‘IRON FIST OF THE BAR: HOW NBA IS LOSING TRUST OF YOUNG LAWYERS,’ BY BENJAMIN OBILOR

DISCOURSE

By Benjamin Obilor

It is both baffling and disheartening that the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), under the presidency of Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, has elected to dig its heels into the shifting sands of rigidity, despite the growing and legitimate outcry from lawyers, especially young, struggling practitioners over the implementation of the Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) Programme.

While professional development is not in itself a bad idea, the manner of its imposition and the dismissive tone of the recent statement by the NBA President is reminiscent of the arrogance of power that has detached itself from the realities of the people it was elected to serve. “He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches,” but sadly, it appears that those in high places have grown far too comfortable to remember what it means to walk barefoot.

The NBA’s insistence that the MCPD programme “will neither be suspended nor scrapped”, despite mounting concerns, is not only tone-deaf but flies in the face of the principles of justice, equity, and good conscience, values that form the very bedrock of our noble profession.

Worse still is the President’s invocation of the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC), 2023, as if it were some supreme authority capable of displacing the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act. Let it be known: a subsidiary legislation cannot override the principal legislation. The rules made by the General Council of the Bar are merely subsidiary legislation. They draw their life from the principal Act and must bow to its authority. The overreliance on the RPC as though it were a supreme legal authority is, to say the least, a legal misdirection.

The President’s reference to “free trainings” offered by NBA-ICLE would be laughable if it weren’t tragic. These so-called free programmes often have limited slots, and hundreds of lawyers are routinely locked out.

The blanket statement that “any lawyer who fails to comply has voluntarily decided to suffer the consequences” smacks of intimidation, not inspiration. It weaponizes discipline rather than promotes excellence. Young lawyers who are still battling to find their footing in a saturated legal market should not be punished for failing to attend seminars they were never allowed into. You cannot hold someone responsible for a door that was shut in their face.

Let us not forget that being called to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court confers rights and privileges that are not contingent on seminars or CPD credits. While continuous learning is a professional virtue, it should be encouraged, not imposed with a cudgel.

It was once said that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The NBA leadership would do well to remember that no matter how long a Pharaoh reigns, he won’t reign forever. The Bar is bigger than any one administration. Policies should reflect the collective reality, not executive fiat.

Rather than dig trenches of defiance, the NBA should listen, engage, and adjust. The MCPD can be made flexible, inclusive, and truly accessible to all lawyers, regardless of class or income. Otherwise, we risk turning a noble programme into a burdensome yoke, strangling the very lawyers it was meant to uplift.

If we must uphold Rule 1 of the RPC—to “promote and foster the cause of justice”—then justice must begin at home. We cannot preach fairness to the world while oppressing our own.

The time for reconsideration is now. For it is said: “When the drumbeat changes, the dance must change also.”

The views expressed in this article are entirely those of the author and do not represent the opinion of CITY LAWYER or its publishers

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