Augustine Alegeh (SAN) is the chairman Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Database Committee. He is a presidential candidate in the forthcoming NBA election. In this interview with Legal Edior John Austin Unachukwu, he speaks on the election, his manifesto, legal education and the judiciary, among others.
YOU are one of the five senior lawyers that have expressed interests in the NBA Presidency in the forthcoming election, why do you think you are the most qualified to lead the Bar at this time?
Firstly, I take it as a positive development that more lawyers are taking interest in the affairs of the Bar, with over 120,000 lawyers enrolled at the Bar. If more lawyers take interest in the affairs of the Bar, then we’ll have a better association at the end of the day. This is because as we get more people, the quality of those involved in running the association will improve.
Why do you consider yourself the most eminent to lead the Bar?
As they say in law, the briefs have been filed and all the manifestoes of the candidates are in. The reason why I am the best candidate to lead the bar at this time is evident from a close review of the programmes contained in my manifesto.
What are the programmes in your manifesto?
The programmes I have put forward are contemporary. They deal with the present challenges of lawyers. They don’t address the problems like politicians with promises and grandiose ideas. We have come forward with specific details and specific programmes and we have set out on how to achieve these programmes.
We have taken on the welfare of lawyers and I believe that a lot has to be done about the welfare of lawyers. When we take care of the welfare of our lawyers, members will fulfil their obligations to the association as they will all have a sense of belonging in the association. Each member will then be a human rights defender and rule of law proponent in their respective communities. This would ensure the observance of rule of law at all levels in our country. This must be of paramount importance to the association.
Do you have other programmes for the Bar?
From our practicing fees I propose to institute an insurance policy for lawyers. The policy would be flexible to meet the beliefs and needs of our Lawyers. It would be a choice based policy where each member would be able to opt for the policy that meets his peculiar expectations and needs.
For instance, if we have 60,000 lawyers paying practicing fees and we take N500.00 from each lawyer to have a group insurance policy, it will amount to N30million yearly premium available for payment to insurance companies. If we increase the figure a little bit more, to maybe N1,000 it would translate to N60million or if we take 5 per cent of every lawyer’s practicing fees, you can imagine what it would amount to.
I give the various scenarios because I do not see the President of the NBA as a maximum ruler who sits down and decrees what he wants. If elected, I intend to sit down with the national officers, National Executive Committee (NEC), branch chairmen and with colleagues who are in insurance business to come up with a workable and acceptable plan to determine the premium that would be available for the insurance scheme. I am going to involve all the 109 branch chairmen and our bar leaders in both policy formulation and implementation.
This is something that lawyers should not pay extra for, all we need is to deduct the agreed percentage from the Bar practicing fees paid by each lawyer to fund the insurance premium payment.
How is this going to help the association?
It would encourage more lawyers to pay their BPF yearly. The increase in the number of lawyers paying BPF would increase and enhance the revenue base of the association. This is because lawyers, who may presently not be paying BPF, would see a need to pay in view of the added benefits of a flexible insurance policy. As the number of those paying increases, the percentage deducted from practicing fees for the insurance may even be reduced.
This is something that is within our reach. As Bar practicing fees are paid as at March 31, we’ll know how much we are getting and we’ll know how much we’ll expend on the insurance policy that will cover our members.
I am the only candidate in this election who has put forward clear identifiable practical proposals. I propose to increase the share of branches from BPF from the present 10 per cent to 20 per cent. It is a constitutional matter and I intend to seek an amendment to the NBA Constitution to achieve this proposal. The proposal would also have a tied-on proposal to allow remittance of BPF share to branches by direct debit via a standing order from the BPF account. This would ensure that the branches get their share timeously and would relieve the National Secretariat of the burden of calculating, computing and remitting the share to branches through the existing cumbersome process.
Lawyers have called for an amendment of NBA electoral process to make it more credible, what is your reaction to this?
I intend to seek constitutional amendment to enable us have electronic voting at our NBA national elections with the hope that same will eventually apply to NBA branches. The concept of travelling to the delegates’ conference to vote in July when you will also need to travel for the Annual General Conference (AGC) in August is burdensome. Given the security challenges in the country, we should avoid doing things that will make us gather in large numbers. I don’t think we should expose ourselves to security hazards unnecessarily.
We need to be security conscious, moreover we cannot be an association in a digital age and cannot take advantage of digital solutions at our fingertips. Electronic voting is at our fingertips and we can no longer avoid it. If you understand the cost of elections to the NBA, you will realise that we can no longer do without electronic voting.
Let’s assume that the National Secretariat will provide accommodation for three delegates per branch. 109 branches times three will give you 327 rooms for two nights. If we estimate the average cost of a hotel room in Abuja to be N15, 000.00, it will cost about N9.8m on accommodation alone. These same people can in the comfort of their homes vote electronically. If you don’t like that, they can go to the Bar Centre, or at their branch meeting, log on to a laptop and vote. Each delegate of the branch can vote in the branch as the branch can set up laptops and do secret balloting in the branch instead of travelling to vote. That would save the cost of accommodation for the association.
Let’s talk about transportation of 327 people traveling to Abuja on an average of N40, 000. Lawyers will have to come from Sokoto, Badagry, Maiduguri and all over the country. Some will have to risk driving through Boko Haram infested areas to come and vote. The cost of transportation alone would be in the region of N13m and this is money we can save. This money that we can plough back into continuing legal education, money we can plough back into annual general conference and so on.
So, if we make all these savings, my definite promise is to have reduced and affordable conferences fees. Everything is tied to each other. I want to make this point that service to an association must be selfless service, but that service must also come with clear cut ideas that will bring positive change
How do you intend to achieve all these within two years as tenure of NBA Officers?
I believe that two-year tenure is long enough. I have three programmes. I don’t have 10, 12 or 16. Just three and all my programmes are mind based, refocused reformed and reinvigorated. Let’s all understand that our welfare is of primary importance to us. Once you develop an idea and it sinks into people, you don’t need 100 years in office.
A lot of people have been asking ‘why have lawyers not had this insurance policy in place? They had it some years ago, what happened?’ There is this arguement that even if you want four or seven years the time still won’t be enough if you don’t know how to go about it.
Personally I believe that even one year tenure is enough to make landmark changes in the NBA, refocus on the welfare of members, reform the secretariat and reinvigorate the entire bar as the voice of the people. These are things you can achieve in six months.
When I was challenged to create a database for the NBA, a programme that had been tried by several administrations. but failed. However, in 60 days I had it up and running!
You promised to improve the revenue base of lawyers, how do intend to do this?
I would propose that NBA works with Chief Judges of the High Courts and other Heads of Courts to make certain changes in our rules.
For instance, a practice direction stipulating that only affidavits prepared by lawyers should be allowed for filing would go a long way to eradicate false depositions and provide an additional revenue source for lawyers.
An affidavit is a creation of the Evidence Act and it should be a deposition of truth. But today, if you depose to an affidavit for instance that: ‘I, Mr. X is the Chief Judge (CJ) of Lagos State,’ take it to any High Court in Lagos State and file it, it will be accepted for filing. But are you the CJ of Lagos State? All they do is ask ‘how much have you paid?’ They stamp it and give it back to you. But you see that is not the aim of an affidavit.
What is the aim of an affidavit?
An affidavit ought to be a statement of truth. When we insist that ‘each affidavit must be prepared by a lawyer” all the false depositions in affidavits will stop. Will a lawyer prepare such an affidavit, sign and put his stamp and seal? If you go to the Federal High Court today and file an affidavit, you must affix a passport photograph. But that is not the requirement of the Evidence Act. It was brought about by a simple Practice Direction of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. I intend, if I am elected and sworn in, to have a meeting with all branch chairmen. We’ll come up with a menu of requests to the CJs and the chairmen will then go to the CJs in their respective states to implement these things.
If a CJ agrees, practice directions can be done in one month. I don’t have to travel to every branch to implement this. Why do I have to travel to every branch? The chairmen in these states represent the NBA. They are the ones who will meet their state CJs.
This issue of whether a two-year tenure is not enough is because one man wants to do everything. Our campaign slogan is ‘Together We Can.’ That is why I say my programmes are easily achievable. We have a Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. Does he need to carry a gun and start shooting every bullet by himself? No! he has frontline Generals. In the NBA the frontline generals are the branch chairmen. That is why I need to get them involved. A branch chairman, who does not believe in a policy, will find it difficult to work with him. The best way is to sit down and brainstorm with them so that they can understand the formulation of the policy and are thereby properly equipped to implement same.
You said you are going to declare a state of emergency in legal education. What exactly do you mean?
Since I got called to the Bar 27 years ago, I heard that standards are falling. Each year standards keep falling. I don’t like complaining, I believe in practical solutions. I asked myself, we have members in the Council of Legal Education and we must give them an NBA position for them to push for implementation at the council.
I intend to declare a state of emergency and I intend to involve those in academia and those who have a stake in legal education. We’ll sit down together and examine all the issues in legal education. Beyond declaring a state of emergency, I also said ‘develop and put forward an NBA position.’ That is critical.
Now, if we are teaching law students about petroleum law, we have to get lecturers from the sciences to teach them about hydrocarbons. They have to understand the composition and content of petroleum. If you want to teach them business law, you must get someone from business administration and accounting to teach them the basics in that field.
What I have learnt in my interaction with foreign lawyers during International Arbitrations is that when you discussing with them, you wonder whether it’s an accountant that you are talking with or whether it’s a chemist. You hear them talk about Bonny Crude and they tell you ‘this one is heavier.’ So, I asked them, ‘were you an engineer before?’ They said ‘no. When we are being taught about petroleum law now, they also teach us about petroleum.’
So, we need to go to Harvard, Oxford and some of the best schools in the world, get their course curriculum and ask ourselves, ‘which one of these do we intend to remodel our curriculum after?’ It may seem utopian! It may be too high for us to achieve in one day, but let us start from somewhere and determine where we want to go and the changes we want to put in place.
If the NBA comes up with a position on legal education, it should be asking ‘what are the criteria for employing lecturers at the law schools or the universities? Is it who know man? Or is it competence?’
We have professors of law all over the country, and some are Senior Advocates. Some of them taught me. Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) was my lecturer and he is still in active practice. We can call them together. We have people like Professor Tunde Ogunwewo, who practises here and lectures in Queens College, London and in Harvard. We have people like Professor Chidi Odinkalu and many more quality materials. We can call them together to challenge them on how things are done in those institutions and subsequently come up with a curriculum that would address all these issues.
If elected NBA President, how do you intend to address the welfare of our members who were affected by the Boko Haram insurgency having made tremendous contributions to the North East lawyers appeal fund?
Some things you do out of concern for your brother will touch you eventually. This morning I receive d a text message
‘Thanks, we pray for you and wish you success in the forthcoming elections. I admire your courage at the launch of the NBA fund in Gombe Branch.’
