EBF’s Adoption Policy: OCJ Okocha Clears the Air
Chief Chukwujinka Onueze Joe Okocha, MFR, SAN (or OCJ, as he is fondly called by his teeming admirers across and beyond the shores of Nigeria) is a one-time President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and an active member of the International Bar Association (IBA). In a recent conversation with the editor of Newswire Law & Events Magazine, the legal titan expressed his views on matters pertaining to the running of the NBA, the adoption policy of the Eastern Bar Forum (EBF) and emergence of the NBA’s zoning system. Excerpts:
NEWSWIRE: It has been said that you, along with other senior lawyers such as Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN and Olisa Agbakoba SAN are trying to bring together the regions via the zoning system. Was that your intension? >>>OCJ: When I ran to be President of the NBA in 1999 – 2000, the elders of the Bar, including some of who have now passed on people like Chief Bamdele Aiku in Ibadan, Chief Adigun Ogunseyitan in Lagos, Clement Akpamgbo SAN from Enugu Branch, Philip Umeadi, SAN from Onitsha Branch, among others, including some Bar leaders from the North decried the acrimony amongst the various regions; we said the NBA no longer begins and ends in Lagos and Ibadan; therefore we must democratize. And every zone should be allowed to produce the president and other officers, and that was how we came up with the zoning arrangement. Then we formed the three fora; the Eastern Bar Forum, the Western Bar Forum and the Northern Bar Forum. Of course, in the West they had some difficulties because some people were trying to marginalize others by claiming it was Egbe Amofin (i.e. Yoruba Lawyers). But we said the three fora we’ve known in the past have always been East, West and the North – along the lines of the old regions before Nigeria was divided into states. So, when I ran in 2000, they said “leave it for the East.” I could remember in the 1998 NBA Presidential race, the East and the West were pitted against each other, and then three of us; myself, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN and Chief Ezeofor all came from the East, ran against Chief T.J.O. Okpoko, SAN from the West. Because we are not able to put our house together (Eastern candidates) we lost and Okpoko who was the sole candidate from the West got the slot.
Since then we’ve been operating an informal zoning arrangement. Note further that Olisa Agbakoba, SAN as NBA President was the one who wanted a more ‘broad based feature’ in our elections, which he described as ‘inclusiveness’. We thought we should include people from these areas and let them have this slot. That was how it went on until they now say they amended the constitution and now say something about zones. We never intended it to be that kind of arrangement. But since then we have been operating it and we would say “this year it’s the North, in two years it will go to the East, the West after that, and so forth.’ That is how it has been and it has worked for us.
Then why are the Akwa-Cross (AkwaIbom / Cross River States lawyers) crying marginalization? >>>For us in the Eastern Bar Forum which is perhaps the most cohesive forum, we have always been united. So when you say there is problem or the Akwa-Cross people are saying they’ve been marginalized, that is not correct. I was not at the meeting they held, but I know that people from Uyo, people from A/Ibom, people from branches in Cross River State were also present there. We in the East have our own internal arrangements; we have two broad zones, the South East which is dominated by core Igbos, and the South-South which is dominated by the minorities. We have that arrangement that when it comes to us; Rivers, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom and Bayelsa we’ll take it. The next time when it comes to the core Igbos we allow the people of Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia and Enugu state to take it. So this time around it is now the turn of the East to produce the President and we would allow the core Igbos to take it. The EBF like I said has been very cohesive. We try and put our house together and agree on whom we would put forward as our candidates. Before we even get to that, the candidates themselves have to come and sign an undertaking to be loyal and abide with the decisions we take. And that is what I believe happened.
Is the adoption of Arthur Obi-Okafor, SAN as the Presidential candidate of the forthcoming NBA 2018 Elections a proper or usual practice of the EBF? >>>Before an election actually starts and nominations are called for, people indicate interest. This is the point we always say that we have not started campaigning but people are already sensitizing others to indicate interest, and this is what I think we do for as long as I can remember. And this is what was done in this particular occasion. I heard that of all the people that expressed interest in running, only one person (Arthur Obi Okafor) picked up the commitment form from the zone to that effect, and said I am ready to abide by your rules and regulations. So many others also picked the form for different positions; people from Anambra, Imo, Akwa-Ibom and the rest. So I don’t know why anybody should be telling you or making this story about a problem with the EBF; no, there is no such problem. Election day is still far off, nominations have not been called for by the NBA, the adopted candidate may turn round tomorrow and say he’s not going to pick a nomination from the NBA. We don’t even know whether any of them is qualified because it’s the NBA Electoral Committee that will confirm the eligibility of candidates who finally picked nominations forms. But I think we are free to decide what we want to do at the EBF and how we want to manage this year’s election.
In the aftermath of the adoption by the EBF how do you propose to resolve lingering issues and grievances from other parties? >>> The EBF will meet again soon and examine all complaints that may arise. We’ll examine what the person is complaining about and get to the root of it to know whether anybody was cheated in the process or can claim that he had been marginalized in the whole process. But we haven’t reached that stage.
How best can the EBF sell her Adopted Candidate for maximum support from other regions? >>> What happens is that, when we finally reach a situation when we have adopted all our candidates, other forums like the Western and Northern Bar Fora may be interested in particular offices. That is when the horse-trading comes into play. Because we usually say, you people are producing the president.Who have you selected? And we’ll get them to support our candidate. What we are doing is merely internal, democracy dictates that anybody from the North or the West can still decide they want to be president. And it did happen as you know very well, as recently as in the last election when 4 or 5 candidates emerged from the West. There was a time when it was zoned to the North, but somebody from the East emerged and declared his candidacy. There was a time when it was zoned to the West and somebody from the East came out. You cannot stop anybody from exercising his fundamental we’ll look at the slate and then agree because we know that all the candidates or elected officers ought not to come from one zone. We’ll say, let us give the West the Vice-President 1, the North Vice-President 2, then the East Vice-President 3, and then go down the slate like that, so that we’d have a reasonable measure of spread, in the spirit of our policy on zoning and inclusion.
What about the allegation that the EBF is more of an Igbo Bar Forum? >>> It is not! I am an Ikwerre man. Some people might tell you tomorrow that OCJ is an Igboman. I am an Ikwerre man. I come from Rivers State. Ikwerre is an ethnic nationality. I don’t care what the historians tell you, all of us came from somewhere, migrated from somewhere to go and live somewhere. There are Igbos in Rivers State, in Delta State, in Benue State, and in Lagos for that matter, because Lagos is now a cosmopolitan environment. Olisa Agbakoba SAN is an Igboman but has always lived and worked in Lagos. That is his base as a lawyer. Augustine Alegeh SAN is from Edo state, but he has offices in Abuja, Benin and Lagos. Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN is a Yorubaman, he comes from Ekiti State but was NBA Chairman in Ilorin, Kwara State. He was very active in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja where he has offices. Chief Bayo Ojo SAN comes from Kogi State but he was based in Ilorin and has offices in Abuja and in Lagos. So let us not tribalize it; the EBF is not an Igbo Forum at all. Nobody in Bayelsa State is an Igboman; they are all Ijaw people, but they are in EBF. The people from Uyo, Ikot-Ekpene, Ogoja, Calabar, Eket are not Igbo people, but are all part of the EBF. So anybody telling you about an Igbo Bar Forum is not being honest or truthful.
Some are of the opinion that the present NBA administration (under A. B. Mahmud, SAN) lacks dynamism and concrete accomplishment. What is your assessment? >>> We just concluded a conference in Lagos, which was adjudged one of the best conferences in the history of the NBA. So, anybody saying this administration lacks dynamism is just talking balderdash. In any case, it is too early in the day to make this kind of judgment, because AB Mahmud’s administration will be judged AFTER his tenure. You know he has a ‘Seven Point Agenda’; it is after two years that you will check whether he was able to achieve what he set out for himself and his team. People should wait for him to finish his mandate before talking about his administration lacking dynamism and so forth.
Chief OCJ Okocha, MFR, SAN, JP, DSSRS is a one-time President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
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