Lessons from the president

On Friday, 6th November 2015 at Prestige Hotels Kaduna under the distinguished chairmanship of Hon. Justice Tanimu Zailani, Chief Judge of Kaduna State, hosted by J.B Daudu {SAN} and Prince Lanke Odogiyon Esq, both life benchers, the Nigerian Bar Association, Barnawa Branch, Kaduna was inaugurated.
The president of NBA while delivering his inaugural speech cleared the air on so many issues this writer feels are beneficial to the practice of a young wig.
Stamp and Seal: With the introduction of the stamp and seal policy, the NBA has been able to discover 1,000 fake lawyers whose names are not on the NBA database or enrolled in the Supreme Court. The president at first thought it was 100 fake lawyers that were discovered till it was confirmed by his team, that the true figure is 1,000.
Truth be said, the less number of quacks and fake lawyers we have in the legal profession the better for us, this writer would like to encourage those of us yet to comply with the stamp and seal policy to endeavour to do so. Focus should not be on the monies the NBA gets from the exercise, the legality or otherwise but rather the benefit of the exercise to the legal profession.
Affidavit: By the provisions of the rules of professional conduct for legal practitioners, only lawyers are allowed to prepare affidavits, reason being that, they are the only ones who can confirm the veracity or otherwise of the depositions as contained in the affidavit. The NBA is working to ensure that any affidavit not prepared by a lawyer would not be accepted. So imagine, that 10,000 affidavits are prepared in Barnawa branch on a monthly basis, and only lawyers are allowed to prepare such affidavits; this can only mean more resources for legal practitioners practicing in the branch.
Leadway Insurance: The president told members that the new insurance scheme commenced by his administration in conjunction with Leadway Insurance has started yielding results. He informed members present that the families of late Charles Mafua Esq {God rest his soul} have been given the sum of One million Naira (N1,000,000) as insurance for the late life bencher. The insurance policy is a commendable initiative that provides recourse to families bereaved of their loved ones who are legal practitioners.
The Senior Advocates of Nigeria who were reported to have walked out on the Code of Conduct Tribunal sitting in Abuja: At first when I heard this news, I asked myself if this was enough reason to walk out on a tribunal and the message such acts would be sending to young lawyers across the nation. As a matter of fact, this was supposed to be topic of our discussion today, till the president explained to members present, that the two senior advocates were asked to write to the secretariat and explain what transpired on the said day, to which they explained that they had sought leave from the tribunal chairman to withdraw their appearance from the proceedings, which was granted, then they bowed and excused themselves.
This goes to show that the NBA under the current administration does not tolerate any act of indiscipline or professional misconduct engaged in by any lawyer that will bring the legal profession into disrepute in the eyes of the public {if you ask me, only journalists with law pedigree should cover proceedings in court to avoid further misconception like this}.
Barrister: No lawyer is permitted to use ‘Barrister’ before his name, this is archaic and unprofessional, the proper nomenclature is XYZ Barrister-at-Law. This is for those of us, who have Barrister boldly written before their names on their letterheads or signboards. Please if you are guilty of such practice, help the legal profession by taking it down.
Paraphrasing the words of J.K Gadzama {SAN}, the president has done in six months what should ordinarily take two years to accomplish, which makes this young wig wonder, if these can be done in six month, what can be achieved in two years at the expiration of his tenure? Keeping my fingers crossed.
I encourage all young lawyers to tap into these initiatives of the president and his executive committee so we can take the legal profession to the heights it deserves to be.
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