RE: NBA 2014 – More reactions from Agbakoba’s letter to the NBA
Last week, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba wrote to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), advising the body not to depart from its zoning arrangement in its 2014 presidential elections.
The letter dated 28th April, 2014 and addressed to the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Okey Wali SAN, instantly attracted a barrage of reactions and prompt responses from members of the bar, all of which we published in our last edition.
In this edition, we bring you one more reaction received early this week.
RIGHT OF REPLY: THE AGBAKOBA APOSTACY
I read with amazement Dr. Olisa Agbakoba’s letter to the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on the subject of the Zoning of the Presidency of the NBA for the 2014 Bar election. I was amazed because the letter was unwarranted and totally uncalled for.
Olisa’s stated reason for writing the letter was because “we must not allow the election to become a ‘do or die’ matter.” First; election campaigns have not been authorised by the NEC, so whatever has been ongoing, has been subterranean, informal consultations and mobilisation and this is normal. Olisa’s public declaration of support and canvassing is therefore in breach of NBA Electoral regulations and also in breach of the NBA Constitution, of course every lawyer knows that what Olisa deployed was an over-reaching tactic which in itself is sanctionable.
Olisa’s ill-fated letter was short, so, permit me to reproduce it in order to put matters in context and deconstruct the iniquitous disquisition.
28th April 2014.
Okey Wali SAN
President, Nigerian Bar Association,
No. 24, Oro-Ago Crescent,
Off Mohammed Buhari Way,
Garki, Area II
Abuja.
My Dear President,
ZONING AND THE NBA 2014 ELECTIONS
I regret that the 2014 NBA Presidential Elections is getting out of hand and I fear there will be dire consequences. We must not allow the Elections become a “do or die” matter. We are not politicians. That is why when I was President I adopted the inclusion policy so that all zones have the opportunity to produce the President.
We all know that by the zoning convention, it is the turn of the South west region to produce our President. I appreciate the concern and disappointment of the Midwest that it has not been included in our zoning arrangement. This is why when I was President I set up the inclusion committee to review this at our NEC meeting in Maiduguri but unfortunately this has not materialized.
Based on our current arrangements, it is the turn of the South west region and we must all support candidates from the zone. Zoning in the NBA was established at Chief Philip Umeadi’s residence in Onitsha. Although not a binding convention, all past Presidents have been elected based on zoning.
I recognize and empathize with the exclusion of the Midwest but it is in our overall interest to maintain the zoning arrangement. I suggest we do not depart from the zoning arrangement but immediately take steps to address the grievances of the Midwest. Personally, I will be voting for a candidate from the South west region.
Sincerely,
Dr. Olisa Agbakoba SAN
CC. All Past Presidents
Olisa as a recent past president NBA, should be presumed to be seised of the extant structure of the NBA. Indeed on March 12 2012, he had submitted a written position wherein he had proposed that in order to effectualize the Zoning of the NBA presidency both the Midwest Bar Forum and the Egbe Amofin should constitute what is now known as the Western Bar.
Yes, the extant structure of the NBA is a tripod; viz: Northern Bar (as in the defunct Northern Region) Eastern Bar (as in the defunct Eastern Region) and the Western Bar (as in the also defunct Western Region)
You now ask; how could our past president who made a presentation on this subject in 2012 suddenly suffer from selective amnesia? In the NBA of today, talking of the South West Bar is as incongruous as talking of the South East Bar or the North Central Bar; and President Olisa Agbakoba knows this. Indeed how can Dr. Olisa Agbakoba peremptorily declare a region zoneless; persona non grata and electorally unviable?
Why Olisa’s letter mortified me was because it was incomprehensibly unconscionable in its preachments; it was also replete with contradictions, Olisa said that as NBA president he adopted a policy of inclusion; then he said “I appreciate the concern and disappointment of the Midwest that it has not been included in our zoning arrangements.” Then he said “all past presidents have been elected based on zoning” what these statement should imply is that because all past presidents have been products of zoning and the Midwest has not been part of it, nobody from that area could have been NBA president.
This exposes all the fallacy in Agbakobas apostacy because Mr. Charles Idehen of the Benin branch was an elected president and Chief T.J.O. Okpoko of the Warri Branch had also been a recent past president.
Olisa, how did they emerge?
For a man who claims to preach inclusion to contemplate a system or an arrangement, formular or contraption or convention which effectively excludes (even for one legal year) the entire Midwest which was the 4th Region in the first Republic from participation in the contest for leadership and governance of the Bar is totally puzzling if not befuddling. It is simply disingenuous.
The Olisa I know, the Olisa that is my close friend and senior ally and lead collaborator would never have tolerated such horrendous marginalization and exclusion, as President of the NBA it would have behoved him to invoke and materialize the essence of our motto Ubi Jus Ubi Remedium into life to cure such palpable injustice just like the Supreme Court under the leadership of Hon. Justice Mariam Aloma Muktar CJN has put paid to the unjust traditional practice in parts of Igboland which disinherited women in the recent land mark case of Lois Ukeje V Gladys Ukeje SC/224/2004.
What Mr. J. B. Daudu as President did in March 2012 at the meeting in Abuja was to underline and emphasize and clarify the existence of the 3 Zones of the NBA for purposes of Presidential elections. And that remains the status quo.
I was riled by Olisa’s letter because he was clearly orchestrating what he was pretending to avoid. The entire bar is totally cognizant of the ground rules of the game, this is a closed contest, only the constituents drawn from Egbe Amofin and the Mid-west Bar Forum which together constitutes the Western Bar can contest. Purists like us insist that all flowers must be allowed to blossom. So when a Bar leader of Olisa’s stature devises to change the Rules in the course of the contest using the media as a platform to disseminate confusion, we feel duty bound to restate the immutable truth, we are compelled by our position as co-leaders of the Bar to ensure that this train does not derail under our watch, manipulation of the “truth” does not bode well for NBA politics, as a longstanding member of the National Executive Committee of the NBA since 1987 I will be derelict in my commitment to a unified, sensitive, inclusive and all encompassing NBA if I allow this orchestrated propaganda by Olisa to garner grounds.
I will no fall into the snare of breaching any NBA Electoral Rules like Olisa, but I humbly declare that all the aspirants who have shown interest are worthy, they are all good and seasoned Bar people; it is a tough call to prefer one to the other; I wish them a healthy and robust contest in the best traditions of the Bar.
Finally, I humbly conclude by restating that Dr. Olisa Agbakobas letter to Chief Okey Wali Esq SAN President of the NBA apart from its overreaching decoy was totally uncalled for, and purposeless became of its undecipherable essence; what is the President to do about or with established structures and practices? What?
Long live the Nigerian Bar Association. Ubi Jus Ibi Remedium
Chief Chibuzo N. Ziggy Azike, Ksc
Member Body of Benchers
ziggyschambers@yahoo.com
5th May, 2014