Senator Ita Enang who represents Akwa Ibom North East in the Senate is among the 92 applicants who made an unsuccessful shot at the highly coveted rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria this year.
The SAN is conferred by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee on deserving lawyers who meet the criteria highlighted in the ‘Guidelines for the Conferment of the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, 2013’.
The application by Enang was among the 109 received this year by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee. In its final verdict, the committee said the senator’s application was frivolous and ludicrous.
Ironically, the senator was among those who put up the fiercest defence of their applications. After the LPPC dismissed his application, Enang took a bolder step of appealing to the Independent Appeal Panel for a reconsideration of his application.
For over 90 minutes, Enang was before the Independent Appeal Panel fielding questions and arguing why his “legislative advocacy” in the National Assembly should earn him the SAN rank, an LPPC l panel member told our correspondent.
“We recommended that applications like the one brought by the senator should never go beyond the first screening stage. If possible, we suggested that if possible it should not be accepted,” the source said.
“In the report, we stated that the application by the senator was frivolous and capable of making mockery of the award of SAN rank if allowed to scale through,” the source added.
The senator had applied for the SAN rank under the academic category, arguing that he had made substantial contributions to the development of the law with the “several bills” he sponsored and his “substantial contributions” on the floor of the Senate.
In addition to the bills he sponsored, he also attached to his application papers, public lectures he had delivered at various seminars.
Some of the bills included one for “an Act to amend the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act 2007 to consolidate the commission to discharge its functions effectively and for other related matters’.
Another one is ‘for an Act to Establish an independent National Assembly Budget and Research Office, which shall provide the National Assembly with objective, timely and no-partisan analysis needed for economic and budget decisions and other matters related therein’.
The bills also include “an act to provide the establishment of the Federal University of Uyo and to make comprehensive provisions for its due administration and other related matters’.
The senator also attached another bill sponsored by him, for ‘an Act to amend the Joint Admission Matriculation Board Act Cap J1 LFN 2004 to strengthen the membership of the Board and ensure the validity of results and scores obtained by candidates to gain admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria are valid within four subsequent consecutive academic sessions and for matters connected therein 2013’.
He also presented another one for ‘an Act to establish the Counseling Practitioners Council of Nigeria to conduct qualifying examinations, regulate the counseling profession and other related matters, 2014’.
He presented about 17 seminar papers and keynote addresses at various occasions.
One of the papers was titled, ‘National Assembly/NDDC relationship’, a keynote address delivered at 2014 Board and Management retreat of the Niger Delta Development Commission, which held between March 12 and 14, 2014 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Another is ‘On the implications of the proposed National Conference for nation building and constitutional development’, a paper presented on December 3, at the Law Week and Bar Dinner of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja Branch.
He also attached a paper titled, ‘Powers and roles of the National Assembly on treaties, protocols and Conventions under the 1999 Constitution’, which he delivered at the workshop on legislative practice and procedure held between December 28 and 29, 2013, in Abuja.
When contacted, the senator insisted that his application was qualified to earn him the SAN rank.
He said, “My response will simply be that it is a privilege and we are seeking to break new grounds by explaining the issue more. What are we advocating for? Is law making not part of contributing to the development of the law?
Link: http://www.punchng.com/feature/the-law-you/how-senator-wanted-to-get-san-with-bills-seminar-papers/

And imagine these are the people making laws for us in Nigeria. No shame, no nothing.

Thank you for this news however, looking at the criteria used to award SANship; one would want to ask this legitimate question:

HOW THE HELL DID GOVERNOR FASHOLA OF LAGOS GOT HIS SAN? ON WHAT GROUNDS WAS HE AWARDED SAN?

tokunboh: Thank you for this news however, looking at the criteria used to award SANship; one would want to ask this legitimate question:

HOW THE HELL DID GOVERNOR FASHOLA OF LAGOS GOT HIS SAN? ON WHAT GROUNDS WAS HE AWARDED SAN?

he got it on merit before joining pollitics.just like sen Ndoma Egba.

Hollysaint: he got it on merit before joining pollitics.just like sen Ndoma Egba.

For starters, Gov Fashola was awarded SAN in 2004, almost 3 years after he became Former Gov Tinubu's Chief of Staff.

Pardon my ignorance, Gov Fashola started practising in 1990 (or late 1989) and he became more actively involved in government when he was appointed Chief of Staff to Asiwaju Tinubu in 2002 - so we can say Fashola practised actively as a Lawyer for 12 years.

Now the question is: Is 12 years of law practice enough to get you SANship in present day Nigeria? Like I said, pardon my ignorance; I do not know how these things work but I am only just assessing it based on commonsense and information gathered on other fora.