Carol Ajie’s Narcissistic Melodrama: Interrogating Her Motive By Prince I. Nwafuru

It was Frank D. Roosevelt who once said that “self-interest is
the enemy of true affection.” Granted that in politics, the popular
view is that interest is the only thing that is permanent and there
is always an element of self-interest lurking beneath the surface
of every supposedly altruistic action, however, such personal
agenda should not be advanced to the detriment of others. Thus,
whilst you cannot fault a person for pursuing his or her own
interest, it has however, been recognized even amongst political
scientists and philosophers that such psychological egoism should
always give way to the greater good of the people and voters have
been urged to suppress their self-interest in favour of general
interest. And I add, such suppression of self-interest is even more
appealing under a regime of a man whose policy thrust is “Putting
You First.” After all, the best action is the one that produces the
greatest well-being for the greatest number of people as rightly
captured in Jeremy Bentham’s theory on the good of the greater
majority, whose theory was later expanded by John Stuart Mill.
Similarly, in finding a balance between Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s
theory of general will and John Locke’s postulation on group
interest, I would have thought that political participation
(including but not limited to voting or supporting a candidate in
elections) should not be about protecting of self-interest alone
but the interest of the majority of the citizens or the members of
a group, who will benefit from the outcome of such election, in
this case, the NBA members. This is not to say that the winner of a
political contest should leave out his or her supporters in the
cold. Far from it. The importance of political support group cannot
be under-estimated even in the most advanced democracies.

The supporters are still the ones to confer legitimacy on the
ensuing administration. The supporters of a leader are the first to
defend his or her policies and equally push back the unwarranted
attacks from the oppositions, akin to what obtains in conventional
politics where political party members stick out their necks in
defence of the policies of the ruling party. But does this mean
that the interest of a supporter of a given NBA President should be
elevated above the general interest of the Bar? Not at all. This
should not be the case given that the ultimate goal of both the
supporters and the eventual winner should be about aggregating the
group interest and in our case, building a virile, transparent and
all-inclusive NBA. I strongly believe that support for a candidate
in a professional Association such as NBA should not be about “what
is in it for me?” but “what is the good of the Bar?”

It is with the above philosophical premise that I commence my
inquiry into the causative underpinnings behind the perennial
tantrums and narcissistic conniptions from the camp of Carol Ajie
(the self-styled Dame of the Bar) against the NBA President. To be
fair to her, before now, I had thought of Carol Ajie as one who
puts the interest of the Bar above her personal interest. Please,
do not blame me for holding that initial impression. Perhaps I was
misled by her ostentatious projection of herself as the great
fighter, the amazon, promoter of women’s rights, and the defender
of the defenseless. Alas, my impression of her later fizzled out
when I decided to dig further into her person. She is indeed a
great fighter as she is known to have fought almost all the
previous NBA Presidents who refused to accommodate her over-bloated
self-interest. To be sure, it is reported that Carol Ajie fought,
Austin Alegeh SAN. She fought Okey Wali SAN. She equally fought
Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN’s leadership. Carol Ajie also waged a
consistent battle against OCJ Okocha SAN during the latter’s time
as the NBA President. One common denominator in all her fights so
far, is the need to promote her self-interest.

As evident from the torrent of her posts on social media and
from what is now clear to us, Carol Ajie’s grouse against the
current NBA leadership is that she supported Mr Paul Usoro SAN to
become the NBA President and her support is yet to be “rewarded”
with the commensurate juicy position. She had wanted to be
nominated to the National Judicial Council – such a hallowed
Institution – but her dream was dashed when the NBA President
nominated her to the Board of National Human Right Commission
(NHRC). I presume that the NBA President would have thought and
rightly so, that nominating Carol Ajie to such a vital institution
as NHRC is like putting the round peg in the round hole given her
acclaimed stance on human right issues.  I should also presume
that being in the Board of NHRC would have provided Carol Ajie a
platform to advance her human right activism. But Carol Ajie would
not accept the nomination to the Board of NHRC (because it wasn’t
juicy enough) and this is notwithstanding her self-acclaimed
exploits in propagation of gender rights. She also claimed that she
was promised a place in the Body of Benchers and the International
Bar Association Council except that we do not know whether these
alleged promises were made orally or in writing as no evidence of
such promises has been shown to us. One thing is certain – Mr Usoro
never promised Carol Ajie any appointment in exchange for her
support. Of course, as it is now clear to us, Carol Ajie suo
motu, nominated herself into the Council of International Bar
Association even without the knowledge and consent of the NBA
President. How do you explain such a desperation? In my view, such
action amounts to a misconduct given that the NBA President never
authorized the said nomination.

Ordinarily, one would be tempted to dismiss Carol’s song of
sorrow on social media as antics and chants of a disgruntled
self-serving supporter but considering the dimension such
mudslinging has taken, it is imperative that we pause and ponder
over the wider implication of such rants on the image of the
Bar.  It is also pertinent at this point that we interrogate
her motives and expose her shenanigans. By way of a caveat, I am
not a serving or past executive member of NBA and do not have the
authority of the Association to speak on its behalf. I equally do
not hold brief for the current NBA President. My intervention is
strictly based on the fact of my membership of the Association
(which indeed gives me the locus to comment) and buoyed by
my desire for issue-based and constructive criticism of any given
NBA leadership including the present administration. Methinks, the
cacophony of disgruntled and self-serving purveyors of
self-interest-discordant-tunes under the guise of activism should
not be allowed to drown the voice of constructive critics who
genuinely want good leadership in the Bar.

The point I make is that if we allow the likes of Carol Ajie to
pollute the NBA’s atmosphere with such acerbic and self-centered
message of hate, we may in the process become deaf to or even
mistake the voice of reason required to keep the Bar moving
forward. And trust me, the tendency to accord Carol’s discordant
voice with legitimacy always stares in the face which explains why
we must all rise and call spade a spade. She must be reminded that
she is an embodiment of self-contradictions and that her narratives
cannot be believed. You cannot claim to have supported the NBA
President due to his unparalleled competence, skills and sterling
character and then turn around few weeks after the election to
accuse the same man of being incompetent and unfit for the office.
This is a classic case of a party approbating and reprobating. The
law and lawyers have no respect for a witness who offers
inconsistent evidence about an event and this is whom Carol Ajie
has become. We must reject her inconsistent narratives.

Indeed, every man and woman of good conscience should be
troubled by Carol’s conceited venture which is fueled by bitterness
and egomaniacal motives but disguised as a message of liberation.
Those who are discerning should be able to ask Carol Ajie these
critical questions; Ma’am, would your position about the NBA
President be different if he had nominated you to the NJC and Body
of Benchers? Would you have turned against him if you were allowed
to nominate yourself into the IBA Council? Why do you block any
person whose comments on your social media platforms are not
supportive of your narratives? – And you still go about denying
that you delete and block people that reveal the truth in response
to your lies on social media. Is it not true that you were
recommended as the NBA representative on the board of NHRC because
of your advertised human rights activism, but you rejected same on
the basis that it may take some time before the Board of NHRC is
inaugurated and that you may only accept to represent NBA at the
NHRC as a bonus to your appointments at NJC and IBA? Why have you
refused to disclose to the public that your additional reason for
rejecting the NHRC nomination was because they pay a paltry sum of
N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira only) for sitting
allowance? Is it not true that you have prepared a Suit which you
have refused to file even after sending a draft to the NBA
President, only to use it as a blackmail tool and to force the NBA
President to do your bidding? Whose interest are you projecting, as
it is now clear that it is not that of NBA? Who are your faceless
sponsors and backers?

Incidentally the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the NBA,
Akorede Habeeb, recently issued a statement describing Carol Ajie’s
allegations against the NBA President as false and motivated by
self-interest. Despite this revelation, Carol Ajie has remained
undeterred and has continued to spill more hogwash and falsehood on
each passing day all aimed at blackmailing the NBA President to do
her bidding. The most interesting thing in all this is that the NBA
President that I know is not a man to be blackmailed into going
against what he believes is in the interest of the Bar. He is made
of sterner stuff and he is not the one to be distracted by Carol’s
blackmail. Mr Usoro is too focused on delivering on his NBA
reformation agenda and has totally ignored Carol Ajie’s rantings as
they are of no consequence. Borrowing from Michelle Obama’s line,
when Carol goes low, Mr President goes high. And we can see this in
the recent achievements and transformation recorded within a short
period of his assumption of office of NBA President. The
transparency and accountability promised in Mr Usoro SAN’s
manifesto is not a mere campaign rhetoric. It is gradually becoming
evident and even the blind can see that it is no more business as
usual.

Whilst I must acknowledge the right accorded to every citizen by
the Constitution to express his or her views without restraint
particularly on issues concerning the public, I must however, note
that this right is not without some exceptions. For one, the right
does not confer on the holder the license to publish false
allegations against the person of another and in this case, against
no less a person than the President of the largest professional
association in Africa. Neither does the right permits the use of
blackmail and subtle threat to actualize one’s selfish motive.
Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
1999 (as amended) which provides for the freedom of expression,
aside from the intra-section exceptions provided therein also has
derogations under Section 45 of the same Constitution. Thus,
nothing in section 39 of the Constitution shall invalidate any law
that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society in the
interest of public order or for the purpose of protecting the
rights and freedom of other persons. This explains why laws such as
the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 were
enacted to checkmate the infringement of rights of others within
the social media space.

Section 24(1) (b) of the Cybercrime Act provides that:

“A person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or
other matter by means of computer systems or network that-

(b)  he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing
annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury,
criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety
to another or causes such a message to be sent, commits an offence
under this Act and is liable on conviction to a fine of not more
than =N7,000,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3
years or both.”

From the above provision, there is no doubt that the spread of
false information or fake news using the social media, under
whatever guise, is a crime in Nigeria. There are also civil
remedies available to the victims of such injurious falsehood. The
aim of this law is to instill circumspection and responsibility on
the part of those disseminating information within the social media
and it is never a defence that a purveyor of such false information
disguises herself or himself as human right or gender activist.

Whilst the NBA owes its members a duty to push back on Carol
Ajie’s misinformation by coming out with rejoinders when necessary,
we as members also need to be more discerning given what is now
clear to us as her motive behind her recent summersault and social
media war. Beyond the afore-noted underlying criminality that is
lurking around Carol Ajie’s social media false information and the
disaffections such smear campaigns generate within the Bar
community, there is also another bigger issue of misleading the
public particularly members of the NBA on major policy issues.
Carol Ajie has made several unsubstantiated allegations against the
NBA President some of which cannot be dignified with a response.
One of such allegations which I found quite bizarre is the part
that accuses Mr Usoro of marginalizing the Igbos. Sadly, some
undiscerning members of the Bar (whom we are equally not sure of
their own motives) often fall for Carol Ajie’s false narratives,
hook, line and sinker without taking steps to verify the
credibility of same. One of the recent victims of such
misinformation is the immediate past 2nd Vice President of the NBA,
Mr Monday Onyekachi Ubani. In one of her posts on Facebook, on 17
November, 2018 Carol Ajie had amongst other falsehoods, barefacedly
accused the NBA President of marginalizing the Igbos. Rather than
take such information with a pinch of salt knowing the antecedents
of the maker, Mr Ubani, in his comment, (in an apparent endorsement
of Carol Ajie’s mischievous post), was reported to have stated
that: “Marginalizing the Igbos is a serious allegation. Mr
President, Paul Usoro should examine his conscience, history is
there to judge all. Thanks Carol for speaking truth out as always
irrespective of whose ox is gored.”  With all due
respect, this is an infantile response and I am quite disappointed
that this sort of response could come from a man of Ubani’s status.
Did Mr Ubani care to cross-check the veracity of Carol Ajie’s
baseless allegation of marginalization of Igbos? Has the NBA
President marginalized the Igbos in his appointments or at all? As
a matter of fact when all the list of all nominations made by the
NBA President to all the statutory bodies is out, it will be
obvious to all that regional representation was taken into
consideration and a number of Igbo names are on the list. If Mr
Usoro did not marginalize and has not marginalized the Igbos in his
private practice, is it now that he will turn against them? During
the 2015/2016 Election Petitions which yours truly was actively
involved in, from the Election Tribunals up to the Supreme Court,
Mr Usoro in his magnanimity, invited two of his Igbo friends who
are lawyers and who have their independent practices to join him in
the Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Petition even though they were
not in the defense team.

As someone who has worked closely with the NBA President, I also
owe the public a duty to intervene on this particular issue of
marginalization of Igbos. I have known Mr Usoro SAN since 2014 and
I can tell you without fear of contradictions that he is one of the
most detribalized Nigerians I have met. Mr Usoro is not interested
in where you come from but your competence and ability to do the
work. In Paul Usoro & Co where he is a Senior Partner, it is an
equal opportunity Law Firm and as rightly captured by a commentator
(whose view, I agree entirely with, being an insider in the Firm),
“you don’t have to bring a letter from a politician or a Judge to
be employed in the Firm”. You also don’t have to come from Akwa
Ibom or Cross River to be employed and the number of non-Akwa Ibom
lawyers in Paul Usoro & Co attests to this. Presently, in Paul
Usoro & Co, there are more Igbo lawyers than Akwa Ibom Lawyers and
even the Uyo branch of the Firm is headed by an Igbo lawyer. Taking
it further, Paul Usoro is also not interested in your religious
inclination. The Litigation Partner, Mr Munirudeen Liadi, who
coordinates the Advocacy and Dispute Resolution practice Group of
the Firm is a Yoruba man and a devout Muslim. The Firm is equally
gender-balanced. I for one, got to Paul Usoro & Co without any
recommendation from anybody. It was strictly my CV and the Firm’s
open door policy that got me there. In some top law Firms in
Nigeria, even with the best CV, you will still be required to bring
a recommendation from one highly placed individual or politician.
That is not Paul Usoro’s approach as he is willing to give you
opportunity to prove your mettle provided you satisfy the minimum
hiring requirement of the Firm. Thus, when the likes of Carol Ajie
mouths about marginalization of Igbos and no least a person than
Monday Ubani jumps at that falsehood, one is constrained to ask
whether there is any mischievous agenda between the duo. Carol Ajie
should realize that her collaborators are exploiting her state of
mind for their personal fights. And please be reminded that so far,
there is no AkwaCross lawyer on the list of Usoro’s nominations to
the NBA.

Within the NBA, Mr Usoro’s appointments so far have been
balanced and Igbos have not been left out. It is a known fact that
one of the earliest appointments made by the current NBA President
was that of Professor Joy Ngozi Ezeilo who was appointed to
represent NBA on the EU-Nigeria-UNODC-CTED Partnership Project III
on Strengthening Criminal Justice Responses to Terrorism and
Violent Extremism funded by the European Union. I therefore enjoin
discerning members of the Bar to ignore Carol Ajie’s narcissistic
melodrama and instead key into Paul Usoro’s vision for the Bar. I
am confident that one Million Carol Ajie cannot stop an idea whose
time has come. To be sure, Mr Usoro just like several other
successful lawyers did not get to where he is on account of NBA
appointments. In point of fact, his campaign promises were inter
alia, anchored on professional self-development and upgrade of
service delivery amongst lawyers so that Nigerian lawyers can be
equipped to service the Nigerian economy, face the 21^st
century challenges and not to live off the NBA. Paul Usoro’s vision
for a great and transparent NBA is on course and no amount of
blackmail and self-serving campaign of calumny can derail it. Paul
Usoro will always Put You First.

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