In this piece, fiery children and women’s rights advocate, MOJIRAYO OGUNLANA argues that Chairman of the Governing Board of Nigerian Bar Association Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NBA-ICLE), Mr. Tobenna Erojikwe has turned around the fortunes of lawyers though free training and mentoring.

This is exactly the reason why I support Tobenna. He has shown very clearly that he intends to confront issues. I have noticed that the gentleman does not felicitate or send goodwill messages in public. I also read what he wrote about initiating a move to end money politics in the NBA and how the other aspirants reneged on it.

His position on the Minimum Wage issue at the AGC and the YLF Summit was a class act. He took on the issues and made the points despite the President of the NBA being present in the room. I started following his activities after his presentation at the SPIDEL Conference. He took on the issues fearlessly. It then started occurring to me why he and Akpata appear to be ideological soul mates.

I have also since found that he has championed Continuing Professional Development since he came back from the UK. He was organising FREE trainings for lawyers even before becoming involved with the NBA. He was Chairman of the CLE Committee in Lagos for 4 years and turned that all important element around through his Training and Mentoring initiatives, providing a response to skills gaps questions. He is doing it at the ICLE and has done it for 3 years now. Even today, he is facilitating trainings on Blockchain despite the elections being so close by.

I see a lot of character in the man and just think that he is not celebrated enough because he is not loud and noisy.

Anyone who wants to lead us MUST show his track record. What do each of these people stand for? At least, with Tobenna I know that he was Chief Adviser to Akpata. I know that he believes in capacity building. I now know that he was the architect of the Access to Finance Scheme and a big promoter of the Remuneration conversation from inception.

Most importantly, I know that he has absolutely no connection with the NBA establishment and the ones on the outside. These things matter to me, and should matter to all of us.

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