After a two-year stewardship, outgoing Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president Okey Wali will hand over to his incoming successor Augustine Alegeh (SAN) on Friday. How did he fare in office? ADEBISI ONANUGA assesses his tenure
HOW did outgoing Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president Okey Wali fare in office? Some lawyers believe he could have done better if he had got his priorities. Others argue that he could not have done more than he did considering the circumstances. Wali came to office with high hopes, promising to make the Bar the voice of the people. But under his watch, the NBA leadership blew muted trumpet on virtually all issues. The association seemed to be cosy with government rather than being critical of it. To a lawyer, Akintayo Iwilade, Wali would have left a legacy if he ensured the democratisation of NBA’s electoral process.
The Wali-led executive came into office in July, 2012.
In his inaugural speech, Wali said his vision was to move the association forward and went ahead to encapsulate his programme of action in 10 Cardinal Point Agenda as listed: “Branch Capacity Building; Professionalising the Secretariat ; Financial Responsibility; Human Capacity Building; Institutional Synergy with Regional and International Organisations, Bar Associations and Law Societies; Human Rights Programme; Anti-Corruption Crusade; Uplifting Professional Standards; Criminal Justice System and Access to Justice and Robust Legislative Advocacy”.
He set three major tasks for his administration under the cardinal programmes:
i)Welfare of our colleagues. The welfare of our colleagues shall be paramount. We will run a Bar that cares and is felt by its membership, whilst ensuring that the best traditions of the profession are maintained
ii)A watch dog or Gate keeper for the Nigerian People, we shall definitely intervene on any issues, if and when we believe that the ship of state is adrift and that
iii)Justice sector reforms will be kept in the front burner.
He said: “Law practice needed to be better organised and more well structured than it is now. For instance, how many lawyers are in practice in Nigeria? What minimum standard should be approved for a place to be called a law firm or chamber? Why should it take donkey years, as in litigation, to discipline a lawyer who has been reported to the Disciplinary Committee?” , he asked.
“For me these are some of the fundamental issues in our justice sector and my 10-point cardinal agenda very clearly deals with those issues”, he further stated.
Wali went on:“We shall take deliberate and determined steps to stem the tide. More disciplinary Committees will be set up. A situation where lawyers with pending disciplinary matters are elevated, even up to taking silk and judicial appointments cannot be right and must stop. In addition to ensuring that disciplinary matters are heard and determined promptly and adequate punishment meted out, we will ensure more education on professional ethics. Besides continuing legal education for lawyers, we will take steps to ensure that professional ethics is taught as a core subject in the Universities, as a few months of teaching professional ethics at the Nigerian Law School is obviously not enough education on professional ethics.
“We have seen that so many cases of professional misconduct are sometimes, out of ignorance. From dress code, professional confidentialities, fiduciary problems to outright lack of integrity. As a lawyer, your integrity must be your greatest asset, lose it or do not have it, and you have nothing and you are not worthy to be a member of this honourable and noble profession. We will be interfacing with the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission on this all important issue. We must return to the best traditions of the Bar and like I said to my colleagues while seeking this office, if I achieve the return to the ethos of the Profession as President, I will walk away a fulfilled man at the end of my tenure as president of Nigerian Bar Association,” he stated.
Wali promised to look into the rot in the society which he noted was sipping into the profession, and stressed that it must not be allowed to continue.
“We shall take deliberate and determined steps to stem the tide. More disciplinary Committees will be set up. A situation where lawyers with pending disciplinary matters are elevated, even up to taking silk and judicial appointments cannot be right and must stop,” he said.
With these words and many more promises made, expectations were high within and outside the Bar that his administration would continue in the stead of his predecessors. But, midway into his tenure, members of the NBA started seeing the leadership in a different light. They accused the leadership of timidity in the handling of national issues and, most especially, infringements on the Constitution by the President among other issues.
The administration of Wali witnessed the inauguration of the Governing Council of the Young Lawyers’ Forum. In his speech at the inauguration of the forum in Abuja, Wali had noted that the number of young lawyers keeps increasing every year, without commensurate efforts to meet the challenges these young lawyers face in terms of welfare and professional career growth. He said that it was to address the issues bothering on the welfare of young lawyers, which have been impeding their professional growth, that led to the establishment of Nigerian Bar Association Young Lawyers Forum (NBA-YLF).
Two weeks ago, the Wali-led administration inaugurated a six-storey edifice on high brow Victoria Island, Lagos. The building, erected through Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT), is behind the NBA House and was built by Dr. Wale Babalakin through one of his firms, Stabilini Visinoni Limited. Wali said the property was developed to boost NBA status as well as shore up its revenue, just as he emphasised the need for continuity in governance.
He also made landmark pronouncements on national issues. At the end of a Peace and Security Summit in Abuja last year, the NBA called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector to arrest its decline in the sector forestall the looming horrendous future, 20 to 30 years from, of the country being dominated by ill-educated and ill-equiped citizenry.
To curb corruption by those holding executive positions, the NBA under the leadership of Wali called for the removal of the immunity clause which is vested on serving governors and the President for the fight against corruption to be meaningful. At the height of the crisis that rocked the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) last year, the NBA advised members of the forum to concentrate on the business of governance so as not to incur the wrath of the electorate. He advised them to resolve their crisis and focus on the delivery of the dividends of democracy. Expressing concern over the crisis of the NGF, Wali warned the Forum against deviating from its objectives adding that the recent activities of the NGF are an eloquent testimony to the primacy of politics over provision of good governance and development for Nigerians.
To improve operations of the judiciary, Wali also last year, called for the use of automated recording system in courts to enhance speedy dispensation of justice. He reiterated the need for the judiciary to improve on court processes in order to meet up with the increasing number of court cases in the country, lamented that that Nigerian courts did not belong to the present dispensation technologically.
“Our courts technologically speaking do not belong to this century and our judges cannot do much in this circumstance.”We do not have the facilities in the courts, so you have a situation where in 2013 our judges still take down notes in long hands and that is horrible.
“If you go outside this clime and you watch court proceedings, you would discover that the whole thing is being recorded. We have to technologically update our courts. There must be automated recording system in the courts”, he said urging relevant authorities to quickly equip Nigerian courts to meet global standards.
Wali declined to participate in the just concluded National Conference to protest the single slot allocated to the association by the Federal Government. At its executive meeting in Ekiti State, the association said one representative from the body was insufficient for it to make an impact at the conference. “In view of the fact that so many legal issues would be addressed at the national conference, it is only fitting and proper for the umbrella association of all lawyers, the profession with expertise on law making in Nigeria should have more than one slot,” the NBA President, Okey Wali, announced in the communiqué he signed after the meeting.
REACTIONS
Iwilade said: “I would have wished the lingering question of full democratisation of the electoral processes leading to choosing the national leadership of the Bar, through universal suffrage, was frontally addressed. But it wasn’t. Unfortunately, that remains the fulcrum on which our moral authority, to sermonise on issues like defense of constitutionalism etc, can sustainably stand.”
However, a former Secretary of a branch of the NBA, who asked not to be named, said the Bar did not fare well under Wali. He scored zero in some areas, adding that the outgoing did wellin other areas where he made promises at inauguration .
“Without mincing words, I’ll tell you straightaway that NBA did not fare better than the way it was before the assumption of leadership by the outgoing administration under the leadership of Wali .”
On human rights, he scored Wali zero. According to him, NBA at the national level did not do enough to speak and take action against many mindless violations of the rights of voiceless Nigerians and even the privileged ones who were battered and had their rights violated by government at various levels.
On lawyers’ welfare, he said nothing was done to improve the plights of lawyers particularly the junior ones in the last two years. “So, its zero performance as far as I know”.
He, however, admitted that the “the NBA under Wali’s presidency advocated for discipline in the Judiciary. The praise and glory however should go to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Mukhtar who has doggedly battled indiscipline in the judiciary.
“On lawyers’ discipline, the outgoing NBA President actually made discipline of lawyers a top priority of his administration. I’ll however say NBA saw more lawyers being disciplined by way of suspension or outright de-robing. But did that result into a decrease in indiscipline amongst Nigerian lawyers, I’ll say No”.
He said Wali’s scorecard on the defence of the rule of law/Constitution is average, while admitting that there were instances when the outgoing administration took some steps towards the defence of the rule of law, but no serious effort could be said to have been manifestly made in that direction.
“Integrity of the Bar was a serious issue in the last two years. Even those who are not lawyers questioned the integrity of the Bar. It is certainly a very low rating for me.”
On the performance of the NBA as the voice of the down trodden ” it is sadly a far below average performance for me. It will be more embarrassing to start listing instances where an average Nigerian would have expected action from the NBA, but silence was the case”, he said.
