By Yusuf Chiwar

For many Nigerian Lawyers, and indeed observers of the Nigerian polity, the sharp contrast in the Administration of President Olumide Akpata and his successor and incumbent president of the Bar- Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, SAN, OON has put in issue the question of whether the Bar should not preferentially draw its leaders from the Outer Bar.

Olumide Akpata, it would be recalled led the Nigerian Bar Association from the year 2020 to 2022 during which time, it is largely acknowledged he restored the glory of the Bar and made it a voice for the mass of Nigerian people. Olumide, took no prisoners, confronted the Establishment but within and outside the Bar and also demonstrated a remarkable commitment to the welfare of many Nigerian Lawyers whom until his election as president were disillusioned. The campaigns leading to his historic election as President was the most-charged in recent history having sparred against two senior Advocates of Nigeria for an Association that had drawn its leaders in the 30 years preceding that election from the distinguished class of senior Advocates. The rest, as they say is history.

However, the largely lackluster performance of the incumbent president of the Bar, in Y. C. Maikyau, SAN has necessarily set in motion the debate whether non-Silks make better Presidents of the Association within the context of NBA’s clear mandate of Promoting the Rule of Law.

In this connection, historical evidence of past leadership of the Bar, seems to provide anchor for resolution of the above poser in the affirmative. Indeed, the reign of two former presidents of the Association namely Chief Mrs. Priscilla Kuye – Dame of the Bar (1991-1992) and the people’s president- Alao Aka Bashorun (1987-1989) continues to garner consensus across several generations of the Bar as some of the most illustrious days of the Bar.

For Mrs. Kuye who continues to hold the flag as the only woman to have led the Association, her momentous tenure as President marked by brushes with the military junta which almost cost her life, remains a reference point for the picture of an activist Bar standing strongly as a buffer between civil liberty and tyranny of the ruling class.

But if Mrs. Kuye could run, it was because the foundation had been laid by the inimitable Alao Aka Bashorun who served as president of the Bar just before her. If indeed any consensus has ever been achieved amongst Nigerian lawyers, it must be that Alao Aka Bashorun was arguably one of its finest leaders in the entire history of the Bar. Briefly exiled to England during the Abacha years, his two year long tenure at the helm of the NBA gave the organization solid institutional foundations as well as a popular base that it did not then have, nor managed to achieve before then. In a tribute to him at his passing in 2005 after battling a degenerative ailment for eight years, Chidi Odinkalu wrote in a corroborative tone of Aka’s iconic place amongst past leaders of the Bar, “with his death, the NBA has lost undoubtedly its most effective president of recent memory and, arguably, of all time”.

Amongst many other attributes, in Aka, the NBA found a President who gave it vision and a voice that spoke with moral authority, and, above all, cojones – an important feature which many people think is lacking in the current leadership of the Bar.

But the object of this intervention is not necessarily to extol the virtues of Mama Kuye and Aka Bashorun. The reference to them, is only to provide empirical evidence to support the theory that some of the memorable days of Bar- Leadership has been lived under the saddle of non-Senior Advocates of Nigeria. Of course, one trait that unites both Mama Kuye and Aka Bashorun is that they assumed leadership of the Bar without the silky robes.

What is more, the contrasting performances of Olumide Akpata and the out-going President of the Bar- Y.C Maikyau SAN, if anything, has further given impetus to the assertion that Non-Silks are more inhibited and unconsciously restrained to provide the kind of leadership that Nigerians expect of the NBA in today’s society.

In a recent editorial, a leading law blog- www.thenigerialawyer.com reviewed the Y.C. Maikyau SAN administration against its manifesto and scored it low, writing, “From our analysis of the performance of Y.C Maikayu, SAN as President of the Nigerian Bar Association so far, his performance has been below average both by his own Manifesto and by the opinion of majority of lawyers. His administration’s score card reflects very few innovations of his administration, and this has reflected in the way his administration is perceived by lawyers. The administration, like most others, have had its controversial issues, however, for a fair analysis this report elected to judge the administration by its own commitments – but it still fell short”.

This verdict of course, did not come to many lawyers and indeed many Nigerians as a surprise for the Administration had been widely perceived to be benevolent and subservient of the Establishment despite its endeavors to shed this ugly perception which would shape its place in history.

As Nigerian Lawyers prepare to go to the polls to elect a new leadership in a matter of weeks, in an election that interestingly spars two senior Advocates against a Non- Senior Advocate as with the 2020 campaigns, there is a sense in which the Bar may be just be right if they hedge their bets with the Non- SAN vying for the plum job if recent history is anything to go by. Not necessarily because of his status as a member of the Outer-Bar, but because of other attributes he combines which this Author imagines can catalyze the Bar back into the dignified heights Olumide Akpata had left it only two years ago.

• Yusuf Chiwar is of NBA Abuja Branch

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