THE NBA MUST BE FAITHFUL TO HER CONSTITUTION IN THE CONDUCT OF ELECTION

On Wednesday the 21st May 2008 Barrister Vincent Ike Uko former General Secretary of the NBA Lagos Branch and former assistant publicity secretary of the NBA shared with the Squib his thoughts on the need for the NBA to toe the path of constitutionalism in electing new leaders in the August 2008 general elections of the association.

SQUIB: In brief, who is Ike Uko Esq.?
ANSWER: My name is Vincent Ike Uko. I am married to a lawyer with children. I read English Studies at the University of Port Harcourt, did law at the graduate level at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and got my LLM at the University of Lagos ten years ago.
I was called to the Bar in1993 and became a Notary Public in 2001. I have being active at the bar. I held my first office as assistant secretary of the NBA Lagos Branch under Prince Adeniyi Olateru-Olagbegi (as he then was) as chairman. In 2000, I contested for and was elected the Assistant Publicity Secretary at the national level of the NBA, under the presidency of O.C.J Okocha S.A.N (JP) till 2002. Thereafter, I came back to Lagos branch in 2004 where I held office as Publicity Secretary of the branch. In 2005, I was elected secretary, NBA Lagos. I am an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and a full member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM).

SQUIB: As a bar man, let’s have your views on the NBA vis-avis the nation.
ANSWER: I must say the NBA in the recent past has risen to the challenge. The NBA’s valued commentaries on national issues of vital importance, for example, issues of the subversion of the constitution are well noted. As a vanguard of democracy, she took it upon herself to advise the presidency on burning national issues particularly at the time of the elections. At the last general elections, the NBA sent out monitors and observers, always insisting on due process which helped the elections a great deal in a way. However, there is still room for improvement, the need to make legal services available to more people beyond the present tokenism. NBA must be seen and indeed be championing the cause of the people. For example the recent fire disaster victims in Ijegun, Lagos State should have had their cause championed by NBA in getting compensations from the parties negligently responsible for the disaster; be it the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Lagos State Government or the contractor(s) working at the site of the disaster.

SQUIB: As you are aware that elections would soon be coming up both locally and nationally in the NBA, how do you want the elections to be held?
ANSWER: First of all, the NBA must hold itself as a model and beckon of hope for other associations. Specifically as lawyers, we must buy President Yar Adua’s rule of law and due process. All the branches that make up the national body must make the forthcoming elections hitch free and peaceful. The branches must follow their bye-laws in conducting their elections. There must be a level playing field for every contestant with the law being the leveler. Also, at the national level, the constitution must be followed as specified in the NBA constitution.

SQUIB: When you say at the national level, what exactly do you mean?
ANSWER: The constitution must be followed as contained in Article 11 of the NBA Constitution “the contestant must be in full time private legal practice.” This excludes those in private companies, lecturers or those who are not in full time legal job. My understanding of the NBA constitution is that it wants to make sure that those who want to serve the NBA will be independent in name and in action. Also, the fellow must have paid his/her practicing fee as at when due i.e. before 31st March of each of the three years preceding the elections. Thirdly, the person must have been qualified as per experience of service in the NBA.
There are two dual qualifications:

(i) for those running for various offices ranging from president, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Vice Presidents, General Secretary, Publicity Secretary, Treasurer, Welfare Secretary, Financial Secretary and Legal Adviser. For contestants into these offices, they are required to have served 2 years (24 months) on the National Executive Committee. This means that the contestants must have held office for 2 years as National officers, being the secretary, chairman, and/or the representative of his branch at the NEC or was co-opted into the NEC by the President. To be a co-opted into the NEC, one must have been at least ten years at the bar. This also means that the only way a person can be a NEC member without being ten years at the bar is by running for any of the Assistant positions or being secretary or chairman of the branch where the branches bye-law permits such people under ten years to hold such offices; otherwise nobody can be on the NEC before his tenth year as a lawyer as provided in Article 9(a)(v) of the NBA Constitution.

(ii) The second category are those running for assistant positions such as 1st Assistant Secretary, Assistant Publicity Secretary, Assistant Financial Secretary, 2nd Assistant Secretary. For people vying for these offices, they are expected to have at least served 2 years on their branch Executives. In essence, the only positions at the branch level considered sufficient to qualify a contestant to vie for a major national office are that of secretary or chairman of a branch. There are some confusion among some of our colleagues who feel that once they hold any branch office, they are automatically qualified for any National office. These differences can be gleaned from Article 11(i), (ii) (a), (b) and (c).

SQUIB: Thank you for your analysis. Do you see the NBA embracing these issues you have pointed out vis-avis the proper qualifications to contest of candidates, considering the fact that many people have always believed that a candidate only needs to hold any office at the branch level before gunning for the national office?
ANSWER: Yes, I vouch for the integrity of the current leadership under Olisa Agbakoba S.A.N. There are some issues that have been omitted by oversight in the past but I think once their attention are drawn to the issues, they are quickly addressed.

SQUIB: If I may ask, do you have any aspiration to contest at the national level.
ANSWER: Yes, I do. By the grace of God and support of my fellow lawyers, I want to run for the post of the next treasurer of the NBA

SQUIB: Why treasurer?
ANSWER: I have served the NBA in various positions both at local and national levels. And I think that the office of the treasurer is critical in any association and should be given the seriousness it deserves. Based on my past experience at the bar, I want to accept the challenge. As treasurer, I will collect money on behalf of the bar and will advise the NBA properly. We have not exploited all the opportunities to make more money for the association. We have to bring all those who are supposed to pay practicing fees into the net. We also need to emphasise fiscal federalism between the national body and her 88 branches. Their share of the funds of the NBA must be given to them promptly and faithfully. There is a very urgent reason to empower the branches. Some branches exist only in name because they do not have the financial muscle to carry on routine activities like organising a law week and running efficient secretariat. The strength of the chain is at this weakest joint. For a truly powerful NBA, the branches must be strengthened. Every year, the NBA raises a lot of money both from practicing fees and donations and these are spent on recurrent expenditures. I expect that by prudent management, NBA can invest some of these surplus money in securities such as government bonds, mutual trust fund etc.
I am not unaware of these projects as build, transfer skills currently going on in Lagos and Abuja. I give kudos to the person that made this happen. However, a plant grows not just on the big showers that come, not just in a while, but on the every day dew that gives the plant its life line. We need short term, mid term and long term investments for the NBA to be strong. This I can do if given the chance.
I think there is need for collaboration for the offices of the treasurer, financial and welfare secretaries. As we make it big for the NBA as a body, we also empower the NBA members. It is painful to see lawyers begging for alms when they need medical attention. The NBA must work out a workable health insurance scheme for her members.

SQUIB: Thank you very much for your views, we wish you the best in your aspiration. What is your view about the screening of candidates, because in the past some were improperly screened out and some illegally screened in?
ANSWER: I read the election guidelines as published at the Markurdi NEC meeting. It’s quite a good working paper but there is room for improvement especially on procedures for appeals. Traditionally, when nomination closes on 30th June, Section 20 (e) provides that there must be a compilation of all nominations received. In practice, the General Secretary invites some bar leaders at his discretion and the candidates and their agents. The nature of the opening of the ballot papers does not give room for proper screening. This has resulted in some unqualified people running for elections in the past against the spirit of the constitution. There is a need to make an improvement so that the screening will accord with the constitution. Any protest and/or discussion of the nomination can only happen at the next NEC meeting which usually comes late July about a month to the general election. There is a need to make this appeal to be more efficient.

THE SECRETARY AND CHAIRMAN ARE CULPABLE - YINKA FAROUNBI ESQ

Squib: There was this letter of yours dated 2nd May 2008 and published in our magazine in vol. 8 no 27 edition May 5 2008 edition, wherein you accused Mr. Beckely Abioye the NBA Ikeja Secretary and Mr. Niyi Idowu the NBA Ikeja chairman of tampering with some financial records of the branch in your care. Can you please throw more light on this issue.

Farounbi: My name is Yinka Farounbi. I have been a practicing lawyer since 1993. I am a member of the Nigerian Bar Association Ikeja Branch and a member of 2006/2008 executive as the financial secretary.
My duties as the financial secretary of the association entail the collection of bar dues, issuing receipts for money collected, collect money pledges and other donations to branch and passing same to the treasurer for onward transmission to the bank.
I delegated an aspect of the collection of bar dues to the bar clerk for ease of collecting. This had to do with my not being at the bar centre the whole of the day.
This end, I bought abut 3 exercise books for the bar clerk (Queen) to record bar dues collected by her and passed on to the treasurer. She dutifully carried this instruction and the treasurer signed on all the occasions he collected money from her.
The treasurer equally delegated the library hand to make the lodgment for him in the bank. There was no noticeable shortage from all the lodgments in the bank as evidenced by the pay-in bank tellers. I will like to state emphatically that it is not right for the Secretary General to ask me of the financial notebooks of the association made and kept by me for any year at all. Auditing of accounts as constitutionally laid down should be between the financial secretary, treasurer and auditor. Specifically, it is the auditor that is constitutionally empowered to demand for the financial notebooks from me.
If clarification is needed by the secretary general as to the financial standing of any intending candidate for any post in the elections, such needed information should only be forwarded to me for clarification. That is the standard procedure. Even if the auditor failed/neglected to so act, there is a constitutional provision to cater for it.
It is therefore overreaching and ultra-vires the powers of the secretary general to ask for the production of the financial notebooks from me. On the issue of rendering our account, all the financial officers will render account jointly to the house on 2nd June, 2008.
All the exco members ought to work in unison. The secretary general is the custodian of the register of members. If anybody claims to be a financial member and he is in doubt, he shall consult with me as to eligibility. I made serious allegations of tampering with the financial records against the chairman-Niyi Idowu and secretary general-Beckley Abioye. They took the financial notebooks forcefully from the bar clerk (Queen) for well over 6 months. The chairman handed over the receipt stubs and financial books to the secretary general on 27/04/2008 and then asked me to liaise with him (the secretary) by handing over the other financial records with me to the secretary. I refused because the chairman was wrong and I insisted that it was the secretary who must give back the records with him to me. The secretary eventually did.
On closer examination of the financial books surrendered by the secretary, I realised that some names have been smuggled into the financial notebooks. For example on page 12 of the financial note book of year 2006, precisely payment made on 9/10/2006 showed that the name of one Abiola Oketoki was smuggled into a space. She was alleged to have paid N1,000 which was neither paid to me nor to the bar clerk.
On page 16, payment made on 14/12/2006, Omodara Samson was smuggled into the records. He was alleged to have paid N1,000:00. In the original of which I made photocopies of and kept, it was only Odum Ekene that made payment on that day.
On page 18, payment made on 12/01/2007, the name of one Charles Biyi Oguntuga was smuggled into the list of those who paid. However, this name was not in the list before the chairman took the financial books from the bar clerk. These are the names I have discovered so far.
Curiously, these names are names of certain contestants in the forthcoming elections for one post or the other. I am still clarifying the position of the lodgments during this period and will be in a better position to show all the discrepancies when the statement of account is obtained by the treasurer.