RE: “ECNBA Disqualifies Felix Chukwuma Ashimole, Esq.” By Sylvester Udemezue

(An opinion by the Reality Ministry)

An 04/05/2024 news report on KubwaExpress has it that “According to the email sent to him at the early hours of 4th May, the ECNBA hinged their action on:1.That his 2024 BPF was paid on 24th December 2023. 2.That his second nominator submitted teller and not receipt evidencing payment within time”

OUR COMMENT

1. Paying the 2024 Bar Practicing Fee in December 2023 appears novel to us. If we were in his shoes, we would have waited to pay in 2024, since the schedule of Bar Practicing Fee for each year is usually released either on the New Year Day or on its eve or shortly before then, to advise members ahead of the payment, usually commencing on January 01 of the relevant year.

2. The extant Law requires lawyers called to the Bar in Nigeria to pay their BPF for each year, not later than 31 March of the same year, although one is still accommodated to pay after the deadline with attendant negative implications.

3. Unfortunately, the extant law does not expressly state when payment of BPF should start. This raises the question, Can the BPF payment be made in advance, say, during the month or year preceding the relevant year? Answer to this question would help to determine whether Bar Practicing Fee paid in December 2023 can be effective for the year 2024. But then, a further question is raised, What is the implication of the silence of the extant law on time for commencement of payment of the BPF? Does it or doesn’t it mean that one is free to pay in advance, say, in the preceding month/year? An interesting question the answer to which would change a lot!
But then, to answer this question, one must look at the general question of PAYMENT IN ADVANCE in law generally! Is it illegal, to fulfill one’s obligation in advance?

4. Then comes the question, whether one is obliged to pay twice for a particular year. If Felix Ashimole had earlier in 2023 paid his BPF for the year 2023, but then thereafter decided to pay the 2024 BPF in December 2023, and specifying that the payment made in December 2023 was for 2024, should he be deemed to not have paid the 2024 BPF? Okay, if you say he hasn’t paid the 2024 BPF, are you entitled to collect and keep double BPF from one person for the year 2023? If you agree you are not, and then, you say the money paid in December 2023 wasn’t for the 2024 BPF, then what is that money for? Can you keep his second payment (clearly made towards the 2024 payment) and still turn around to say he hasn’t paid the 2024 BPF? Wouldn’t that amount to breaking the rule related to Quod Approbo Non Reprobo? Well, this is not all.

5. BPF is paid to the Registrar of the Supreme Court. ECNBA organises NBA national elections. What was the correspondence between the two? Did the Supreme Court accept the December 2023 payment as one for the 2024 or had mistakenly appropriate it to 2023 since anyone can still pay BPF anytime in the year, even after the deadline? Is it not more reasonable to suppose that any payment made anytime in 2023 was for the 2023 BPF?

6. But then, why was Mr Ashimole issued NBA Seal for the year 2024 if the NBA had believed he hadn’t paid the 2024 BPF or that the December payment wasn’t for the 2024 BPF? If you issued him the 2024 SEAL, including the BONUS SEAL for those who pay BPF before the deadline, does this not indicate that you’ve, by conduct, accepted the December 2023 payment as payment for the 2024 BPF? Wouldn’t it now amount to blowing hot and cold at the same time, for you to turn around and purport to disregard appropriation of the December 2023 payment to his 2024 BPF? Why not reject his application for NBA seal 2024 on grounds that his December 2023 payment could not be appropriated to the 2024 BPF? If you had rejected his application for seal made earlier in the year, he would have been put on notice, to quickly pay again, before 31 March 2024, so as to be on the safe side? By accepting his application for NBA seal 2024, you had given him the assurance that the payment he had made in December 2023 had been appropriated/accepted/approved for his 2024 BPF! How, then, could you turn around after the deadline for BPF 2024 payment had passed to purport to disregard the December 2024 payment as his 2024 BPF?

7. OUR OPINION: The maxins, Equity follows the law, not slavishly nor sheepishly but to ensure a just and fair application of the law; equality is equity; one can’t approbate and reprobate at the same time; one can’t blow hot and cold at the same time, etc, may apply in this instance. Felix Ashimole, esq, is therefore advised to appeal this ECNBA-decision, furnishing the ECNBA
(a). Evidence of his earlier payment for the 2023 BPF;

(b). Evidence of a second payment, in December 2023, expressly meant for appropriation as his 2024 BPF;

(c). Evidence that NBA had earlier in 2024, BY CONDUCT, accepted that he had paid the 2024 BPF when NBA issued him the BONUS SEAL reserved for only lawyers who made their 2024 BPF payment within the set deadline; and

(d) Although the notice issued by the NBA in December 2023 didn’t expressly ask anyone to start making the 2024 BPF payment from December 2023, yet, I think Mr Ashimole should show the ECNBA the notice from the NBA, pursuant to which he had made his BPF towards 2024.

The need to do justice in the circumstances, should be uppermost in the minds of the ECNBA members, unless there’s any other reason for the Ashimole-disqualification; I’m not privy to the letter of disqualification sent to learned friend Ashimole, Esq. So, I can’t claim to know all the grounds, or if there is any other. But the ECNBA is bound by the grounds set out therein. If this BPF is the only issue, and learned friend Ashimole’s claim, made publicly, are true, then, his appeal, unless he chooses to not appeal, is headed for the green; he has no obligation to pay BPF twice in one year; the Registrar of the Supreme Court is not entitled to keep the two payments at the BPF for only one year. And there is generally nothing wrong in law, with payment in advance, unless there’s a rule forbidding it and about which we’re not aware.

Bottom line:
Fīat iūstitia ruat cælum (Let justice be done, even though the heavens fall)

Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (udems),
Proctor,
Reality Ministry of Justice (RMJ).
08039136749.
therealistministry@gmail.com
(04 May 3024)