2018 Lagos NBA Law Week Ends in a Blaze of Glory
Friday, the final day of the 2018 NBA Lagos branch Law Week was a mixture of gravity and fun as participants picked on the rest of the intellectual heavy lifting they left off on Thursday – before unwinding with serious entertainment that lasted way into the night.
NEWSWIRE Law & Events magazine correspondent in Lagos reports that the resumption of technical sessions on Friday opened with a session titled, ‘A Dialogue with Judges on Labour Issues.’ Anchored by Osaro Eghobamien, SAN, who is one of the founding partners of Perchstone & Graeys, the discussion panel consisted of the Presiding Judge of the federal court of appeal in the Lagos division, Hon. Justice M. L. Garba; and Hon. Justice C. S. Ogbuanya of the National Industrial Court, also in Lagos. Also on the panel were Clara Bot-Mang, a human resources consultant with General Electric; and Mr. R. A. Lawal-Rabbana, SAN, a Life Bencher and a former general-secretary of the NBA. In recent years – and indeed the last few months – the relationship between the bar and the bench has undergone a gradual evolution. The result has been a push and a pull between the two branches of the law, especially as regards the impact of judicial decisions or interpretations of government policy. Lawyers who are concerned about the effect of these decisions and policies on their clients, have tended to see judges as their nemeses on one hand, or their saviors on the other. The session helped to clarify some of the grey areas that have existed for some time.
The theme of Friday’s second session was ‘The Rainmaker Lawyer,’ and it was moderated by Mrs. Funke Adekoya, SAN, a partner at the law firm of Aelex. Her discussion panel comprised of a sterling faculty of discussants such as Mr. Gbenga Oyebode, chairman of the law firm of Aluko & Oyebode and a former chair of the NBA’s Section on Business Law (SBL); another former SBL chair, Mr. Asue Ighodalo, who is a founding partner of Banwo & Ighodalo, a foremost commercial law firm in Nigeria; Mr. Kamal Shah, a leading international arbitration practitioner; and Mrs. Mfon E. Usoro, who is a managing partner at Paul Usoro & Co.
This session dealt with the intricacies and vagaries of the market from the perspectives of commercial lawyers and the firms they work with. Though they differed on some of the approaches that needed to be adopted to surmount those challenges, panelists were in agreement on the causes and effects of these challenges, which they attributed to some of the peculiarities of the Nigerian business environment – including its regulatory environment. They also agreed that if there was any time innovative solutions were needed in the sub-sector, it was now.
According to NEWSWIRE’s correspondent, the issue of taxation in Nigeria – and the conversation around, which is become more animated with every passing day – was the subject of Friday’s discussion session, and the penultimate in the day’s programme of technical sessions. Moderated by the lawyer and tax expert Mr. Edem Andah, who leads the tax practice at the law firm of Olaniwun Ajayi LP, the equally distinguished panel had on it one of Nigeria’s leading tax practitioners, Mr. Theophilus Emuwa; the chairman of the Lagos branch of the NBA, Mr. Chukwuka Ikwuazom, who also heads the tax practice at Aluko & Oyebode; Mr. Ajibola Olomola, a Partner at KMPG Nigeria, who boasts considerable post-call to bar experience; and Mr. Moshood Olajide, a tax and regulations partner at PriceWaterCoopers (PwC). The fourth scheduled panelist, Mr. Ike Odume, a director at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was unavoidably absent. In his absence, the panelists discussed the opportunities open to lawyers wishing to enter into the ‘esoteric field’ (in the words of Mr. Andah) of tax, or law firms considering whether or not to open a tax practice. According to Ikwuazom, tax was more about law, and logic, than it was about math and numbers. And who better to interpret relevant laws (and offer tax advice to individual or corporate clients), he asked rhetorically, than lawyers? The trick in having a tax practice, he added, was not necessarily to bone up on math, but to acquire relevant skills and competences in tax reporting, management and advisory, etc, as currently being offered by bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Taxation in Nigeria (CITN).
Ikwuazom’s views on opportunities were expanded upon by Emuwa and Olajide, who insisted that it was impossible to have tax regulatory or advisory services without lawyers – especially with Nigeria’s poor tax-to-GDP profile (which currently stands at a meager 6%.
The panelists also dwelt at length on the thorny issue of tax evasion and compliance – and government’s efforts to sanction the former and incentivize the latter. In the views of some of the panelists, overt coercion or threats have not turned the tide towards compliance, and that more subtle means must now be considered. Governments also, they said, must show that the taxes they collect are being to good use on behalf of taxpayers. But Mr. Olomola of the KPWG insisted that jurisdictions such as the UK have actually put in place a whole slew of innovative sanctions and other measures which are beginning to bear fruit. He predicted an era of greater cooperation among sovereign jurisdictions (including so-called ‘tax havens’) in harmonizing tax laws, sharing confidential information and generally chipping away at certain common-law applications such as the presumption of innocence until otherwise proven, etc.
The final session of the programme (which, in hindsight, many agreed should have been the first) was the discussion on ‘Health, Work & Life Balance.’ It was moderated with his usual flair and authority by Prof. Fabian Ajogwu, SAN, who teaches corporate governance in the Lagos Business School. He was joined on stage by Mrs. Sandra Oyewole, a partner at the law firm of Olajide Oyewole LLP; Dr. Tagbo Azubike of the Lagoon Hospital, Lagos; Dr. Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, a lecturer at the Babcock School of Law and Security Studies and an expert in health law and policy; and Dr. Tokunbo Shitta-Bey, an accomplished family physician and health academic.
The panelists agreed that it vital that lawyers did not win in one aspect of their personal and professional lives (career advancement and higher incomes) at the expense of their physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing. In addition to the accepted definitions of health, Mrs. Oyewole, in her contribution, added the dimension of ‘social wellbeing’ in the sense of being responsible for one another’s welfare. She lamented the pervasive presence of work-related information and activities such as smart phones and apps in our waking hour – as the result of which, she said, our brains are in a constant state of frenzy trying to process both vital and trivial information all the time.
Disclosing that only 20% of Nigerians are fully ‘normal,’ health-wise, Dr. Shitta-Bey decried a number of practices such as the eating habits of Nigerians (‘we fry everything’, he said); the lack of a functional health-care system; and the fact that mental health issues – plus a growing diabetes epidemic – are not being taken seriously enough in this country. Dr. Shitta-Bey advised each person in the room to form a relationship with a healthcare professional and stick with them for as long as possible – a view endorsed by Dr. Tagbo Azubike, who reiterated the importance of diet, exercise, sleep and downtime activities in enhancing good health.
In her contributions, Dr. Onyemelukwu called for firm policies around corporate responsibility for the health of employees. In particular, she called for an improvement in the maternity leave policy of corporate organizations.
Questions and comments from the floor also centered on the following:
- The practice by some companies to impose ‘pregnancy penalties’ on female employees;
- Workplace violence (including verbal abuse) and its effect on health;
- The cost of regular medical checks;
- The causes of swellings on knees and joints, especially in relatively young persons; and
- The need for ‘positive discrimination’ towards pregnant employees and new fathers (i.e. paternity leave).
In summation, the panel chair called for NBA-wide interventions such as a Helpline, and partnerships with non-legal organizations such as the Nigerian Medical Association in designing health-awareness activities, etc. to curb the growing incidences of breakdowns and sudden deaths among lawyers.
The vote of thanks by Yemi Akangbe of the Law Week Planning Committee brought the sessions to a close, as the participants adjourned to return later in the evening for the ‘Ankara Rave’ Closing Party designed to bring the 2018 Law Week Programme of the Lagos branch of the NBA to a close.
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