NBA Benin Law Week 2022: Y. C Maikyau SAN Chairs Session, Makes Impactful Contributions
On Tuesday 14/6/2022, the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, participated in the Law Week programme of the NBA Benin Branch (Lion Bar) which is holding from 13th – 17th June, 2022. The theme of the Week is SECURITY: PANACEA FOR NATIONAL GROWTH. At a time when the entire country is nearly bucking in the face of insecurity, the theme is apt and timely.
The first session for 14/6/2022 had the topic: Credible Elections as a Tool for National Development and was chaired by Mr. Y. C. Maikyau, SAN, with Chief Ighodalo Imadogbelo, SAN as the paper presenter and Hon. Justice D. Ayomire (Chairman EDSIEC), Mrs Nkiru (representing INEC DG), Oluwole Osazee Uzzi and Ken E. Mozia, SAN as discussants.
In his opening remarks at the commencement of the session, Y. C. Maikyau commented: “I had to go to Kaduna 2 weeks ago, and even when someone offered me a private arrangement to fly into Kaduna, I had to land in the air force base because non-state actors have taken over the airport in that state.
These non-state actors are not on the fringes of the country, but are in the heart of the nation. The place where they hoisted their flag from Kaduna to Niger State is less than 2 hours away from the Presidential Villa.
In my hometown in Kebbi State, I run a tuition-free private school, which we unfortunately had to temporarily shut down for the past two years because we cannot afford to leave it open in that village because of security concerns. The school is at the border of Zamfara and Kebbi States.
This is the country that we live in and it is within this situation that I have highlighted that we are talking about the 2023 general election.
Let us agitate our minds as we deliberate in this meeting, in the course of the Law Week, and begin to ask ourselves, what is it that we can do? Are we really going to have an election and if we don’t, is it by design; the type of things that we are experiencing – the nonchalance of the government in addressing the issues of security in this Nation. Is it condonation or lack of capacity, and how did we get to this stage?
The answers are going to come from us. It is our responsibility to drive this country out of the woods.”
The session was interesting and insightful, with a very robust contribution to the conversation, thanks to the able coordination of the learned Silk, Y. C Maikyau SAN.
