providers now compete with lawyers for a reasonable share of the legal market.
In the face of the complexities and competition for space and relevance in the legal industry, clients now demand greater degrees of loyalty, transparency and efficiency in our relations with them.
Therefore, while the legal profession must constantly reinvent and reposition itself in response to existing and new challenges both in the theory and practice of the law; lawyers must also rethink the way they practice to remain relevant in the profession and meet the needs of their clients and society in the most professional, diligent and efficient manner.
It is against this background that I consider the general theme of this conference: “Rethinking and Retooling Legal Practice for the Challenges of our time,” as apt and contemporary.
As lawyers, we both have and enjoy the monopoly to practice law through the representation of our clients, whether individual or corporate, rich or indigent, powerful or weak.
In doing so we are bound by professional responsibility to serve the best interest of our clients without compromising the ends of justice and the good of society.
But, lest we forget, we live in a constantly changing times and the legal profession is not an island, therefore must also change with the times. Otherwise, it will continue to lose its charm, which is greatly eroded already.
In other words, today’s practice does not need lawyers that still cling to the old ways of doing things. In stead, today’s practice needs lawyers that are current and savvy with the issues dexterous with technology and determined to be ahead of the constantly changing character of the law.
And as you know, this comes through continuous learning, continues training and continuous retooling. It is therefore not enough for lawyers to acknowledge the changes in the profession without embracing and adapting to these changes. This, I believe is one of the central objectives this conference is programmed to achieve.
Let me therefore congratulate the Legal Section of the NBA for organizing this conference and creating the avenue for us to discuss some of the most important and dynamic areas of substantive law and practice.
Apart from the choice of topics, which reflects the wide range of subject areas of practice for barristers, solicitors or advisers in the country’s legal profession, I can also see the great pool of intellectuals in this hall, which comprises of a reasonable mix of senior and junior legal practi- tioners, judges, academics and policy makers.
This clearly indicates that this conference is here for serious business. I therefore expect every participant to give all his or her attention to the crosscutting ideas the conference would generate for the advancement of the legal profession and legal practice.
And as we settle down for day’s business, permit me to make a few comments on the topic: Preparing for the 2019 Elections – Experiences under the Electoral Act No. 6 of 2010 – any need for Amendment?
This topic verges on the electoral process and is therefore very important to all of us that believes in our democracy and are prepared to defend it at any cost, even if it means going to jail because there is no alternative to genuine democracy and good governance.
Free and fair election is the bedrock of every democracy and the 2010 Electoral Act was ostensibly intended to advance just that. However, it was clear from the experience of the people of Rivers State during the 2016 re-run elections that this piece of legislation was effectively ineffective for the purpose.
In spite of this law, we all saw how the All Peoples Congress, the Nigerian Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) collectively and shamelessly rigged the national and state legislative re-run elections in Rivers State with ruthless violence and terror tactics on a scale, scope and style never seen before in the democratic history of the State.
In spite of this law, we all saw how results sheets were duplicated with identical serial numbers and handed over to the police to entre fake results and returns in favour of the candidates of the APC in the said elections.
In spite of this law, we all saw how both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal anchored their verdicts on results that were generated and certified from the custody of the Nigerian Police, while the results from INEC, which conducted the elections, were branded irrelevant and accordingly rejected.
What all these mean is that a thousand Electoral Laws may amount to nothing for as long as the Federal Government, the INEC, the Police and other government agencies that may legally or illegally be brought into the election process, continue to disrespect the law and trample on our democratic rights to free and fair elections with impunity and without suffering any legal pains or punishment for their criminal conduct.
This being so, the challenge of our electoral system has more to do with the attitudes of the political class and, in the current dispensation, the manifest tendencies and intentions of the Federal Government to rig the electoral system and systematically subvert the will of the people against or in spite of the laws for undeserved political gains and advantages.
But these experiences, sad and provocative as they are, should not constrain us from putting in place a watertight legal framework for guaranteeing and ensuring a free, fair and credible electoral system if our democracy must survive and advance the nation.
We can see this optimism from the radical changes the National Assembly has introduced into the 2010 Electoral Act Amendment Bill, including the provisions on inflexible use of the card reader and the simultaneous transmission of results from polling units, which to a large extent, constitute a bulwark against the disgustful electoral malpractices that had permeated our electoral system.
Therefore, we must all stand up against the devilish efforts by some anti-democratic forces to kill the ongoing process to amend the 2010 Electoral Act on the whimsical excuse that the order of elections proposed in the Amendment Bill contravenes the discretionary powers of INEC, which, in any case, has not complained of any mischief occasioned by the new order in the said Bill.
Before I take my seat, let me remind us that a defining feature of the legal profession is the commitment to promote both the substantive rules and the processes of the law, as well as, to defend the democratic values of our society.
All too often, members of the legal profession have kept undignified silence to the point of betraying the trust of the Nigerian people by failing to appreciate the real and fundamental nature of our professional responsibilities to the public interest.
Therefore, if we believe and regard the practice of law as a noble calling and not just another job to secure our meal tickets, then duty compels us to call on the National Assembly to override Mr. President’s veto of the 2010 Electoral Act Amendment Bill to guarantee free, fair and credible electoral system in our country.
As the conference gets underway, I wish you an intellectually stimulating and fulfilling conference and a safe return to your various destinations.
On this note it is my pleasure to declare this conference open.
Thank you for your attention and may God bless you.
Being welcome remarks by His Excellency Nyesom Ezenwo Wike CON, GSSRS, Governor of Rivers State at the Annual General Conference of the Section on Legal Practice of the Nigerian Bar Association holding in Port Harcourt on 12 April, 2018