Less than one month to the NBA Annual Bar Conference scheduled
to be held in Lagos on 18 August 2017, uncertainty pervades
arrangements for the conference as a result of controversial
registration caps introduced by the conference planning
committee.
The theme of the conference, which will be declared open by the
Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who is himself a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is “African Business Penetrating Through
Institution Building.”
Three categories of registration were made operational and
available for persons who intend attending the conference. The
categories of registration which are known as the Early, Regular
and Late fee registration types have their different cost types for
different classes of lawyers. The announcement of the conference
date got lightened with packages otherwise qualified as juicy,
which include a tablet which cost N245, 000. 00 to be given as
complimentary upon registration. The tablet is to be programmed for
free with up to one year’s worth of both sim and access enablement
to Law Pavilion, content providers on law and jurisprudence in
Nigeria. Registered participants were also promised free lunch for
all five days of the conference.
The Technical Committee for the conference (TCCP), headed by Dr.
Koyinsola Ajayi, SAN, a comfortable commercial lawyer practicing in
Lagos, decided to cap the number of participants at 5,000. They
also decided, secretly, that conference registration would be
stopped once they reached 5,000 registered participants. None of
this was communicated to the membership of the NBA. It is not known
whether they informed the President of the NBA but informed sources
at the NBA Secretariat disclosed that the NBA President, AB
Mahmoud, SAN, whose campaign promised to deliver #ABraveNewBar, was
kept in the dark about these secret decisions. There are reportedly
over 120,000 registered in Nigeria.
The costs of registration ranged from N20,000 for young lawyers
who registered early to N500,000 for a category known as “political
office holders”. Lawyers especially the young wigs, whinged about
the costs, stating that the younger lawyers aren’t really
adequately considered in the NBA’s action plan.
However, registration commenced with the announced costs despite
the complaints of the young wigs and others and immediately ran
into serious challenges. Most lawyers complained that they could
not access the registration portal on time. Barely one week after
the opening of the portal and while the early-bed registration was
still supposedly open, it stopped accepting registrations. Unknown
to the NBA, the TCCP had set undisclosed caps on the numbers
participants that could be registered and had programmed the portal
to reject any registrations once these undisclosed caps were
reached. After much complains to and confusion from the NBA, it was
confirmed that spaces were “sold out”
Not only so, the supposed cheap earlybird registration was
reported to have been shut down not long after it was opened for
registration purposes. This caused panic as NBA received extensive
criticisms from the legal community. In response to this
controversy, the NBA President hurriedly met with the TCCP and,
thereafter, announced that the cap on registration had increased
from 5,000 to 7,000, an addition or 2,000 more participants or an
increase of 40% on the original cap.
With frustration boiling over into anger over these
arrangements, the leadership of the NBA has rushed to announce a
series of palliative measures. It has directed the TCCP to open up
a waiting list of participants and has also arranged a
live-telecast of the conference on a dedicated channel on DSTV, a
regional cable TV network for Africa to complement existing
web-streaming arrangments.
As the Conference days draw nearer, however, dis-satisfaction
with the perceived insincerity of the TCCP is growing. At press
time, some young lawyers were reported to be meeting to consider
launching a campaign of mass boycott of conference. Chairman of the
Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) of the NBA
and former head of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi
Odinkalu, cited the shoddiness of the arrangements by the TCCP in
announcing over the week-end that he would be boycotting the
conference.
We cannot take our minds out from the fact that there are many
yet to be voiced thoughts about the registration saga as well as
the preparation so far with respect to the NBA oncoming Annual
Conference.
It is on this note that TheNigerialawyer seeks to invite the
views of legal practitioners about the oncoming NBA national
conference and what they think about the whole registration process
and the preparation so far. TheNigerialawyer will like to welcome
well written comments on the subject matter as well as votes on the
suggest-voting options provided below.
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Less than one month to the NBA Annual Bar Conference scheduled
to be held in Lagos on 18 August 2017, uncertainty pervades
arrangements for the conference as a result of controversial
registration caps introduced by the conference planning
committee.
The theme of the conference, which will be declared open by the
Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who is himself a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is “African Business Penetrating Through
Institution Building.”
Three categories of registration were made operational and
available for persons who intend attending the conference. The
categories of registration which are known as the Early, Regular
and Late fee registration types have their different cost types for
different classes of lawyers. The announcement of the conference
date got lightened with packages otherwise qualified as juicy,
which include a tablet which cost N245, 000. 00 to be given as
complimentary upon registration. The tablet is to be programmed for
free with up to one year’s worth of both sim and access enablement
to Law Pavilion, content providers on law and jurisprudence in
Nigeria. Registered participants were also promised free lunch for
all five days of the conference.
The Technical Committee for the conference (TCCP), headed by Dr.
Koyinsola Ajayi, SAN, a comfortable commercial lawyer practicing in
Lagos, decided to cap the number of participants at 5,000. They
also decided, secretly, that conference registration would be
stopped once they reached 5,000 registered participants. None of
this was communicated to the membership of the NBA. It is not known
whether they informed the President of the NBA but informed sources
at the NBA Secretariat disclosed that the NBA President, AB
Mahmoud, SAN, whose campaign promised to deliver #ABraveNewBar, was
kept in the dark about these secret decisions. There are reportedly
over 120,000 registered in Nigeria.
The costs of registration ranged from N20,000 for young lawyers
who registered early to N500,000 for a category known as “political
office holders”. Lawyers especially the young wigs, whinged about
the costs, stating that the younger lawyers aren’t really
adequately considered in the NBA’s action plan.
However, registration commenced with the announced costs despite
the complaints of the young wigs and others and immediately ran
into serious challenges. Most lawyers complained that they could
not access the registration portal on time. Barely one week after
the opening of the portal and while the early-bed registration was
still supposedly open, it stopped accepting registrations. Unknown
to the NBA, the TCCP had set undisclosed caps on the numbers
participants that could be registered and had programmed the portal
to reject any registrations once these undisclosed caps were
reached. After much complains to and confusion from the NBA, it was
confirmed that spaces were “sold out”
Not only so, the supposed cheap earlybird registration was
reported to have been shut down not long after it was opened for
registration purposes. This caused panic as NBA received extensive
criticisms from the legal community. In response to this
controversy, the NBA President hurriedly met with the TCCP and,
thereafter, announced that the cap on registration had increased
from 5,000 to 7,000, an addition or 2,000 more participants or an
increase of 40% on the original cap.
With frustration boiling over into anger over these
arrangements, the leadership of the NBA has rushed to announce a
series of palliative measures. It has directed the TCCP to open up
a waiting list of participants and has also arranged a
live-telecast of the conference on a dedicated channel on DSTV, a
regional cable TV network for Africa to complement existing
web-streaming arrangments.
As the Conference days draw nearer, however, dis-satisfaction
with the perceived insincerity of the TCCP is growing. At press
time, some young lawyers were reported to be meeting to consider
launching a campaign of mass boycott of conference. Chairman of the
Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) of the NBA
and former head of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi
Odinkalu, cited the shoddiness of the arrangements by the TCCP in
announcing over the week-end that he would be boycotting the
conference.
We cannot take our minds out from the fact that there are many
yet to be voiced thoughts about the registration saga as well as
the preparation so far with respect to the NBA oncoming Annual
Conference.
It is on this note that TheNigerialawyer seeks to invite the
views of legal practitioners about the oncoming NBA national
conference and what they think about the whole registration process
and the preparation so far. TheNigerialawyer will like to welcome
well written comments on the subject matter as well as votes on the
suggest-voting options provided below.
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Read more https://nairalaw.com/must-read-evaluation-of-nba-agc-2017-criticize-rate-and-drop-your-comment/