Eastern Bar Forum Adopts Okafor for NBA President

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Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN
Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN
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Eastern Bar Forum Adopts Okafor for NBA President

Amid the cheerful backslapping and camaraderie, it was a day of resolute negotiations as delegates from the forty-three branches of the Eastern Bar Forum (EBF) gathered in the Conference Hall of the new NBA House in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for the first quarterly meeting of the Forum.

EBF Adopted Candidates
EBF Adopted Candidates

This is usually a time to come together as a family, measure progress made in specific areas since the last gathering of this kind, and to chart a course for the future. NEWSWIRE Law & Events Magazine correspondent reports from Port Harcourt that this particular meeting, however, had an added edge to it: its other purpose, in addition to the above-mentioned objectives, was to present a unified electoral platform ahead of this year’s elections into national offices of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) – and more specifically, to endorse (some would say, adopt) consensus candidates for these positions, including the Presidency, which has been zoned to the Eastern Bar Forum.

For this reason, the importance of this quarterly meeting resonated beyond the shores of the East – as could be seen from the attendance of representatives of branches and zonal Forums from all other regions of Nigeria. The occasion was graced by the Executive Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency, Barrister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON; representatives of both the state deputy-governor and Chief Judge; the attorney-general and commissioner for justice, Mr. Emmanuel Aguma, SAN; the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Gabriel Nwankwo; the first and second vice-presidents of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), who ably represented the NBA President, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmud; the governor of the Eastern Bar Forum, H. E. Arthur E. Chukwu, Esq. among others, as well as aspirants to various offices in the NBA – notably Chief Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN.

In his welcome address, the chairman of the Port Harcourt branch of the NBA, Omubo Victor Frank- Briggs, Esq. decried the EBF’s seeming silence and acquiescence in the face of the monstrous events that have caused untold hardship to many families and threatened to tear apart the fragile fabric of our nation. If left unchecked, he warned, this evil would rise up and consume us all. He expressed the hope that the EBF – and by extension, the NBA – would live up to its creed as a bulwark against social and economic injustice, and an agent of change.

The Governor of the EBF, Chief Arthur Chukwu, Esq. also delivered a welcome address in which he praised the vision and magnanimity of Gov. Wike for his staunch support for the Bar in particular, and the rule of law in general. The Governor’s reputation as ‘Mr. Projects,’ he said, was matched by his equally well-earned reputation as Nigeria’s most human rights-friendly governor, and a staunch defender of the peace, welfare and security of Rivers State and Nigeria in general. Chief Chukwu also paid tribute to the past NBA Presidents, Chief OCJ Okocha, SAN, and Chief Okey Wali, SAN, among others, for their support for the Eastern Bar.

Goodwill messages came from Chief Okey Wali, SAN; Mr. Emmanuel Aguma, SAN; the state Chief Judge; and others.

In his own message declaring the meeting open, Gov. Nyesom Wike, CON, touched on most of the burning issues in the country today, and charged the EBF and the NBA to step up to their responsibility as a defender of the nation’s political and economic sanity. The recent spate of killings by armed Fulani herdsmen, Wike added, brought the urgent need for a restructuring of the Nigerian polity into sharper relief. The governor made a passionate call for the unity of the Eastern Bar, stressing that lack of such unity made the Bar a tool for the enemies of this country and those determined to keep her in perpetual bondage.

The business end of the quarterly meeting came with the reading of a report by the screening committee saddling with assessing the merits of candidates who seek the Forum’s official endorsement for their aspirations. While some gained such endorsement automatically by virtue of being unopposed, others gained it – at the expense of other interested persons – via a vote among the leadership of the Forum. On the race for the Presidency, the committee threw its weight behind the candidature of Chief Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN following a meeting to review the relative merits of the respective candidacies of the presidential aspirants at the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt. The announcement of Okafor’s adoption was greeted with loud acclamation and expressions of approval across the venue of the quarterly meeting, as representatives of other zones of the NBA – North, Southwest, Middle Belt, Midwest, etc – as well as leaders of over 50 individual branches took turns to affirm their support and loyalty to the EBF in this regard – with some of them extolling the virtues of Chief Okafor, SAN, as well as his total commitment to the enhancement of the fortunes and profile of the Nigerian Bar, and the Eastern Bar in particular.

In separate conversations with the correspondent of the NEWSWIRE magazine in Port Harcourt, these non-EBF representatives – such as Ranti Ajeleti, Esq., the secretary of Egbe Amofin, and a lawyer from Effurun, Warri branch in Delta State (who spoke on condition of anonymity) described the process by which Chief Okafor, SAN was adopted as free, fair and transparent, disclosing that the failure of a number of the other candidates to submit themselves for screening (coupled in some cases with their less-than-robust engagement with the Eastern Bar in the past) weakened their cases considerably.

While protests at the outcome of these meetings are legitimate, Ajeleti and others said, they must not be allowed to degenerate into recriminations and other activities and attitudes that might harm the NBA, and the EBF in particular.  They commended the members of the EBF for their calmness and cooperation throughout the adoption process.

The day’s programme ended with a grand dinner for EBF members, their guests and observers, also held at the NBA House, during which whatever residual bad feelings may have lingered during the day, were quickly forgotten against the backdrop of fine dining and wining, enriching conversations amongst old and new friends, and good music from a variety of genres and periods, thrilled all presents

See photos below:

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