A divergence of opinions has occurred between the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and one of its specialized sections, the Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL) on the scope of the Section’s power to influence certain outcomes – vis a viz those of the umbrella body (the NBA) as enshrined in the Association’s Constitution.
According to NEWSWIRE Law and Events magazine’s correspondent in Lagos, this divergence of opinions was expressed in a series of correspondences between the President of the NBA, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, and the Chairman of SPIDEL, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins, in which the NBA President protested what he saw as the ‘usurpation’ by SPIDEL of certain powers vested solely in the umbrella body.
SPIDEL’s responses to the NBA President’s charges are contained in a letter dated February 9, 2024, which was made available to NEWSWIRE magazine .
At issue, according to the correspondence, are SPIDEL’s interventions in a number of high-profile matters of public interest around the country, such as the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal bribery allegations; investigations into sexual assault allegations against the now-suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar; investigations into allegations by Hon. Justice Flora Azinge of bribery by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria; SPIDEL’s intervention into the impasse occasioned by the non-swearing in of 8 Judges by the Edo State government; SPIDEL’s lawsuit against the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and two others; among many others.
Contrary to the NBA’s charge of usurpation of powers, the SPIDEL response added, the Section has adhered strictly to its mandate as spelt out in the relevant provisions of the NBA Constitution – among them Section 17 (1) thereof.
It was, rather, the NBA leadership and certain Committees of the Association, the letter stated, that have veered into the work of the Section – in contravention of relevant laws.
SPIDEL also disputed the notion that it needed the ‘permission’ or ‘approval’ of the NBA President before embarking on interventions such as the above – stating, instead, that the Section was mandated to answer only to the Association’s National Executive Council as a whole – rather than to any individual officer, including the President.
The SPIDEL statement cited numerous instances of the NBA leadership’s non-response to its requests for urgent action on a number of contentious public-interest matters across the nation – and even the umbrella body’s moves to bar such actions beforehand, describing them as a negation of the Section’s (and the Association’s) core mandate and the ideals of their respective founding fathers.
In view of the foregoing, therefore, the SPIDEL letter declared the NBA’s action in ‘banning’ the Section’s activities as null and void. Complying with such a ban, it said, would be a contravention of the NBA Constitution, which grants the Section the powers to conduct said activities.
Consequently, the SPIDEL added, these activities would continue – even as the Section continues to work with the NBA President toward advancing the aims and objections of the Association.
Below is the attached document
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