Mr. Olumide Akpata is a 1992 graduate of the University of Benin and called to the Nigerian Bar in 1993. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business Law ( SBL). He is one of the aspirants to NBA Presidency in the July 29, 2020 elections of the NBA.In this interview, he shares his views on the state of the Bar and his vision for the association. Legal Editor, JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU met him.
Can you give us an insight into your background, the university you attended and when you were called to the Nigerian Bar?
I graduated from the University of Benin in 1992 and got called to the Nigerian Bar in 1993. I belong to an extended family with a number of lawyers. But in my immediate family, I am the only lawyer.
My father is a medical doctor. But my uncle, the late (Supreme Court) Justice Ephraim Akpata, who was my father’s older brother was an influential figure in our family. I essentially grew up in his house, because my family was very close; we don’t have this Western concept of family like first cousins and so forth. In my family, we were all brothers and sisters and father and mother.
Was he the person that inspired you to chose the legal profession instead of your fathers medical line?
Because my dad is a doctor, he naturally had the assumption that I would be a doctor like him. But he was not the overbearing type of father. He tended to let me do my own thing. But one day, while looking through my results in form five, he realised that I had dropped Chemistry. So he asked me, “How do you want to be a doctor if you don’t do Chemistry?” My immediate response was, “Who said I was going to be a doctor?” At the time, I thought I’d love to be a businessman, because I was very close to my mum, who was a business person. So I said I was going to study Business Administration. But my father, in his typical style, quietly made the argument. “Look, you can always be a businessman without studying Business Administration. But it would be good for you to study a professional course like Law, and looking at your results now, I see you’re doing well in History, you like Literature, English and all that, so why not study Law and then do business later if that’s really what you want to do? I remember that conversation clearly and of course, all my father needed to do was to point to my uncle and my cousins who were lawyers.
Also, my boarding house master at King’s College had predicted that if for nothing else, my argumentative nature had already persuaded him that I was going to be a lawyer. Those were the two things I remember very clearly, that hinted to me that clearly this was the path I was going to take and here we are several years later.
The NBA has evolved over time with successive administrations making their own peculiar contributions to the development of association, what are you bringing to the table this time around?
I’ve been practising law for almost 30 years. I’ve been part of the process of building a law firm that we think is practising law the way it should be practised in this jurisdiction. But in the process, I’ve been very active at the Bar. I’m your quintessential Bar man. From Warri, where I started practising, until I moved to Lagos, I’ve always been part of the Bar. I guess I imbibed that spirit in Warri. We take the issues of the NBA very seriously there. So I’ve known the organisation for a while. I’ve worked at branch level, I’ve headed committees and been part of them. I’ve been part of efforts to bring change in leadership in branches and so forth, because I believe that the branches are the core of the NBA, so you must effect change at that level. I’m a foundation member of the Section on Business Law ( SBL), which was borne out of the need for commercial lawyers to find their voice and their own space.
For how long have you been part of the SBL?
In the last 16 years, I’ve been part of that process, I went on to become Chairman of the Section, and I remain a member of Council. I’m involved at the Bar at the national level also; I’ve been a member of the National Executive Council since 2014, Secretary of Technical Committee on Conference Planning ( TCCP) in 2015 and 2016, co-chairman of TCCP in 2019. I’ve worked closely with at least the last three Presidents of the NBA. I’ve observed the Bar at very close quarters, and I’ve seen many gaps. Of all of us running for NBA President, I am the one with the most recent and relevant experience. I’m still there now. And because the Presidency of the Bar is for a mere 24 months (I like to couch it in months to show how brief the tenure is) it is important that that kind of familiarity should be one of the credentials that any candidate brings to the table.
I think it is also important that any President who shows up today should be able to hit the ground running. Let me tell you the first problem I have identified in the course of my close interactions. Many lawyers have expectations of the Bar what we think it should deliver in terms of welfare, capacity-building and positioning the legal profession for growth. What they don’t know is that the NBA, as presently constituted, is not fit for purpose and therefore cannot deliver on many of those aspirations that its members have.
Why do you say that?
The secretariat, which is really the engine-room of the Association, which enables the President to deliver on his mandate, is dysfunctional. The Bar cannot deliver on its mandate without a well-oiled machine called the Secretariat. That is why, every year, for lawyers to get their Stamp and Seal for which they paid, is a challenge. I must admit it’s been better these last two years because the current President has improved things in that regard. But if something as simple as Stamp and Seal, just dispatching it to members is a challenge, then begin to think how difficult it will be to deliver on the issues we’ve been discussing in the course of this interview. No matter how well-intentioned the President and his executive committee may be, if you go there and there is nobody to drive the changes you’re trying to make happen, it’s not going to work. I belong to the International Bar Association (IBA) and I use them as a gold standard. I go to the IBA Conference every year. As soon as I present my membership number, my information is given to me. Anything I need is sorted out; nobody tells me to go and bring my affidavit or receipt, but I paid to you! Why am I being asked to bring the receipt? But if I go to the IBA, I give them my number, the response is: ‘Yes, you’ve paid. What do you want?’ Or, ‘No, we haven’t received your payment.’ Simple. The problem here is lack of records. No institutional memory.
Whether or not it is a not-for-profit organisation, the NBA must still run properly because it has objectives and a mandate. You know where the problem is? The Chief Operating Officer of the association is the General Secretary. Constitutionally, he runs the association. Fifty or 60 years ago, that might have been a good idea, but it is not realistic or practicable today. He is a practising lawyer; he works somewhere. He has to earn a living. How can he then be the Chief Operating Officer of an organisation that we take seriously and want to function? So if he’s not around, nothing happens. He has a tenure like the President, he has two years. What this means is that essentially, we are firing our chief operating officer every two years, starting and stopping. That kind of high turnover of management-level executive will have a major negative effect on how any organisation runs. For starters, anybody who goes there will have to fix that. IBA has an Executive Director. Presidents and General Secretaries come and go, but the Executive Director is there.
So, what do you mean?
I think the General Secretary of the NBA should run the association with support from the secretariat, so that his job is made lighter. But the day-to-day running of the secretariat, implementation of programmes as identified by the association, should be the responsibility of an individual who is not tenure-bound (in terms of our two-year cycle). He will be contract-bound, hired for the job, answerable to whoever in the organisation, with their Key Performance Indicators ( KPI’s) well-established: This is what the NBA wants to achieve in the next five years, irrespective of who is President. Drive us, take us to this point. That’s how the IBA and other organisations that I belong to run.
Then there’s this problem, if you talk to 10 lawyers today, seven out of the 10 would tell you ‘I don’t want to be a member of the NBA. I’m only a member out of compulsion.
Because I need to be so that I can practise my profession. If I had my way, I’d move on, because it adds no value to my profession.
Why do they say so?
Because if 70 percent of your membership does not buy into your vision, as it were, you’re a walking dead. It’s just a matter of time. We’re in the throes of death as far as I’m concerned, because our people don’t believe in us. The de-marketers of the association are the lawyers themselves; go out there, before any outsider speaks evil of the association, it is the lawyer that will say, ‘Don’t mind them. They’re just thieves. They do nothing. They only take, they don’t give.’ So the first thing any President must do is to get the buy-in of members.
Is that why you want to be president of the association?
As an individual, I like to improve every space I occupy. My country is not working, my association is not working, the estate I live in is not working. Why? Is there something wrong with us? Now that I’m in the NBA space, I’m throwing my hat in the ring with the conviction that we are not animals, we can run this thing, and we can do better. That’s my motivation. I’m not looking for accolades, neither am I looking to be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I do not practise along those lines, anyway, so I’ll never be one. I’m going there to join a team of people, and be the change that I want to see.
What are you bringing to the table?
First of all, as I said, I’ve been part of the process of building a law firm for the past 25 years from four lawyers to well over 150 staff, 100 lawyers and about 50 support staff. We are operating in three cities in Nigeria and in pretty much every sector of the economy. We have amongst our ranks, two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, who attained that rank from the work they had done in our firm. As far as it concerns the management of men and resources, I think I rank high up there, because I can point to an organisation that I helped to build and run for 25 years.
The next thing is my pedigree at the NBA. I’ve reeled out the positions I’ve occupied. I’m especially proud of what we achieved at the Section on Business Law. I worked with previous Chairmen of the SBL such as Mr. George Etomi, to Mr. Gbenga Oyebode, Mr. Asue Ighodalo who I succeeded as chairman. We showed to the rest of the association that there’s a way things can and should be done. We brought pride and respect to the association. We became the convergence point of regulators, policy-makers, lawyers, and government people. Issues affecting Nigeria’s economy were regularly deliberated upon at our seminars, conferences and workshops. It became important that anybody who considered himself a player in Nigeria’s economy must attend an SBL event. That’s the level we took the SBL to, apart from the fact that we impacted our members, giving them the knowledge and opportunity to hone their skills in various areas of legal practice, and raising the bar of commercial law practice in Nigeria.
One key affirmation of what we’ve done at the SBL was the fact that at the last NBA Conference in 2019, two of us, former Chairmen of the Section, Mr. Oyebode and I were asked to run the Planning Committee of the Conference. Not only did we run a successful conference, we returned a profit of close to N200 million to the association. I don’t think anybody can remember when last that has been done if ever. And we were pace-setters at the SBL. Other sections began to pattern their activities and events after ours, which is what we wanted; we wanted all the sections to operate at their optimal level. Even the national body began to also pattern its programmes after ours. Because, as they say, imitation is the best form of flattery, it was a signal of affirmation to us.
I spoke earlier of my can-do spirit. I don’t see obstacles, I see opportunities. I don’t believe in impossibilities; it can be done. The glass, for me, is always half-full. I’m passionate about everything I do. I’m from the South-South. Maybe because we’re minority, we always have a point to prove. I cannot go there and leave, and they’ll say, “There was no difference. Nothing changed.” It’s impossible. I must add value to whatever is there.
Last but not least, because of how monumental the problems of the NBA are, I’m going to be fully available. Some past leaders were not fully available. I’ve asked my Partners at Templar’s and they’ve agreed that should I become successful in my bid to be President of the Bar, I’d take a sabbatical from the firm, and run the NBA for two years. Not that I think every President of the NBA should be full-time. But there is a State of Emergency at the Nigerian Bar Association as far as I’m concerned. Anybody who is coming to run the Association must be hands-on, 24-7. I’m hopeful that my firm has made this sacrifice, no future President will have to make this same sacrifice again. Because I recognise that if you go in there in a tentative manner, you’d just be papering over the cracks or applying Band-Aid over a deep wound. I’ll roll up my sleeves, work with a team of people and we’re going to turn that place around.
The Presidency of the NBA is zoned to the West which comprises of the six core Yoruba speaking state of the South West namely: Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Lagos, Ogun states and the two States of the Midwest Edo and Delta. The last time it was zoned to the West in 2014, Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN) from the Mid-west took it, you are stepping forward from the same Midwest to take it, does this tally with the inclusion and rotation principles contained in the NBA constitution? What is your response to this?
Yes, it does. As a matter of fact, my candidacy more than other candidates running for the same office, tallies with the inclusion and rotational principles enshrined in the NBA Constitution of 2015 (as amended).
By a combined reading of Section 9 of the NBA Constitution and paragraph 2 of the second schedule thereto, the NBA for the purpose of elections of national officers is divided into three geographical zones namely – Northern zone, Eastern zone and Western zone, and the offices of President and General Secretary of the Association are to rotate among the three zones. The Constitution also provides that where a position is zoned to any particular geographical zone, the position shall be rotated and held in turn by the different groups and/or sections in the geographical zone.
What we find in the Western Zone like in most other zones is a split of convenience in the Western Zone for purposes of representation – into the Southwest forum and Midwest Forum, both of which are to take turns in presenting candidates for the position of President.
If you are familiar with NBA history you would see that since the year 2000 – 20 years ago, the NBA Presidency has come to the Western Zone three times. First was in 2002, second was in 2008 and third was more recently in 2014. In 2000 it was filled by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) from Ekiti State (South West Forum), in 2008, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, (SAN) from Ondo State (South West Forum) and then Augustine Alegeh (SAN) in 2014 from Delta State on the side of the Mid-Western Forum of the Western Zone.
One must however note that, Mr. Alegeh’s victory in 2014 was not as a result of the South West Forum agreeing not to participate in the elections for the benefit of the Mid-Western Forum’s victory, no. It was an electoral victory achieved despite the presentation and active participation of South West Forum members – Mrs Funke Adekoya (SAN), Deacon Dele Adesina (SAN) and chief Niyi Akintola (SAN) notwithstanding that the Forum had produced the last two Presidents when it was zoned to the Western Zone. Clearly, of the last three opportunities served to the West, the South West has taken up two, and the Mid-West just one. Except somebody is suggesting that the Mid-West does not deserve another opportunity, taking a cue from the South West, or that there is a 3:1 rotational ratio within the Western Zone in favour of the South West, then I think that the issue is a distraction and the confusion around it, if any, is unfounded.
That said, we must be careful not to permit the manipulation of history by the emergency geographical equality advocates. The wider Nigerian socio-political environment is facing serious existential problems especially in the area of lack of respect for the fundamental rights of citizens and the rule of law. There is a general consensus that as one of Nigeria’s prominent professional organisations with a burden for the larger society, the Nigerian Bar Association has not truly lived up to its potentials in this regard. It would be counterproductive for us as lawyers to begin to elevate tribal sentimentsat this time above competence and more substantial issues that are begging for the NBA’s attention. There is a tide in the affairs of men, which when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. On such a full sea are we now afloat and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball, which is electing the most qualified candidate to fix the NBA.
The average lawyer, especially those in the rural branches are alienated from the NBA national body which they see as being only interested in collecting Bar Practicing Fees from them and nothing more. How do intend to bridge this gap, what are your welfare programmes for Nigerian lawyers if elected President.
It is undoubtedly more challenging to build a sustainable practice outside of major economic hubs in Nigeria. However, more challenging cannot and should not mean impossible. The NBA working with the State Chairmen can empower members outside major economic hubs with the relevant skills and tools to thrive in such places. First of which will be enlightenment. Lawyers must begin to understand the business aspect of the service we provide and how to optimize opportunities from representing members of the Onitsha Market in Anambra, to Barge/Vessel owners in Port-Harcourt, to Mass Transit service providers in Yaba, Ore and Benin, to textile manufacturers in Kaduna. The opportunities are endless. But can only be seen if they are understood.
So it is definitely something I will be looking into to see that lawyers are equipped by their Branches to understand, see and maximize local opportunities around them. To also help more lawyers understand dynamic business models where they can represent big law firms in carrying out services within their region of influence.
What is plan for Nigerian economy?
Lawyers play a pivotal and a critical role in building up the economy of any area, the areas the lawyers are working in now are not major economic hubs now does not mean they cannot be in the future. So we must change the narrative of 100 lawyers doing the same thing to 100 lawyers doing 100 things.
With respect to welfare for lawyers, anyone who has followed my activities especially at the Bar will attest to the fact that the welfare of Lawyers has been a primary focus of interest for me. My emergence as NBA President will afford me an opportunity to bring institutional focus to issues affecting both our older and younger colleagues.
In this regard it bears repeating that my idea of welfare for the young lawyer does not lie in providing hand-outs to them. Rather it is about equipping them with modern skills and tools to provide for themselves.
Consistent with that belief, in addition to the various initiatives that I have discussed above which are aimed at improving lawyers’ remuneration and welfare, I recognise that if we do not train our young lawyers and aspiring lawyers in contemporary legal subjects and in a practical manner, they will not be fit for the future. If our young lawyers are not fit for the future, it will create room for lawyers from foreign jurisdictions to surreptitiously fill up that space and this would not be good for the future of the profession. My administration will make dispensations to young lawyers to enable them satisfy the requirements of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme every year.
What is your welfare package for Nigerian lawyers?
Welfare here has so many aspects to it – remuneration, earning capacity (for both the individual lawyer and the law firm), protecting our turf (Yes, we have responsibilities towards the larger society, but I will face our profession and the issues affecting our members squarely). The Americans say you can walk and chew gum at the same time. So I will keep an eye on what the larger society needs from us as lawyers. But, as I told you, our members don’t believe in us anymore.
President Alegeh introduced the issue of life insurance for lawyers; I was part of that team. We negotiated with Leadway Assurance. Today, it stands at N1m for loss of life, and N500k for disability. I will increase it to N2m for loss of life and N1m for disability – without anybody paying extra. It comes out of the bar practicing fees. Also, im going to work hard to make sure that every single lawyer in Nigeria is subscribed to one form of health insurance or the other. I am a cancer survivor; I’ve been ill so many times in my life. For the last 17 years I have been on health insurance. I must have racked up hospital bills in several million–, but I’ve not paid one kobo. I’ve only paid my premium; my law firm pays my insurance. And that’s not because I’m Oga; we pay insurance for everybody at the firm. Some might be local insurance, others international. But access to basic healthcare must be guaranteed for everybody. My plan is to sit down with the Health Management Organizations, work out an agreeable premium, based on the fact that we have the numbers, and get them to take in as many of our lawyers as possible, branch by branch. For those who cannot pay the premium, we are going to set up a Medicare Fund (we start up with N100m, part of which will come from the Association, part from donor collaborators and part from senior members of the Bar). Because if they are not healthy, they are not going to be able to work. That’s welfare. It’s not handouts.
You know, of course, that the issue closest issue to my heart is capacity-building. That is still welfare – just putting tools in the hands of lawyers, establishing platforms where they can gain knowledge. We will also engage with government concerning the legal education system itself for those coming into the profession. For those already in the profession, we’ll establish the necessary platforms. Before I left the SBL chair, we were in the process of setting up a Centre for Commercial Law Studies. Osaro Eghobamien (SAN) is leading that project at present, but as NBA President I will take it over as a project of the entire Association. It is a diploma-awarding institution where you can take up courses in areas that are important to your practice. And it will have a roving faculty – so you mustn’t come to Lagos or Abuja. It’s just to open the eyes of our lawyers to the fact that there’s so much more they can do. On continuing legal education, we already have an Institute; we will go there and tweak our laws so that we can play a more forceful role in the administration of CLE so that that Institute is run properly. How can we be training lawyers in 2020, and technology is not a part of their training? We’re going to make sure that technology is part of the curriculum. There are two sides of technology; tech law, and law tech. What we will make compulsory is using technology to enable the practice of law.
Is that all?
Lastly, over 80% of our practitioners operate in the dispute space, so what is important to them is important to the Association. In our courts today, tales of woe abound – from infrastructure issues, to the appointment of Judges and Justices, to remuneration issues, case management, case scheduling and so forth. In 2020, you can drive from Ilorin to attend a court case in Lagos, and it is only when you get there that they will tell you the Judge went for a Judges’ Conference a Conference that was scheduled the year before! Why are Judges still writing in longhand? We’ve been talking about these things since I was in Law School. You go to the Federal High Court, you see lawyers standing, sweating, because the court is full, and there is no light. I will personally look into the state of our Courts where our lawyers ply their trade.
It has already been stated that the NBA under my administration will introduce a nationwide NBA mentorship programme for young lawyers to be administered by the Membership Committee of the NBA. We will extend this to students. This will involve pairing selected Nigerian law students with some young lawyers to provide them guidance and support as they transition from being students to becoming legal practitioners.
My administration shall also introduce an NBA all-expense paid scholarship for 30 law students across universities in the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria to attend the NBA Annual General Conference as student delegates for the two years of our administration. The essence of this is to expand the horizon of law students and enable them, at a foundational level, to enlarge network, develop appropriate interest in contemporary areas of law practice, learn the art of business development and increase their commercial awareness.
In this era of globalisation, no organisation can afford to insulate itself and refrain from actively engaging with others. For instance, the NBA-SBL under my leadership organised, in partnership with the IBA, a free training for 100 young lawyers on the fundamentals of International Legal Business Practice.
The NBA under my leadership will ensure active partnerships and collaborations with international organisations and agencies especially the IBA to provide our members with capacity building opportunities.
Lawyers are harassed all over the country in the course of doing their work, what are you going to do about this?
First, we are going to engage the authorities, and find out whether we are doing something wrong, and why they are shooting the messenger? Why are we the enemy? On this particular one, I will lead the charge. Because it’s a problem especially for the average lawyer who is at risk of being locked up in the police station because they went there to defend a client. And then we are going to run programmes with the security agencies, so that we can establish protocols for engagement. Where they fail to listen, then we’ll stand up and make sure they understand in very clear terms that what they are doing is unacceptable behaviour. NBA will set up a Lawyers Defence Fund, funded from our own earnings. In every branch, we’ll appoint NBA-retained counsel. Think about what the victim who is detained, would feel to know that his Association sent a lawyer to defend him. That changes the mindset. But more importantly, we will stand up in defence of our members when they are harassed in the course of doing their job.
Leave a Reply