NBA Publicity Secretary calls for urgent electoral reforms

The Assistant national Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), John Austin Unachukwu at the weekend in Lagos, called on the new leadership  of the NBA led by Mr. Augustine  Alegeh (SAN) to embark on a holistic reform of the association’s electoral processes  to make it seamless, less rigorous, transparent and credible.

 John Austin,  a candidate in the just-concluded NBA election was disqualified from contesting the election on the eve  of the election  because the Electoral Committee said he would be 10 years at the Bar in October this year as provided in the NBA constitution , whereas  his  branch, Lagos  insisted  that he was 10 years at the Bar last year and he started paying Bar Practising Fees  to the association and  the branch accordingly  since 2013.

In a press release signed by him, John Austin  frowned at this  situation which he described  as “  Disqualification  by ambush,  a situation where nomination papers were  opened one month  after the close of nominations, candidates   screened a week  before the  election,  the results of the screening not made known to candidates, only for  some of  them to be  told   of their disqualification on the eve of the election when they come for accreditation and presentation of their manifestoes,   no formal or prior information of  disqualification  was given  to  the affected candidates.

“ Some other contestants  were disqualified and nobody  told them anything except that they did not find their names on  the  list of qualified candidates to contest the election  and ballot papers displayed on the evening before the election.

John Austin said: “It has become imperative for the NBA National Executive Committee (NEC)  to pass a resolution on how the number  of years of call to the  Bar is computed in the association, whether the year of call is part of the  years or not, this will reduce or completely eliminate the ambiguity  surrounding  the interpretation of the years now.

“ A situation where candidates travel to all the nooks and crannies of this   country  campaigning,  canvassing for votes and continues the campaigns  at the  election  venue  only to be informed that the  list of candidates was just posted on a notice board,  their  names   not listed  as  contestants  in the election and no opportunity given to him to appeal  such  actions  is highly undemocratic,  condemnable, dictatorial and amounts to disqualification by ambush.

The time for NBA elections are provided for in NBA constitution, the elections should be properly planned,  electoral time table and guidelines released,  so candidates for  the  elections should be screened on time and  given opportunity to appeal and be heard by the NEC before elections   as was formerly done in the association, this is fair hearing and democracy in action.  This will also reduce the tension and spate of law suits that trail the association’s activities.  A situation where lawyers stand on a queue  for almost four hours in the sun before   casting  their votes is not too good and should be improved upon”  John Austin stated.