Facts, Fiction And The Fallacy Of Hasty Generalizations: Lessons From Reactions To The 2023 NBA Constitution Amendment
By The Thinking Lawyer
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. On the 31st July, 2023, lawyers received the notice of proposals for the amendment of the NBA Constitution. The proposed amendments have generated reactions from various quarters on social media, with many holding opinions based on guesswork, speculation, conjecture and even misrepresentation.
For example, a senior lawyer and former chairman of the NBA Ikeja Branch, Mr. Adesina Ogunlana shared a post on Facebook where he stated that the “NBA Abuja AGC/AGM 2023 will end in chaos. At least a President will be beaten up. Lives may be lost”. If you find this to be shocking, reckless and perhaps irresponsible, you are one of the few sane Nigerians left. Perhaps the senior lawyer is one of those who the Conference Incidence Committee were looking for (remember the conference bags saga?).
Other reactions ranged from unreasonable to downright ludicrous, such as blaming the NBA President for proposals submitted independently by other lawyers! So the NBA President has the power to control people? For example, a facebook lawyer Steve Sun accused the NBA President of “coming up with the most vexatious and obnoxious constitutional amendments this Association has ever seen…” Sunny’s comment reminds me of a quote from Macbeth in Junior Secondary School, “…it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Steve Sun ko, Steve Moon ni.
This tempest in a teapot presents the grounds to address the Fallacy of Hasty Generalization and how it discounts the value of our legal discourse.
The objective of this writer is to illustrate what happens when people (even you lawyers) comment about things they know little to nothing about. In the realm of logic, this is called the Fallacy of Hasty Generalization. In psychology, it is called the ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’ (that’s a conversation for another time).
A famous instance of the fallacy is recorded from ancient Greece. During a solar eclipse, a Philosopher looked at the sky and declared, “The sun has forsaken us forever!” His rash conclusion was met with laughter, scorn and derision when the moon gave way a few seconds later; that was a hasty generalization.
The fallacy of hasty generalization occurs when a conclusion is drawn based on insufficient information or data. It involves making a broad generalization without considering the full range of variation or diversity of information.
Applying the said definition to the amendment issue would beg the following questions: What is the process for amending the NBA Constitution?Who submits proposals for amendment? What is the President’s role (if any)? etc. It is clear that in order to not jump to conclusions, one must consult the fons et origo or be guilty of giving birth to premature opinions.
The provisions of the NBA Constitution and the statutory notices shared by the GS provide simple and obvious answers to these questions. The proposals came from manifestos submitted by members of the Association, as well as a slew of provisions from the truncated 2022 proposed amendment exercise giving branches more financial autonomy and providing for the Stabilisation Fund.
The NBA Constitution gives all members of the Association the locus standi to propose amendments to the Constitution. In the end, each and every proposal for amendment will be placed before members at the Annual General Meeting of the Association for consideration, deliberation and voting in a democratic manner- no violence, no beating, no loss of life.
Now that we have separated fact from fiction and fallacy, the next time someone makes a half-baked comment about something, apply the fallacy of hasty generalization and shut down the bad idea.
