Hardball
RIPPLES from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) election, of 30 July 2020, suggest it was a vicious junior revolt. Olumide Akpata, a non-silk, though senior partner at Templars Law firm, bested two silks, otherwise known as senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs).
As Akpata, with 9, 891 votes, tanned the two SANs, Babajide Ajibade (4, 328) and Dele Adesina (3, 982), a victory whoop, from the electronic election theatre, appeared the celebrated humbling, of two SAN Goliaths, by a mere legal David, beloved of the furious, bristling rank-and-file; in a profession where mere seniority, talk less of attaining the silk, is akin to Bar aristocracy.
Not a few even suggest the legal hoi polloi were riled to electoral rebellion by a pre-poll statement, by respected silk, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, who perhaps without meaning to do so, gave a iron-clad division of the Bar: into legal royals (the SANs) and the Biblical hewers of wood and drawers of water — well metaphorically speaking! Yet, the hoi polloi had the sweeping majority of the vote!
The legal silk was perhaps right, given that the legal profession is driven by seniority — and rightly so, since wisdom comes with age. But somehow, that fell on the raw side of the majority.
No sooner than the Akpata win came through, therefore, than stories of seniors taking cynical advantage of the legal juniors, allegedly paying them “slave” wages.
These wages, many claim, are at times as low as N10, 000 a month — N20, 000 lower than the approved national minimum wage! Yet, you need quite some cash to train in Law, culminating in the Nigerian Law School! Some even claim Akpata won because he paid his Templars juniors relatively well.
Still, the juniors’ revolt is only one of the many sound bites from the NBA election. Lobbies within the defeated camp claim that had Ajibade and Adesina stepped down for each other, the Akpata challenge could have produced a better result, even if the pair’s combined votes of 8, 310, are still some 1, 581 short of the Akpata haul.
Besides, that loss appears prompting a threat to pull out of the NBA, to form a parallel national lawyers’ professional body. Though that push comes mainly from South West lawyers, under the umbrella of the Egbe Amofin, it appears getting traction from other groups outside that bloc, particularly those who alleged the NBA e-voting process was manipulated, just as it allegedly was two years ago, with the case still in court.
From the juniors’ revolts to alleged big questions on the NBA electoral process, it’s not the best of times for the professional body of lawyers. The question remains: where does NBA go from here?
That is why NBA must do hard thinking and punishing introspection. You cannot come to the national scene to bleat about human and inalienable rights, while you cynically exploit your own juniors, just because you can.
Besides, it sounds hollow to storm the courts to argue cases in rigged elections, when your own professional body’s election can’t scale that test.
So, let the NBA remove the log in own eye, before going after the beam in society’s.
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