NBA-SLP Bounces Back at Conference in Port Harcourt
The Nigerian Bar Association’s Section on Legal Practice which had been in comatose for almost four years, bounced back with a world class Conference in Port Harcourt last Thursday and Friday. The Conference which drew legal practitioners from every Branch of the NBA, saw in attendance, Judges, Justices of the Appellate courts, Magistrates, Senior Advocates, senior and junior Lawyers. The Conference which held at the ultramodern Port Harcourt NBA House, was preceded by an opening ceremony chaired by the Presiding Justice of the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, Hon Justice Gumel, who represented the Chief justice of Nigeria and declared the conference open.
Rivers State Governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, who is also a Lawyer, who played an excellent role to the conferees, was at home amongst his professional colleagues.
The Chairman of NBA-SLP, Mrs. Mia Essien, SAN and NBA Port Harcourt Chairman, Mr. Victor Frank-Briggs, welcomed conferees to the oil city. They expressed joy at seeing SLP members and Nigerian Lawyers, come to attend the conference in such large numbers, even after a hiatus of almost four years.
In attendance at the two-day proceedings were the President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Mr. Santhaan Krishanan, NBA President A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, General Secretary, Isiaka Olagunju, and past NBA Presidents, Chief .T.J. Okpoko SAN, OCJ Okocha, SAN and Mr. Okey Wali SAN.
Sessions
This year’s comeback Conference was themed “Re- thinking and Re-tooling Legal Practice for the Challenges of our Time” and ran from Thursday to Friday in five sessions.
Session chairmen included Hon Justice Gumel, Attorney- General of Rivers State, E.C.Aguma, SAN and past NBA President, OCJ Okocha, SAN. Speakers and discussants included Yemi Candide Johnson, SAN, Arthur Obi-Okafor SAN, Professor Earnest Ojukwu SAN, Paul Usoro SAN, and Yakubu Maikyau SAN.
The first day of the Conference, featured the first of three sessions:- “Practicing Law in a Regulated Environment – What We Need to Know” with Uwa Etigwe, SAN as Speaker, “The Reality of the Law”. Discussants were Funke Adekoya, SAN; Charles Ajuyah, SAN; Folashade Alli, Esq.; Ayo Akintunde, SAN and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu, SAN.
President of the Nigerian Bar Association, A. B. Mahmoud, SAN, spoke on “The Future” in an interactive session.
Session two was chaired by the Honourable Attorney- General of Rivers State, Chinwe Aguma, SAN, with the topic -“Economic and whitecollar crimes- Is the Administration of Criminal Justice Act the Right Tool for Effective Justice Delivery.” Speakers included Chile Okoroma, Director Legal and Prosecution of EFCC and
Mr. Mahmoud Magaji, SAN and Mr. Charles Adeogun- Philips who is a former genocide and war crimes Prosecutor, as Discussants.
Session three was chaired by Honourable Justice A. A. B Gumel with topic “The Bench & the Bar - Managing our Symbiotic Relationship” Speakers were Hon Justice Georgewill of the Court of Appeal, who spoke on behalf of the Bench, while Yakubu Maikyau, SAN spoke from the Bar’s perspective, while Arthur Obi-Okafor was discussant .
Day Two, Friday, April 13, featured the fourth and fifth sessions.
Session four was chaired by former NBA President, Okey Wali, SAN, with the topic “Problems Impeding our Fee Earning Capabilities as Legal Practitioners”. The Speaker was Mark Mordi, with discussants Paul Usoro, SAN; Mrs. Ibioku J. Owugah and Elijah Briggs.
Session five was chaired by former NBA President, O. C. J Okocha, SAN, and the topic “Preparing for the 2019 Elections - Experiences under the Electoral Act No, 6 of 2010 - Any Need for Amendments? Lead speaker was Emmanuel C. Ukala, SAN and discussants were Donald Denwigwe, SAN; Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN and Ahmed Raji, SAN. The session examined in detail, election matters to the benefit of conferees.
The SLP Chair and Council, gave a solid promise that maximum CLE points would be awarded from the Conference.
Yemi Candide Johnson, SAN
He spoke on “Practicing law in a Regulated Environment” and remarked - “I think that we all assume that our legal profession is regulated. After all, Nigerian legislation (Legal Practitioners Act 1975), prescribes standards and requirements for the legal basis for practice of law in Nigeria.
“These include admission to the Nigerian Bar. Vocational training, is mandatory for persons seeking to practice law in Nigeria. The Nigerian Law School educates and trains law graduates in vocational knowledge and practical skills. This, and subsequent enrollment on the Roll of Legal Practitioners, authorises the practice of an individual as a Barrister and Solicitor in Nigeria.
“Legislation prescribes the right of audience before courts. Although Nigeria is a member of the WTO and ECOWAS, and is engaged in other bilateral and multilateral treaty arrangements with other countries, it has made no commitments to liberalise the legal service sector, hence currently, no special treaties exist in respect of legal services with other legal jurisdictions.
“Section 2 (2) of the LPA allows any person who is entitled to practice law in any country whose legal system is similar to that of Nigeria, to make an application to the Chief Justice of Nigeria for the issuance of a warrant to practice as a Barrister in Nigeria for the purpose of proceedings described in the application. The Chief Justice shall consider the application and determine whether it is expedient to permit such a person to practice as a Barrister for the purpose of such proceedings.
“But regulation is much more than this. Governments regulate a great deal of commercial activity in order to ensure that the public interest is served. One such area is the transactions between professionals and consumers. Professional regulation is therefore, a form of consumer protection. By Rules of Professional Conduct, Nigerian law, allows the legal profession to regulate itself. Self- regulation, is based on the concept of an occupational group entering into an agreement with government, to formally regulate the activities of its members. As a condition of delegation of such regulatory powers, the governing or regulatory body is required to apply such powers, in a manner that is guided by the public interest. The profession of law is so important, that its practitioners must be amenable to discipline. These sanctions, rules and procedure generally must be reviewed and regulated from time to time, to keep abreast of the changing times and the resultant change in demand.”
Prof Ernest Ojukwu, SAN
He also spoke on “Practicing Law In A Regulated Environment- What We Need To Know”.
“I say that we have had an incompetent Bar Association, and a disinterested membership. For over 14 years, we identified the same issues we are discussing today, and yet we have done little or nothing to implement meaningful change. Rather, we have assembled members in conferences year after year, just as we have done now, to repeatedly entertain ourselves in what I describe as ‘talk show jamborees’.
“In 2004, I was Chairman of the NBA Law Reform Committee. We produced a new Legal Practitioners Act 2004, and the draft law was circulated among members and NBA Branches, and that was the end. In 2007, I wrote another one, the Legal Practitioners
Amendment Act, and the Bar sent it to the National Assembly, and it was sponsored by Senator Ndoma Egba, Senator Ekweremadu and 3 other Senators. The Bill died in the Senate. But 12 years later, in March 2018, the National Assembly conducted a public hearing on the outdated Bill. This was done while 3 other bills which I drafted for another Committee of the Bar in 2011, were still pending at the National Assembly- that is, the Legal Practitioners Bill, 2012, the Legal Education Bill, 2012 and the Legal Services Commission Bill, 2012. In addition, in January 2017, the Bar set up another Committee and a new law was submitted to NBA NEC in Lokoja on 1st June, 2017. The Bill is the Legal Profession Regulation Act. As we speak today? 8 months since being submitted, none of the 125 Branches of the NBA has discussed the Bill, just as no Section or Forum of the Bar has. We are simply disinterested, in the future of the Bar.
“I drafted the 2007 Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, based on an old draft of late Justice Dr Orojo. In 2011, under the auspices of another Committee of the Bar, Yemi Candide- Johnson, SAN drafted a new Rules of Professional Conduct. The then President of the Bar, Okey Wali, SAN, asked me to conduct a validation workshop for that draft. The Academic Form conducted a session on that draft in 2013 at the Annual Bar Conference in Calabar, and submitted an updated draft Rules. That was the last action on that draft Rules of Professional Conduct, and we are in 2018.
“The foundation for the reform of the legal profession, lies in a foundational reform of our legal education. If we do not reform what and how we teach our LL.B students and Law School trainees, any change we bring in the profession, will be like taking out termites on the surface of the ground. No real change will ever take root in the legal profession, unless we deal with our legal education where we have over 5000 Lawyers produced annually, to join the profession. The standard of our LL.B, is very poor. Legal education in the Law School, is at present, a stadium education, where we have over 1600 students seated in one theatre, to learn professional skills and values. Ethics is not a course in 99% of our LLB programmes, and yet, we want to have ethical Lawyers.
“The Nigerian Bar Association, is one of the most disinterested professional organisations in the World, on how its members are trained to join or remain in the profession. Our legal education, both at the academic and vocational levels, lack adequate independent oversight, and only the Bar can provide such oversight, just as its counterpart American Bar Association does in the USA. But the NBA does no such oversight. It has not even written any policy document, on how Lawyers should be trained. The NBA does not have a single programme that connects the trainees at the University and the Law School, to the profession. NBA does not have any transitional programme for new Barristers and Solicitors that step out of the Law School, such as canopies, incubator programmes, capstones and career counselling. It is a disinterested Bar.
“In spite of the critical state of the legal profession in Nigeria, we are witnesses to today’s bar strangers and corrupt senior Lawyers, that some of us are applauding for showing interest to lead the Bar, yet are busy bribing members with millions and millions of Naira, for members votes. There is no serious change that we will have, as long as we allow these corrupt senior Lawyers without any leadership experience, who are busy corrupting our young Lawyers with money and practice fee bribes, to lead the Bar and lead the change. No such change will ever come.
“The Legal profession is at a crossroad. The Nigerian Bar Association, is inflicted with cancer that has spread all over the organs and the body. There are only two options- let the body die or carry out a stem cell transplant. Our problem is not our regulations and our laws. Our problems are Lawyers.”
O.C.J. Okocha, SAN
“I thank the NBA SLP, for organising the Conference and the selection of the Resource Persons to deal with the topics, all of whom are well versed in Election Matters Litigation. I then invited the audience to sit back and enjoy the intellectual feast. I conclude by thanking the Speakers, E. C. Ukala, SAN, D. C. Denwigwe, SAN and Wale Balogun, who represented Ahmed Raji, SAN, for their masterful presentations.”
That the 2018 NBA SLP Port Harcourt was a qualified success, would be an understatement. Indeed most conferees agreed that it was an A-Class Conference, and that the SLP under Mrs. Mia Essien, SAN has set a pace for other NBA Sections.
“THAT THE 2018 NBA SLP PORT HARCOURT WAS A QUALIFIED SUCCESS, WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT. INDEED MOST CONFEREES AGREED THAT IT WAS AN A-CLASS CONFERENCE, AND THAT THE SLP UNDER MRS. MIA ESSIEN, SAN HAS SET A PACE FOR OTHER NBA SECTIONS”