The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has urged lawyers, especially the ‘men in skirt’ to diversify their practice areas through training and retraining to enhance the productivity, writes JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has urged lawyers, especially the female lawyers to diversify their practice areas through training and retraining to enhance their productivity.
NBA President, Mr Olumide Akpata in his address at the International Women’s Day Conference organised by the NBA, Women Forum, NBA-WF in Lagos countered the widespread belief that the country has more than enough legal practitioners.
The reverse, Akpata reasoned, is actually the case.
He said: “Relative to our population, we do not have too many lawyers in Nigeria. We just have too many of our lawyers concentrated in the same geographical area and crowded in the same practice area.
“I have therefore made it a cardinal policy of my administration to emphasise the opening up of new frontiers of practice for our lawyers.
“To achieve this, we must devote significant time and resources to the training and retraining of our lawyers, especially the female lawyers.”
Akpata expressed enthusiasm for a training session for young female lawyers on the women empowerment principles and gender gap analysis tool.
He said: “I have always said that we have not scratched the surface in terms of the role that the legal profession in Nigeria can play in, and for, the Nigerian economy.
“There is a well-known African proverb that says ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.’
“Permit me to add to that by saying that the enlightenment of our female lawyers, especially the young ones is the key to the statement of the modern legal profession that we all dream all. I, therefore, encourage all young female lawyers to take advantage of this fantastic initiative by taking part in the training tomorrow.”
The NBA President noted that there had been considerable progress in accelerating women’s equality.
“Regrettably, however, there remain those less talked about issues and unconscious biases which have historically contributed and continue to contribute to the suppression of the female folk,” Akpata added.
In her contribution, the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Folake Solanke, expressed concern over government payment of ransom to criminals, who kidnap school students, noting that it was worsening security in schools across the country.
She called on women lawyers to speak up against the kidnapping of schoolgirls, some of whom are still being held by their abductors, for over six years now.
Solanke, who spoke via a web link, said young girls were kidnapped, though boys were kidnapped also, the girls are held for years and the government seems not to be doing enough to get them freed, while the bandits who kidnap them are not punished but given money.
She added that criminality should be punished but that it appears criminality is rewarded and this would continue to encourage and embolden them and others would join in that way of life.
She cautioned lawyers against corruption, charging NBA-WF to focus on women, as it was not only men that are involved in corruption, saying: “If we are corruption-free, the whole country will be corruption-free.”
Chief Solanke also charged NBA-WF to do more by way of speaking out against the ills in society and assisting indigent persons.
“Speak up against those who cannot speak for themselves. Let’s speak in the language of the youth. Visit schools, visit hospitals. What assistance do we offer those who cannot help themselves? We should assist rape victims. We should be the voice of the society” Solanke stated
The theme of the conference was: Pathway to Diversity: Challenging Blindspots and Powering up for Inclusion.
A former Education Minister, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, who declared the conference open, called for the closing of the parity between males and females in the workplace, stating that research had shown that where more women were involved in running a business, the business had done better.
In her opening remarks, the chairperson of the conference planning committee and Vice-Chair person of the NBAWF, Mrs. Chinyere Okorocha said: “Indeed, women in diverse fields and in law have come a long way in rewriting the stereotypical narratives our society has imposed upon us.
“Today, we can give a little girl born in Sokoto State or in Sapele, Delta State, the dream of not only becoming a lawyer, but of striving for and attaining the very pinnacle of the legal career – whether as a private practitioner, an in-house counsel, a public defender or on the Bench.
“And whilst many challenges still abound, we must recognise that the price for the successes achieved so far, did not come easy and the onus is therefore on us to ensure that their sacrifices were not in vain and we must now push further and harder until the work is done.
“We are here today to celebrate the labours of our heroes past. Our very arrival on the scene is predicated on the fight fought by very brave women, against a system that prejudiced them simply on the basis of their gender.”
She stated that with the emergence of a new era, “we have new challenging blindspots to address and the need for female lawyers to power up and press for female inclusion at all levels is now more critical than ever before.
“Today, in line with the International Womens Day theme, we choose to challenge the narrative that female lawyers are “gentlemen in skirts”…. We refuse to be stereotyped based on our gender and we aspire for equality at all levels of the bench and at the bar.”
She noted that issues of leadership inclusion for female lawyers, whether in private or public capacities, sexual harassment “is a continuing concern, career growth and achieving a work-life balance that enables us thrive and not just survive are all issues that must be addressed to ensure that the narrative changes.”
The conference was attended by the First Lady of Taraba State, Anna Isiaku, her Imo State counterpart, Chioma Uzodimma. Chairperson NBAWF, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose (SAN), Secretary NBAWF, Mrs. Nsidibe Aideyan Treasurer NBAWF, Hajiya Safiyah Balarabe.
