RE: HELLO, HYPHENATED - LAWYERS

RE: HELLO, HYPHENATED - LAWYERS

I read with a pinch of salt a piece in the Thisday of June 1st 2010 written by erudite and respected Professor Bolaji Akinyemi where he expressed doubts over the practical utility of legal associations such as the Catholic Lawyers Association, Lagos Diocese, Association of Muslim Lawyers and an Association of Women or Female Lawyers by which I take the professor to mean the International Federation of Women Lawyers.

Professor even questioned the rationale for the existence of such associations and quizzically questioned why further sub groups of lawyers will not spring up in the circumstances. Such bodies the professor alluded to already even exist in one form or the other. I may agree with the professor that within the legal profession no alienation afflicts any sub group of lawyers if the great chasm that already exists between junior lawyers and their much prosperous seniors is not alienation enough. The glaring alienation in this regard is such that about the richest professional in this country is a lawyer and the poorest one is probably also a lawyer but the Catholic Lawyers Association professor wrote about has not complained of any alienation or marginalization though.

What then is the rationale for the existence of the association and many of its ilk. I dare suggest to the leading scholar that the starting point of this enquiry is the Constitution of the body. A perusal of the Constitution of the National Association of Catholic Lawyers (Lagos Archdiocese) shows no pretentions to protecting any primordial self interest or self preservation. Our nations generic law even guarantees every one the right to associate as they deem fit. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, saddled with the moral burden of leading the church and pastoring the estimated 39 Million member strong Catholic faithful in Nigeria though statistics may be unreliable facilitated the birth of the association in 2001 and the clear commission to Catholic lawyers, leading lights in the legal profession and in society was ‘go help the poor, save the heathen and propagate your faith and the gospel of Christ in the work place’.

The relevant portion of the commission which was specifically set down in the Constitution of the Association adopted on the 11th of September, 2005 reads thus: to promote intellectual, social and spiritual interest of members; to take up the many legal and constitutional challenges facing the country and to engage in corporate actions that have substantial and positive bearings on the moral, spiritual and social development of Nigeria or any of the constituent parts as may from time to time arise or be spelt out by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria or the Archbishop of Lagos; to place our expertise and professional experience at the disposal of Nigerians and the Catholic church on its mission of evangelization and spread of the social teachings of the Church; to promote the spiritual growth of members of the association and help them live out the gospel values, which should be reflected in their lives and work; to strive to learn from one another with humility things that are of benefit to mankind; to encourage and contribute to charity and other welfare funds for the benefit of the needy.

And further to speak with one voice through resolutions passed at our general meetings or through the National body on: the many contentious matters of law and constitutional processes and development in the country; the challenges posed to good governance and the sustenance of democratic principles for the endurance of the Nigerian state; the need to preserve lives, human dignity and oppose any form of the practice of abortion; the need for dialogue in resolving all forms of conflicts among the diverse people of Nigeria; the need to preserve and promote the freedom of expression for all Nigerians and the practice and adherence to the rule of law and due process through the courts; the need for the church to run and maintain its own schools and ensure that moral and religious teachings are given pride of place in the school curriculum; to ensure that no member of the church, clergy, religious and or the laity are ill-treated in any part of the country, and to rise up in support where such is the case; the call by the church for transparency and accountability in government and the fight against corruption in all facets of Nigerian society; on the need to strengthen the police and provide them with adequate welfare, equipment, regular training and retraining to make them effective in the discharge of their obligations and duties to the country and all citizens; to provide legal aid to prisoners and other persons in need.

So by no stretch of imagination can a people oriented association of this nature be thought unnecessary or blamed for fragmenting an already incoherent and fractious nation. Invariably, we are enhanced by these configurations.

Associations of lawyers who have further specialized in one area of the law or the other already abounds but suppose the Catholic church as an institution which abhor abortion and many of the faithful are pro-lifers seeks to enforce laws against abortion or opposes gay rights will it call on Muslim lawyers or Maritime lawyers to ventilate its grievances? Professors damn good lawyer may not even share the sentiments and ethics of the Catholic faith, how much more its core values so the hyphenated-lawyer comes damned good for the purposes of the Church.

The Catholic Church helps millions of people everyday of the week, every week of the month, and every month of the year. People who are not Catholics even. The Catholic Church is the biggest charity and NGO in the World, its Schools are the toast of local communities, and its hospitals bring quality affordable healthcare to the needy without discrimination as to religion or denomination and the Church continues to reach the heathen. According to Sam Miller, a prominent Cleveland businessman (Jewish, not Catholic), the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday, at a cost to the Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American tax payer of 18 billion dollars. Needless to say that Catholic education at this time stands head and shoulders above every other form of education that we have in this country. And the cost is approximately 30% less.

He further wrote that the Cleveland School system boast of an average graduation rate of 36% and the burden of the other 64% who did not make it is borne by the tax payer whilst Catholic schools graduate 89% and the Catholic students go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%, and all at a cost to the Church. To the rest of the American’s it is free, but it costs Catholics at least 30% less to educate students compared to the costs that the public education system pays out for education that cannot compare.

The Catholic Church has 230 colleges and universities in the United States alone with an enrollment of 700, 000 students. The Catholic Church has a non profit hospital system of 637 hospitals which accounts for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people not just Catholics in the United States today. The Church clothes and feeds and houses the indigent 1 of 5 indigents in the United States whether Catholic, Protestant, Jew or a Moslem, at a cost to the Church of 2.3 billion dollars a year.

The Catholic Church has over One Billion adherents the world over, 64 Million members in the United States and is the largest non – governmental agency in that country. It has 20, 000 churches in the United States and every year they raise approximately 10 billion dollars to help support these agencies.

In this country, though there is a criminal and dire dearth of statistics, empirically Catholic schools abound that have contributed immensely and still are doing so to the cause of development and nation building – St. Gregory College, Ikoyi, Christ the King College, Ijebu Ode and Onitsha, Queen of the Rosary Secondary School, Gboko, Onitsha, Nsukka and Abuja, Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, Loyola College, Ibadan, St. Patrick College, Asaba and Ibadan, St. Theresa’s Catholic Secondary School, Ibadan, St. Francis Secondary School, Idimu and Oshogbo, Mary Mount College, Agbor, College of Immaculate Conception, Enugu and Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt are several outstanding ones amongst many that readily come to mind.

The mosaic painted above is a prototype of what the Church does all over the World. The good deeds and works of charity the Church carries on in Nigeria today are clearly evident. Who will help promote and sustain these good deeds if there are no professionals and bodies who believe in the cause of the Church and the good the Church does in Society? Not only lawyers but a professional body of all Catholic faithfuls in all fields of endeavour who subscribe to, believe in and live for the cause of the Church. Now who will go for the Catholic Church? Professor well knows the Nigerian Bar Association will not. The Maritime Lawyers Association, The Pension Lawyers Association of Nigeria or any professional body for that matter as qua professional body gives no hoot about the cause of the Church. So the hyphenated-lawyer still comes damned good for the cause of the Church.

Most professional bodies not organized on the basis of ethnicity are already trans-cultural and well suited to nation building. American’s make associations out of everything – many thriving associations in America grew out of birthday parties, christening ceremonies, dinners, sports meets and from every conceivable activity where humans interact and it has not bred any chaos and the American people are no less united. These groupings promote specific causes and their societies and local communities are the better for it. The challenge if there is any is to address our minds to how to harness the energy and the good in all these associations for the common good, the good of society. If the Catholic Lawyers Association makes one lawyer a better lawyer and Catholic, if the Muslim Lawyers Association makes one Muslim a better lawyer and Muslim, then bring it on as it can only mean the good of Society and the coherence of the Nigerian state; far better building blocks for the task of nation – building than professor cares to admit.

In a polity where everything and anything has been reduced to politics, I can understand the erudite professor’s apprehension and no one is not worried. I have canvassed elsewhere that the creation of more Local Governments will not solve the problem of our local communities; I have also written that the so called zoning of positions in our national life only entrenches mediocrity and a ploy for the same power mongers who have being around and about since independence in 1960 to subjugate the rest of us perpetually. That Nigeria has developed an unenviable reputation of a country where concepts are turned upside down and applied beyond recognizable logic as Professor wrote is also not in dispute but by no stretch of imagination can it be supposed that the proliferation of religious-based organizations can cause the backlash professor so canonized in his piece.

But the way forward really is already guaranteed in the constitution – the right of association and it must be protected and unfettered. Not as Professor concluded tongue in cheek though that he has no objection to the Igbobi College Old Boys Lawyers Association even after he had counseled refrain from what he called pointless escapades. All be it why not? Bring it on; even Okesa or Isare Lawyers Association, Ilesa.
By the way Professor was also once in Government.


STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA is a Partner at the Lagos Law firm of Fountain Court Partners.


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