My interest in the affairs of the Nigerian Bar Association
Right from the time I became a lawyer, I picked interest in the affairs of my profession. My local branch can testify to that.
I served in my capacity as an executive and I even rose to the position of Vice Chairman, and at the nick of time I was to become the substantive Chairman before the association went into limbo. Beyond that, after the Port Harcourt debacle, I was one of the very few ones who midwife the coming back of the Bar, as a member of the Conference of Chairmen and Secretaries.
I was actively involved. In 1998, during the dark days of Abacha, I remember our Chairman, I mean the Chairman of Conference of Chairmen and Secretaries, Chief Awomolo (SAN). He had an office at Ilorin. From my branch I had to travel there to go and pay, because we had to start registration of the party anew. We had to do a new constitution under Chief OCJ Okocha (SAN), former President of the Bar. Since then there has been no going back.
Again, I give God the glory for giving me the opportunity to travel the length and breadth of the country, to ply my trade, that is, litigation. I am a litigation lawyer, although during some period I had to diversify to explore other areas. I have been participating in the Bar activities favourably.
Akintola and the NBA kingmakers
We are not kingmakers but stakeholders. We are stakeholders because we know what has been happening at the Bar. We know the inner workings of the Bar and I have been a good followers of my seniors, who include Chief Okpoko, SAN, Chief Olanipekun, SAN, Chief OCJ Okocha, SAN, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, just to mention a few.
They brought the Bar back from its comatose together with our elders such as Chief Aiku, Ahamba, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, and so on. These are the people we’ve been following and pay our dues, honouring them.
So, we feel that if these people have played their parts successfully, nature demands that we too, who have been following them can take after them. We cannot just be there as onlookers. We decided, let us go there on the driving seat, and see what difference we can make.
Helping young lawyers, major drive behind my ambition
The drive really is the pathetic state of the junior at the Bar. You know, I’m a core litigation lawyer and I’m not just an armchair critic. I have seen it all. I practice across the 36 states of the federation. As a matter of fact, there is no state within the federation that I have not practiced.
At the risk of being immodest, I think all of us, the four contestants that have shown interest, are eminently qualified to contest for the post of NBA President. But I think that I am the only one that says I know the terrain of the country. I’m not just there because of the course of election.
I’ve been there, appearing in court, not only at the state capitals. I’ve been there in cities across the length and breadth of the country. I know where the shoe pinches people in the profession. It is not enough for you to sit at Ibadan, Lagos, or Port Harcourt and say you know the Bar.
Do you know what is going on in Ogbomoso, Abakaliki, Afripo, Ekpoma, Lantan? I’ve been there, I’ve seen it; the plight of the younger ones at the Bar. You can see there is mass unemployment in this country today, and the legal profession is not left out. As we speak, an average of 2000 lawyers are being called to the Bar every year.
Look at my BB (Black Berry) here, you find not less than 100 applications for those who could not gain access to me, to approach me for submission of their CVs. They go online to get my number, and send their CVs. But not everybody knows you to submit his CV.
The unemployment issue, to say the least, is very real and staring all of us in the face. This has lowered these people between the ranks and file of the members of the profession. This is because when people don’t have much to do, they resort to other means that may not be in consonance with the ethics of the profession.
That’s why you see XYZ & Co. Legal practitioners and property consultants. That is happening now. It is either you are an Estate Valuer or you are a lawyer. We have all sorts of things. But you cannot blame these people. It is the situation in the country that made them so.
So, I intend to see what we can do, in support of my other colleagues and better the course of legal profession. I realise that no single person can do it all.
Legal profession, especially the Bar, is a very democratic institution. We are highly democratic that no president can impose his whims and caprices on us. The NEC (National Executive Committee) is there to check him/her the moment he imagines and wants to do so.
But if you have a leader that has the vision that has the drive that can show the direction, I’m sure others will key in and they will be on the same pace with that leader. I was at a particular High Court one day, and to my chagrin, at 10 a.m. I saw a lot of lawyers watching television at the Bar centre because they had no case, though it was some years ago. These are some of the things that are very touching. We just have to correct the situation at once. And I believe we can do it.
Making Nigerian constitution work
The first thing I think I will do, with the support of other members of the Bar, is to ensure that the constitution of this country is followed. We will also ensure that those at the realm of affairs in the country develop the will to implement the laws of the land. If for instance we have 774 local government councils across the country, there is no reason why each of the local government cannot have its own legal office.
Hitherto, all the local governments are piling bills submitted to them by the so called big boys. Some of the big boys have four to five local governments as legal retainers.
For them to have their legal offices, will not diminish our own briefs from them, but at the legal office, there will be somebody there to co-ordinate the legal activities of the local government, then the corporation too. There are so many statutory corporations that are doing things that are not just in the best interest of the corporation.
Quite a number of contractor engagements they embark upon are faced with problems. If they have legal officer to address them correctly, that will not happen. With the support of my other colleagues, we will engage the people that matter in all these corporations.
Even within your own organisation, the newspapers establishment, I know of a newspaper that has more than 300 libel cases. If it has a legal officer as general counsel, he/she would have advised them properly. Public and private television and radio stations are not excluded.
You tune to television station in the morning; you hear defamatory commentaries being made. Nigeria will not continue like this; there will be a time that most people will be taking action. In order to stem the tide, these people need to be properly guided. They need the services of a lawyer.
Again, even within the ministries, how many lawyers are being employed? In the paramilitary, within the police – and don’t forget that the police are today doing what I call para- legal duty. They will need the services of lawyers. Of course, things are changing, the Nigeria Police Force, virtually up to 50 per cent Commissioner of Police is lawyers.
I am aware that some of these things may not be a welcome development to some of my colleagues, especially ‘the big boys’, but we need to do it in the interest of the country. We need to regulate the legal profession.
It should be regulated and democratised in such a way that we don’t need to have only one inner court. In England, for example, they have Inner Temple, Middle Temple, and Outer Temple work. But here, we have over-centralised things in Nigeria. That in itself is a clog in the wheel of progress of the nation and vis-a-vis the profession. We need to move in the direction of privatising the law school.
We need to take it outside the realm of government control. In all civilized world, including America, law school is not exclusive affairs of the government. I know this can be changed by amendment of the constitution. If the NBA initiates it, the National Assembly will listen and do it.
Local government, legal officer and legislation
You don’t need any legislation. All you need is synergy. There must be synergy between the Bar and other various organs of government. Take for instance, the Attorney-General of the Federation is a member of our profession. All the Attorneys-General of the states are members of our profession.
If they key into this programme, it is something that is doable. It is for us to have the will and the time to do it. In the U.S. for example, if you are the president of the Bar, you don’t do any other job during your term. So, you will have time to devote your attention to the business of the Bar.
Let me tell you my experience. I don’t practice in Britain, the only time I’m there is for the Association of Chartered Institute … that is what you call practice without border. In 2010, on my way from London en route Dubai, I was on board with a Briton and he saw me reading a copy of the Nigerian Weekly Law Report. You know each time I travel, I carry my books; that’s my past time to have books around me.
He asked me if I was a lawyer. I replied in the affirmative and we started talking. He said he was going on a holiday, and that he just wanted a stopover in Dubai and that his family would join him there.
This was in March. I was surprised because it was too early in the year. We run the same legal year calendar. He said he had finished for the year. So, I was curious. How come in March? He said he had done two major briefs.
If he should do the third one he would be serving the government; because the tax regime there is very high. He said the first brief he handled he paid 45 per cent tax, the second one he paid 75 per cent tax from his pocket. If he should try the third one he would be paying 85 per cent and he said there was no need.
The bottom-line of what I am telling you is that others would have something to do. But in Nigeria here, we the so called ‘Big Boys’ do up to 50 – 100 cases in a year, while some don’t even have anything to do. Fifty per cent of Senior Advocates have nothing to do, they are underemployed. It is as that bad. We must put a regulation in place that will create room for others to have job. There is enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed. We must stop this greed. I know is going to be a bitter pill to swallow, but in the interest of others let’s talk about it and execute it.
I may not be the one that will actualise it, but I will start it if I have the opportunity of reaching there whether I complete it or not. But if God gives me the grace and the opportunity to do it, it would be difficult for anybody to come and reverse it.
Inadequate salaries of junior lawyers
Excuse me; you cannot regulate what an employer would pay an employee. The Bar is not a trade union. I belong to the school of thought that says you cannot pay a junior in your chambers adequately.
Where I was trained, thank God my principal is still alive, I didn’t earn salary for three years, but I was not starving at the same time. This is because the mechanism for the welfare of junior that was put in place worked. Then we used to have what we called transport money. For every time you went out to handle a case, you were paid N20.
You know it was a lot of money then. But if you followed your Oga to court in the morning, you would not be entitled to anything because you would be riding in his car. But Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), God bless him, changed the situation. He and Chief Ajibade started the idea of paying and paid very well too. He introduced something that was very novel. Everybody in the chambers must be on ‘X’ Naira.
It might be N10. But there was what we called under the table money, which was tied to your level of productivity. That one was not something that was regulated. It was something between you and the principal. If a brief came to you and you made good money from it, you would get something as fat as your five years salary in a single day.
I have maintained that policy till date.
That policy rules in my chambers. That is why you see some of my juniors living in their own houses, riding new cars. This is because their earning is not tied to their salary. It is tied to their level of productivity. It is not even tied to their years of call. It is what you can do.
You may have a boy who has just trained four to five years at the Bar and more productive than somebody who is 16 years. That is why you cannot fix salary. If we fix salary and say the minimum must be N15, 000, you will discover that some of us are already paying N30, 000 but we know that is not even adequate.
The kind of training I received was to compensate according to your level of productivity. To God be the glory, I have 23 lawyers in my chambers in Ibadan, Lagos and Abuja. Thirteen of them ride good cars of their own. Some of them are not even old at the Bar, their productivity brought that to them, whereas there are those that are five to six years at the Bar that are not as successful as these.
Of course they have their salaries, but they don’t have something that would enable them to afford cars. There were also time when I used to buy cars for juniors in the chambers, but they started abusing it. They would say go to Akintola and serve for two years ;then the policy was if you were two year old in the chambers you must ride a car and after that you could go away with the car.
The policy now if I buy the car it is no longer in the name of individual but in the name of the chambers. If the chambers give you a car and you want to leave six months after, you should leave the car. But before then, I lost 20 cars to juniors. One of them happened to be a younger brother to one of your seniors in the media who sent him to me.
Immediately he got the car, he took off. Unfortunately for him, he could not even maintain the car after leaving. So, all I am trying to say in essence is that there is no need regulating salary of lawyers.
What we should advocate is welfare package that will make every lawyer in chambers live comfortably. Like I did say, I didn’t have salary for three years, but by the time I was five years old in the chambers I was already in my own house; as a landlord in highbrow area because of this policy.
It was not salary that gave me that, but the kind of welfare package. That is what is obtainable now in some of my colleagues’ chambers. Go to Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), every lawyer owns a house and ride good cars, not by salaries. It is based on this arrangement I’m talking about.
Go to Mallam Yusuf Alli (SAN) chambers in Ilorin, virtually every junior there rides in his own cars and lives in his own house, not based on salary. If you pay a junior N100, 000 or N150, 000, it will take him nowhere, because legal profession is a very strenuous profession.
I have a daughter who is a lawyer and based on salary, I have to augment what she earns. She rides a car; even with that salary, as far as I know that cannot maintain the car.
Mid-West and allegation of marginalisation by the West
Well, ordinarily, this is a question I would have loved you to put to our leader in the West, Chief Aiku to answer. But because he is not here, let me try to answer it in my own little way I can.
If I have my way, the issue of zoning of the Bar offices would not even arises. When we came on board, there was no zoning at the Bar. The Bar offices were meant for the best. That was why the area you just mentioned produced the highest number of Bar leaders.
Check it out, Douglas, Dr. Mudiaga Oje, Chief Okpoko (SAN). After the NBA came back from comatose, the first person to be elected president of the Bar was Chief Okpoko, God bless him. Where is the marginalisation? The Bar is one.
When we introduced the new constitution under Okpoko, it was to give everybody a sense of belonging. Nobody thought of where you came from. That was how the first beneficiaries were elected in spite of lack of concentration of lawyers in the West and the East.
Check the list of past leaders of the Bar, from Chief FRA Williams (SAN), and look at the areas they came from, you will find that ethnicity has nothing to do with it. To me, we don’t need to zero it to ethnicity because this is the bane of Nigerian society that is dragging us back.
Have you ever heard of ICAN or NMA basing their election of their presidency on ethnicity?
Okey Wali leadership of the NBA
The present leadership is trying. It is capturing our vision very well. You have to appreciate something that at the Bar there is no room for one man show. It is a collective thing.
No Bar leader would go there and formulate any policy without due consultation with the stakeholders. We have our different issues, but the goals are the same, the approach may be different.
Take for example, if you are going to Kano, somebody may decide to go by rail, somebody by air, and another by road, the most important thing is that we will all get there.
The difference is somebody going by road may not get there at the same time somebody that travels by air.
culled from
Daily Independent
http://dailyindependentnig.com/2013/07/young-lawyers-welfare-should-be-nbas-greatest-concern-akintola/
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