EXTRACTS FROM THE NBA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) 2016

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (THURSDAY, August 25, 2016). The meeting opened at exactly 10.00am with an opening prayer. Thereafter the conferees were asked to verify the minutes in pages 318-326 of the Annual Report to ensure there is no correction to be made. Some errors were brought to the notice of the outgoing President in which he sincerely thanked them. At the end of the corrections, Mr. Adewale from Ikeja branch proposed the adoption of the minute of the meeting while the motion was seconded by Ruth Badun from the Ibadan branch and the minute of the Annual General Meeting held in Abuja was subsequently adopted. After the adoption of the minute, the outgoing president in the person of Augustine Alegeh SAN proceeded with the agenda of the meeting. The outgoing president’s statement came next. He began his speech by welcoming everyone present and stated that the General Meeting will be the last general meeting of his administration. He expressed his profound appreciation to the Bar for all the support rendered to him during his administration and apologised for whatever inadequacies encountered by his administration. He stated that in the last two years, they had been able to introduce the NBA affinity, stamps amongst other projects and expressed his desire that the next administration continue in the said positive projects if they believed in them. Also, he welcomed parties for new Senior Advocates of Nigeria and send forth parties for retiring Supreme Court Justices had also been introduced in the last two years as well as the introduction of entertainment sessions featuring top artistes like Burna Boy and Tuface respectively in the last two NBA conferences. He informed the house that the bar provided support both financially and in terms of man power during the last elections held as well as joined hands with the Government in the fight against corruption. He stated that the Bar under his administration had zero tolerance for corruption. The Bar also joined hands with the Government in the fight and struggle against insurgency. The NBA secretariat was also constructed in Abuja and on the 16th of August, the National executive of the NBA also moved into a more befitting area in Abuja. The secretariat was built for the comfort and accommodation of members of the Bar. He stated that his administration afforded more lawyers the right to exercise their right as opposed to previous administrations. He stated that the newly introduced e-Voting universal suffrage system saved the Association an average of N600 Million. The administration, he said, introduced a series of innovations regulating the way and time frame in which office holders could be allowed to hold office again. He concluded by restating the fact that the desire of his administration has been to serve the association, to leave it better than he met it and leave behind a viable association for the incoming administration. He further apologised for the difficulties experienced in the conference as regards the lack of conference materials. He stated that in the Abuja AGM they got a total of 12,000 bags and in this year’s Port HarcourtH conference they got a total of over 10,000 bags which had all been collected. He stated that the entire number of bags exceeded the total number of conferees and yet about 3,000 people still did not have bags. He further stated that at the conference this year, they had not less than 10,000 bags and about 9,000 conferees. He emphasized that the bags came in batches in the course of the conference, and that at the moment about 3,000 people were still unable to get bags. He accepted total responsibility for this and apologized. He advised the bar to stay united despite the outcome of the elections while thanking the members of the association for the support accorded him during the administration. At the end of the report, Ziggy Azike was called upon to move for the adoption of the president’s report which he did. Professor Jummai Audi was thereafter called upon to second the motion for the adoption of the president’s speech which she did. Thereafter, the General Secretary in the person of Mazi Afam Osigwe presented his report. He stressed on the outcome of the cases presented to the Disciplinary Panel and their challenges together with the fact that the NBA secretariat had been moved to a better location at Plot 1101 Cadastral Zone A00, Central Business District, Abuja. He expressed profound appreciation and pledged total support from the Bar for Abiola Isiaka, his successor and expressed gratitude to the entire Bar. Usman Sule of the Lokoja Branch was asked to move the motion to adopt the Secretary’s Report. Professor Ogugua Ikpeazu was called upon to second the adoption of the secretary’s report. Afterwards, the next report to be adopted was the treasurer’s report which appeared on pages 1-64 and craved the indulgence of the house to take the report as read. The President then called on the chairman of the Abuja branch to move for the adoption of the treasurer’s report. Mrs. Geraldine from Lagos branch was thereafter called to second the motion. Conferees commented on the financial report. Another conferee asked that a clarification be made on the expenditure at page 30 paragraph 22 of the treasurer’s report which the President explicitly did stating that the N200,000 was given to the (LOAN) acronym for Law Officers Association of Nigeria for celebration of their law week while strata flex were the ones in charge of the stamp of the stamp. Another conferee commended the executive for its prudence and transparency in the expenditure while praying for the grace to fish out the bad eggs in the association. A member of the house expressed his displeasure that the annual report and the treasurer’s report was only given to members at the venue thus depriving the members of enough time to process the information contained in them and to make adequate contributions. Next, the Director General of the Nigerian Law School, Mr. Onadeko presented the Report for the Council of Legal Education and highlighted the salient points in the annual report stating that about 2,218 new wigs were called to the bar including an octogenarian whom he wished a very robust practise at the bar. He called for comments on the online questionnaires so as to help in further developing the standards of the council of legal education and better training of Law students, to make them better lawyers. He commented the infamous act of some legal practitioners who engage in examination malpractices by coming into the bar examinations to sit for law students. He further observed that another challenge faced by the Council was the fact that universities exceed the quota of their faculty, but this challenge has been eroded by the introduction of an index number to every law student, such that will serve to curtail the excess number of students admitted by universities. The implication of this, he stressed, was that any student without an index number cannot be regarded as a law student. He raised the issue of structured pupillage, which he stated was very important, and pleaded that the structured pupillage be made effective to train new wigs in effective and effectual practice. He concluded by expressing his gratitude for the audience granted him. The President observed that some salient facts had been omitted from the report such as the donations made to the Lagos campus for the renovations of some of the hostels and the fact that, the DG, himself had just been conferred with the title of “SAN”. Rotimi Jacobs SAN, moved for the adoption of the report, while the past General Secretary, Afio Fayokun was called upon to second the adoption of the report. Lady Grace Azingi stood in representation of the Director General of the CAC and delivered the report of the CAC. She stated that from the 1st of September 2016, the Commission will suspend the manual submission of applications for name reservations, as it will now commence on the internet. She outlined the innovations just introduced by the CAC, and stated that the draft copy of the review of CAMA has been circulated with the vision to improve the workings of the commissions, business names and incorporated trustees. At the end of the report by CAC, Emeka Ohiagulu the past Secretary General of the NBA was called upon to adopt the report, while Liveryard, the Chiarman of the Ikorodu branch, was called upon to second the motion. LEGAL AID COUNCIL REPORT The report was presented by Mrs. Joy Bob-Manuel, the Director-General of the Legal Aid Council. She stated that despite the fact that they were affected by the strikes, they were still able to have completed about 7,000 cases. She informed the house that the World Bank recently commended the Legal Aid for the good work they had been doing, and also that the council recently moved into their permanent location at Garki Abuja. She called for collaborations with the council and stated that those interested in such collaborations could pick up a form at the nearest Legal Aid Councils to them. The motion for the adoption of the report was then moved, while Lady Debbie seconded same. Questions were asked by the conferees and answered accordingly by the outgoing president. Awards were given to conferees that stood out.

The vision of “A BRAVE NEW BAR” - MAHMOUD SAN, NBA PRESIDENT ELECT

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF SHOWCASE SESSION (WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2016).

SETTING STANDARDS: THE FUTURE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

SESSION CHAIR - T. J. O. Okpoko SAN, Past President, Nigerian Bar Association

LEAD PRESENTER - A. B. Mahmoud SAN, President-Elect, Nigerian Bar Association

SPEAKERS - 

1. Dr. Koyinsola Ajayi SAN, Olaniwun Ajayi Law Practitioners

2. Muhammed Hassan Liman SAN, Hassan Liman & Co

3. Barbara Omosun, Paul Erokoro & Co

4. Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN, Onyechi Ikpeazu& Co

5. Layi Babatunde SAN,  Layi Babatunde & Co

6. Andrew Odum, NBA, Asaba Branch

7. Ope Olugasa, Managing Director, GIT-LawPavilion

SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR - His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, Governor, Rivers State

The Chairman, Chief Okpoko SAN started the session by welcoming the distinguished Speakers and other Conferees and called to the mind of everyone the essentials of the topic at hand which centres on the future and development of the legal profession. In his modulation, he introduced the speakers in no particular order.

A. B. MAHMOUD SAN

He expressed his gratitude to all members of the Bar for being given the opportunity to share his thought on the topic aforementioned. He started by highlighting important sub-topics with respect to the day’s session discourse, these were;
1. The historical evolution of the legal profession
2. The current trends/challenges facing the legal profession
3. The external threats
4. The challenges facing the Nigerian Nation
5. The failure of the legal profession
6. The vision of #ABraveNewBar

The Historical Evolution of the Bar

He ran a brief chronicle on the evolution of the legal profession which dates back to the 19th century particularly in 1862 when the British introduced the court system in England. With respect to Nigeria, what could be deduced from the historical trace were;

• That the 1st indigenous Nigerian lawyer called to the English bar in 1879 was Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams

• That Court system in this country was introduced pursuant to the 1876 Supreme Court Ordinance and amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate

• That the first Faculty of Law in Nigeria was first built in the University of Ibadan

Accordingly, he stated that presently, we have 40 Law Faculties in Federal Universities, 20 in State Universities and 10 in private Universities. It is important to know that Nigeria produces 6000-7000 Lawyers annually who are trained in these tertiary institutions.

Challenges Facing the Legal Profession

The relative challenges as mentioned are:

• Declining ethical and professional standard
• Declining quality of legal education
• Growing number of lawyers
• Loss of confidence in the legal profession

External Threats

• Globalization
• Increasing inter-connectedness
• Intrusion into the Nigerian legal market (directly and indirectly by foreign law firms) which has posed a major challenge for lawyers in the country
• The obligation of Nigeria as a member of the World Trade organisation (WTO)
• New technologies and New knowledge and skills
• Disruptive legal innovations - Most Universities in Nigeria still do orthodox and less important courses while in other parts of the world, there are new models of legal education and courses
• Disruptive legal innovation in legal services delivery 
• Automation

Challenges facing the Nigerian legal profession

• Poverty
• Corruption
• Over population compared to productivity and GDP reduction
• Inequality
• Youth unemployment
• Internal conflicts (for instance, the insurgency in the North East region, Niger-Delta clash)

Failure of the Legal order

The Nigerian Legal Profession has made huge contributions to national development but failed to achieve basic goals.

The vision of “A BRAVE NEW BAR”

He stated that the vision of the ‘brave new bar’ is basically to create a legal order that will guarantee the right to development for Nigerians. The creation of the brave new bar will be focused on key areas;

• Regulation: In the aspect of regulation, the question to be asked is whether we need a new model of regulation or whether we could modify the already existent regulation model. Thus there is need to interrogate the regulatory architecture of the legal profession to ensure that the required changes are made for the legal profession to move forward.

• Representation: Here, he stated that our focus should be on what the NBA needs to do to ensure that the legal profession is well and adequately represented. He added that the representative role of the NBA needs to be re-engineered in order to bring it up to date with new innovations.

• Public Interest: This entails the need for the NBA to remain courageous in speaking out on national issues and also having a clean judiciary. He finally advised all lawyers especially the senior lawyers to remove the notion that they can get richer in an ailing economy.

MR. OPE OLUGASA

He re-established the need for immediate adoption of ICT as the world has gone global and Nigerian lawyers ought to be attuned to modern technology devices and migrate from the tunnel of analogue modus operandi. His points are presented as follows;

• That LawPavilion is the official ICT partner of the NBA 

• That by virtue of LawPavilion’s ICT services there is the introduction of the NBA mobile App available on android devices, which can be used for the following; Conference Management, Payment of Bar Fees, Download Conference Papers, Manage Conference Sessions, Questions and Polls, Capture Contact Details, Get in touch with other lawyers and much more

• He traced the history of law which dates back to the time where there was inscription of laws on tablet of stones, then to scrolls, books afterwards before the introduction of the computers

• Since inception of the computer, lawyers across the globe have tried to make legal practice easy and fast by putting those legal authorities in electronic form

• That with the invention of LawPavilion Prime, legal research and law reporting has become much easier and our judgments more predictable by the introduction of "Legal Analytics" which the product, Law Pavilion Prime is all about. Hence, it cannot be said to be overstretched that LawPavilion Prime is geared towards assisting the Bench and the Bar to meet up with the evolution of legal practice in the digital world

• That the LawPavilion Prime is launched today and is available at the LawPavilion exhibition stand in the Civic Centre

BARBARA OMOSUN

She spoke from the young lawyers’ perspective on the future of young lawyers. She stated that young lawyers need to have the consciousness to thrive in the legal world in order to stay relevant. She advised young lawyers to engage in a lot of pro-bono services required to build up the necessary experience and skills and in addition to this she encouraged the need for mentorship and support for young lawyers.

In conclusion, she stated that the graduation of lawyers need to be strictly scrutinized in order to reduce the over-population of lawyers which has posed a threat to their employments and welfare. Lastly, she was of the view that young lawyers need to be respected and well remunerated because they have needs to cater to.

LAYI BABATUNDE SAN

He stressed on the fact that our well being is based on the well-being of the society and that as legal practitioners we cannot live in isolation. He furthermore added that;

• Friendship needs to be restored in all sectors of the legal profession
• There should be synergy between the elected officials of the NBA and the people who work with them.
• The NBA officials should be accountable

MR. ANDREW ODUM

His focus was on the regulatory bodies of the legal profession and urged the NBA to help fight corruption in this profession. He made it clear that the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which spells out the ethics of the profession, needs to be highly complied with. He expressed his dissatisfaction towards the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee (LPRC) whose activities in the country cannot be boasted about.

QUESTIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

• We need a department in our Association called the research and development department which should contain full time staff.
• Young lawyers need job security
• There should be a static vision of our bar and should not depend on the new president elected
• There should be a breakdown of our regulations into manual for compliance
• Pupillage is a means of slavery and should be scrapped
• What about law clinics in our Law schools

Mr Layi’s reaction was that young lawyers need to be patient for he was once a young lawyer before he became a SAN.

NBA President-Elect reacted to some of the contributions as he stated that there are very good law clinics in our schools but they need to be improved and well equipped. He also explained that the vision of a brand new bar is not set to upturn the vision of the NBA but it is the vision of his campaign which tends to drive his ideas to the mind’s eyes of all legal colleagues.

GOODBYE TO LAND SPECULATORS (OMO ONILES) WITHIN LAGOS STATE (HOTLINES)

 

GOOD BYE TO LAND SPECULATORS IN LAGOS STATE

 

HELP-LINES AGAINST OMO-ONILE'S (LAND GRABBERS) IN LAGOS STATE

Hotlines Of Lagos State Task Force Against Omo-Oniles.

Are you preparing to start construction on your landed property in Lagos? You would have, by now saved or budgeted a portion of the construction fee to go the Omo-oniles (LAND SPECULATORS, LAND GRABBERS).

The Lagos State Government, however, are backing their words with action by giving to the general public the hotlines of the recently set-up task force to tackle these land grabbers.

Reach the Lagos state committee on land grabbers aka Omo-Oniles on:

09096667123, 09020085005 and omoonileTF@lagosstate.gov.ng

EXTRACTS FROM THE NBA CONFERENCE 2016 (SHOWCASE SESSION)

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF SHOWCASE SESSION (MONDAY, August 22, 2016). GROWING NIGERIA'S ECONOMY: BEYOND OIL AND GAS SESSION CHAIR - Olisa Agbakoba SAN SPEAKERS -  1. Hon. Bawa Bwari Abubakar (Hon. Minister of State, Solid Minerals Development);  2. Christopher Nonyelum Okeke 3. Richard Mofe-Damijo (Fmr. Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Delta State); 4. Chief David Serena Dokubo Spiff (Secretary, Bayelsa State Governement) 5. Hon. Emmanuel C. Aguma SAN (Hon. Attorney General of Rivers State) Olisa Agbakoba started the plenary by bringing the issue to the table of discussion before the various panelist and they sequentially in their perspectives made the following analysis. HON. BAWA BWARI ABUBAKAR Being a former Senator, he recalled his experience while at the national assembly and also made salient issues with respect to the issue, namely; 1. that demoracy and development is a gradual process 2. that Nigeria is not representing true democracy, in the sense that the electorates will only vote candidates presented by the parties whether good or bad 3. that people lobby to voted in the National Assembly 4. that in the past, mining, solid minerals were abandoned for the oil sector, and now that the world price of oil has fallen, solid minerals are now being looked into. 5. more so, concerning the indigenisation programme (which was about employing or making use of people that had the technical know how) left Nigeria 6. that we have more than 44 minerals in the country; different local governments have specific solid minerals yet Nigeria is not seen as a mining nation but more focused on oil and gas. What needs to be done now is to attract investors for solid minerals. For instance, if we can think properly on the production of steel, we can make N6 Trillion in a year from that. A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NIGER DELTA He was of the view that Nigeria should not depend solely on oil production in order to develop the country (other sectors need to be focused on). He added that there are key sectors the country should look into that can astronomically develop the country if much infrastructures and compliance are put in place, such as Nollywood and Tax. Nollywood, as he stated, adds up to more than 5% to the GDP of the economy, while for tax gathering; he mentioned that there should be due compliance for payment of tax from private companies and individuals. However Mr. Agbakoba was of the view that the political structures have not allowed these ways to be explored. He added that our politicians since the '60s have slow paced the growth of the country. For instance, he mentioned his disappointment towards the CBN's 14% lending rate (an entrepreneur will not have the stomach to seek loan hence their dependence on oil can not be avoided); "all politicians know how to do is swerving from one political party to another because these parties have no ideologies." Mr. Agbakoba later threw a question at the Attorney General of Rivers State on what happens to the 13% of the oil money allocated to the Niger Delta region. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF RIVERS STATE He stated that right from the onset, Niger Delta has been developing even without the 13%; that asides Lagos state, Niger Delta has the best roads, schools and infrastructures, and even built the Civic Centre in 1973 long before the country’s dependence on oil. He added that the question posed to him only elaborates the impression that the citizenry depends on oil. He made mention of commercial hubs like Ariaria market in Abia, Ochancha market of Onitsha and urged people to wonder how businesses boom there without the thoughts of oil. He urged everyone to stop bothering about how the 13% oil money is spent but to look at how the infrastructures are managed and the negative effects of oil in the states (it has led to acid rain, bad water and even cancer has increased at recent times due to the effect of gas flaring). In response to Mr. Agbakoba’s question, Hon. Bwari was of the view that whatever politicians do is a true reflection from the residue of the society. In other words, it is the way we see ourselves that affects us as a nation (as rephrased by him). He advised that we have to change the way we do things. "Things could get worse," he added that the infrastructures in the country needs to be well managed. CHIEF DAVID SPIFF He was of the view that the country must exercise retrospective glances to check where we got it wrong so that we can ameliorate where we got it wrong. He further stated that we must go to the fundamentals and entrench the rule of law on issues appertaining to Bayelsa state; he informed that 30% of oil and 40% of the gas in Nigeria is produced in Bayelsa but yet (as used by him) the state is adjudged "not fit to produce one of the 44 ambassadors in this country, ambassadors whose income is generated from the income of their under bellies." YUNUS USMAN USTAZ SAN He was of the view that diversification is not an issue but the problem is whether we would not go back to a position worse than this. He beckoned on the politicians to bring back the looted money. MR. CHRIS OKEKE   He particularly made a clarion call for encouragement and growth of the agricultural sector and he urged Nigerians to be innovative and not just talk about diversification. MR ZIK He urged our leaders to stop the ‘corruption’ mantra and start to profess positive things for and about the country for no investor will be ready to invest in a corrupt society. YUSUF ALI He stated that impunity should not be encouraged and the rule of law should be precise and not be treated as the rule of convenience (a leader should not set the law for his selfish interest) further more he concluded that Nigerian leaders are bent on being loyal to those that sponsored them and this must stop for the the economy to develop.