By Abdulrazaq Magaji

Nigerians are interesting. Lawyers under the auspices of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, are on the stump, canvassing for votes among their colleagues and there is a semblance of grave-yard silence from Nigerians! Few give a hoot about the outcome; fewer even care about how the outcome could affect them. As usual, the refrain in local parlance, is: I no be lawyer. Wetin come concern me for lawyer dem matter?

On the surface, this typical Nigerian reasoning sounds rational. After all, don’t we all tell others not to stick their snout where it will irritate others? Why, then, is this golden rule being breached? Two reasons, basically! One is the increasing democratization in Africa and, two, events in Nigeria that have shown that so many good things are possible. Truth is, no positive development is possible if lawyers do not key into it. This is why Nigerians, irrespective of their callings, should show interest in the affairs of the NBA.

A proactive NBA, the largest bar association in Africa, will add more value to the nation’s fledgling democracy and accelerate Africa’s democratization process. With due respect, past NBA leaders, including outgoing Augustine Alegeh, SAN, operated under unusual circumstances! If in doubt, just sit back, take a long breath and imagine an NBA today under eminent lawyers like Bola Ajibola, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Olisa Agbakoba, and several others. Luckily, the two gentlemen jostling for the crown are battle-tested and eminently-qualified lawyers who can recreate those goldens days.

Both are senior lawyers with the added honour of being Senior Advocates of Nigeria. Both have the needed self-pride and commitment to avoid the indulgences that have been the undoing of many. They are authentic Nigerian patriots who have appropriately been honoured nationally and internationally for service to the fatherland, their communities and contributions to the growth of their profession. What is more, both men are God-fearing.

In deference to the zoning formula of the NBA, the two contestants are from northern Nigeria. J. K Gadzama, as Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama as popularly referred to, became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria at the age of 37 in 1998 and a Barrister at the Lincolns Inn, in the United Kingdom. He is the founder and principal partner of the octopoid J-K Gadzama LLP which he established in 1989.

A 1985 graduate of the University of Maiduguri, Gadzama was called to the bar in 1986 and enrolled at the Supreme Court of Nigeria the same year. He is a recipient of two national honours: Officer of the Federal Republic, OFR, and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic, MFR. It was also in recognition of his activities that he served as chairman of the Legal Team of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. What further endeared him to his colleagues has been his commitment to the development of the legal profession.

J-K Gadzama is not new to politics of the NBA as he once took a first shot at the NBA presidency. He has also actively participated in the association’s affairs such as serving, at different times, as chairman of NBA’s Section on Public Interest and Development Law, SPIDEL, chairman of the Unity Bar of Abuja NBA as well serving as chairman of the Abuja chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK).

These are no doubt intimidating credentials even though they do not confer an air of invincibility against a respectable opponent. Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, better known as A.B Mahmoud is an Officer of the Order of the Niger, OON, and a 1979 graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was called to the bar in 1980, six years ahead of his opponent, and joined the services of Kano state civil service two years later. He rose to the position of solicitor general and later as attorney-general and commissioner of justice before he quit in 1993 to go into private practice. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2001, three years after his opponent in the race was so decorated.

Mahmoud is not new to the politics and nuances of the NBA. He is a member of the privileges committee of the association. In 2004, he contested and lost the NBA presidency to Bayo Ojo. He had, in 2002, declared interest for the post only to withdraw. Since 1993, he has been managing partner of Dikko and Mahmoud Chambers which he set up in conjunction with A.B Dikko, his longtime friend and former attorney general of Kebbi state. Dikko and Mahmoud Chambers is reputed to have enterprising counsels in its offices in Kano and Abuja.

Neither is he new to unionism. In his university days, Mahmoud served as secretary general of ABU Students’ Union, Kongo Campus. Right from those days, he must have nursed the ambition of setting up a law firm capable of handling complex legal transactions.

Mahmoud and Dikko Chambers has fulfilled that ambition. When the chips are down, he can draw on his professed exposure to the diversity of Nigeria from an early age as well as his experience in the public and private sectors to pilot the affairs of the NBA.