The Proposed Amendments To The Constitution Of The Nigerian Bar Association And Its Shortcomings By Sabastine U. Anyia
The NBA is an organised and disciplined body that is made up of seasoned and professional lawyers. The association promotes the welfare, security, economic and professional advancement of her members. It promotes and protects the principle of the rule of law and the fundamental right of its members in particular and Nigerians in general even as it also promotes good governance.
NBA is the role model to other associations in the country; NBA is the voice of the voiceless. The entire country counts on the NBA for direction. It is against this background that anything that involves the NBA is given serious attention and taken seriously.
Recently, the current NBA leadership proposed the amendment of the NBA Constitution just less than two years after the Olumide Akpata led administration amended our constitution. It is indeed ridiculous for an association of this magnitude to be amending her constitution biennially. It appears to me that the leadership of the NBA now amend our constitution for fun.
Our research shows that the membership of this prestigious association is approximately a million members. Such a large number of members should be seriously engaged by involving a chunk of them in the activities of the association to make them feel belonged.
Let nothing make the leadership of our association believe that amending our constitution is a major achievement that will lure every regime to work hard just to amend the Constitution so that at the end of the administration, if they have nothing to show as their achievement(s), they will brandish a copy of the amended Constitution as their achievement. It will not work, we are taking stock. Each leader that was shouldered with the responsibility to lead this noble association must give account of his stewardship, this, we are anxiously waiting.
Whereas, we are advocating for the enlargement of the number that make up the Executive of the NBA as it is presently constituted, the present administration is proposing that the number be reduced from 9 to 5. What this means to my mind is that the present Executives are either inadvertently or deliberately introducing Oligarchy into our NBA. Why is the present administration afraid to engage her large population of her members in the running of the affairs of the association?
It is common knowledge that the more the merrier. It is not possible that learned gentlemen both on skirt and on trousers will sit back and watch a few overlords take control of the association at the expense of majority members of the association who by this proposed amendment are making efforts to sideline them.
It is really disturbing that lawyers who should know better and be at the forefront of the rule of law are advocating in this proposed amendment of our Constitution for succession into the office of the NBA President instead of an election. Let us believe that the suggestion for succession into the office of the NBA President was done in error.
The society looks up to us and to a large extent, we are role models to our people, thus, what message as role models are we sending to our people when we turn the NBA Presidency into a Chieftaincy stool? Even in traditional institutions now, Chieftaincy stool is being contested through elections. The truth is, it will render the association very weak and deny members the opportunity of choosing their leader based on exigency of the time.
The provision of the proposed amendment of NBA Constitution is clear, should we by any mistake adopt the amendment, after the 2024 election, the next NBA President shall be by succession. He shall automatically be succeeded by his Vice President. A method best described as an inheritance process.
I am sure that our fore bearers will be ashamed of us by merely contemplating such an embarrassing amendment. Thus, the provision of Section 9 (3) (c) of the proposed amendment of the Constitution which provides that the past vice president shall succeed the President save as provided in paragraph 4 part III of the second schedule to the constitution is not in line with international best practices. This is a NO NO NO. It should be thrown away forthwith.
Again, the present proposed amendment that calls for the reduction of National officers of NBA from 9 as it is presently constituted to 5 which, according to the proposal shall have only the following:
a. President
b. The vice president
c. The general secretary d. The assistant general secretary and
e. The publicity secretary is a very bad idea.
Five officers as national officers of the NBA is too skeletal for a very big association like the NBA with wide national spread . There is no justification for such trimming down of NBA executive members.
One wonders why an association of almost a million members should have only 5 persons to pilot its affairs. How do we effectively engage other large populations of our members? The very essence of this association is the welfare of its members, yet the proposed amendment omitted in its entirety the office of the welfare secretary. I then ask: what does this amendment intend to achieve?
It is imperative to place on record that all the amended NBA Constitutions in the past have always retained the three (3) geographical Vice presidency structure that gave the various sections of this country a sense of belonging in the NBA political system. Again, this proposed amendment removed these beautiful provisions.
Furthermore, there is no justification to elect 18 members as representatives of the association to the General Council of the bar and allow Mr. President to appoint two members to the said office that make up 20 members. If we are electing we should elect all the members, if Mr. President is to appoint, he should appoint all the members. We should not indirectly introduce spies for Mr. President among the general council of the Bar. To me, this is pure injustice being schemed to cause division in the General Council of the bar.
In the proposed amendment, the Executive Director of the NBA, under whose authority is he or she directly under and accountable to? The work of the Executive Director from what is stated in the proposed amendment should be under the office of General Secretary of the NBA.
It is the general secretary that we elect and entrust our mandate to and not the Executive Director. Since their office is interwoven, he/she must be under the General Secretary and not Mr president. He/she must be accountable to the General Secretary who in turn is accountable to Mr. President and not the other way round. This should be well spelt out to avoid conflict with the general secretary.
It is my humble suggestion that the amendment of the NBA Constitution by the Olumide Akpata led administration does not need further amendment for now. If we must amend our constitution, I therefore state as follows:
A. The existing order that gives the various sections of the country three Vice Presidents, that is, the vice president for each section of the country should remain as it gives them a sense of belonging in the affairs of the NBA. We cannot at this stage introduce monarchy as in succession to office or oligarchy as in number of executives as proposed in the suggested amendment
B. NBA President should appoint special assistants/advisers in all the NBA branches. This is one of the ways of engaging and involving the vast population of our members and carrying them along in the NBA administration,after all, the more the merrier.
C. The office of the welfare secretary in NBA is sacrosanct. The major or the very essence of this association is the welfare of its members. There should also be three welfare secretaries assisting the chief welfare secretary; welfare secretary east, welfare secretary north and welfare secretary west.
D. Scrapping off offices of the national officers as envisaged by the proposed constitutional amendment is undemocratic. We should not introduce succession into the office of the president nor should we introduce an Oligarchic system of government in our NBA.
