As the countdown to the 2024 elections in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is set to begin in earnest, the Electoral Committee of the Association ( ECNBA) has opened nomination envelopes designed to clarify modalities for the benefit of the aspirants.
NEWSWIRE Law & Events magazine’s correspondent reports that this was on the occasion of the just-concluded press conference marking the formal opening of nomination envelopes for candidates aspiring to be elected as national officers of the NBA, as well as members of the Association’s General Council.
The press conference, which took place on Monday, April 15th at the ECNBA Secretariat in Abuja, the Nigerian federal capital, was graced by the full complement of ECNBA members, as well as the prospective candidates (or their authorized representatives), lawyers, observers and invited guests.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the ECNBA, Mr. Oluwaseun Abimbola, SAN, said that the procedure adopted for the said opening of envelopes was to unseal and bring out documents in no particular order, mention the name of the respective applicants in turn, then go through the contents of the envelope and mark it against a checklist. Once that was done, he went on to say, the envelopes (along with the processed checklist) are repacked and set aside for screening at a later date. The ECNBA Chairman also hastened to make it clear that, rather being an occasion to screen candidates, the exercise was simply to open and verify the submissions.
NEWSWIRE’s correspondent reports that following Abimbola’s briefing, the formal opening of the received nominations took place. It was conducted by a member of the committee, Abdullahi Yahya, SAN.
The event, which marks a significant milestone in the NBA’s election process, sets the stage for the forthcoming elections with the full assurance of transparency and accountability in the nomination process.
In a related development, the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) has warned candidates against jumping the gun in their eagerness to burst into the race for national offices later in the year, assuring all concerned parties of the committee members’ singular passion and resolve to conduct a free and fair elections, come July, 2024.
The Committee, he disclosed, received about fifty Expression of Interest applications for the various offices, including the General Council of the Bar.
On the modalities of voting and the deployment of attendant security measures, he stated that the Committee’s intention was to ensure that each candidate was represented in a transparent manner.
On the lifting of the ban on political activities (including on campaigns), Abimbola warned against any departure from the laid-down regulations as far as the election time-frame. “Until an aspirant is put out as a candidate,” he said, ” she/he cannot campaign.” In that regard, he added, the Committee was answerable to the Association’s Constitution and therefore would not hesitate to disqualify anyone who flouted its directives.
