By Emeka Nwadioke 

The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL) has fallen on hard times for some time now.

While there was a simmering face-off between the immediate past NBA President, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau SAN and estranged NBA-SPIDEL Chairman, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins, the tussle peaked with the dismissal of the section’s duly elected Executive Committee by the NBA National Executive Council.

Although the committee was replaced with a Caretaker Committee led by the affable Sir Steve Adehi SAN, the lack of organic support of mainstream SPIDEL members for the committee largely hobbled the section which was once described by former NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata as the livewire of the lawyers’ association. The task of the largely unpopular caretaker committee was made even more difficult by the fact that it was peopled by those perceived as ‘non-SPIDEL members.’ Apparently, what hung as the Sword of Damocles over the committee’s head was the sleuth of lawsuits over SPIDEL’S leadership, culminating in an unprecedented issuance of contempt proceedings against Maikyau. Even Maikyau’s departure as NBA President could not fully resolve the feisty leadership battle.

Though the estranged SPIDEL leadership suggested that Maikyau only sought to protect senior government officials who were the subjects of SPIDEL’s strategic litigation activities, the former NBA President stated among others that the SPIDEL leadership was undermining him by instituting lawsuits in the name of the association without carrying him along. Following the dismissal of the Aikpokpo-Martins-led executive committee, NBA stated that it had “withdrawn” the lawsuits, a claim countered by the committee. Some stakeholders suggested that the face-off was nothing short of an ego or supremacy tussle between two Nigerian Law School classmates.

It was against this chaotic, cat-and-mouse scenario that the incumbent NBA President, Mr. Afam Osigwe SAN took the baton of leadership from Maikyau. Though some stakeholders had thought that Osigwe would resolve the SPIDEL quagmire in a jiffy, this was not to be, as days ran into weeks, and weeks into months. CITY LAWYER gathered that the major challenge was finding a middle ground for all the combatants.

However, there seems to be a breakthrough in light of the appointment of respected senior lawyer and former NBA-SPIDEL Chairman, Prof. Paul Ananaba SAN to midwife an election that will wrought a new leadership for the all-important section.

It is safe to say that after the inspiring and fiery leadership of its pioneer Chairman, Chief Joe-kyari Gadzama SAN, SPIDEL began to operate in fits and starts. This led then NBA President, Mr. Augustine Alegeh SAN to in August 2016 appoint leading human rights activist, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu as Chairman of a three-member Interim Steering Committee. Other members of the committee were Mr. Nurudeen Ogbara and Ms. Idayat Hassan. The committee was mandated to administer the section for a maximum period of six weeks and organise elections for the emergence of a new leadership for the section.

Instructively, Ananaba was head-hunted by the NBA leadership to breathe life into SPIDEL after it went into coma for about seven years. In discharging the onerous mandate, the consummate litigator orchestrated a well-attended NBA-SPIDEL Annual Conference which held at Aba, Abia State, between November 5 and 9, 2019.

• Ananaba with then NBA President Paul Usoro SAN at SPIDEL’s Annual Conference in Aba

Following the challenges thrown up by COVID-19 pandemic, he again held another groundbreaking annual conference in the ancient city of Ibadan between May 23 to May 26, 2021. What is more, Ananaba organized an election which yielded the leadership of the section to fiery human rights activist and former NBA Vice President, Dr. Monday Ubani SAN. Following a highly successful tenure, Ubani handed the baton to Aikpokpo-Martins, himself an NBA First Vice President, having emerged as consensus candidate during a hitch-free election.

Many NBA stakeholders have hailed Osigwe’s decision as a master stroke, even as CITY LAWYER gathered that SPIDEL members have been gripped with excitement over the announcement of the electoral committee. What is more, Aikpokpo-Martins, a major combatant in the fray, has already extended an olive branch to the cerebral Ananaba who exudes a calming visage.

In a statement to SPIDEL members obtained by CITY LAWYER and titled “STATEMENT ON THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS OF NBA-SPIDEL,” Aikpokpo-Martins applauded the appointment, saying: “This singular action has brought the leadership impasse in SPIDEL to a fitting close and has directly resuscitated our dear Section that has been in hiatus for some time.

“The constitution of the committee is a product of an amicable resolution of the lingering differences between the leadership of SPIDEL and the leadership of our mother association, the NBA. It is gratifying that this is coming to a good end.”

He announced that “the cases challenging the actions of past President Y. C. Maikyau, SAN with regard to the leadership of SPIDEL will now be discontinued,” and commended Ananaba “for always putting what he called his ‘native intelligence’ at my disposal in navigating the storm.”

In concluding, he wrote: “Now, we start to march again under our inimitable Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN, step by step with head up high and hope in our hearts at the end of the storm to reclaim our enviable position as the flagship of the NBA.”

Recalling Ananaba’s first coming, THISDAY, one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers, wrote: “The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL) had until recently fallen on hard times, having been comatose for about seven years. It took the efforts of the Dr. Paul Ananaba, SAN-led SPIDEL Council to resuscitate the once vibrant Section. This process was effectively started with the highly successful 2019 SPIDEL Annual Conference in Aba, but was cemented in a spectacular way by this year’s annual conference held in the ancient city of Ibadan, Oyo State.”

While Ananaba’s capacity to navigate SPIDEL’s minefield is not in doubt, some stakeholders have however wondered whether the section is ripe for immediate elections as envisaged by the NBA leadership. Though muted campaigns have started towards the election, some have argued forcefully that there is a need to revive the section and spark the enthusiasm of SPIDEL members in order to throw up a leadership with the requisite zeal to restore the lost glory of the once vibrant and foremost NBA section.

Will Ananaba’s second coming spell boom or gloom for SPIDEL? Only time will tell.

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