NBA disciplinary mechanism unsatisfactory – Akpata

Olumide Akpata is the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). In this interview, he speaks on the association’s 61st Annual General Conference (AGC), the disciplinary mechanism in the NBA, the raid on the Abuja resident of serving Supreme Court Justice and other issues. Excerpt.   From Bolaji Robert, Lagos   A few weeks after assuming […]

Olumide Akpata is the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). In this interview, he speaks on the association’s 61st Annual General Conference (AGC), the disciplinary mechanism in the NBA, the raid on the Abuja resident of serving Supreme Court Justice and other issues. Excerpt.

 

From Bolaji Robert, Lagos

 

A few weeks after assuming office, there were reactions from the NBA over some national issues and developments, but recently we notice that there has been a lull. Why the quiet?

In these times there is the need to do more than issue statements and then take more effective steps. We recently visited the IGP on police brutality because we are tired of issuing press releases. We went to find out how we can work together. We offered to train NPF particularly on the Administration of Criminal Justice (ACJA). That collaboration is about to kick off. So we are taking deliberate approaches to issues. 

Another thing we do is decentralize. I just don’t want to soak up all the oxygen in the room. I like everybody to speak through the various organs of the NBA, through our Section on Public Interest Litigation (SPIDEL), Monday Ubani is chairing that, through whom we had to sue the federal government on the illegal extension of the tenure of the former IGP. We had to sue on the dismissal of a policewoman simply because she got pregnant. So we have organs and one of the things I want to see is the NBA working effectively through its various organs.

We have 125 branches and I am very keen to ensure that they are strengthened and up and running.

On welfare, can lawyers with disabilities (LWD) have a section in the NBA? 

I have recognized the challenges confronting lawyers living with disabilities; the national officers around me made it an issue during the election and very early in the day I met with them and we set up a joint working committee to deal with how they will find expression within the NBA. So, we have established the NBA-LWD Forum, which is still finding its feet. Now we just got a sponsor for that committee. Unfortunately, that committee did not propose sessions for the just-ended 61 AGC because it is new. They are still dealing with establishment issues and so on. That forum I can assure you is up and doing and by the time we come to 2022 AGC, it will bring something to the table. 

Beyond the AGC, the committee is going to be dealing with how the LWD access courts and such other issues. Before we leave office, we will ensure that the LWD forum is up and running.

What is your take on the NBA AGC in Port Harcourt?

The just-concluded NBA 61 AGC, Port Harcourt was one of the largest gathering of lawyers anywhere in the world and it is one of the most important events in NBA’s dairy. We are extremely grateful to God that we in the NBA were able to come together and hold our AGC. We typically hold the conference in August but these are not normal times. Last year we were unable to hold the conference. We had a virtual conference. It was very close to repeating that this year because of the challenges involved in hosting an event of this nature in a time of the pandemic that we are facing.

We were able to put together the 61 AGC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. We were able to move over 12,000 conferees out of their normal zones even in light of the security issues that we are facing. The reactions of our members were overwhelming.

Some lawyers claimed that the NBA should have used the Bar Practicing Fees rather than charging conference fees. Could that have been possible?

I don’t see how we can run a conference through the Bar Practicing Fees which is a primary source of income. Because this year we had over 10, 000 participants which is a huge enterprise, we had to rely on those who pay conference fees and our sponsors so as to execute the conference. Running it on BPF would have been hard. 

What we did this year is that we had ‘early bird rate’ that is affordable at N15,000 and we had virtual participation options that were N7,500. There is not much we can do to reduce conference fees if we want to deliver value.

Are you satisfied with the disciplinary mechanism for lawyers?

I am not satisfied with the disciplinary mechanism for lawyers. We have a situation whereby Nigerians who are our clients are not happy with the pace at which disciplinary actions are meted out to erring lawyers who are members of the profession so I cannot be satisfied. What we find is that it is rather slow and falls short of meeting the expectations of the members of the public and we have to improve on it, before our clients feel that we are shielding erring lawyers.

We are hamstrung at the level of the NBA because recently the CJN issued new rules which took out the role of the NBA in determining whether or not there is a prima facie case against a lawyer. Also, we are no longer playing the role of prosecutor at the LPDC, so we are now in a very difficult situation because the Nigerian public still considers the NBA the regulator of the profession and that is the way it ought to be. 

So we are having conversations with the CJN and Body of Benchers just to make sure that we re-jig the mechanism for disciplining erring members because the public is concerned that they are not getting the response that they like to see. I am also concerned because we may lose the right to self-regulation and others may now regulate us.

What is your reaction to the latest siege on Justice Mary Peter-Odili’s Abuja resident?

When viewed in the context of a similar raid on the premises of Supreme Court Justices in 2016, the rationale of which was never fully explained or indeed justified, the NBA interprets last night’s incident as a part of an orchestrated affront on the judiciary, designed to intimidate and ridicule the judiciary. The NBA will no longer allow this to continue.

In case the law enforcement agencies have not learnt their lessons, events like this do nothing but erode the independence of sacred democratic institutions like the judiciary, undermine the rule of law in Nigeria, and set the country back in the quest to instil confidence in citizens, Nigerian businesses, and foreign investors that Nigeria operates a democracy with an independent judiciary.