No backlog of NBA stamps – Afam Osigwe

Mazi Afam Osigwe is the General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). He was called to the Nigerian Bar in1999. He speaks on the NBA stamp policy, the recent Supreme Court decision on the policy and other topical issues. Excerpts:
People call you the digital secretary, what does that mean?
 If I’m to hazard a guess, it could be because I do quite a lot of communication by email and a few by social media and I try to be very responsive in answering enquiries mostly sent through WhatsApp and sometimes through Facebook by lawyers who want explanation about how something is done or the legal explanation for some of the decisions we have taken in the last one year.
What is the status of a legal document without the NBA stamp?
In a judgment delivered last Tuesday in Appeal No. SC/722/15 All Progressives Congress (APC) V. General Bello Sarkin Yaki, the Supreme Court upheld the 2nd cross-appellant’s cross appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, Sokoto Division which summarily dismissed the 2nd cross-appellant’s preliminary objection which challenged the appellants’ Notice of Appeal for failure to bear the stamp/seal of the legal practitioner who signed it.
In allowing the appeal the Supreme Court upheld the sole issue formulated by the 2nd cross-appellant; ‘Whether the Court of Appeal was right to hold that failure of a legal document to have affixed to it a Stamp/Seal as mandated by Rule 10(1) of the rules of professional conduct did not carry with it the consequence of rendering such legal document incompetent.’
By this decision the court affirmed that if without complying with the mandatory provision of Rule 10(1) Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007 which requires a lawyer acting in his capacity as a legal practitioner, legal officer or adviser of any government department or ministry or any corporation, who signs or files a legal document to affix on any such document a seal and stamp approved by the Nigerian Bar Association, the document so signed or filed shall be deemed not to have been properly signed or filed. The court has therefore declared that the signing and or filing of a legal document by a lawyer will not be competent if the NBA stamp is not affixed to it.
Now what would be your reaction to another Supreme Court decision, which says the exact opposite?
I’m not mindful of an earlier decision in respect to the case filed by Mega Party but I always tell people that in reading cases and trying to arrive at the position as to what the court decided, that lawyers should be able to distinguish what were the issues presented for the decision. Now in the first decision it was a ruling and the issue of stamp was not a live issue. It was an Obiter Dictum but in the APC case it was a live issue. It was a sole issue formulated for the consideration by the court. We are not mindful of those who feel that it is a personal thing or that anybody has anything to gain. I mean it is about upholding the rules of the profession. The profession must be properly  regulated but that does not mean we are trying to take food off anybody’s table but rules are useless if they just exist in the statutes without enforcement and the profession will have better integrity if these rules are observed.
Could you please explain further?
In Mega Party’s case, which people have shouted so much with regards to using the NBA stamp, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed in delivering a ruling in an application on whether the appellant could be allowed to amend its notice of appeal to add fresh grounds of appeal made a statement that the Supreme Court has not amended its practice direction and the implementation of the stamp did not have force of law because it is based on a circular. And I must draw this distinction before I discuss the latter case that the implementation of the stamp by NBA does not derive its legal efficacy from the circular by the CJN.
One of the rules of professional conduct in the legal profession provides that any legal practitioner acting in his capacity, as a legal practitioner shall affix in any legal document a stamp approved by the NBA. Rule 10:2 of our Rules defines legal documents to include court processes, agreements, instruments etc, that any process signed or filed by any lawyer acting in his own professional capacity without affixing a stamp will be incompetent and now the rules of professional conduct in the legal profession was made by the General Council of the Bar, so it is a subsidiary legislation. We rely on it for the position we’re taking on the stamp. Now the issue of the circular for CJN is important to the extent that the judiciary will help enforce the stamp. That is as far as it goes. If any person were to discuss the issue of the stamp, the circular would not provide the legal basis but it is the main administrative co-operation by the judiciary to the Bar in achieving the objectives of the statutes.
 We also have complaint from lawyers who have paid for the stamps but are yet to get them, what is your reaction?
There is no backlog of stamps. The initial delay we had was in September and that has been sorted out. However the so-called delay was due to applications that have been questioned for one reason or the other. Some are been questioned because they made under payment in terms of their practicing fees and sundry issues and in the process, we have discovered a lot of fake lawyers.