By Dayo Benson

Chief Adeniyi Akintola, SAN is a familiar name in the rank of the silks. A core litigation lawyer, he described himself as one of the few senior lawyers who has traversed the entire 36 states of the federation practising his profession. This feat, he says makes him eminently qualified to be the next Nigeria  Bar Association, NBA  president come 2014.

Better known as one of the king makers in NBA politics, Akintola in this interview spoke on his ambition, his vision for the association particularly the  plight of teeming unemployed young lawyers who now populate the bar and how he hopes to tackle the problem among other issues. Excerpts.

In NBA politics you are better known as a kingmaker, why does the kingmaker now want to become king?

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 follower of my seniors, which 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.

What would you say is the major drive behind your ambition?

The drive really is the pathetic state of the junior at the bar. I practice across the 36 states of the federation.  At the risk of being immodest, I think all of us, the four contestants that have shown interest, are eminently qualify to contest for the post of NBA President.

But I think that I am the only one that can say I know the terrain of the country. I’m not just there because of the course of election. I know where the shoe pinches people in the profession.  It is not enough for you to seat at Ibadan, Lagos, or Port Harcourt and say you know the bar.

I intend to see what we can do, with the support of my other colleagues, and better the course of legal profession. I realise that no single person can do it alone.

Could you expantiate how you intend to address the issue of unemployment of young lawyers?

The first thing 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 helm 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.

With the support of my other colleagues, we will engage the people that matter in all these corporations. Also within the ministries, how many lawyers are being employed?

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. But here we have over-centralised things in Nigeria. That in itself is a clog in the wheel of progress of the nation  vis-a-vis of the profession.

We need to move in the direction of privatizing 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.

Would your program include pegging the minimum wage for lawyers especially the junior ones?

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 allowance.  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 principal 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.

There are four of you who have indicated interest to contest the NBA presidency in 2014 and one is from the Mid-west has  been alleging marginalisation by the West . What is your take on this?

If I have my way, the issue of zoning of the bar offices would not arise.  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 has produced the highest number of bar leaders.  Check it out, Douglas, Dr. Mudiaga Ojey, Chief ACJ 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 ethinicity because this is one of the banes of the Nigerian society that is dragging us back.  Have you ever heard  ICAN or NMA basing the elections of their presidents on ethnicity?

How would you assess the present 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.