John Austin Unachukwu
AHEAD of the July 2020 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) general elections for the election of new national officers to pilot the affairs of the association and the attendant adoption of a presidential candidate by the Egbe Amofin Oodua, whose turn it is to produce the next President of the NBA, lawyers in academia and general practice have continued to express and canvass views on this in different platforms.
They discuss the propriety or otherwise of the adoption and rotation principles of the NBA presidency.
Egbe Amofin had in its meeting in Ibadan, adopted the former General Secretary of the NBA, Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN) as its candidate for the election.
It subsequently ratified the adoption in Ibadan and urged its branch chairmen to press this down on their members at their respective branches.
Consequently, Ibadan, Ikirun, Osogbo, Owo, Ikeja and Lagos branches of the Egbe Amofin all ratified Adesina’s adoption as their candidates for the election.
Following the aforementioned adoptions, a university don, Mr. Sylvester Udemezue, analysed Adesina’s adoption and rotation of the NBA Presidency.
Udemezue decried the practice, but noted that since leaders of the association had adopted it and entrenched rotation in the NBA constitution, then let it be applied in such a way that no section of the country or region whose turn it is to produce a Prsesident is marginalised.
He said that since the Mid-west Bar Forum produced the last NBA President in the person of Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN) on the Egbe Amofin slot, it is not proper for another candidate from the Benin branch in the same Mid-West to vie for the position this time round.
He argued that the Mid-West should leave other segments of the Forum to produce the NBA President.
But this argument did not go down well with Mr. Ahmed T. Uwais who wrote a rejoinder stating that Udemezue’s commentary not only seeks to divide the Bar along tribal and ethnic lines, it also suggests that no lawyer from Edo State is constitutionally competent to lead the NBA until 2026.
Uwais said: “The basic underlying assumption of that commentary is that the 2015 NBA Constitution, as amended has retroactive or retrospective effect.
“Thus, the Constitution (and its provisions on rotational presidency, which, hitherto, did not exist) governed the NBA elections concluded before the Constitution came into effect.
“This is because the entire commentary proceeds on the premise that Mr. Augustine Alegeh SAN was the NBA President from 2014 to 2016.
“Accordingly, and consistent with the provisions on rotational presidency in the Constitution, no lawyer from Edo State should lead the NBA until 2026. This argument defies logic and is wrong in law.”
He argued that the original version of the Constitution took effect in 2015, about one year after the election that saw the emergence of Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN) as NBA President.
Uwais continued: “We also know that the amended version of the Constitution took effect in August 2019.
“Given these facts, one wonders how a Constitution that took effect in 2015 went back in time to govern the NBA elections of 2014, which brought Mr. Alegeh (SAN) into office?
“The law is quite clear on the legal status of ex post facto laws, particularly where the law in question has the status of a constitution, relates to elections, or relates to criminal liability.
“The rule of law generally requires that no law should be retrospective or retroactive. By suggesting that the rotational presidency provisions of the Constitution applied to the NBA elections of 2014, is Mr. Udemezue suggesting that our Constitution is ex post facto and violates a core principle of the rule of law?
“For the sake of our system of legal education, of which he is supposed to be an integral part, I hope not.”
Uwais further argued that the NBA election of 2016 which saw the emergence of Mr. A. B. Mahmoud (SAN), was the first national election governed by the constitution.
That election, he said, activated the provisions on rotational presidency in the Constitution, and serves as the point of origin for any assessment of the implementation of those provisions.
Uwais said: “Those provisions applied to the Northern Zone in the 2016 elections and to the Eastern Zone in the 2018 elections.
“Thus, as far as those provisions are concerned, the coming elections would be their very first application to the Western Zone for the purposes of the NBA Presidential elections.
“Nothing in the constitution recognises, acknowledges, or validates any actual or perceived zoning arrangements before 2015.
“Accordingly, Mr. Udemezue’s argument suggesting otherwise and excluding lawyers from Edo State from the list of those eligible to lead the NBA this year is baseless and incendiary.”
He further contended that “Even if, contrary to common legal sense, we accept the Constitution as ex post facto and ignore the fact that the Constitution is the fons et origo of the provisions on rotational presidency, Mr. Udemezue’s argument would still be very feeble and counter-intuitive because it ignores the NBA’s leadership history.
“To demonstrate how counter-intuitive his argument is: Mr Udemezue recently declared his support for Dr. Babatunde Ajibade (SAN).
“The learned Silk is from Ekiti State, his father is from Ado-Ekiti and his mother is from Idoani in Ondo State. Interestingly Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who led the NBA from 2002 to 2004 is from Ekiti State, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), who led the NBA from 2008 to 2010, is from Ondo State. Mr Dele Adesina (SAN), who ran for the office of NBA President in 2014 and intends to run again, is also from Ekiti State.
“From the above, and consistent with Mr. Udemezue’s arguments, Dr. Babatunde Ajibade (SAN) and Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN), are not constitutionally competent to lead the NBA now. In fact, no lawyer from Ekiti or Ondo State would be competent to lead the NBA until the late 2030s or the early 2040s,” Ahmed stated
Joining the argument, Forbes Under 30 Scholar, Mr. Kenneth Ononeze Okwor said: “It does seem the NBA has already been destroyed, or well on its way, without Udemezue’s help.
Pray tell, who are the architects of the “Egbe” contraption, who seek to eliminate competition by foisting an ethnic candidate on the generality of members of NBA nationwide? Was it Udemezue?
“Have you not read how the Benin Branch of the NBA has ‘adopted’ Akpata as its sole candidate for the singular reason that he is ‘our son’?
“What do you call that? Was that Udemezue’s doing? Perhaps the only reason why you complain is because Udemezue’s article does not favour your own ethnic bias, so you kick.
“Had it been tilted in favour of your candidate, the headline of your treatise would be “Leave Udemezue alone, he is entitled to his opinion” and I dare say you would even cite several authorities and examples in history to support your view. Because this is Nigeria where right or wrong is judged solely from the prism of self interest. This is Nigeria, where objectivity has been long dead and interred even among lawyers from whom more should be expected in that regard”.
In another rejoinder to the issue, Mr. Udemezue said: “To avoid a repeat of such within the NBA, I preached that we should respect the NBA Constitution by observing the rotational presidency provisions of the constitution, first to carry all sections along and second, to afford a sense of belonging to each and all.
“This was what the drafters of the NBA constitution had in mind and that is what I have preached and would continue to preach.
“It is not ethnicism and it’s not tribalism unless one is saying that the drafters of the NBA constitution had made provisions for promotion of ethnicism and tribalism, which I vehemently disagree with.
‘’My message remains, the western bloc has eight states —- Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, Edo and Delta. Since a lawyer from Edo ruled NBA from 2014 to 2016, let a lawyer from another Southwest state take a turn on the NBA Presidency.
“I have seen no reasons to depart from that recommendation of mine, which I believe I made in the best Interest of the NBA, and the rule of rule of law which NBA itself professes to uphold as stated in article 3(11) of the NBA Constitution,” Udemezue stated.
Leave a Reply