The Bar speaks…
The National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the 2nd highest decision-making organ of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), held its quarterly meeting last week in Lafia, Nasarawa State where it deliberated on several representative, regulatory, and public interest roles of the Association.
The Committee, made up of all National Officers, Past Presidents, Past General-Secretaries, Branch Chairmen and Secretaries, Branch NEC Representatives and Co-opted members, discussed issues bordering on security, education, the legal profession, governance and the state of the nation generally.
You will find in detail below, the resolution of the Committee at this meeting.
RESOLUTIONS
1. The NBA-NEC noted the recent security challengess faced by Nasarawa State and expressed the sympathy of the NBA to the Governor and the good people of Nasarawa State. The NBA-NEC commended the State Governor His Excellency, Umaru Tanko Almakura, for restoring security and normalcy in the state.
2. The peace and tranquillity we met in Nasarawa State after the sad events of the recent past there, is commendable and worthy of emulation. NEC urged the good people of the state to maintain that peace in the overall interest of the country.
3. That the duty and responsibility of Government to protect life and property at all levels and at all time is a social Contract with the citizenry encapsulated in the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy as contained in Chapter two Section 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
4. That government should as part of that social contract, compensate victims of insecurity just like any other disaster and that government at all levels should stop talking about support and move to compensation of such innocent victims due to failure of government to carry out its responsibility to protect life and property.
5. NBA-NEC condemned the apparent laxity in governance by political office holders, and noted that a situation whereby elected political office holders devote more time to political activities, meetings, unnecessary travels and jamborees cannot be right.
6. That the NBA views as very embarrassing and unacceptable the inconclusiveness of the Anambra State Governorship elections occasioned by operational and logistic challenges in an election supervised by six National Commissioners, 15 Resident Electoral Commissioners and a galaxy of permanent staff from the contiguous states.
7. That the inconclusiveness of the said elections and the serious operational and logistics challenges that gave rise to the supplementary elections have created serious doubts in the minds of Nigerians, regarding the preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct acceptable elections in 2015.
8. That the NBA is also concerned that there apparently, still are, highly compromised officials within the Commission and these officials have been playing critical roles in the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
The NBA therefore recommends and canvasses for the following:
a. That all the officials identified to have compromised their oath of office and official functions in the conduct of the Anambra Governorship Elections should be arrested and proceeded against in properly constituted courts.
b. That INEC and the National Assembly must move fast and finalize the promulgation of the Electoral Offences Commission Act to deal with the arrest and prosecution of electoral offenders. Such a Commission will be in a better position to deal with the challenges posed to our electoral process by the brazen commission of electoral offences in our electoral process.
c. The Independent National Electoral Commission must carry out a surgical operation of its processes and procedures. It must tackle frontally the recurring challenges of operational and logistic failure ahead of the 2015 general elections.
d. The Independent National Electoral Commission must also intensify continuous voters’ registration and weed out the fraudulent names that are self evident in the current register, as this is fundamental to the credibility of future elections.
9. That all political parties and candidates who contested the November 16th, 2013 Governorship elections in Anambra State should carry out their protests within the ambit of the law and the constitution. The complaints, petitions and grievances relating to the election must also conform with to the provisions of the constitution and the electoral Act. All the candidates and political parties must renew their faith in the courts as their final arbiter in our electoral process.
10. That the NBA supports the Proposed National Dialogue/Conference on the condition that the report shall be final, binding, and validated by Nigerians through a referendum. To this end, the NBA has constituted a National Conference and Constitutional Review Committee to articulate NBA’s positions, firstly on the report of the Presidential Advisory Panel and the National Dialogue/Conference proper.
11. That Government must recognize that the judiciary is the Third Arm of Government in any civilized society. Accordingly, the independence of the Judiciary must be guaranteed and secured. To secure the independence of the Judiciary, Government must grant to it, true financial autonomy, and a full self-accounting status. The funds of the judiciary must be released to it as soon as same is approved in the budgets of the Federal and State governments.
12. That besides being independent and self accounting, a situation where budgetary appropriation for the judiciary is dwindling while that of the other arms of government is bourgeoning, cannot be right. Statistics have shown that funding from the Federal Government in the Annual budget has witnessed a steady decline since 2010, from N95 Billion in that year to N85 Billion in 2011, then N75 Billion in 2012, and dropped again in the 2013 budget to N67 Billion.
13. That Government must recognize that it is only the existence of a virile, fearless and independent Judiciary that can guarantee an enduring democratic government, and the maintenance of law and order. It must be recognized that a good civilian administration in Nigeria premised on the rule of law will provide the enabling environment for foreign investments, economic growth and social development.
14. That the NBA is worried over the fact that some politicians are beginning to drag the Judiciary into their problems, in view of the fact that all sought of orders and rulings are being procured. To this end, the NBA-NEC resolved that it would not allow the judiciary to be destroyed, and called on the NJC and NBA to rise to the occasion.
15. NEC observed that it had kept reading of judgements being investigated by EFCC in the media, but nothing had been heard about that. The NBA-NEC resolved to welcome prompt action on such investigations and developments.
16. That while the NBA is determined to fight corruption on the Bench, the NBA shall also seek the protection of our good and hard working Judges, who are in the majority.
17. That a situation where people go on air with impunity and make allegations against members of the Bench, and are not called upon to substantiate, cannot be good for our Judiciary, and urged the NJC and security agencies to thoroughly investigate such allegations, and when established, punish the Judicial officer involved and if the allegation is found to be false and a mere smear campaign and blackmail, prosecute and punish the person making such spurious allegation for false information.
18. That NBA will not allow politicians to destroy the Bench with their well established culture of impunity.
19. With regards to the members of the NBA involved in the unwholesome act, the NBA-NEC resolved to move the NBA Disciplinary Machinery a nudge higher to the corruption of filing frivolous applications, and seeking orders that constitute abuse of court process to satisfy their politician clients, NEC resolved not to allow this to continue towards 2015.
20. Approval of four new branches of NBA, namely Ukwa, Saki, Ungogo and Degema.
21. Approval of design of Seal and Stamp presented by the Stamp and Seal Policy Committee of the NBA.
22. Approval of 2013/2014 budget of the NBA.
The above communiqué from the National Executive Committee meeting was dated November 21st, 2013 and signed by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Okey Wali, SAN.