Era of ‘bar politicians’ over

In an exclusive chat with BusinessDay Law Editor, THEODORA KIO-LAWSON, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association,  Augustine Alegeh, SAN speaks on the forthcoming bar elections and key amendments in the NBA constitution that have changed the face of bar politics as we know it. Excerpt…

As a brief description, universal suffrage is the extension of the right to vote to all citizens (or subjects). Suffrage has two necessary components, the right to vote and the opportunity to vote. Where it exists, the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief, wealth, or social status.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which recently adopted universal suffrage for its elections, starting from June 2016, has also opted for electronic voting to make the process less cumbersome for all members; regardless of age, gender, location, branch or status at the bar.

However…

Only members who have paid both Bar Practicing Fees (BPF) and branch dues would be eligible to vote. This is merely to establish that an individual has met his obligations as a member of the association and as such entitled to the rights and privileges that come with this.

WHY THE NBA DUMPED ITS DELEGATE SYSTEM

The NBA, in place of universal suffrage for all lawyers, had in place a delegate electoral system where eligible delegates comprising of 13 elected officers of the Bar, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria, members of the Body of Benchers who are not serving or retired judicial officers, members of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NBA, and branch delegates would cast votes on behalf of members.

Each of the 109 branches of the NBA is entitled to send 10 delegates to the election. To account for disparities in the size of branches, branches with more than 100 members are entitled to one additional delegate for every 100 members. This system was designed to give branch delegates a decisive edge in determining who leads the Bar.

In recent times however, particularly within the last two administrations, the call for universal suffrage became incessant, loud and almost deafening. With so much power placed in the hands of a few delegates and sometimes abused, the delegate system was described as outdated, scandal-prone and liable to whimsical capture.

WHAT THIS SYSTEM OF VOTING MEANS TO THE NIGERIAN BAR

The current leadership of the NBA has said that the adoption of universal suffrage and e-voting means that every member of the bar will be given a fair chance and opportunity to vote; as long as they meet their obligations as members.

According to the President the process will guarantee members a free and fair election.

He said, “This also means that we will no longer have use for the delegate system of voting. It means that there will be no wastage by candidate towards the election as there will be no travel and accommodation expenses to be taken on for delegates. We have saved all that money for the bar and for members.

“I assure you that it would be the most transparent election in the history of the NBA,” Alegeh stated confidently.

Electronic voting has capacity to lift the veil.

DO MEMBERS AGREE?

The Chairman, Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu who is an astute ‘barman’, believes that the payoffs from this reform will be far reaching.

“It will transform the way we govern our Bar, give the Bar greater legitimacy in monitoring public affairs and ensure better revenues for the NBA. Above all it will herald a more transparent, professional, efficient and fully inclusive bar,” he said.

The general view expressed my members, is that the delegate system denies many lawyers the opportunity to choose who leads the bar and thus affects its role as the voice of the people.

ON ELECTION PREPARATIONS

The leadership of the NBA insists that only those who have paid practicing fees and branch dues ‘AS AT WHEN DUE’ will be eligible to vote.

In the President’s words, “We are in the process right now of compiling the voters’ register, which we shall publish in May. Anybody who claims to have paid his practicing fees ‘AS AT WHEN DUE’ and branch dues ‘AS AT WHEN DUE’ would be entitled to participate and vote in the bar elections,” the President of the NBA emphasized.

ANY LEEWAY FOR THOSE WHO MAKE PAYMENTS AFTER FEE DEADLINES?

“I repeat ONLY those who make payment ‘AS AT WHEN DUE’ would be allowed to vote. We have also asked the branches to send us their bank statements so we can verify all payments made to the branches.

“The receipt from your practicing fees is the same receipt used to process your stamps. So interestingly, 80% all those in actual legal practice have paid their practicing fees as at when due – because without being coerced, they need the receipts to process and obtain their stamps (Elections or not),” he surmised on the issue.

VITAL STEPS TAKEN

With the inauguration of the Branch Election Monitoring Committee  (BEMC) in place and compiled list of branches ready, I believe we are good to go. The committee would simply work with the branches to organise and coordinate the elections, which as you know is by electronic voting.

By the time we arrive at NEC in June, all branch, Section and Fora elections would have been conducted. It is for this reason that the NEC meeting was moved by one week. It was initially slated for June 10, 2016 but we have moved it to the 15th through to 17th – to ensure branches have the two-week period required to conduct their elections.

LEGALBUSINESS ENQUIRES:

‘AS WITH ALL FIRSTS, A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF CHALLENGE IS ANTICIPATED FROM THE E-VOTING PROCESS, WHAT SORT OF GLITCHES ARE YOU LOOKING OUT FOR AND HOW DO YOU PLAN TO ALLEVIATE THIS; KEEPING SUCH SETBACKS AT THE BAREST MINIMUM?’

Top on our list of concerns would be challenges of connectivity and Internet failure. However to mitigate this, we have ensured that the period for voting (3 hours) is long enough for such a glitch. In other words, where a voting member has challenges with epileptic Internet services, they should be able to quickly relocate and carry out the voting process in another designated centre with better connectivity.

We believe three hours is long enough for anyone to find a suitable and serviceable location to vote.

The electoral committee would contact all branches and where any branch makes a complaint about having epileptic Internet services or connectivity, the NBA shall promptly design a way for them to vote electronically from that branch.

Other than this, we do not foresee any problems.

ON FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN THE BAR, PARTICULARLY THE RECENT CONTROVERSY TRAILING THE AMENDMENT OF THE NBA CONSTITUTION

There are no issues at all. The draft amendments of the constitution were well circulated to all members of the bar who were asked to voice their opinions – for or against the amendments. And those opinions voiced were considered moving forward.

The first issue that came to the fore was that of TENURE LIMITATIONS. If you have held two offices or two positions in the last five (5) years at the branch level, the constitution has an expectation that you go back to practice for some time.

“You are a lawyer, not a politician. So if you have served your branch for four years, take a break for five years; face your practice, develop yourself professionally, before you offer yourself for service again.

We appreciate that you want to serve the bar, but we also appreciate above everything else that you are a legal practitioner and must devote time to your practice.

At the national level, once you have served two terms, you take a short hiatus for 10 years. This is so that we don’t have the derogatory name used to describe some lawyers as ‘BAR POLITICIANS’. A lawyer should be known as a lawyer or a committed ‘barman’ not a politician.

We owe it as an association to ensure members develop themselves professionally. So if you have served the association in two capacities, we expect that you take a 10-year break before coming back to continue your service. A lot of people think that 10 years is a long time but this is not true.

Let’s take a quick look at some of our past leaders. Funke Adekoya, SAN came back to serve as first Vice President of the NBA 10 years after she served the association as treasurer; and 10 years after this, she ran for the office of the President.

AB Mahmoud ran for President of the bar in 2004, and he has come back again to run for President in 2016 – More than 10 years later. So you will see that for any practitioner, 10 years is not such an extended time to go focus on your practice.

We must note that the goal/objective is not punitive. It is our collective decision that members go back to develop themselves after a period of service.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE REACTION OF MEMBERS TO THIS?

The argument put forward by some members is that the bar would be run by novices i.e. people without experience and I ask them “What experience did I have when I came in as President of the NBA?”

In fact, I am a classic example of one who defeats this argument. I have never held office at either the branch or national level. I came in as President and by the grace of God I believe I have done well.

RESPONDING TO QUESTIONS ON TENURE

The constitution provides that all elections will hold in June; noting that where tenures expire, we will have Caretaker Committees for three months. Now the issue came up at the National Executive Meeting (NEC) of the NBA as to what happens to those whose tenure would expire in July or in August – As going by the provision of the amended constitution, we may have a caretaker committee in operation until the next June (i.e. 11 months, instead of three months).

And thus, when it came up at NEC, it was fiercely debated until all the branches of NBA and their chairmen unanimously agreed that to give effect and meaning to the spirit and letter of the constitution of the bar, anyone whose election was due in 2016 (be it June, July or August), should have their elections in June and handover.

Note however that we have about 79 branches involved in this issue and so the Chairmen whose tenures were affected are actually in the majority. To this end, if it was a decision that was being forced down their throats, then they would certainly have defeated the votes.

Nonetheless, it is imperative to point out that everyone at NEC is a lawyer. You cannot force such a decision on lawyers. It is the interest of the bar that brought about NEC’s decision.

CURRENT STATUS OF THINGS?

NEC has decided! It is not a decision of the NBA Executive. Neither is it a decision of the President or the General Secretary of the Bar.

HOW WAS THE ISSUE OF THE CONSTITUTION’S RETROSPECTIVE NATURE DEALT WITH?

Yes, indeed, another issue that came up regarding the amendment was whether the constitution takes retrospective effect in terms of those who held office before the constitution came into force.

We promptly called on the constitution drafting committee to explain this to us and they did.

According to them, both positions were contemplated and sufficiently deliberated. And it was decided that the constitution would a ‘retrospective effect’ taking into cognizance anyone who has held office in the past (prior to the amendment of the constitution).

What this simply means is that the constitution applies to anyone who has held office before, even under the old constitution.

The truth is, we cannot ask the court to interpret the constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association the way the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) would be interpreted. It is a voluntary association, and in a voluntary association, you decide yourselves how you want the association to be run, managed or administered. It is all voluntary and so only you can interpret that to yourselves.

On the other hand, the CFRN is not a voluntary document but a constitutive one that governs conducts around the country.

Whether there are complaints or not we cannot really say, because as we speak, we are yet to receive any formal notice of amendment of the said constitution.  So far, no one who has complaints with any of the clauses has come forward.

As with everything else, I always take a position of neutrality to allow the bar decide what it wants for itself.

For us, it is simple and straightforward. What the bar says we cannot do, we would not do.

MORE CHANGES THIS YEAR

It has also been confirmed by the President that this year, there will be no election posters for campaigns, no posters and no brochures printed by the candidates. All election publications (A single brochure showcasing all candidates, etc.) have been taken over by the NBA secretariat to minimize expenses and afford candidates a level playing field.

On the subject he said, “We are an association of lawyers and I believe that the steps we have taken greatly reduces the expenditure profile of the elections.

THEODORA KIO-LAWSON