By Innocent Anaba

Mr.  Joseph Bodunrin Daudu, SAN,  is the out-going President of Nigeria Bar Association, NBA. He ceases to be NBA President, next week Friday, when he will hand over to his successor, Mr. Okey Wali, SAN, at the association’s Annual General Week long conference, slated for Abuja.

In this interview, he spoke on his two year tenure; corruption in the judiciary; standard of practice in the legal profession; hike in lawyer’s annual practice fee; 1999 constitution amendments process; establishment of state police; the controversy trailing the association’s national elections among others.

Excerpt:

AS the outgoing NBA president, how would you describe your two year tenure?

Much as I do not like self – assessment or glorification, I must first and foremost thank God Almighty, who I committed the entire Presidency to for a fulfilling two-year tenure. It has been an inspirational period during which I learnt a lot. I came into the office with the benefit of what I though was considerable experience in Bar activities.

What I have assimilated in two years surpassed what I brought to the office. I came with a plan and by HIS grace I have covered the field. I will, however, leave it to the historians to document the specific achievements of my administration.

In what ways would you say that your administration has impacted positively on legal profession generally?

I will say that we went right from the outset to promote professionalism as opposed to politics. We started by organising the NBA secretariat in such a way that it would be able to execute professional programs and projects such as specialised workshops and conferences, we created 3 directorates (a) Administration, (b) Bar Services and (c) Programmes and as at today, they are all up and running.

*Mr. Joseph Bodunrin Daudu, SAN,

For example, NBA organised 2 successful Human rights day roundtable for the year 2010 and 2011 in which the germane human rights issues were deliberated upon, we organised a seminar on the readiness of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and stakeholders for the 2011 general elections chaired by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, our Rule of law committee headed by Mallam Yusuf Alli SAN organised a successful Rule of Law summit to draw attention to rule of law lapses in the prevailing democratic dispensation.

In February 2012, the NBA organised an epochal meeting with our development partners such as the OSJI, UNICEF, Mac Arthur Foundation, USAID, DFID, OSIWA, UNDP, Lawyers Without Borders, EU, Legal Resources Consortium, Access to Justice and a few others.

Another flagship event was the highly accepted Criminal Reform Conference 1 and 11 held in 2011 and 2012 at Abuja and Asaba respectively. These conferences have highlighted the deficiencies in our criminal justice system and have offered comprehensive solutions thereto.

Further to these, NBA organised a seminal symposium on the performance of Election Tribunals in Nigeria in the aftermath of the 2011 general elections at Benin-City Edo State, which was superlatively attended by high judicial officers and legal practitioners in the electoral justice circuit.

The Sections on Legal Practice and Business Law held their annual conferences and they have been adjudged to be of international standard. There were other numerous middle level programmes like training workshops for Staff and national officers, interactions with other Bar Associations and institutional visits to dignitaries and other personalities such as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Senate Majority Leader, Chairmen of the various anti-corruption commissions, Road Safety Corps, Judiciary heads in the States and FCT, National Orientation Agency to mention a few.

These institutional visits are essential and or indispensible with a few to assessing the effectiveness of our national institutions and agencies and exchanging ideas with their chief executives.

Are you satisfied with the standard of practice in the legal profession considering your administrative capacity building inputs?

No, I am certainly not satisfied with the standard of legal practise in Nigeria and this has been a source of substantial worry for us. The problems have grave repercussions of gargantuan economic proportions and consequences. There is a direct correlation between poor legal services arising from ignorance and low quality and diminishing economic returns which afflict the service provider i.e. the lawyer.

We have tried to energise the Nigerian lawyer by drawing his attention to the necessity of continuing legal education and ceaseless investment in the process. Our lawyers unfortunately want to put the cart before the horse. They love the financial returns that flow from legal practise but unfortunately a substantial number and they constitute the majority do not invest in those tools i.e. books, internet services, office equipment i.e. computers, printers, scanners, qualified staff etc.

A number of lawyers also fail to subscribe to the best practices that they were taught in the law school. There are more reported cases today of incompetence, fraud and failure to act in good faith by lawyers in the course of client-counsel relationship than ever before.

Upon assumption of office I set up a committee to review the state and quality of legal education in Nigeria. It was headed by Professor Chukwuemerie, SAN, their report, which is quite comprehensive and instructive gave rise to the Legal Education Bill that has enjoyed the 1st reading in the Senate. It is hoped that when that Bill Is passed into law it will reset the structures for an efficient legal system as it relates to the quality of the legal practitioner.

Corruption is a monster which the NBA under your leadership promised to stamp out of the judiciary. Were you able to achieve this?

I need to preface the answer by acknowledging that corruption is endemic in all the sectors and segments of the Nigerian society and not limited to the judiciary alone, indeed, it is the quest to be like other corrupt segments of the society that has led some misguided elements to trade with justice as if it is a merchantable commodity. There is therefore large scale corruption in the judiciary and justice sector.

The NBA can only draw attention to this terrible scourge and make suggestions for its eradication. We do not possess the machinery in the nature of enforcement mechanisms to bring down corruption in the judiciary or any other sector of the society.

Only Government can do the stamping out but first they must show sufficient resolve by first acknowledging the existence of the problem, its magnitude then they can move to the stage of mapping out strategy for combatting the problem in consultation with stakeholders like the NBA.

On our own part, we live by example; our finances are zero-tolerant to corruption. We have just conducted a magnificently free and fair election, we also speak out against the cankerworm; that is for now the only thing we can do.

Despite NBA’s strong position on Justice Ayo Salami’s issue, how does it make you feel that he has not been reinstated as you are leaving office?

At the time of Justice Salami’s suspension, we i.e. NBA condemned it because there was a pending court case seeking to restrain the NJC from taking any further action. The President through the Attorney General of the Federation took the position that there could not be a vacuum in the administration of the Court of Appeal and appointed an Ag President.

These cases are still pending in court, just as the NBA position against the initial action is clear. Nothing in that regard has changed. The only snag is that the matter is sub judice and there is a limit to which we can comment on pending court cases.

The last National Executive Council, NEC meeting of NBA endorsed what most lawyers described as an astronomical hike in lawyer’s annual practice fee and they called it an unpopular decision, how do you react to this?

Conferences are very expensive to organise. In the past when the economy was tolerably buoyant, sponsors contributed to the cost of previous conferences. But this year the sponsors are simply not there. Again, reliance on sponsors that you are likely to criticise should be discouraged.

This year I am moving the Bar in the direction of our paying for our conferences just as it is done in most places like the International Bar Association, NBA (where our members shell out about 1 million minimum per person to attend yearly conferences) the American Bar Association, Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the law societies of East Africa, England and Wales etc, these organisations do not go cap in hand asking Governments that they will eventually criticize to sponsor their conferences.

As I earlier said conference is a costly event. We the organizers’ know the costs we are faced with; take security for example, the cost of providing security in this days of bomb blast has gone up by at least 1,000 percent, add the cos
t of conference venues in Abuja, hospitality by way of refreshments and meals, printing of materials, invitation cards, labels, ushers uniforms, friendship centre, organising the Annual General meeting, etc.

Multiply these variables by about 5000 attendees and divide it with the amount that they are paying, you will discover that the NBA is still subsidizing every delegate by about 35 percent. Honestly, we cannot give what we do not have; despite letters for donations and assistance no one has given a kobo to the organisation of the conference. Be it noted that no one is doing J.B. Daudu a favour by attending the conference. It is an NBA event and lawyers are free to decide to attend or stay at home.

Some lawyers have described your leadership style as somewhat dictatorial, what is your reaction?

Respectfully, that will not be correct. As the leader of a respected Association like the NBA, whose members are intelligent, vibrant and fearless in stating their views, I can act no less than being firm in the taking of decisions on behalf of and in the best interest of the Association.

The NBA delegate conference in Abuja, which produced the in coming executive has come and gone, but the dust it raised, is yet to settle, what do you have to say?

The NBA delegates’ conference which saw the election of new national officers led by Mr Okey Wali SAN elected as President NBA has come and gone. It has been adjudged as the best organised delegates’ conference ever conducted by the Association.

No dust was raised except by one of the candidates that did not win the office that he contested for i.e. the office of the President. i.e. Emeka Ngige SAN. 14 offices were contested for; the question to ask is why he is the only one complaining. The rest soberly accepted the outcome of the election. The reasons he has given for his protestations are lamentably frivolous. In any case we have fully responded to his allegations. I will not dignify them any further by joining issues with him.

Specifically, Chief Emeka Ngige SAN, is insisting on his allegation of voters registration manipulation, how do you react?

Mr Ngige is confusing NBA elections with Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, organised elections for the whole nation. We do not have voter registration in the NBA. Our voting population is known, identifiable and ascertainable.

Our delegates list is prepared based on those who are qualified to vote as delegates. We have an electoral committee that should on account of the sterling and yeoman’s work that they have done be praised rather than vilified. As I said, we have since moved on.

What is your advice to the in-coming executive?

The NBA’s goals and objectives as an association is well known to the incoming executive. They were elected because the Bar trusts that they will best project and execute the objectives of the Association. The NBA is a continuum. I am confident that they will keep the flag flying.

The National Assembly is about to commence another round of constitution amendments, what is NBA’s position on this?

The NBA on behalf of all Nigerian lawyers and indeed all Nigerians is a critical stakeholder in the constitution making process. While we know that in most cases, flaws detected in implementation of the country’s fundamental law need to be changed through the process of amendment.

We believe that the process of amendment is not and should not be a ploy for the wholesale substitution of the existing constitution. The areas that require amendment must be areas that (a) promote true fiscal federalism, (b) promote an independent democratically elected local government, (c) promote a corrupt free, independent and impartial judiciary, (d) remove a substantial number of responsibility from the Federal Government of Nigeria as contained in the exclusive legislative list and move to a residual list or at best the concurrent list those items that obstruct true fedralism,(e) create the parameters for the establishment of State Police, etc.

The exercise must not attempt to create additional States as majority of the existing ones are not economically viable and are merely escalating the cost of governance to the detriment of genuine transformational development.

Despite NBA’s warning that the federal government should call Bayelsa Government State and the Ogoni people to order over self-determination declaration by the latter, some have argued that UN recognises people’s right to self-determination, what is your take on this?

Let me ask a question; is it feasible for the State of Florida in the USA or any other State to advocate for self-determination? Not possible. The bottom line is that our constitution is our basic law and it is superior to the UN Charter which is being misinterpreted.