Several lawyers from Nigeria attended this year’s International Bar Association (IBA) conference in Rome, Italy. They spoke to Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU on their experiences.
Thousands of lawyers from around the world, including Nigeria, gathered in Rome, Italy for the International Bar Association (IBA) conference.
There were over 200 sessions at the conference, culminating into the rule of law symposium.
There were also showcases and committee sessions, which offered the chance to hear from the best experts in the field.
IBA President, Martin Solc, urged lawyers to be warriors for rule of law in their respective countries.
He said: “Certain core values underpinning democratic civil society are being corrosively eroded. I speak of the rule of law and the battering it is facing in these turbulent global political times.
“We, as lawyers, cannot ourselves turn the wheels of history, but being the servants of the blindfolded lady holding the sword and the balance, we must do all we can to preserve the rule of law.
“Not because it is the raison d’etre of our profession. Not because it is what we learned in school. But because as guardians of the rule of law, we understand often better than others that when the rule of law gets suppressed and forgotten, society falls under the uncontrollable rule of individuals with vested interests and, ultimately, dictators.”
Lawyers seek improvements
Nigerian lawyers, who attended the conference, spoke to The Nation on their experiences and areas they think the IBA should improve on.
NBA President, Paul Usoro (SAN) said: “If a session is to start at 10.00 am prompt, it starts at 10.00 on the dot. Another thing that I observed, which I intend to bring home to NBA conference – you noticed that we heard the voices of people introducing speakers, but you didn’t see them.
“So, that business of having to have a Master of Ceremony coming to spend some bit of time is something that we could cut out because it saves time and it looks more businesslike,” Usoro said.
Poor organisation mar conference
Abia State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Umeh Kalu (SAN) said the conference did not meet his expectations.
“IBA must up their game. This conference is a little below the standard we have seen in the past. We must keep pace with what is happening elsewhere,” Kalu said.
Another SAN, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, echoed Kalu’s views. “I am a bit disappointed because I had attended so many IBA conferences in the past. This is the only one I found the organisation to be poor.
“We were given the impression that there would be conference buses to take us from our hotels to the conference venue. But that wasn’t the case.
“What they did was to select a place where all of us from different hotels would assemble to board a bus. That was not good enough and it was misleading. I hope that this will not happen again. To that extent I am very unhappy with the organisers of this year’s conference.”
For J.T.U. Nnodum (SAN), there is room for improvement.
“This is not the best IBA conference that I have attended. I believe that there are still many areas of improvement, but on the whole, it is satisfactory. I must commend the fact that we must improve and make diversity an ingredient of the organisation.
“We must remember that some people come from Africa, some people come from Nigeria and we have our peculiar needs. These should be attended to.
“In organising a conference of this magnitude you take into account that a particular people of the membership may need certain specific things because of their own cultural peculiarities and need. Everything shouldn’t be European tailored; there should also be an African flavor,” Nnodum said.
For Ndukwe Nnawuchi (SAN), the conference fell below the standards of previous years.
“This year’s IBA conference is not as well-organised. Previous IBA conferences were better. However, there is an improvement in the contents of the conference bags.
“But, in terms of other logistics arrangements like the bus shuttles, the hotels, etc, they were not as well arranged as they ought to be,” Nnawuchi said.
‘Security arangement excellent’
Former Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Director-General Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) said the conference venue was of international standard.
To him, the conference ranked among the best he had attended.
“I commend in a special way the quality of the speakers, the approach adopted and the areas interrogated.
“I want to say that there is always room for improvemet but on the score card I will rate this as quite an excellent outing,” Azinge said.
He said he enjoyed a moot session in which participants were given green cards and red cards to determine their views.
“Those who felt that the preliminary objection should be upheld were asked to raise the green cards, while those who held contrary views were asked to raise the red card.
“For me as a teacher, I believe that it was quite innovative and is another way of trying to encourage people to participate.
“At the end of the day everybody seemed to be happy. The approach was quite innovative for me and I take that away for other uses,” Azinge said.
Mallam Yusuf Ali (SAN) said his session discussed the responsibilities of government in preventing natural disasters.
“In all the places where you have these natural disasters, it was foreseeable. For example, in areas that are prone to earthquake, it is foreseeable. Flooding is also foreseable in Nigeria.
“So, we should begin to hold our governments accountable for such natural occurrences when they happen to the citizens in terms of damages to their property, lives and so on,” Ali said.
Bauchi State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr H. D. Mohammed said the session on the International Criminal Court (ICC) impressed him the most.
“I am a prosecutor, so I enjoyed that session most, the challenges, the difficulties and the opportunities we still have there,” he said.
Mohammed said it was unfortunate Nigeria lacks the facilities to host the IBA.
‘My expectations were met’
Dr Garba Tetengi (SAN) described the conference as “wonderful” and “excellent”, saying it lived up to his expectations “so I commend the organisers.”
Tetengi also enjoyed the ICC session.
“More effort is needed from state parties that have signed the convention to ensure that there is full implementation of the judgments of the court,” Tetengi said.
He urged lawyers who can afford it to attend IBA conferences because of the intellectual benefits.
‘Mitigating damages’
Prof Abdulwahab Egbowole, who chaired the session on Negligence and Damages, said: “On the whole we came to the conclusion that we need to find a way of mitigating damages instead of looking for reliefs for the damages.
“We also agreed on the need for governments to be more proactive in terms of positioning at the level of budget for damages.
“We also came to the conclusion that we need to find a division between natural disasters and climate change and that government must try as much as possible to ensure that the evolving climate change challenges must be adequately prepared for.
“Finally, there was a resolution that it is very important for us as lawyers to take up class action inspite of the challenge of locus standi that we have in our various laws.”
Wanted: Voluntary tax system
Former Lagos Solicitor-General Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN) said he benefitted from the session on tax laws.
He said the session suggested the need for “more friendly” tax systems.
“We must have a tax system that commands voluntary compliance and that is what we were shown in that session.
“When you have a tax system in place that commands voluntary compliance, you spend less money and resources in pursuing people to come and pay tax,” he said.
He said the use of mediation in resolving tax disputes was also recommended, as it saves time.
Don Umealor of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the conference, his first, was “very rewarding”.
“We are about four from INEC and we are grateful to the commission for allowing us to be part of this global voice of the legal profession,” he said.
Activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), speaking after the ICC session, said states should do more to bring perpetrators of crime to book.
“I wrote to the NBA last year: why don’t you challenge the Attorneys –General for their failure to bring perpetrators of killings to book?
“Culpable homicide or murder is a state offence, so you cannot even expect the Attorney-General of the Federation to go to Plateau, Zamfara, Taraba, Benue or Adamawa to bring anybody to book.
“It is the duty of the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.
“That is what is happening in Lagos State: the alleged notorious kidnapper is being prosecuted by the Lagos State Government.”
NBA has learnt lessons
NBA General Secretary Jonathan Gunu Taidi said the assocation would copy most of what IBA does.
“There is a lot of take away from here so that going forward, we can replicate all or 98 per cent of what have seen and witnessed here that makes the conference workable, so that our members will have a seamless conference in 2019.
“One of the take away is the seamless manner in which the registration is conducted.
“Once every member pays and registers for a conference, every arrangement should be made for that member as of that date so that when he/she comes to the conference venue, he/ she picks up his material without any much ado.
“One of the wonderful things I picked up from the IBA is the way it works.
“The Legal Practices Division (LPD) is the one that controls all the programmes of the IBA and by extension all the membership of the IBA and they are generating revenue for the association.
“For now they have over 30 million pounds sterling in their reserve so that is very healthy for the IBA.
“We hope to get to that point in Nigeria where our conferences will be making profits and the profits will be there in the reserve and not only profits that will be declared on paper.”
For Tawo E. Tawo (SAN), the session on human rights was unique.
“The opening ceremony was quite exciting and the resource persons on top of the their game. It is indeed a time of great refreshing and intellectual enrichment,” he said.
‘Let’s be time-conscious’
Ken Njemanze (SAN) said Nigerian lawyers should learn to keep to time.
“The people are well-organised, friendly and they have been punctual, keeping to time for each programme.
“These are some of the things lacking in our country and with what we have learnt here, I believe that when we get home, we shall improve our own system,” Njemanze said.
Mr. Victor Muruako said the conference was “a great improvement the from the one we had in Australia last year”.
On the session that impressed him most, Muruako said: “Well I belong to several committees here but I have special interest and was fascinated by the session on Public Finance. That is my area of interest considering what we are doing at the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
“Even the government of Italy is presently having its own challenges. They are having their budgetary challenges, just like in Nigeria.
“But the ability of all the institutions to come together to take a common position to find a way out, that is what we need,” he said.
‘All sessions add value’
For Okey Akobundu, outide the huccups of the first day, everything went “like clockwork”.
“All the sessions I have attended mainly on arbitration and human rights have been on point, nothing lost. Everything is with me and am going home to Nigeria with a lot of things,” he said.
According to him, some lawyers from Nigeria only attended the opening ceremony .
“It is not good for Nigeria. All the sessions have value to add to what we are doing back home either in arbitration, human rights, litigation.
“We should pay more attention to the sessions and advance ourselves. I advise the NBA to learn from IBA and improve our own situation at home a little,” Akobundu said.
For Steve Abar, the sessions gave him fresh insights into current legal issues in different jurisdictions.
“We try and learn as much as possible so that at the end of the day we improve our quality of legal service delivery to our clients and the country.
“The session on Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) for me was very illuminating and educative,” he said.
For Muhammad Adamu, the contents of the conference were highly enriching both in practice and procedure.
“It is a forum where lawyers interact, exchange ideas in law, practice and developments across the globe and public life,” he said.
Adamu appreciated the African Regional Forum because “most of the issues in the African region are peculiar and you learn a lot.”
Ada Edozie said the conference was “world class” and “well-organised”.
“The session that impressed me most was the session organised by the Negligence and Damages Committee, which looked at natural disasters and the role of governments and their agencies in preventing and mitigating the consequences of such disasters on their citizens.
“Whether lawyers should represent individual victims or come by way of class action was considered. This makes a great deal of sense to me.”
Plateau State Local Government Service Commission chairman Mr. Robert Taple said the organisational structure of the conference was wonderful.
“So we as a leading professional association in Nigeria has a lot to take home from here.
“The sessions are good because they bring us close to current global trends in our profession.
“This reinforces our responsibility in the legal profession as the light of the world, review our current status and be in tune with developments in other jurisdictions in line with international best practices,” he said.
‘Tackling poverty, inequality’
Ololade Salami said he found the Poverty, inequality and Social Development session rewarded.
He said the session ‘opened the eyes’ of lawyers to how they can use their skills to contribute towards poverty alleviation efforts.
“At the session, erstwhile perception of lawyerly obligations within the narrow confines of application of hard laws in the daily performance of our professional roles was viewed as myopic and therefore a perception in need of attention.
“In this regard, lawyers are to play more participatory roles beyond the narrow confines of pro bono work or offering of legal aid in court proceedings.
“Lawyers are to view access to justice in a much broader sense or perspective.
“This expanded perception entails public advocacy and representation of the needs of the poor in all facets of legal practitioners’ roles, duties and responsibilities, including policy making and law making/law reform where lawyers can and do play major roles.
“This session was indeed a call to ‘arms’; for lawyers to care more about the poor in the society and to recast their thinking in their professional relationship with the communities they live and operate in,” Salami said.
Jamila Malafa said the conference examined “very broad and colourful kaleidoscope of themes”.
He added: “There were lots of interesting topics one would have loved to attend but could not as a result of clash in timings of the sessions.
“For instance, the assigned times for some sessions were not sufficient enough to discuss the topics and issues raised,” Jamila said.
‘Food as right’
For Nkechinyere Nwachi, her preferred session was on human rights law as it highlighted such issues as where there is no war but there is lack of food, the use of starvation in times of conflict, and why the world cannot cope with providing food for all men.
“It is universal recognition that all humans have right to food. The concept of denial of food during conflict amounts to denial of human right.
“Also the use of starvation in times of conflict amounts to violation of human rights of victims to their God given right to food.
“It is most unfortunate that the resolution on right to food has not been enshrined in the UN Guidelines. Moreso, most member nations do not have provision for right to food in their constitution,” Nwachi said.
