BEVERLY HILLS, August 15, (THEWILL) – The election into the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association may have come and gone with the emergence of Olumide Akpata as the new President, the controversies surrounding the entire exercise would continue to linger for some time to come.
While there is the general consensus that the process which produced the new national officers was largely flawed, majority of the members of the Association may have unanimously resolved that, despite all the flaws, there is “no going back to Egypt”.
It is however worrisome that the electronic voting system that was introduced to replace the grossly abused delegate system of voting in 2015 just before the 2016 election is still a problem five years after.
The delegate system was jettisoned because it was thoroughly abused as it gave undue powers to chairmen of the state chapters to manipulate the system to determine who emerged as a delegate.
However, the e-voting system also came with its own challenges, right from the first experiment during the 2016 election, through to the 2018 polls and got to the climax at the just concluded election.
The new president, Akpata, had confirmed the flaws and actually raised the alarm, which led to some interventions just before the election. However, the challenges were more systemic and definitely beyond his powers.
Now that he is in the saddle, the onus is on him to put right all the perceived flaws and the best time to start the move is now.
Without any iota of doubt, the NBA is not new to controversy, especially in the aftermath of its national elections.
Therefore, the call, in some quarters for the total cancellation of the election, and the threat of a legal action to enforce this, are not entirely new to the Association. Recall that a court case was instituted by John Gadzama (SAN) challenging the 2016 election of Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN). The case dragged on throughout the tenure of Mahmoud and eventually became an “academic” judgment.
The situation was not different during the 2018 election that produced Paul Usoro (SAN) as the president. That election was even more controversial as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was eventually called into the matter over allegations bordering on identity theft, cyber-crime and manipulations of the electronic voting process.
The pattern is also continuing now but with some worrisome and dangerous dimensions.
We are however happy that the new president has declared his victory as victory for all as he has promised to carry everybody along in the mission to rebuild the NBA to an enviable level that would be the pride of all lawyers in the country.
However, the recent move by some members of the Association, hiding under a faceless group, calling itself the “New Bar Initiative”, calls for great concern. The group might be planning to exploit the present challenges facing the Association to achieve its selfish agenda.
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From all indications, the plan by the faceless group is not only to cause further division in the already polarised Association but to also distract the new Executive Council from its ongoing reconciliatory efforts aimed at uniting the Association once again.
Without any iota of doubt, the ultimate objective of the faceless group is to frustrate ongoing peace and reconciliatory efforts and form a parallel association.
A human rights lawyer and activist, Caroline Ajie, had actually warned about the possibility of aggrieved members going this route. In a statement right after the election, Ajie called for its cancellation, describing it as “the most shambolic exercise you mistook for an election in 2020.”
According to Ajie, “We worked for years to adopt e-voting but not to tolerate electronic malfeasance. We must clean the Augean stable and practice what we preach as society’s foremost, honourable, noble and learned profession.”
However, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, described the July 29 exercise as an election of unintended consequences.
“In the end, reluctantly, most people appeared to agree that the most popular candidate was declared in the contest for the presidency but the flaws in the process created a mess ” Odinkalu said, even as he urged the new leadership to address all the issues raised.
This is really a mature way of confronting the challenges and Akpata has also called for a thorough understanding of the challenges at hand with a view to proactively confronting it instead of scuttling the whole exercise.
“Let me suggest that we do a thorough analysis of this election, identify the shortcomings, and use it as a template for the next elections. Let us be reminded that elections will not end. Opportunities will not end. Let us not destroy tomorrow’s opportunities on the shortcomings of today,” Akpata maintained.
THEWILL totally agrees with the NBA president’s suggestions as this is the best way of resolving the ongoing brouhaha. We therefore condemn the new divisive move by the faceless group and their sponsors as we believe that breaking the Association into parallel bodies would not do Nigerian lawyers any good.
We strongly believe that the nation’s legal system, which is already being faced with serious challenges, might be thrown into further jeopardy if the plan is allowed to see the light of the day.
We align with the conviction of well-meaning Nigerians that the new Executive Council led by Akpata is capable of resolving the crisis within the NBA amicably, a move it has already started.
Majority of the members of the Association are also convinced that the NBA is now headed for a total turnaround towards becoming an Association every lawyer in the country would be proud of.
The Akpata-led Executive Council, no doubt, has a great task ahead of it, and given the experience of the new NBA president, surmounting the challenges is just a matter of time, with the support of all members.
We therefore urge aggrieved members to sheathe their sword and resist this new attempt to further polarise the Association by giving their full support to the new president and his team in the mission to rebuild the NBA.
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