THIRD OPEN LETTER TO DR. UBANI: HOW HON. JUSTICE BINTA NYAKO’S JUDGMENT IS AN INDICTMENT OF DR. UBANI’S ROLE AS LEGAL ADVISER TO THE SENATE PRESIDENT FOR HIS VIOLATION OF SECTION 63 OF THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION AND FAILURE TO REVIEW THE STANDING ORDERS OF THE SENATE, 2023 AND SPONSORED ONLY THREE BILLS SINCE 2023 (TIME FOR DR. UBANI TO ENROL FOR THE LEGISLATIVE LAW PROGRAMMES TO QUALIFY AS A LEGISLATIVE LAWYER)

By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja

Dear Dr. Monday O. Ubani, SAN, Sir,

The judgment of 4th July 2025, delivered by Hon. Justice Binta Nyako is a direct indictment of your good self, it clearly shows that you are not a qualified legislative lawyer.

This is for two reasons:

1. Hon. Justice Binta Nyako stated that the imposition of six months suspension upon Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan was a violation of both Section 63 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Section 14 (2) of the Legislative Houses (Powers, Privileges and Immunities) Act, 2018. If you were a qualified legislative lawyer you would have advised both the Senate President and Senator Neda Imasuen not to impose a period of suspension of six months. This is because you were physically present during the sessions chaired by Senator Neda Imasuen in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions; and.

2. Secondly, Hon. Justice Binta Nyako in her judgment states clearly that the entire Standing Orders of the Senate,2023 requires review to bring it into harmony with the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and other relevant judgments of the Courts of law of Nigeria. If you were a qualified legislative lawyer, this is an exercise that you would have already performed since your appointment as legal adviser in the Office of the Senate President in the year 2023!!!

Let me use this opportunity to inform you that myself and a team of five lawyers from Nigeria and the Kingdom of Lesotho have just completed the writing of a law book entitled: “Annotations of the Standing Orders of the Senate, 2023”. The said book contains commentaries on each of the 139 Orders contained in the said Senate Standing Orders, 2023 (as amended). Our commentaries are based on legal analysis of the provisions of both the Nigerian Constitution and the 1993 Constitution of the Kingdom of Lesotho. It also contains commentaries based on relevant judgments of courts of law of Nigeria and Lesotho. There is a full chapter dedicated to the relevant sections that touch upon the procedure for enactment of Bills for Alteration of the Nigerian Constitution and the 1993 Constitution of Lesotho. IF YOU ASK NICELY, WE CAN ALLOW YOU CONTRIBUTE A CHAPTER!!!

For example, in the said book we recommend that the Senate of Nigeria should consider adoption of the procedure for enactment of Bills to Alter the 1993 Constitution of Lesotho. The three methods of alterations of certain Sections of the Constitution of Lesotho are as follows: (1) simple majority, (2) two-thirds majority and (3) Referendum.

In your capacity as legal adviser in the office of the President of the Senate, these are the kind of legacy projects that you ought to be undertaking with your team of lawyers in conjunction with the Legal Services Directorate of the National Assembly.

Instead you have spent the entire period fermenting litigation and instigating the Senate President to impose ILLEGAL suspension of both Senators and staff of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) – anyone who dares to express any contrary opinion!!!

How many Bills have you drafted for the President of the Senate to sponsor since the year 2023?

It is on record that within the first legislative year from 2023, the Senate President sponsored only three Bills out of the 272 Bills. The record is available online on the website of the National Assembly at: https://nass.gov.ng/documents/billdownload/11112.pdf

Law-making through sponsorship is one of the three cardinal functions of legislators, so it represents a total failure that the Senate President has only sponsored four Bills since the year 2023. The fourth Bill (National Institute for Creative Economy (Establishment) Bill, 2024) was drafted by my good self in my capacity as a staff of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies-NILDS, before I departed Nigeria).

Let me conclude by giving you free legal advice; you need to use the remaining time left (2025 to 2027, if you would make it that far) to enroll for any of the legislative drafting programmes of the University of Benin/NILDS.

This is one of the ways that you can gain the skills of legislative drafting as part of the requirements to qualify as a legislative lawyer!!!

IN ADDITION, YOU NEED TO UNDERGO A PERIOD OF PUPILLAGE UNDER THE MENTORSHIP OF A QUALIFIED LEGISLATIVE LAWYER SUCH AS SENATOR VICTOR NDOMA-EGBA, SAN WHO CAN TEACH YOU THE SKILLS OF LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY.

LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY IS A DIFFERENT SKILL-SET. IT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE COURTROOM LITIGATION THAT YOU ARE USED TO SINCE YOUR 30 YEARS AS A HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER.

LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY IS A MORE DIPLOMATIC AND AMICABLE METHOD OF RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES COMPARED TO LITIGATION!!!

You can not qualify as a legislative lawyer just by association with the President of the Senate!!!

You can not qualify as a legislative lawyer by television appearances on CHANNELS TV and other SOAP BOX performances, it is not Nollywood!!!

You can not qualify as a legislative lawyer by using your connections to the President of the Senate to impose suspension upon those whom you regard as “competitors,” lawyers who hold both cognate and academic credentials as legislative lawyers!!!

It doesn’t work that way!!!

THERE IS NO SHORT CUT TO BECOMING A QUALIFIED LEGISLATIVE LAWYER!!!

It takes a combination of humility and patience to qualify as a legislative lawyer!!!

I look forward to welcoming you as a member of the community of legislative lawyers of Nigeria named ALDRAP (Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP) of which I have served as Secretary since the year 2017.

In the United Kingdom since the year 1869, the practice of Legislative lawyering was formally professionalised by creation of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.

Similarly, in the United States of America (USA) a legislation was enacted in the year 1919 to establish the Office of Legislative Counsel.

In the aforementioned jurisdictions, lawyers who practice as legislative lawyers have to meet and maintain certain qualifications!!!

This is what ALDRAP has been promoting in Nigeria since the year 2017, we pray that you can support this initiative by submitting to the Senate President a Bill for the Establishment of a Council for Regulation of Legislative Counsel in Nigeria.

We look forward to your prompt and positive response.

Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
7th July, 2025

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