We should have universal suffrage …

Q : Tell us about your administration. What is your primary focus for the next two years?

A: As Chair of the branch, my most significant vision is to reposition the NBA Lagos branch as a professional association that caters to the interests and welfare of its members.

Continuous Legal Education (CLE) is a central focus for my administration in the next two years, as I think that the quality of legal services being offered by lawyers and members has dropped and this is because there is clearly a drop in standards of education nationwide.

Not a lot of lawyers are in the habit of Continuous self development and this is something we must really look into.

In terms of how the NBA Lagos branch is administered, it is quite different from the national body, particularly with regards to structure. While the national body appears to have a well-structured secretariat with competent qualified staff, and running efficiently with minimum intervention from elected officers, at the branch level, the reverse is the case. It is the elected officers who drive the administration of the branch. However, I think we should look for a hybrid.

We should have an efficient office administration with trained staff who effective in designated roles and at different levels. This will also ease the pressure of time that elected officers have to devote to running their offices.

Does this need some sort of buy-in by the national body or you have to drive the process on your own?

This would be a branch initiative; to be entirely driven by the branch in question. It has nothing to do with the constitution of the NBA, which the branch byelaws must comply with. It is simply office administration and an effort to have the branch run better.

Doesn’t this come down to capital and funds? Some past administrations of the NBA (even at the national level) have been accused of running an expensive secretariat that was ‘needless’, and rendered the ExCo almost disused.

I doubt that running an efficient secretariat will translate to a major investment of money. It is about designing a blueprint and structure that would work. For instance, I don’t see us having a great increase in the number of staff. We might only have to consider bringing in one or two key people at a certain level to administer the place, and then putting in place some systems that will run the secretariat.

Because it does not necessarily challenge the status quo, and merely proposes a more efficient way of running what currently exists, I don’t see why anyone or any officer would have a problem with this – particularly when their jobs are only being made easier. The goal is to reduce the pressure of time we all have to contend with running the affairs of the branch.

In the past; and I think it still reoccurs from time to time, there have been instances where branches (for whatever reasons) have had differing opinions with the national leadership of the bar, how do the branches deal with such conflict of opinions with the parent body?

Let us first agree that the Nigerian Bar Association is one organisation; and the branches feed off the national body.

In any association, there must be discipline and proper reporting lines.  I am of the view, that when it comes to speaking on national issues, the NBA should speak with one voice and the voice of the NBA emanates from the President. I doubt that the Lagos branch will under my watch publicly take a position on a national issue that is at variance with that of the NBA president. Save (and I repeat, SAVE) for a situation where the entire membership of the Lagos branch takes a position and that position is then articulated and presented to the national body.

Does this serve us well? Particularly where the national leadership may be politically inclined, thus not speaking truly for those it represents. Now, I’m not saying this is the case, but isn’t it a possibility?

It will not serve us well to speak with discordant tunes. The NBA has a hundred branches. It will be a cacophony if each branch were to publicly state a different opinion from the national body on national issues. We will definitely not be taken seriously.

We must bear in mind, that the same thing could happen at the branch level. The branch, through the Chairman cannot take a position on an issue, and then a member of the Exco goes public, taking a different position on the same issue. That should not be.

Are the decisions at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings, a true reflection of the views of every member of the Nigerian Bar Association?

Well, there is every opportunity at NEC meetings for branches, represented by their Chairmen and secretaries to air their views, before a collective decision is taken.

What then happened with the decision taken by NEC on the increase of practicing fees, conference fees, etc, and the conflict that arose after this decision with a number of branches?

There was no agreement by Chairmen and Secretaries to the increase, at any NEC meeting. Yes, the increase was discussed at a NEC meeting, but the  consensus reached was that the issue should be revisited. There was also the suggestion that NEC had no say on the issue of practicing fees; as this was a matter for the General Council of the Bar (GCOB). Therefore, branch Chairmen and secretaries never agreed to any such increase – be it for themselves or their branches.

With regards to members’ interest, what are some of the critical points of attention for you and your administration at this time?

One of the things that would be a priority for us at the branch is our Secretariat building project. This has become some sort of embarrassment to the branch. We will be paying a lot of attention to this in the upcoming months.

We will also focus on Continuous Legal Education (CLE).  Think this is quite significant to where we are headed as a profession, and we would push for a lot more training for our members.

 We would also focus our effort on securing a proper welfare scheme for members of the Lagos branch.

What sort? Do you have any pencilled at the moment?

Well, we do have options. We are considering some insurance scheme that members can buy into to address some germane issues in both their professional and personal lives.

If this hasn’t worked at the national level (at least not to my knowledge), what makes you think it can work at the branch level? 

Well, it is not true to say it hasn’t worked at the national level. It did work sometime in the past.

Years back, there used to be an insurance scheme that was paid for, from practicing fees.

What happened to this scheme?

It was discontinued after a while, but it had worked for a period, at the national level.

At the branch level, how would you drive the process to achieve results?

I do not think it is rocket science. There are branches with effective insurance schemes in place. When paying their annual membership dues, members simply pay an additional amount for this purpose. It is something that can be achieved and properly implemented.

Let’s talk about your membership drive goals. Earlier, you talked about the branch having the prospect of a 5, 000 member branch. What is your action plan for effective membership drive?

I was secretary of the branch for two years, and one of the things I tried to do as secretary was to constantly reach out to lawyers within our catchment area; particularly in-house counsel, who either do not know much about the branch, or cannot attend meetings by virtue of their jobs, or feel alienated for a number of reasons.

We have worked at building a reliable database, wherein, we constantly reach out and encourage these ones to formalise their memberships by registering with the branch and paying the relevant dues. We would continue to build up on that.

We currently boast of a membership of 3,000 lawyers. We believe that there are about 5,000 lawyers who fall within or catchment area; and who should be members of the Lagos branch. We will not relent until we get all of them involved in the activities of the branch – people like you, for instance.

What do the you think about the electioneering process within the bar, and the key role Lagos branch plays in the ‘politics’ of the bar?

We would at some point need to rethink the electioneering system within the NBA. I don’t think it is working.

I have my personal views about this whole delegate system of voting, and I believe that we should have universal suffrage within the NBA. If we have this, a lot of the pressure that the process brings to bear on branches will be done away with.

The focus will then be on lawyers country-wide and not branch delegates. This is my view.

We must however, work with I consider an imperfect system, and within the existing system, there is room for people to act with some integrity. As Chairman of Lagos branch, these are some of the objectives I will try to push.

How different was the process that brought you in to office from the clamour mêlée we see at the national level that is sometimes likened to party politics and elections in Nigeria?

It was very different in the sense that as a candidate for elections at the branch level, you are campaigning to the entire membership, who are qualified to vote by virtue of their payment of practicing fees and branch dues, as opposed to campaigning or trying to convince a select group of delegates. Probably because of this, there is less emphasis on cash and attempts to by votes. So, the process is quite different in this regard.

Indeed, there had been some friction and intrigue in the lead up to the election, but it will interest you to know that all the candidates seemed to have accepted the results of the elections with no reservations whatsoever – establishing that the system not only worked, but was also quite effective.

All said, I think the system that brought me in as Chair was quite efficient. I would like to recommend that system to other branches and to the national leadership of the NBA.

Thank you.