My attention has been drawn to the reaction of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) (published in The Punch of Monday, 26th February, 2007) to my criticism of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal on Atiku as Vice President of Nigeria after he had become a member and presidential candidate of another political party.

I consider the reaction of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) very amusing, deeply hollow in substance and totally devoid of factual reasons and legal justification.

I will take the relevant points of the reaction one by one (seriatim).

Firstly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) accused me of making “uncomplimentary remarks on a well considered judgment”. That accusation is definitely infantile because no criticism is ever complimentary. Since the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) came out to applaud the decision on the day it was delivered by the Court of Appeal, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) gave its own opinion or point of view on the judgment on the pages of newspapers. I am therefore entitled to my own point of view as well.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has no moral or legal authority to gag any lawyer from expressing his or her own view on any issue including criticism of judgments of our courts.

At this stage, I will like to point out to the National Officers of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that it is contrary to the principles that led to the establishment of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the historical development of that body that an association of lawyers should be truculently intolerant of opposition to its views by any member or members. This is so because lawyers in this country have not ceded to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) their constitutional and fundamental rights including their fundamental rights to freedom of expression enshrined in Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

Even the enforcement provisions of the judgment of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court in section 287 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 do not forbid criticism of the judgments of these courts.

The recent embarrassing utterances and actions of some National Officers of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on issues across the country, particularly in Ekiti, Plateau and Adamawa States depict downright and cowboyish dictatorship which must be curbed in order to preserve the integrity of the Association.

Secondly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said in its reaction that it was unethical for me to “castigate” the Judges of the Court of Appeal on the pages of newspapers. I did not castigate the Judges personally at all. I clearly attacked their judgment and there is nothing unethical in that respect. I therefore challenge the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to refer to any of the rules in the Rules of Professional Conduct in the Legal Profession otherwise called the Lawyers Code of Conduct which forbids lawyers from criticising on the pages of newspapers judgments delivered by the courts in Nigeria. Of course, there is no such rule at all. The “unethical” insinuation of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is totally and unimaginatively perverse. In any event, why is the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) averse to criticism of the judgment in the pages of newspapers? Did the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) not applaud the judgment on the pages of newspapers? Is the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) not aware of the special position given to the press in Sections 22 and 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999? Unfortunately, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is not given such a pride of place like the press in our Constitution.

Thirdly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) reiterated its duty to defend the honour and dignity of the Bar and the Bench when both are assailed or attacked. Well said! But where was the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Monday, 5th February, 2007 at the Federal High Court, Abuja when an accused person frontally abused vehemently and threatened without mincing words to kill the Judge and members of his family? All the newspapers published the unsavoury event the following day throughout Nigeria. Since then, all the professed fighting spirit of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to defend and protect the Bench has frozen into a disgraceful stupor and inexplicable inertia. What a shame!

At this stage, it will amount to a waste of my precious medical time here in London to respond to other worthless aspects of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) reaction to my criticism of the decision of the Court of Appeal which I firmly consider to be constitutionally wrong, legally untenable, technically illogical and politically dangerous. And the National Officers of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) can continue to fret and fume in consequence thereof.

CHIEF GANI FAWEHINMI LLD, SAN
London
Thursday, March 1, 2007