Any patriotic Nigerian would be bothered by the pensive mien of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, as he addressed a gathering of legal eggheads, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, at the Supreme Court complex in Abuja on Monday. His low and shaky voice betrayed the weight of the embarrassment he felt from the shame and disgrace some lawyers have brought to the bar in recent times.
“It is for this reason that my office has now taken the unusual step of verifying the authenticity of this and other complaints with a view to referring them to the appropriate disciplinary bodies,” he said. The AGF was referring to a recent incident involving the alleged inglorious bid by flamboyant lawyer, rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, to take possession of a London property belonging to the late former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lt-Gen. Jeremiah Useni.
As the story goes, the property, House 79 Randall Avenue, London NW2, was purchased by Useni in 1993, using the name ‘Tali Shani’. But following his death in January this year, Ozekhome moved to take ownership of the property and, in the process, got himself entangled in a messy case that bordered on forgery, impersonation, corruption and conspiracy.
Trouble began when Ozekhome sought to register the said property, which he claimed was transferred to him by the owner, ‘Mr Tali Shani’, in August 2021 as a gift and out of gratitude for the many legal services he (Ozekhome) had rendered to him in the past. Unfortunately for the SAN, another ‘Tali Shani’, a female, represented by her solicitors at the London tribunal, had also laid claim to the property.
Thus began a legal battle with claims and counter-claims that exposed both parties as nothing but two bands of impostors desirous of reaping where they did not sow. “The final outcome of this case, therefore, is that both parties have failed. Neither ‘Tali Shani’ was who they said they were… The real owner, via a false name, was General Jeremiah Useni,” the judge declared, leaving the activist lawyer and his rival crestfallen.
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Of course, any well-meaning Nigerian would be disappointed with what transpired at the London tribunal, but only a few would be surprised, knowing that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella body of lawyers to which Ozekhome belongs, has hardly conducted itself in a more dignifying way in recent times. Put more succinctly, its public conduct in recent times has fallen far short of the expectations of patriotic Nigerians.
A few months ago, the body was up in arms against Ibok Ete Ibas, the administrator appointed for Rivers State in the aftermath of the state of emergency declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for daring to complain that it collected a whopping N300 million from the state government but failed to honour an agreement that its annual national conference would be held in the state. Instead, the conference was moved to Enugu State, where another huge sum must have changed hands.
Rather than show remorse for what was an obvious act of betrayal, the body brazenly declared that the money in question was a gift from the Rivers State Government and not something concomitant on any form of obligation! The situation has caused many to wonder what would be left for governance if every professional body becomes a recipient of such gifts.
Sadly, the NBA thinks nothing of the aforementioned scandals, but was quick to demand a probe into Ibas’ tenure as the administrator of Rivers State as well as the recent Afriland fire outbreak that claimed some lives in Lagos recently.
On the basis of its antics, the only reason the NBA has not been tagged a political party is that it is yet to officially register as one. Every of its gathering is laced with campaign, especially against the administration of President Tinubu as was witnessed during its recent conference in Enugu where, in a partisan theatrics, Channels Television presenter Seun Okinbaloye led the lawyers in an open ridicule of the President and his government. It was a repeat of the caricature they made of Vice President Kashim Shettima as the running mate of Tinubu and guest at their annual conference in the build-up to the presidential election in 2023.
Law, it must be said, is nothing but an assemblage of moral values and the consequences for their violation arranged in sections and sub-sections. Without ethics, it is nothing better than a car without an engine. That, unfortunately, is the lot of Nigeria with NBA’s scant regard for morality. It would not be a surprise if the people charged with designing the academic curricular of universities and law schools are already contemplating blacking out ethics the same way former President Olusegun Obasanjo directed that History be wiped out from schools.
The special treatment accorded two new entrants into the legal profession, Dino Melaye and Deji Adeyanju, over and above established lawyers with immense contributions to Nigeria’s legal jurisprudence during a recent gathering of the body is danger signal that worse days await the bar unless there is proper re-orientation of the new generation of lawyers. AGF Fagbemi’s declaration on Monday that he had started a probe into the messy property controversy in the United Kingdom could be a good starting point.
