NBA ELECTIONS: THE IMPERATIVES FOR REFORM

NBA ELECTIONS: THE IMPERATIVES FOR REFORM

PREAMBLE

If the Nigerian Bar Association does nothing else, it must reform its electoral process. If Augustine Alegeh, SAN does nothing else as NBA President, he must do one thing; help reform the NBA electoral process. Mrs. Olufunke Adekoya SAN wanted to do it and she must do it for as a respected member of both the outer and later the inner bar she has the influence, passion, knowledge and the necessary know how to get it done, all be it from the side lines now.

I do not believe that it is possible to consistently err on the part of wrong. If it is not deliberate, you will occasionally err on the part of truth. The NBA has consistently refused to reform its electoral process not because it is wrong to do so, or that it can not do so or that it does not realize that it is right to do so but it is simply that it does not want to do so.

Why is this so? Why is the NBA so obdurate in its refusal to reform its electoral process? The answer is simple if you ask me: it is because we want to continue to cheat, we want to continue to do injustice, we want to continue to corrupt our members, we want to continue to do the same things we know are wrong with our national politics and our electoral system. All so a particular kind of President will emerge!!!

“This process cannot produce the best candidate” I heard from people severally and I believe it is true but I will say as the former American President, James Garfield said, “all free Governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people”. That is to say and it means that democracy can and may not produce the best. When the combined wisdom of the people prevails, they elect the best candidate, when the combined folly of the people prevails, they elect any candidate but the best.

For me though, it is not about the best candidate, for what are the criteria for measuring the best after all? It is about the right candidate and it should rightly be so. And you may want to know what I mean by the right candidate? The right candidate is the one who would have won the election if every Nigerian lawyer had the opportunity to vote. He may or may not be the best, but we would have elected the candidate by popular choice and we can all then swim or sink with him. 

The Nigerian Bar Association’s two yearly election ritual in the nation’s capital, Abuja, where national officers of the association are elected has come and gone and this year’s edition was not any less eventful as has become customary with any gathering of one of the largest, dynamic and intriguing bar anywhere in the world. Those who won are savoring their victory, those who did not win are moving on with life and probably licking their wounds or strategizing to use this experience as a stepping stone towards greater things.

For me personally all this is good but something is not quite right and it is fundamental. The NBA as a leading professional association in Nigeria and probably in Africa ought to know and should know better. I will not belabor you with rhetoric but I will quickly identify and highlight the points I think the NBA knows which well considered should spur the NBA into action as it should become clear that the reform of its electoral process is a moral, constitutional, political, social and economic imperative.

THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD

Firstly, from time immemorial the world and its peoples struggled to be heard at the risk of being silenced forever by those who do not want them to be heard. Ultimately the world came to realize, understood and accepted that one of the greatest ideals of men are to be heard, to be allowed freedom of choice, and to be left alone should they chose solitude. Does the delegate electoral process the NBA has adopted assures this? It does not.

FREEDOM AND LIBERTY OF CHOICE

Secondly, man desires freedom and liberty and it is right that man has freedom and liberty. The 1960 Independence Constitution, the 1963 Republican Constitution, the 1979 Third Republican Constitution, even the stillborn or abrogated 1989 Constitution, the 1999 Constitution guaranteed the chequered rights to freedom and liberty. Does the NBA delegate electoral process allow every Nigerian lawyer who wills the freedom and liberty to choose the man who will lead him? No, it does not.

GUARANTEE OF VOTERS RIGHT

Thirdly, a polity must guarantee the right to vote and be voted for in any election and the votes should count. The world has also recognized that the best way to guarantee this is through a universal adult suffrage and every self respecting Constitution recognizes and guarantees this. Now this is interesting; the subject of universal adult suffrage that is. Even many Western epitome of democracy today did not allow universal adult suffrage until the second part of the 20^th Century.

It seems unfathomable now but even in the United States, universal adult suffrage was only achieved in the latter part of the last Century due largely to the agitations of civil rights groups, led by the prominent African, American Baptist Minister, Martin Luther King Jr. and thanks to the empathy of the young, charismatic Irish Catholic President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) who determined that the part of civil rights assurance and especially universal adult suffrage was the way to go for America. What did the American’s fear? See apartheid South Africa too!!! So I ask what does the NBA fear? Why can’t the NBA allow everyone who has paid his dues and meet the requirement to vote cast his vote in his local branch and then the result is collated and sent to the national body. Put in another way, does the delegates electoral process of the NBA guarantee the right of every Nigerian Lawyer to vote? Yet again, it does not.

FAIRNESS AND TRANSPARENCY

Fourthly, people deserve to choose their leaders in a fair and transparent manner. I do not subscribe to the populist believe that democracy guarantees the best will emerge even where it is properly adhered to. Let no one kid us, Barack Obama was not the best America could offer when he was elected President. But then he was elected President from a clear, transparent, best and edifying process that worked in an epochal manner and all shades of opinion accepted the outcome.

To start with; because of the delegates system we adopt, mushroom branches are created at the dawn of every election year to skew the dynamics in favor of one candidate or the other; as many people as the NBA President want are co-opted into NEC so they will vote for the favored candidate; the branch Chair persons of the 109 branches of the NBA has complete discretion on how and who to choose as delegates and they will choose only those who will vote for their anointed candidate. In fact, many chair persons are still at loggerheads with members of their branches over what some call corruptly manipulated and unknown lawyers delegates list. Now whither the fairness and transparency in the NBA delegates electoral process? None yet again unfortunately. Haba, this process must be reformed.

COST AND EXPENSE

Fifthly, I worry about cost and expense. Why should the cost of winning the Presidency of a professional association be so prohibitive? Why should it be that a man must belong to a select group of lawyers to be elected NBA President as it has become now. Why is it that a discretionary title that does not prove you are better than anyone be the basis, the starting point even, if you will seek to lead your professional association? As in national politics, the trend in our elections in the last few years shows that whoever will aspire to be the NBA President must either have very deep pockets or have sponsors who do. He may possess no leadership qualities and this way, he does not and most times will not deliver on his electoral mandate because there is no incentive to do so. Infact the only incentive is to mortgage the association to his sponsors or the powers that be. All this because of the flawed delegates electoral process the NBA has adopted!!!

Still on cost and expense, no one should lose sight of the fact that every election year, we gather again after a few weeks to hold the Annual General Conference of the NBA in probably another far flung corner of Nigeria where heavy expenses are incurred again by members of the association on travel, hotel and maintenance costs for one long week whilst the AGC lasts. This is not discountenancing the logistics; risk and insecurity involved taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of our country today.

RISK AND INSECURITY

Sixthly, we do not seem to appreciate the severity of the attendant risk when we ask every delegate to come to Abuja to elect the President of the NBA. Why should all the delegates go to Abuja? These things can be better done and we know it. The question is why do we refuse to do them? In the 21^st Century, Lawyers, elites in Society have refused to embrace and take advantage of technology. The NBA ought to be interested in how the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators United Kingdom, an eminent body with membership all over the world, elects its officers – that is if it does not already even know. Why should the NBA ask its best to come to the nation’s capital every two years for the mundane exercise of electing national officers on roads that are death traps, in an era where planes are falling off our skies and in a nation where boko haram and all manner of pocket and closet terrorists are having a free reign/field day? Again, we must reform this delegates electoral process of ours before tragedy strikes.

CORRUPTION AND INDISCIPLINE

Seventh point, Corruption and indiscipline will destroy us as a profession and as a nation. Many branch Delegates came to Abuja. I understand they got Hotel rooms from the candidates they supposedly supported (whether they stayed in those rooms is a moot point) and they got Hotel rooms from every other candidate if they will. Many got money to pay for hotel rooms they did not need and did not take. We cry corruption in our national life everyday and we do this in a professional association? We are the ones, the one segment of society by virtue of our learning and experience who ought to and should understand that corruption destroys all of us, but we do not seem to care. May be we do not mind if we die or live.

Again, the delegates electoral process fuels and encourages this level of corruption and indiscipline.

ZONING (THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM)

Eight point, Zoning? Really, how sad!!! We are not a serious people at all. We seem to emphasize our differences and deemphasize that which unites us. Zoning might well be right where we are sincere with what we profess. But here we are not. I have canvassed elsewhere during the run up to the 2008 election that it is all motion without movement. In an interview with the nation newspaper, I told the world that it was not right to follow the trend in national politics in a professional association. What example are we setting? The right man cannot emerge in such circumstances. But as usual, who listened? No one!!!

What does zoning now mean in the context of national politics and at the level of the NBA? Zoning really means if by the collective folly of the people, they elected the wrong candidate, they cannot by their collective wisdom change and elect the right candidate next election as they must wait till the time when it is the turn of the obvious right candidate’s Zone to produce the President, at which time the candidate may have moved on, may be too old for the rigours required, may have lost interest or died even. Many at times I wonder and it baffles me how and why we seem bent on importing everything wrong with our national life into the NBA.

NIGERIAN WOMEN AND POLITICS

Ninth point, I will never understand our women? This is a familiar theme. Women are by nature not necessarily like men and even by experience and disposition, the idiosyncrasies of the male Homo sapiens is likely to be different from that of his female ilk. That said; Nigerian women do not seem to appreciate their place in history. I do not know how many female delegates were at the NBA elections in Abuja. I imagine if all the female delegates alone voted for the female candidate, she would have won the elections no doubt. Today they cry feminism, tomorrow they cry female emancipation and as we speak they want affirmative action and worst of all they want the men to do it for them. Women for the most part are the ones who told me that the female candidate is the best. “But” they will always add. Trust me, I always ask them “what is but?” The answer I got? Your guess is as good as mine. Needless to say what they said.

Women do not love themselves. If they do, they will not be where they are. Cue Sarah Jubril. Remember this woman wanted to be President of Nigeria under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. She had so many female supporters and going into the primary elections in 2011 at the Eagle Square in Abuja, she thought Nigerian women were sweet on her. What happened? She got only one vote. As it turned out, she only voted for herself eventually. One wonders what became of the many women groups, the many women states delegates and even her female benefactors who made it seem they were all for her? Tough women’s world you know!!!

Bottom line, women are their own worst enemy, they do not love themselves and they do not want anything enough. But even at that, I believe that if the NBA allows all women to vote in their local branches instead of the delegates process that obtains right now then the women might well have the freedom and opportunity to cast votes that can bring about a seismic change in NBA elections. The atmosphere in Abuja is too chauvinistic and suffocating for women to make a collective choice in their enlightened self interest. In Abuja they can be easily swayed, canvassed, convinced, intimidated if need be and finally corrupted to abandon a women’s common cause, if and in the event there was one anyway. At their local branches, no such incentives can be offered and therefore the likelihood is close to nil that the women will vote against their conscience.

REFORM THE ELECTORAL PROCESS NOW

Tenth point, reform the electoral process now and be damned. I have heard that Austin Alegeh SAN, the man who eventually won the elections, the newly minted NBA President promised to do so and that he will propose that to NEC. All that is great and I am glad that a President of our august body has finally caught the electoral reform fire that many of us have always canvassed and in this respect I reserve a special place of gratitude and respect for the erudite Professor Chidi Odinkalu and Mrs. Funke Adekoya, SAN, two people I know, who have tirelessly advocated a reform of the electoral process of the NBA.

But I must hasten to add that I have also heard that the new President will take away with the left hand what he wants us to believe he is giving and willing to give to us with the right hand as he will recruit an army of NEC members who will in a subterranean manner ensure that the motion will not carry and thus the circus show that is right now the delegates electoral process will continue. I do not know how informed these sources are, but I hope and pray that they are proved wrong and that the electoral process is reformed and the delegates charade retired into the doldrums.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, these are the ten points I gleaned from the soul searching I have done on this issue since that day in 2008, when because the position of the NBA President was zoned to the South West, the leaders of the bar in the South West prevailed on other candidates to step down for the man who became the NBA President at the time and from my personal experiences at the just concluded 2014 elections in Abuja.

As we have seen, the NBA delegates electoral process does not allow all Nigerian lawyers the right to be heard, it does not allow them the freedom and liberty of choice, it does not guarantee their right to vote, there is no fairness and transparency in the process, there is too cost and expense involved, the security risks are just too great, corruption and indiscipline has crept into the process, hence the imperative urgency of reforms.

Whatever we, members of the NBA wants to do, whatever else the President of the NBA wants to do, reform the electoral process we and he must as the circumstances and the realities today is that it has become imperative that the process be reformed if we ever hope to elect the right candidate to lead us again. I look forward to the year 2016 and the elections of that year which will be conducted in the 109 branches (or more) of the NBA, collated and sent to the national body and the NBA President that will emerge from such a free, transparent, democratic, fair process, with the legitimate mandate of all Nigerian lawyers.

In short, I look forward to an election that will be everything the present delegates process is not.

I rest my case.

Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08098066172.