The right person for the job!

It is a natural phenomenon in politics for candidates seeking elective positions to promise heaven and earth just to secure votes and get elected and then turn a blind eye to the promises they made when successfully elected.The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association has lifted the ban on campaigns for the 2014 […]

It is a natural phenomenon in politics for candidates seeking elective positions to promise heaven and earth just to secure votes and get elected and then turn a blind eye to the promises they made when successfully elected.
The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association has lifted the ban on campaigns for the 2014 NBA national elections. The NBA president, Okey Wali (SAN) announced 14th and 15th July for the elections and most lawyers’ phones have not stopped ringing with well-wishing text messages from the candidates which is sure to come to an abrupt end after the election.
When it comes to the national election, not every lawyer would be allowed to vote, only delegates representing each branch would have the mandate to cast votes and elect who the Executive Committee of the NBA for 2014 would be, while some candidates have restricted their campaign to lawyers they feel would be delegates, some have left nothing to chance and have taken their campaign to every lawyer they can reach (wise thought).
The million dollar question then is ‘Who is the right person for the job?’ The Nigerian society is where it is today because of bad leadership and also because the masses have allowed sentiments, ethnic and religious differences to be the yardstick for electing people into power and not merit. The same applies to the legal profession, we should not be carried away by sentiments or the brochures of the various candidates with intimidating profiles and pictures, rather we should be interested in the right person for the job, who will take the BAR to the next level and am not just talking about the most coveted seat in the race being the president but all the candidates as well. If the president has the wrong team on his side he wouldn’t go far in achieving his goal for the BAR.
The right person for the job is not the candidate with beautiful manifesto but someone who can show a viable and workable plan when he/she assumes office; the right candidate should be able to tell lawyers what to expect immediately when he/she assumes office and how we can hold him/her accountable were he/she fails to deliver on the promises made during the campaigns.  I was opportune to ask a presidential candidate how he would be different from the other politicians who promise and fail, and he ‘promised’ a six months review when he assumes office. I’m keeping my fingers crossed to see how things turn out.
The right person for the job should be someone who has been tested and now trusted. The various candidates should convincingly enlighten us about their personal contributions to the growth of the BAR when they held lesser positions in times past.  It’s not just about being a member of a committee or to have served under a particular regime. No, we should be able to assess a candidate’s performance in the past and what he/she can offer now.
My point of focus being young lawyers, the right person for the job is the candidate who can actually improve the deplorable welfare condition of young lawyers in the over 100 branches of the BAR from the National Secretariat in Abuja and he/she must possess the technical knowhow to create legal job opportunities and benefits for the young lawyers who are the future of this prestigious profession. He/she should also have a workable and viable road map to getting a better working environment for the young wigs. It is understood that the foundation of politics is interest, I humbly urge the delegates not to allow the same political calamity that has befallen this country to have its way at the forthcoming election. The interest we should seek to protect is that of the BAR. It is time to drop personal interests behind and move the BAR to greater heights for the good of the profession and the society at large.
Not every candidate will win the election when the time comes, I only hope that the right person for the job is voted. As the saying goes “… every nice piece of work needs the right person in the right place at the right time.”
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