My Grudge With NBA Politics

By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

For years, I have been an advocate for the full democratization
of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) politics. I was involved in
the war of pen against the old regime of voting by Delegate System
that has now paved way for the Universal Suffrage or Electronic
Voting in NBA. When the delegate system was in vogue, the highest
bidders usually carried the day. That system was characterized by
what is known in the conventional politics as voting buying. What
the aspirants then particularly for the position of the NBA
Presidency needed to do was to buy the Chairmen of various branches
of the NBA to their sides. The Chairmen of branches were like the
godfathers in the conventional politics because they were the ones
to select the delegates that would vote to elect the National
Officers of the NBA. In those days under the military regimes, an
elected NBA President was seen as a potential Attorney General of
the Federation and Minister for Justice.The policy of rat race
attached to that position then was one of the reasons why the NBA
at the national level had to go on sabbatical leave between 1992
and 1998.

While the NBA at national level was on sabbatical leave, the NBA
politics continued at the various branches level. The positions of
Chairmen and Secretaries are (were) very powerful. For you to
secure either of the positions, you had to be very smart to outwit
other contestants or opponents vying for that same positions. Just
forget about whether you have the brain to run the offices or not ,
all you needed to do then when the election was approaching was to
collect names of your branch members as many as you could lay your
hands on to pay their Annual Branch Dues (BD) or even the Bar
Practicing Fees (BPF) as at when due. Before the introduction of
the bank tellers, the payment receipts were manufactured and
backdated in one way or the other, all in the bid to win the
positions during the election.Remember wordings majority carries
the vote. From this narration, would it be wrong to say fraud was
one of the weapons used to be employed to win elections at the
branches level? I pose this question in the spirit of debate?

Having being seriously concerned about the dormancy of the NBA
at the national level, some senior lawyers including Chief
Adegboyegan Awolomo SAN put together great efforts to revive the
NBA at national level and the idea of Rotational Presidency was
brought into the NBA Politics. Another standing rule then was that
any NBA President so elected should not use the position to canvass
or lobby to become the Attorney General of Federation under any
government. Notwithstanding the brilliant innovations that came
with the revival of the NBA at national level, the delegate system
of voting still had its root in the system and as such the election
of National officers remained the business as usual.The Chairmen of
branches were still the godfathers. When Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN)
came in 2014 and with the endless clamour for the change of the
status quo, the NBA Constitution was amended to have 2015
Constitution which he left behind on his exit from the office in
2016.

The 2015 NBA Constitution did away with the Delegate System of
voting by replacing same the Universal Suffrage or Electronic
Voting. By this electronic voting, every lawyer in as much as he or
she pays his Bar Practicing Fee and Branch Due is eligible to vote
in the election of the National Officers.Unlike under the delegate
system where the delegates would travel from their various branches
to the venue of election in another State, a Nigerian lawyer can
vote from any part of the world he or she may be, even right in his
or her bedroom. There is no doubt that this NBA Constitution left
behind by Mr. Alegeh was very innovative and revolutionary,
although it has been amended under the leadership of Mr. Paul Usoro
(SAN) without much significant changes. This notwithstanding , I am
still of the view that with the recent amendment to that
Constitution, the NBA electoral system is yet to be fully
democratized as I had expected based on the PUSAN’s campaign
promise of an all inclusive NBA. For those who may hold contrary
view, may I again pose the following questions in the spirit of
debate? Is NBA political system as we have it today all inclusive?
Is NBA Politics really democratic? My own answers to these
questions are in negative.

Can NBA be said to be all inclusive, when you as a lawyer and
member of the association, after performing all your financial
obligations and fulfilling all other reasonable requirements by the
Constitution, and you are later told that you can only vote in an
election but you cannot be voted for? Is that what a true democracy
all about particularly in an association of lawyers with motto such
as “Promoting the Rule of Law”? In the NBA politics, the rule of
the game is that for you to contest for any substantive position
under its Constitution at national level, you must have served
either as a Chairman or Secretary of any branch of the NBA. In the
alternative you must have been co-opted NOT elected into the
National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA. By the rule of law
or rule of the game as contained in the NBA Constitution, a lawyer
who has served as a Vice Chairman of any branch but was not
co-opted to the NEC cannot vye for any substantive position at the
National level except for the position of an ASSISTANT officer. Is
this not irrational and discriminatory? By my understanding of the
NBA Constitution and I stand to be corrected, a Senior Advocate
(SAN) who has never served as either Chairman or Secretary of any
branch ,nor co-opted to the NEC cannot vye for any position at the
National level. In NBA politics , a lawyer does not necessarily
need to be a very active member of any branch, he should just be
paying his subscription without being active, when election is
approaching, he should be showing his face at a branch meeting to
register his attendance, if he is very influential and has good
rapour with the Chairman of the branch, he will surely be co-opted
into NEC membership when the list is being compiled.When the time
comes and such lawyer shows face to contest ,will the Electoral
Committee of Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) dare disqualify such
personality? I am not saying here that some lawyers have no right
to contest, rather what am saying is that NBA political system
should accord every any Nigerian lawyer that has reasonable
qualifications and requirements, the right to vote and be voted.The
present policy in the NBA Constitution that confers the right to
vote and not be voted on the majority of Nigerian lawyers is
undemocratic.

Any electoral system that deliberately includes some and
excludes some can be said to be fair enough and called democracy
that has been said to be for the people and by the people. Another
irony of the NBA politics is that the contents of its Constitution
are not known to most of its members.How did I come about this
fact, you may ask? Prior to the election that brought in the
incumbent NBA regime in 2018, I had declared my intention to join
the race for the position of National Publicity Secretary. Having
previously won election unopposed into a similar position in my NBA
Lagos Branch, I did only a single term between 2013 and 2015. I
later applied to contest in the 2018 NBA Elections of the National
Officers. During the opening of the nomination forms in Abuja by
the then Electoral Committee of Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), I
sent a representative. When the ECNBA published the names of the
contestants, my name featured among those contesting for the
position of the National Publicity Secretary. Later the ECNBA sent
me a letter that I had been disqualified on the ground that I was
never a NEC member of the NBA at national level. The ECNBA said I
had the right to appeal against its decision within 7 days.
Ironically, it was the same ECNBA that would sit on my appeal.This
notwithstanding; I put together my appeal wherein I raised some
issues for determination. The ECNBA without considering the issues
I had raised in my appeal against its decision, said in a letter
dated 29th June 2018 signed by the Chairman and Secretary of ECNBA
conveying its final decision on my appeal to me, said :

“Following your appeal dated 15th June 2018 against the decision
of the ECNBA contained in our letter 14th June 2018, we regret to
inform you that the Committee finds no merit in said appeal.
Consequently take notice that you are hereby disqualified from
contesting for the office Publicity Secretary of the NBA at the
2018 NBA Elections slated for the 28th July by virtue of
non-compliance with Section 8 (3) (c) (ii) of the NBA Constitution
2015.The Committee wishes you well in your future endeavour.”

I immediately did a widely published rebuttal to the ECNBA’s
final decision.The questions and reactions that I got from many of
our colleagues were very astonishing as they established the fact
that many of our colleagues were not familiar with the contents and
provisions of the NBA Constitution. The major question being asked
by many was that: must you have served as a NEC member before you
can vie for any substantive position at the national level? I have
on several occasions asked similar question but yet to get a
rational answer to that till date.Is the philosophy behind that
policy in the NBA Constitution meant to say that only those that
have served as Chairmen or Secretaries of the NBA branches or NEC
members that possess the unique brain to run the affairs of the NBA
at national level? If that was truly the intention of the drafters
of the NBA Constitution, I dare say that, that intention was
grossly misconceived.If the drafters of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended did not think it wise
to insert in that Constitution that for any Nigerian citizen to
qualify to contest for the position of the Presidency, he must have
served as the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of
Representative or a Governor of any State, why must the drafters of
the NBA Constitution, an association of the people that pride
themselves as the learned colleagues insert such policy of
inclusion and exclusion in its Constitution? If any politician in
his state is not required by the 1999 Constitution to have served
as a Speaker of his State House of Assembly or a Chairman or
Secretary of any Local Government in his state to qualify to run
for the Governorship position, what was the rationale behind that
policy in the NBA Constitution that for a lawyer to vie for any
substantive position at the national level, he must have served as
Chairman or Secretary of any branch or must have been co-opted and
not elected to the NEC of the NBA? Is there any fear being
entertained in making the NBA politics to be more and fully
democratic?

Despite the fact that this policy of inclusion and exclusion has
been in vogue for a while in the NBA politic, but why are many
lawyers still asking the question: what value has NBA added to
their lives and practices? Many are still complaining of not
benefiting anything from NBA. That is just the same way Nigerians
are complaining of not benefiting anything from the dividend of
democracy in Nigeria. Whether in the NBA politics or in the
conventional Nigerian politics, what matter most are the intentions
that the politicians carrying into politics. People go into
politics for various reasons. Some go into politics because they
want to remain relevant in the scheme of things. Some go into
politics for personal ego, self enrichment and selfish purpose,
while only very few politicians go into politics for selfless
service to the people.The same reasons apply in the NBA politics.
Most times, I become very worried and disturbed when I hear some
politicians saying they are not in politics to solve the problems
facing Nigeria, but rather to satisfy their own personal desires.I
am equally worried and disturbed when our politicians entrusted
with our commonwealth are being sent to jail for the breach of that
trust. Until the NBA Constitution 2015 as amended came into force
to checkmate those lawyers swapping positions in NBA, it was as if
NBA was a personal estate of some lawyers. To what extents have
some of those lawyers who eventually made it to the top
significantly contributed to the development of the association,
whether at national or at branch level? Some years back ,I was
reading a book written by a foreign lawyer and on his
acknowledgment page, he was paying a wonderful tribute to the local
branch of his law society for the enormous benefits in terms of
research materials he derived from its library while working of the
book. If one may ask here, how many of our NBA branches in this
country can today boast of having befitting structures to call
their bar centres or secretariats talk less of having up to date
and well equipped libraries to cater for the demands of their
members in need of serious research materials?

Another problem with the political thinking and thought in this
country is the unnecessary emphasis often lay on the wrong notion
that only people with previous experience in certain things or with
chain of university degrees that can perform better in position of
leadership. There are glaring examples that have made mess of such
notion and I will cite only one example here for the sake of space.
Prior to the 1979 General Elections in this country, Unity Party of
Nigeria (UPN), one of the political parties then under the
leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo (SAN) was deeply
involved in that elections aimed at returning the country to the
civilian rule. In Lagos State, some prominent Nigerian politicians
came out to vie for the position of the Governor but Awolowo was
able to persuade other politicians in his party to step down for
Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande who eventually won the race. Within
the period of four years he spent in office as Governor of Lagos
State, Jakande tremendously transformed the State for those that
have eyes to see then. During his reign within that period, he
established the Lagos State Television (LTV) and the Lagos State
University at Ojo, the first ever State University in Nigeria. He
built several Housing Estates in different parts of Lagos State
which people today referred to as “Jakande Estates” or “Ile
Jakande”.He built several schools and hospitals apart from the
massive Secretariat he built at Alausa, Ikeja which now housed the
Lagos State Government offices. Since the man left office, I have
been looking for another Governor throughout the federation who has
been able to beat that record in four years, but yet to see one,
even among the so-called second termer Governors that spent eight
years in offices.

Some people may ask, what is or was so special about Jakande, a
former Governor of Lagos State? Unlike most of our political
leaders today that goes about with the titles of Senior Advocates
of Nigeria, Professors and holders of many Doctorate degrees
occupying various positions as Governors, Senators, Ministers,
Special Advisers among others, Jakande is or was not known to be a
holder of any University degree. He was (is) a journalist that
probably rose to the position of Managing Director of a Newspaper
company before becoming the first Executive Governor of Lagos
State.With this single example, I think we can all honestly spot
the difference between the holders of the University degrees and
non holder of a University degree.When in power, Jakande was a
visionary and purposeful leader.When the Guardian Newspaper once
asked Jakande about his master, he said:

“Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was the gift of God to Nigeria.
I was fortunate to serve him and he did me the honour of making me
Baba Kekere …putting me in the high honour of his own second- in-
command. Quite frankly, I think there are very few countries that
are fortunate to have many of Obafemi Awolowo character. It was my
pleasure and pride to have served under him. He was a great man in
every sense of word. It was under his inspiration that I became the
first Executive Governor of Lagos State. And nobody was surprised
that Education was our number one priority…Education policy in the
then Western Region under our Leader Awolowo was through a careful
policy and the leader was serious about it as a fundamental
objective to build capable citizens in the area.”

As long as this policy of inclusion and exclusion is continued
to be maintained in the NBA Constitution without a rethink to amend
it and make the NBA politics to be more democratic, just like the
status quo is being maintained in the “made in Nigeria democracy”
,so long will Nigerian people include lawyers continue to gnashing
their teeth on bad governance. I do not see any sense in asking a
politician aspiring to be a Governor of his State to pay about N20
Millions to his political party before contesting. If a brainless
politician can raise such huge amount of money and a brilliant
politician could not, it means that State will at the end of the
day be ruled by a brainless politician as a Governor.The money bag
politics as being practised in this part of the world is chasing
away responsible and brilliant people with fresh and good ideas
from the Nigerian politics and until we devise a way to make
politics more discouraging to the greedy and brainless politicians
and pave way for the patriotic Nigerians who really have the
interest of the country and her citizens at hearts to participate,
real development in terms of genuine human and natural resources
will continue to elude us in this country.

In the next few weeks, NBA will be performing its biennial
ritual of electing its new National officers, may those that really
have the interest of the association and its members at hearts
emerge victorious in the forthcoming elections. The bar politicians
must exercise the high level of maturity in the cause of their
campaigns for votes as all of them can not be the winners at the
same time and by the time the race is over ,all those involve must
display their spirit of sportsmanship.

NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my
above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and
objective rebuttal.

Written By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, LL.M, Notary
Public

08055476823,08164683735:
rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com)

By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

For years, I have been an advocate for the full democratization
of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) politics. I was involved in
the war of pen against the old regime of voting by Delegate System
that has now paved way for the Universal Suffrage or Electronic
Voting in NBA. When the delegate system was in vogue, the highest
bidders usually carried the day. That system was characterized by
what is known in the conventional politics as voting buying. What
the aspirants then particularly for the position of the NBA
Presidency needed to do was to buy the Chairmen of various branches
of the NBA to their sides. The Chairmen of branches were like the
godfathers in the conventional politics because they were the ones
to select the delegates that would vote to elect the National
Officers of the NBA. In those days under the military regimes, an
elected NBA President was seen as a potential Attorney General of
the Federation and Minister for Justice.The policy of rat race
attached to that position then was one of the reasons why the NBA
at the national level had to go on sabbatical leave between 1992
and 1998.

While the NBA at national level was on sabbatical leave, the NBA
politics continued at the various branches level. The positions of
Chairmen and Secretaries are (were) very powerful. For you to
secure either of the positions, you had to be very smart to outwit
other contestants or opponents vying for that same positions. Just
forget about whether you have the brain to run the offices or not ,
all you needed to do then when the election was approaching was to
collect names of your branch members as many as you could lay your
hands on to pay their Annual Branch Dues (BD) or even the Bar
Practicing Fees (BPF) as at when due. Before the introduction of
the bank tellers, the payment receipts were manufactured and
backdated in one way or the other, all in the bid to win the
positions during the election.Remember wordings majority carries
the vote. From this narration, would it be wrong to say fraud was
one of the weapons used to be employed to win elections at the
branches level? I pose this question in the spirit of debate?

Having being seriously concerned about the dormancy of the NBA
at the national level, some senior lawyers including Chief
Adegboyegan Awolomo SAN put together great efforts to revive the
NBA at national level and the idea of Rotational Presidency was
brought into the NBA Politics. Another standing rule then was that
any NBA President so elected should not use the position to canvass
or lobby to become the Attorney General of Federation under any
government. Notwithstanding the brilliant innovations that came
with the revival of the NBA at national level, the delegate system
of voting still had its root in the system and as such the election
of National officers remained the business as usual.The Chairmen of
branches were still the godfathers. When Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN)
came in 2014 and with the endless clamour for the change of the
status quo, the NBA Constitution was amended to have 2015
Constitution which he left behind on his exit from the office in
2016.

The 2015 NBA Constitution did away with the Delegate System of
voting by replacing same the Universal Suffrage or Electronic
Voting. By this electronic voting, every lawyer in as much as he or
she pays his Bar Practicing Fee and Branch Due is eligible to vote
in the election of the National Officers.Unlike under the delegate
system where the delegates would travel from their various branches
to the venue of election in another State, a Nigerian lawyer can
vote from any part of the world he or she may be, even right in his
or her bedroom. There is no doubt that this NBA Constitution left
behind by Mr. Alegeh was very innovative and revolutionary,
although it has been amended under the leadership of Mr. Paul Usoro
(SAN) without much significant changes. This notwithstanding , I am
still of the view that with the recent amendment to that
Constitution, the NBA electoral system is yet to be fully
democratized as I had expected based on the PUSAN’s campaign
promise of an all inclusive NBA. For those who may hold contrary
view, may I again pose the following questions in the spirit of
debate? Is NBA political system as we have it today all inclusive?
Is NBA Politics really democratic? My own answers to these
questions are in negative.

Can NBA be said to be all inclusive, when you as a lawyer and
member of the association, after performing all your financial
obligations and fulfilling all other reasonable requirements by the
Constitution, and you are later told that you can only vote in an
election but you cannot be voted for? Is that what a true democracy
all about particularly in an association of lawyers with motto such
as “Promoting the Rule of Law”? In the NBA politics, the rule of
the game is that for you to contest for any substantive position
under its Constitution at national level, you must have served
either as a Chairman or Secretary of any branch of the NBA. In the
alternative you must have been co-opted NOT elected into the
National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA. By the rule of law
or rule of the game as contained in the NBA Constitution, a lawyer
who has served as a Vice Chairman of any branch but was not
co-opted to the NEC cannot vye for any substantive position at the
National level except for the position of an ASSISTANT officer. Is
this not irrational and discriminatory? By my understanding of the
NBA Constitution and I stand to be corrected, a Senior Advocate
(SAN) who has never served as either Chairman or Secretary of any
branch ,nor co-opted to the NEC cannot vye for any position at the
National level. In NBA politics , a lawyer does not necessarily
need to be a very active member of any branch, he should just be
paying his subscription without being active, when election is
approaching, he should be showing his face at a branch meeting to
register his attendance, if he is very influential and has good
rapour with the Chairman of the branch, he will surely be co-opted
into NEC membership when the list is being compiled.When the time
comes and such lawyer shows face to contest ,will the Electoral
Committee of Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) dare disqualify such
personality? I am not saying here that some lawyers have no right
to contest, rather what am saying is that NBA political system
should accord every any Nigerian lawyer that has reasonable
qualifications and requirements, the right to vote and be voted.The
present policy in the NBA Constitution that confers the right to
vote and not be voted on the majority of Nigerian lawyers is
undemocratic.

Any electoral system that deliberately includes some and
excludes some can be said to be fair enough and called democracy
that has been said to be for the people and by the people. Another
irony of the NBA politics is that the contents of its Constitution
are not known to most of its members.How did I come about this
fact, you may ask? Prior to the election that brought in the
incumbent NBA regime in 2018, I had declared my intention to join
the race for the position of National Publicity Secretary. Having
previously won election unopposed into a similar position in my NBA
Lagos Branch, I did only a single term between 2013 and 2015. I
later applied to contest in the 2018 NBA Elections of the National
Officers. During the opening of the nomination forms in Abuja by
the then Electoral Committee of Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), I
sent a representative. When the ECNBA published the names of the
contestants, my name featured among those contesting for the
position of the National Publicity Secretary. Later the ECNBA sent
me a letter that I had been disqualified on the ground that I was
never a NEC member of the NBA at national level. The ECNBA said I
had the right to appeal against its decision within 7 days.
Ironically, it was the same ECNBA that would sit on my appeal.This
notwithstanding; I put together my appeal wherein I raised some
issues for determination. The ECNBA without considering the issues
I had raised in my appeal against its decision, said in a letter
dated 29th June 2018 signed by the Chairman and Secretary of ECNBA
conveying its final decision on my appeal to me, said :

“Following your appeal dated 15th June 2018 against the decision
of the ECNBA contained in our letter 14th June 2018, we regret to
inform you that the Committee finds no merit in said appeal.
Consequently take notice that you are hereby disqualified from
contesting for the office Publicity Secretary of the NBA at the
2018 NBA Elections slated for the 28th July by virtue of
non-compliance with Section 8 (3) (c) (ii) of the NBA Constitution
2015.The Committee wishes you well in your future endeavour.”

I immediately did a widely published rebuttal to the ECNBA’s
final decision.The questions and reactions that I got from many of
our colleagues were very astonishing as they established the fact
that many of our colleagues were not familiar with the contents and
provisions of the NBA Constitution. The major question being asked
by many was that: must you have served as a NEC member before you
can vie for any substantive position at the national level? I have
on several occasions asked similar question but yet to get a
rational answer to that till date.Is the philosophy behind that
policy in the NBA Constitution meant to say that only those that
have served as Chairmen or Secretaries of the NBA branches or NEC
members that possess the unique brain to run the affairs of the NBA
at national level? If that was truly the intention of the drafters
of the NBA Constitution, I dare say that, that intention was
grossly misconceived.If the drafters of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended did not think it wise
to insert in that Constitution that for any Nigerian citizen to
qualify to contest for the position of the Presidency, he must have
served as the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of
Representative or a Governor of any State, why must the drafters of
the NBA Constitution, an association of the people that pride
themselves as the learned colleagues insert such policy of
inclusion and exclusion in its Constitution? If any politician in
his state is not required by the 1999 Constitution to have served
as a Speaker of his State House of Assembly or a Chairman or
Secretary of any Local Government in his state to qualify to run
for the Governorship position, what was the rationale behind that
policy in the NBA Constitution that for a lawyer to vie for any
substantive position at the national level, he must have served as
Chairman or Secretary of any branch or must have been co-opted and
not elected to the NEC of the NBA? Is there any fear being
entertained in making the NBA politics to be more and fully
democratic?

Despite the fact that this policy of inclusion and exclusion has
been in vogue for a while in the NBA politic, but why are many
lawyers still asking the question: what value has NBA added to
their lives and practices? Many are still complaining of not
benefiting anything from NBA. That is just the same way Nigerians
are complaining of not benefiting anything from the dividend of
democracy in Nigeria. Whether in the NBA politics or in the
conventional Nigerian politics, what matter most are the intentions
that the politicians carrying into politics. People go into
politics for various reasons. Some go into politics because they
want to remain relevant in the scheme of things. Some go into
politics for personal ego, self enrichment and selfish purpose,
while only very few politicians go into politics for selfless
service to the people.The same reasons apply in the NBA politics.
Most times, I become very worried and disturbed when I hear some
politicians saying they are not in politics to solve the problems
facing Nigeria, but rather to satisfy their own personal desires.I
am equally worried and disturbed when our politicians entrusted
with our commonwealth are being sent to jail for the breach of that
trust. Until the NBA Constitution 2015 as amended came into force
to checkmate those lawyers swapping positions in NBA, it was as if
NBA was a personal estate of some lawyers. To what extents have
some of those lawyers who eventually made it to the top
significantly contributed to the development of the association,
whether at national or at branch level? Some years back ,I was
reading a book written by a foreign lawyer and on his
acknowledgment page, he was paying a wonderful tribute to the local
branch of his law society for the enormous benefits in terms of
research materials he derived from its library while working of the
book. If one may ask here, how many of our NBA branches in this
country can today boast of having befitting structures to call
their bar centres or secretariats talk less of having up to date
and well equipped libraries to cater for the demands of their
members in need of serious research materials?

Another problem with the political thinking and thought in this
country is the unnecessary emphasis often lay on the wrong notion
that only people with previous experience in certain things or with
chain of university degrees that can perform better in position of
leadership. There are glaring examples that have made mess of such
notion and I will cite only one example here for the sake of space.
Prior to the 1979 General Elections in this country, Unity Party of
Nigeria (UPN), one of the political parties then under the
leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo (SAN) was deeply
involved in that elections aimed at returning the country to the
civilian rule. In Lagos State, some prominent Nigerian politicians
came out to vie for the position of the Governor but Awolowo was
able to persuade other politicians in his party to step down for
Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande who eventually won the race. Within
the period of four years he spent in office as Governor of Lagos
State, Jakande tremendously transformed the State for those that
have eyes to see then. During his reign within that period, he
established the Lagos State Television (LTV) and the Lagos State
University at Ojo, the first ever State University in Nigeria. He
built several Housing Estates in different parts of Lagos State
which people today referred to as “Jakande Estates” or “Ile
Jakande”.He built several schools and hospitals apart from the
massive Secretariat he built at Alausa, Ikeja which now housed the
Lagos State Government offices. Since the man left office, I have
been looking for another Governor throughout the federation who has
been able to beat that record in four years, but yet to see one,
even among the so-called second termer Governors that spent eight
years in offices.

Some people may ask, what is or was so special about Jakande, a
former Governor of Lagos State? Unlike most of our political
leaders today that goes about with the titles of Senior Advocates
of Nigeria, Professors and holders of many Doctorate degrees
occupying various positions as Governors, Senators, Ministers,
Special Advisers among others, Jakande is or was not known to be a
holder of any University degree. He was (is) a journalist that
probably rose to the position of Managing Director of a Newspaper
company before becoming the first Executive Governor of Lagos
State.With this single example, I think we can all honestly spot
the difference between the holders of the University degrees and
non holder of a University degree.When in power, Jakande was a
visionary and purposeful leader.When the Guardian Newspaper once
asked Jakande about his master, he said:

“Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was the gift of God to Nigeria.
I was fortunate to serve him and he did me the honour of making me
Baba Kekere …putting me in the high honour of his own second- in-
command. Quite frankly, I think there are very few countries that
are fortunate to have many of Obafemi Awolowo character. It was my
pleasure and pride to have served under him. He was a great man in
every sense of word. It was under his inspiration that I became the
first Executive Governor of Lagos State. And nobody was surprised
that Education was our number one priority…Education policy in the
then Western Region under our Leader Awolowo was through a careful
policy and the leader was serious about it as a fundamental
objective to build capable citizens in the area.”

As long as this policy of inclusion and exclusion is continued
to be maintained in the NBA Constitution without a rethink to amend
it and make the NBA politics to be more democratic, just like the
status quo is being maintained in the “made in Nigeria democracy”
,so long will Nigerian people include lawyers continue to gnashing
their teeth on bad governance. I do not see any sense in asking a
politician aspiring to be a Governor of his State to pay about N20
Millions to his political party before contesting. If a brainless
politician can raise such huge amount of money and a brilliant
politician could not, it means that State will at the end of the
day be ruled by a brainless politician as a Governor.The money bag
politics as being practised in this part of the world is chasing
away responsible and brilliant people with fresh and good ideas
from the Nigerian politics and until we devise a way to make
politics more discouraging to the greedy and brainless politicians
and pave way for the patriotic Nigerians who really have the
interest of the country and her citizens at hearts to participate,
real development in terms of genuine human and natural resources
will continue to elude us in this country.

In the next few weeks, NBA will be performing its biennial
ritual of electing its new National officers, may those that really
have the interest of the association and its members at hearts
emerge victorious in the forthcoming elections. The bar politicians
must exercise the high level of maturity in the cause of their
campaigns for votes as all of them can not be the winners at the
same time and by the time the race is over ,all those involve must
display their spirit of sportsmanship.

NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my
above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and
objective rebuttal.

Written By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, LL.M, Notary
Public

08055476823,08164683735:
rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com)