Four Ways Odinkalu Goofed At The NBA Lagos Human Rights Summit- Anthony Atata

At the Human Rights summit of the Nigerian Bar Association,
Lagos Branch in celebration of Human Rights Day, Chidi Odinkalu was
in his element as he held lawyers captive with his misleading
narratives of recent happenings in the country backing them up with
concorted facts.

At the summit, Chidi Odinkalu goofed in four major ways

He accused Lawyers of clapping for Buhari in an event that did
not happen. According to him, Buhari in 2018 while addressing
lawyers said that he had the power to pick and choose what rulings
or Judgements to obey and Lawyers actually clapped for him. That is
misleading. President Buhari never said so and Lawyers never
clapped to any such thing. When he saw the disdain in the faces of
some of his audience, he interjected in a manipulative manner
telling them not to deny it because it was caught on camera.No such
tape exists anywhere. That allegation was a figment of Odinkalu’s
imagination and consistent with his stock in trade.

Assuming without conceding that President Buhari said that, the
question now becomes, why didn’t Chidi Odinkalu, our dear Human
Rights Activist say something about it.?
Chidi Odinkalu said that during the confirmation of Malami as the
Attorney General, Malami said that he had the right to pick and
choose what Judgements to obey or comply with and the NBA did
nothing about it then.

I find this very ridiculous. Malami according to Odinkalu made
the purported statement at the Senate Confirmation yet the Senate
confirmed him. Odinkalu in his wisdom did not have the balls then
to call out the senators who confirmed Malami instead he ran down
to blame the NBA for what the Senate did. Was Odinkalu expecting
the NBA to take to the street because of a mere verbal expression
by Malami? The question is, what did he do as a Human rights
activist?

In another allegation, Chidi Odinkalu exhibited his talent as a
stand-up comedian when he said that the Bar is not fit for purpose
just because the President of the Bar did not retweet the position
of the Bar (on the arrest of Sowore inside a courtroom). This was
after the President has communicated officially to Lawyers and the
Nation in a press statement and a media briefing that received the
widest publicity. This is laughable. Twitter according to Odinkalu
is now an official channel of communication for the NBA. Twitter is
now superior to the conventional Press? In driving home his watery
point, he referred to the President’s PERSONAL Twitter account
where he posted pictures of his attendance at the IBA conference in
Seoul two months ago which many of Odinkalu’s audience didn’t seem
to have seen on twitter. That is very petty and malicious.

Odinkalu furthermore deliberately misinterpreted the
Constitution of the NBA or exhibited ignorance when he attacked the
Publicity Secretary of issuing press releases instead of the
President. Either way, whether ignorantly or maliciously, that
statement did not do any good to the image of a man who wants to
portray an image of an intelligent man.
In his attempt to confuse his audience, he muddled the fact that
the NBA President was the Chief Spokesperson of the Bar with the
constitutional role of the Publicity Secretary which the NBA
Constitution provides thus :

(iii) He/She shall issue releases and statements on matters of
general interest to the Association and the public after
consultation with the President of the National Executive
Committee;

In his presentation, perhaps Chidi Odinkalu did not remember to
tell his audience what he did during the removal of Chief Justice
Onnoghen. He also forgot to tell lawyers that the NBA under Paul
Usoro took the boldest step in post crises NBA by calling for a
court boycott during that time. Odinkalu also forgot to tell his
audience that he probably sabotaged the boycott by not lending his
voice to support it.

A remarkable indiscretion by a self-acclaimed Human Rights
activist is worthy of note when he publicly opined that Paul Usoro
who was then running for the NBA Presidency should step down from
the race on a mere allegation by a Law enforcement agency. Odinkalu
out of malice tainted with a political interest in the NBA
election, decided to jettison a cardinal principle of Justice into
the trash can. He suddenly forgot the principle of presumption of
innocence on which the protection of Human Rights stands. The
greatest Human rights activists are known to fight and uphold the
principles of Justice even when their enemies benefit from it. They
do not waver in pursuit of justice and they remain consistent with
their ideals.

Odinkalu, in supporting his assertion that a person who has been
accused of an offence should begin to pay for it before he is found
either innocent or guilty made reference to saner climes where law
enforcement agents investigate before they accuse unlike in Nigeria
where they commence an investigation to look for a crime.

On the 18th of March 2019, the Kaduna state government accused
Odinkalu of inciting disturbance and furnishing false information
which is punishable under the state’s penal codes. In saner climes,
all organisation will stay from calling him to speak in any
function anywhere and those who have called him would have
cancelled. In many cases,the person would have suo moto stopped
speaking in public gathering until the allegation is dealt with but
in his case, Odinkalu did not apply the standard of saner climes.
He has continued to mislead people in public functions with
concorted narratives.

Many lawyers who know his antecedents both in the National Human
Rights Commission where he ignored a petition to investigate the
killing of two lawyers in Warri and in NBA SPIDEL where he failed
woefully to promote any form of Public interest litigation are
wondering what gives him the audacity to put out himself as a man
of the people.

For many who knew him, his session was an interlude to a more
serious conversation while in general, it was yet another bad
outing for a man who has been accused severally of inciting people
with falsehood.

Anthony Atata, a Partner in Hall Black Law. And
Vice-Chair of the International Bar Association, African Regional
forum

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