Why capacity building is critical for the Nigerian Bar
Members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Branch Capacity Building Committee have reiterated the need for the development and strengthening of all NBA branches nation-wide.
The committee which recently held an instructive seminar aimed at educating members of the branches, on project funding and income generating techniques, noted that the workshop was put together to enable branches discharge the responsibility of supporting the national body in fulfillment of the objectives of the Nigerian Bar.
Speaking about this development, the Committee Chair, Funke Adekoya, SAN explained, “to build capacity within the branches, we had to first identify the needs of each branch. We came up with a ‘NEEDS QUESTIONAIRE’, where we discovered that the performance of quite a number of branches was limited by funds. It was in direct response to this challenge that our committee held the workshop for branch chairmen.”
The branches of the NBA, numbering about a hundred form the entire membership of the Nigerian Bar Association; and these branches work together to drive the position and objectives of the bar. The NBA Capacity-building Committee is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the branches fulfill these obligations.
At the workshop on fund-raising techniques – participants and resource persons discussed critical issues on project-funding such as, how to raise funds, what to do when funds have been raised, how to manage these funds, utilizing and funding subsequent projects from proceeds, and all together generating income for the branches.
“If adequate capacity is built for the branches,” Adekoya notes, “the National body should be able to implement policies emanating from its branches. It is our goal as the NBA Branch Capacity Building Committee to ensure this happens,” she stated.
Recently, in response to a directive of the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML), that lawyers must register with the Unit and submit monthly statements of their clients who have deposited more than One Thousand Dollars, the Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) took its position on the matter to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA, where it pointed out the flaws of the said directive; stating also that such a directive should be promptly challenged.
Upon the submission of its Memorandum (based on Law), and supported by various other branches, the National Executive adopted the position of Lagos branch, as the position of the bar, and thus the directive was challenged in court. The suit filed at the Federal High Court Abuja in the name of the Registered Trustees of Nigerian Bar Association had listed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as first and second defendants respectively.
The Nigerian Bar Association consists of its branches and not of the national executive, as is often misconstrued; and thus membership is notably at the branch level. To this end, the branches as a body drive direction by attending and taking positions at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings through their representatives.
By: Theodora Kio-Lawson