NIGERIAN LAW DRAMA SERIES

THE NIGERIAN LAW DRAMA SERIES
*Olumide Babalola


I was pinched to pen down this bit on the heels of the recent strange, maddening, upsetting and unethical happenings in the legal Profession as a whole.

The spate of these untoward awkward series started at the last NBA conference in Lagos, when a sect of Lawyers generaled by an Octogenarian, fervidly pushed for the abolition of the rank of SAN - the highest height attainable by any Practitioner in the country, citing economic oppression, corruption, lack of transparency, favoritism, Nepotism, and professional mediocrity, among others as their reasons.

Though the ‘Applicants’ wanted the matter resolved there and then, the NBA President, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, informed the house that such a highly inflammable issue should not be dealt with shoddily, he then recommended it for the onward review and decision of the NEC at their next meeting. A resolution it was, which seemed to have temporarily quenched the furnace on the Conference ground except for the ‘Aggrieved’s continued circulation of protest leaflets and handbills.

As if that was not enough, barely a month after the conclusion of the Conference, a fight broke out between the NBA President and his General Secretary, Ibrahim Eddy Mark Esq., over allegation of corruption and abuse of office, with the duo accusing and counter accusing each other of fraudulent and unbecoming practices.

This consequently led to a desperate move spearheaded by the third Vice President, Mr. Bath Okoye Aniche, supported by National Welfare Secretary and the Assistant Financial Secretary to sack the President at the NEC Meeting held in Enugu in December 2009 over serious indictable allegations.
The hostility between the President and some of his Officers which had almost grown a verbis ad verbera, was elderly resolved by Chief T.J. Okpoko SAN and his fellow Elders-in-Council

The dust had barely settled, when the NBA President wrote to the immediate past CJN, Justice Kutigi on behalf of the Body, advising the latter to stay all actions on the conferment of new SANs as a result of the brewing controversies trailing the previous conferments pending an amicable and acceptable settlement of the issues, and in a sharp contrast, the General Secretary of the same body openly refuted and denied any connection between the NBA's position and that of the Akeredolu's letter and that same should be treated as the latter's personal opinion.

In December 2009, the NBA drama series was happily but momentarily sidetracked by the National anxiety anchored by President’s Yaradua’s protracted vacation, as it tasked Lawyers with the duty to come forth with varying interpretations for Sections 144 and 145 of the 1999 Constitution.

All other scenes that took place during the “commercial break” were not as intriguing as the December 30th ‘Party’ at the Supreme Court where the outgoing Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Idris Kutigi swore-in his Successor, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu.

Putting the Records straight, Kutigi CJN (as he then was) clocked 75, the statutory retirement age for Apex Justices on 31st day of December 2009- the day he was supposed to vacate the exalted seat, but with his swearing-in of his learned brother Justice on the eve of his birthday, two substantive CJNs were foisted on the Country.

Trust Lawyers for who they were trained to be, several explications and counter explications poured in large flow, supporting and condemning the act: while the ‘Judicial Activists' cited the Oaths Act 1990 as the oracle from which the act drew its legal rachis, the 'Conservatives' counter argued that there was no emergency that necessitated the sharp deviation from a legal convention.

Whichever way one sees it, I honestly think the office of the Chief Justice of this Country is too venerated and highly placed for its occupant to have his ascendancy shrouded in controversy and dissension.

It was neither surprising nor unexpected that, after much noise from everyone who felt like flexing his constitutional muscle of expression, the matter characteristically vacated the Air and 'Print' waves quietly.

Not also forgetting the intervallic outrageous, embarrassing and disgraceful stunts arrogantly filmed from the Office of the Ex-Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in the Classic under review.

Life in the Judiciary seemed to have continued expectedly until a certain time in February 2010 when the Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto, hearing the Governorship' election Petition of Alh. Aliyu Wammako (the incumbent) and the DPP Aspirant, was estopped from delivering its ripe judgment on account of a Petition written to the National Judicial Council by Wamako imputing likelihood of bias and corruption to the Panel.

My concern here is not the propriety or otherwise of the imputation, but the episode that ensued between the CJN and the President of Court of Appeal, in what seemed to me, a needless and avoidable rift, were all cards laid straight.

And came the 12th Day of April 2010, at the main bowl of the Supreme Court, situate at Three-Arms zone, Garki, Abuja, the sensitivity of the whole community of Nigerian Lawyers was yet again insulted, when, in the course of inducting of the new Senior Advocates of Nigeria, the number One Lawyer in Nigeria, Chief Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu SAN and the Chief Law Officer of the Country, Chief Mohammed Bello Adoke SAN were both barred from making their earlier scheduled speeches at the event.

Reportedly, the Bar President was asked by the CJN to expunge certain paragraphs from his speech, to which the later refused and he paid the embarrassing price of being officially listed in the programme but not called upon to perform. Though, the CJN was reported to have apologized to the Bar Chief, I am sorry to feel that, such apologies could safely pass for, medicine after death.

Enough is Enough!
Borrowing a leaf from my learned Brother, Chude Jideonwo, Esq., and his Associates, I think we have had, heard and seen enough of this overplus of judicial ignominies both at the Bar and on our Bench.
The Judiciary, which is expected to be the hope of the common Man, can not afford to be a stop shop of slapstick. Enough is Enough! Even as I prayerfully hope that there wouldn’t be a concluding Part to the tiresome series.



Olumide Babalola, writes from Bauchi
Olumidey@in.com