The presidency and other executive positions will be up for grabs at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) election in July, next year. It is the turn of the Southwest to produce the president. Some would-be candidates have thrown their hats in the ring. One of them, Dele Adesina (SAN), was said to have been picked to fly the region’s flag at the election, but others are crying foul. ADEBISI ONANUGA and JOSEPH JIBUEZE report.
ABOUT seven months to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) election, in which the next president and other officers will emerge, would-be candidates are lobbying their colleagues for support.
Though the association has yet to signal the beginning of campaigns, that has not stopped them from gathering and strategising.
The regions hold the key to determining who wins the race. There are three recognised groupings for NBA elections: The Eastern Bar Forum (EBF), the Arewa Lawyers Forum (ALF) and the Yoruba Lawyers Forum (also known as the Egbe Amofin). The Midwest Bar Forum is part of Egbe Amofin, and is also entitled to contest on the Egbe slot in the election.
A new forum, the Middle Belt Lawyers Forum (MLF), was created from ALF, but its strength and political relevance have yet to be tested. It is obvious that it will remain under Arewa until NBA decides to recognise other fora outside the three.
It is Egbe Amofin’s turn to produce the next NBA President. Prominent members of Egbe have indicated interest to run the association’s affairs. The candidates are Funke Adekoya (SAN), Dele Adesina (SAN), Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), Augustin Alegeh (SAN) and the incumbent First Vice-President of the NBA, Osas J. Erhabor.
Though NBA is yet to lift ban on campaigns, candidates vying for various elective offices have engaged in subterranean moves, clandestine activities and manoeuvres, which they consider useful in actualising their ambitions.
These have also affected the activities and operations of the regional fora that will invariably play the role of clearing houses for their candidates.
The groups have been making effort to strengthen their operations. The EBF changed its leadership in July this year, electing the Ogbonna O. Igwenyi-led administration which took over from Mr. Kemasuode Wodu.
The Arewa conducted its election in October when it elected the M. A. Abubakar-led executive, who took over from the Hajiya Fatima Kwaku-led steering committee that had managed its affairs in the last five years.
To strengthen its own position to face the challenges of the election, Egbe Amofin set up a review committee to amend its constitution and reposition the forum for better performance.
It also set up a five-man screening committee under the chairmanship of the former Lagos branch chairman, Mr. Taiwo Taiwo and Secretary, Mr. Ranti Ajeleti to screen its candidates for the forthcoming election. This is to ensure that the zone presents credible, popular, charismatic and winning candidates.
It is clear to all who are familiar with NBA politics that Egbe took these steps to improve its electoral fortunes at the bar because its candidates are believed to have performed woefully in the past two NBA elections. Therefore, there is need to review and overhaul the system to forestall future re-occurrence.
These steps notwithstanding, there have been discordant tunes within the Egbe Amofin family.
Until recently, the Egbe had no constitution, the minutes of the forum was never circulated neither does it have an account in its name.
Critics said all legitimate agitations and requests to restructure and democratise the Egbe like the other fora had been resisted until the meeting of May 29 this when they finally yielded to the popular clamour for restructuring.
The first major breakthrough was recorded at the meeting of August 17 in Abeokuta where a Constitution Drafting Committee was allegedly forced on the leadership to be set up. The said Committee gave a report at the just-concluded Akure meeting held on December 7, at the resident of Chief Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN).
How rotation began
By an informal arrangement of the (NBA) which started in 2000, election into the office of NBA President began to rotate among the Eastern Bar forum, Egbe Amofin, and Arewa. The East started the Presidential rotation in 2000, followed by the West in 2002, and North in 2004.
Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) indicated interest to run for the office of NBA President in 2000, so also was Mr. O. C. J. Okocha (SAN).
Meanwhile, Okocha, had run in 1998 and lost to Mr. T. J. O. Okpoko (SAN). This led to series of discussions between Okocha and Olanipekun.
Eventually, both of them brought leaders who sealed up their agreement and Chief Olanipekun, though a senior to Okocha, both at the outer and inner Bar, stepped down for Okocha in 2000. That was the introduction of the rotation arrangement to NBA presidential elections.
In 2000, Olanipekun naturally renewed his interest. Mr Segun Onakoya, a former General Secretary, also showed interest in the race. Egbe Amofin set up a Committee and the Committee recommended Olanipekun for adoption and he was duly adopted. Mr Onakoya refused to step down, he ran and lost the election.
Again, the East picked another round in 2006, the West in 2008 and the North in 2010.
Any gentleman’s agreement?
In 2008, when it was again the turn of Egbe to produce a president for the NBA, two aspirants Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN) showed interest. Three meetings were reportedly held at the instance of Chief Olanipekun at his office at No. 94 Norman Williams, South West Ikoyi, Lagos and both aspirants attended this meetings with delegates drawn from their supporters.
At each meeting, the house recognised that both Adesina and Akeredolu were eminently qualified to contest the office and that both of them could be Presidents of the NBA but at the same time rather one after the other.
Consequently, pressure was mounted on Mr. Adesina to allow to Mr. Akeredolu to run and Adesina would wait till this year. At a meeting held on April 19, 2008, and hosted by Chief Olanipekun (SAN) at his country home in Ikere Ekiti, Oba Abolade of Oke-Ila, a respected traditional ruler and a lawyer was in attendance at this meeting.
He appealed to Mr. Adesina to wait for the next time around, insisting that it is unreasonable and unnecessary for the Egbe to dissipate resources and energy when we can understandably agree that one person could go then and the other later.
Chief Bandele Aiku and Olanipekun co-presided over the meeting and at the end of the day, Mr. Adesina stepped down from the race in due deference to the request of the elders and the generality of the people at the meeting, although contrary to the wishes and desire of majority of his supporter, particularly those from outside the Southwest.
It is believed that Adesina was promised adoption in the current dispensation, but other contestants in the forthcoming election have made it clear that adoption or not, they were prepared to run the race to an end. This prompted the Chairmen and secretaries of Egbe branches to convene meeting of the association on May 29.
A meeting of the Branch Chairmen and Secretaries was held at Chief Bandele Aiku’s residence at Ibadan. Some of the decisions taken at that meeting were: To restructure the Egbe with a view to democratising its leadership (Memoranda were called for from branches towards the restructuring).
The secretary was mandated to do a letter to the Midwest forum regarding the agitation of one of its members to run for the NBA President in next year’s election and, to call a general meeting as soon as possible.
A statement by Egbe Amofin Steering Committee Chief Adebayo Ayodele and Secretary Olubunmi Olugbade reads in part: “Nothing again was done until August 27, 2013 when a general meeting was finally called at Abeokuta after persistent demands by the branch chairmen. The meeting was held in Chief Adebayo Ayodele’s residence, the present Chairman of the Steering Committee.’’
On December 7, the commit
tee of branch chairmen and
Secretaries attended a meeting in Akure where it adopted Adesina as the candidate of Egbe for the forthcoming election.
But the Secretary of Egbe Amofin, Ranti Ajeleti reacted to the development, saying that Egbe Amofin has not adopted anybody for the election. He said that the position of Egbe Amofin will be made known after its meeting slated for January 18, next year at the Bar Centre Ibadan.
Adesina’s adoption is said to have caused some ripples within the rank of the Egbe, as members made frantic efforts to confirm the veracity of the claim. Earlier, while stating that only seven, out of 28, branches of NBA in the region were represented at the Akure meeting, Ajeleti said it was illogical that about one third of the group would take a decision on behalf of the whole.
He also said such a decision was unfair on two other candidates from the region, since only one out of three was present at the meeting. Besides, the statement claimed that though the meeting was held in Akure the “chairman of the Akure branch and executive members were not in attendance”.
Aside from the reactions over the published outcome of the meeting, the attendance of some members at the Akure meeting is said to have created some crisis within some of the branches.
It is said some branches may have started to question the authority under which some of its members went to the meeting, while some have stated that members who attended from their branches did so on their personal recognition, not as representatives of the branches concerned.
Ajeleti said: “Ordinarily, we would not have reacted to such sheer mischief but we do not want the public to be deceived or misled because a lie told appears as the truth, hence, this rejoinder to set the records straight.
“Let it be noted that Egbe Amofin did not summon any meeting. Rather, it was in the fancy of some desperate persons to call a meeting of Dele Adesina apologists, masquarading as Egbe Amofin, which was unaccepted to the majority of members.
“Of the 28 branches that constitute the Southwest forum of the NBA, only seven chairmen attended the meeting, contrary to the bogus claim of the unrecognised conveners of the meeting.
“It is logic upside down for such a far-reaching decision to be taken at a meeting where only one of three aspirants contesting for the presidency of the NBA from the zone was in attendance; two thirds of branch chairmen and secretaries were absent and majority of the members stayed away.
“The composition of those who attended the meeting revealed the sponsors and their premeditated plan. The meeting was held in Akure where the chairman of NBA Akure branch and executive members were not in attendance. This shows the lack of welcome, even by the host community.
“One would consider this a huge joke carried too far with the purported sacking of the leadership of Egbe Amofin by persons who were aliens from the NBA at the time Egbe Amofin was started by those they now claim to have sacked, seeking to replace them with their yes men.”
The statement also accused a senior lawyer of sponsoring the meeting to sack the leadership of Egbe Amofin.
Ajeleti added: “It is strange that names of the attendees of the Akure sectional Egbe Amofin’s meeting were not given. Or, could some of them be ashamed of their dishonourable actions?
“Members of Egbe Amofin are advised to disregard the outcome of the illegal Akure meeting and wait patiently for a notice of the meeting of the authentic Egbe Amofin to be convened soon by the recognised leadership.”
Reacting to the purported endorsement, Adekoya said it carried no weight.
She described it as an unfortunate and meant to ridicule the Egbe and should be deprecated by all right-thinking lawyers of Yoruba extraction.
“Why the hurry to endorse when the campaign season has not commenced? Why not agitate for the screening to be concluded?
“To me, it betrays a lack of respect for the electorate and an unveiled attempt to push them in a particular direction,” Adekoya said.
Akintola said no candidate had been endorsed. He said those who met knew how and why they did so.
“If anyone thinks he can have a sectional meeting, all we can do is wish him good luck.
“In Oyo State, my base, the four branches did not attend the Akure meeting; only one branch attended from Osun. Of the four branches in Ogun, only Abeokuta attended. From Lagos, only Lagos and Ikorodu branches were there.
“Even the Ikorodu branch has petitioned the Egbe, distancing itself from the action of the chairman. In Ondo, Akure and Owo branches did not attend the meeting.
“The only state fully represented at the meeting was Ekiti. Of the five SANs who attended, four are from Ekiti State.
“Then, in a zone that has over 50 life-benchers, just two were at the meeting. And with over 150 SANs, only five attended…”
However, Adesina has in
sisted that he was en dorsed by 20 of the 23 branches of the association in the region. He said Ajeleti’s statement refuting his endorsement was in bad taste.
The lawyer dismissed the claim that the Southwest had 28 branches. “The statement is from a person who does not have the right to issue such. He has been removed since Saturday, December 7, as Secretary.
“It is an elementary principle of law that he who has the power to appoint also has the power to remove. We appointed him Secretary and we have removed him.
“A meeting was duly called and he was invited. But he chose not to attend. That he failed to attend did not stop the meeting from holding. “It is a useless statement from a useless source. He is on his own.
“On the number of branches, there are 23 branches and not 28. Lagos has four, Ogun (four), Ekiti (three), Ondo (four), Osun (five) and Oyo (three). That’s how they were at the time of endorsement.
“It was only at the end of November that Shaki branch was approved by the NBA National Executive Committee (NEC) and it has not been inaugurated.
“Anybody who said it was only seven branches that attended the meeting is a liar. Twenty representatives of branches attended, including 15 chairmen and secretaries. Everyone at the meeting signed the attendance sheet.
“It was laughable to know that while we were at Akure, we received text messages sent anonymously purporting that Badagry, Ota and Ogbomosho branches were not at the meeting. No fewer than six chairmen, including those of these branches, were having dinner with us in the hotel.
“The people are deceiving themselves and they know it. Go and ask these chairmen yourself and hear their responses.
“So, it is a lie for anyone to say they were not aware of the meeting or did not receive a requisition. I received mine through my email box and so did everyone.
“The invitation was also delivered through courier. They all stayed away at their own peril.” Confirming his attendance at the meeting, Falana said the meeting had 15 chairmen and seven SANs in attendance.
He added: “The Egbe Amofin has 23 and not 28 branches. So, if 15 of the 23 attended a meeting and endorsed a candidate, what is left? Is Ajeleti a senior lawyer? Who is he in Egbe Amofin or NBA?
“The chairmen met and sacked the forum’s Exco. Part of the reason for their sack was that they fixed a meeting for Akure and the chairmen raised a requisition. But on the day of the meeting, they (Exco) did not turn up.”
Also, the Chairman of the Ikeja branch of the NBA, Mr Monday Ubani, said he was present at the meeting. Ubani said 20 branches from the zone had representatives with 15 branch chairmen present.
It has become manifestly evident that unless the Egbe Amofin puts its house in order, it may not give its best to the Bar.
