Welcome!

This is NOT an official thread for the Annual General Conference. I just noticed that things have been very quiet from the organizers and thought I should create this thread.

Are you going for the event? kindly help by sharing updates here.

This is to notify you of today's activities (Sunday, August 21, 2016) as follows;

1. Thanksgiving Service at Christ Church, Opposite Port Harcourt Mall at 10 am.

2. Pre-Conference NEC at the Chief Judge's Ceremonial Court, High Court, Port Harcourt from 1pm - 3pm.

3. Welcome Cocktail at the Chief Judge's Ceremonial Court, High Court, Port Harcourt from 3pm - 4:30pm.

4. Opening Ceremony at the Main Auditorium, Civic Centre from 5pm - 7pm.

5. Opening of Friendship Centre and Presidents' Night with Lawyers (featuring Timaya) at the Friendship Centre, Civic Centre from 7:30pm till late

Opening Ceremony live at the Civic Centre, Port Harcourt. Rivers State Gverni

Opening Ceremony live at the Civic Centre, Port Harcourt. Rivers and Sokoto State Governors in attendance.

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF SHOWCASE SESSION

(MONDAY, August 22, 2016).



GROWING NIGERIA'S ECONOMY: BEYOND OIL AND GAS


SESSION CHAIR - Olisa Agbakoba SAN


SPEAKERS - 

1. Hon. Bawa Bwari Abubakar (Hon. Minister of State, Solid Minerals Development); 

2. Christopher Nonyelum Okeke

3. Richard Mofe-Damijo (Fmr. Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Delta State);

4. Chief David Serena Dokubo Spiff (Secretary, Bayelsa State Governement)

5. Hon. Emmanuel C. Aguma SAN (Hon. Attorney General of Rivers State)


Olisa Agbakoba started the plenary by bringing the issue to the table of discussion before the various panelist and they sequentially in their perspectives made the following analysis.


HON. BAWA BWARI ABUBAKAR


Being a former Senator, he recalled his experience while at the national assembly and also made salient issues with respect to the issue, namely;

1. that demoracy and development is a gradual process


2. that Nigeria is not representing true democracy, in the sense that the electorates will only vote candidates presented by the parties whether good or bad


3. that people lobby to voted in the National Assembly


4. that in the past, mining, solid minerals were abandoned for the oil sector, and now that the world price of oil has fallen, solid minerals are now being looked into.


5. more so, concerning the indigenisation programme (which was about employing or making use of people that had the technical know how) left Nigeria


6. that we have more than 44 minerals in the country; different local governments have specific solid minerals yet Nigeria is not seen as a mining nation but more focused on oil and gas. What needs to be done now is to attract investors for solid minerals. For instance, if we can think properly on the production of steel, we can make N6 Trillion in a year from that.


A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NIGER DELTA

He was of the view that Nigeria should not depend solely on oil production in order to develop the country (other sectors need to be focused on). He added that there are key sectors the country should look into that can astronomically develop the country if much infrastructures and compliance are put in place, such as Nollywood and Tax.


Nollywood, as he stated, adds up to more than 5% to the GDP of the economy, while for tax gathering; he mentioned that there should be due compliance for payment of tax from private companies and individuals.


However Mr. Agbakoba was of the view that the political structures have not allowed these ways to be explored. He added that our politicians since the '60s have slow paced the growth of the country. For instance, he mentioned his disappointment towards the CBN's 14% lending rate (an entrepreneur will not have the stomach to seek loan hence their dependence on oil can not be avoided); "all politicians know how to do is swerving from one political party to another because these parties have no ideologies."


Mr. Agbakoba later threw a question at the Attorney General of Rivers State on what happens to the 13% of the oil money allocated to the Niger Delta region.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF RIVERS STATE

He stated that right from the onset, Niger Delta has been developing even without the 13%; that asides Lagos state, Niger Delta has the best roads, schools and infrastructures, and even built the Civic Centre in 1973 long before the country’s dependence on oil.


He added that the question posed to him only elaborates the impression that the citizenry depends on oil. He made mention of commercial hubs like Ariaria market in Abia, Ochancha market of Onitsha and urged people to wonder how businesses boom there without the thoughts of oil.


He urged everyone to stop bothering about how the 13% oil money is spent but to look at how the infrastructures are managed and the negative effects of oil in the states (it has led to acid rain, bad water and even cancer has increased at recent times due to the effect of gas flaring).


In response to Mr. Agbakoba’s question, Hon. Bwari was of the view that whatever politicians do is a true reflection from the residue of the society. In other words, it is the way we see ourselves that affects us as a nation (as rephrased by him). He advised that we have to change the way we do things. "Things could get worse," he added that the infrastructures in the country needs to be well managed.


CHIEF DAVID SPIFF


He was of the view that the country must exercise retrospective glances to check where we got it wrong so that we can ameliorate where we got it wrong. He further stated that we must go to the fundamentals and entrench the rule of law on issues appertaining to Bayelsa state; he informed that 30% of oil and 40% of the gas in Nigeria is produced in Bayelsa but yet (as used by him) the state is adjudged"not fit to produce one of the 44 ambassadors in this country, ambassadors whose income is generated from the income of their under bellies."


YUNUS USMAN USTAZ SAN

He was of the view that diversification is not an issue but the problem is whether we would not go back to a position worse than this. He beckoned on the politicians to bring back the looted money.


MR. CHRIS OKEKE

  
He particularly made a clarion call for encouragement and growth of the agricultural sector and he urged Nigerians to be innovative and not just talk about diversification.


MR ZIK

He urged our leaders to stop the ‘corruption’ mantra and start to profess positive things for and about the country for no investor will be ready to invest in a corrupt society.


YUSUF ALI


He stated that impunity should not be encouraged and the rule of law should be precise and not be treated as the rule of convenience (a leader should not set the law for his selfish interest) further more he concluded that Nigerian leaders are bent on being loyal to those that sponsored them and this must stop for the the economy to develop.



Culled from Law pavilion mail update

LawPavilion (GIT Limited), 16, Samuel Awoniyi Street, Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos 100211


Events for today

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF SHOWCASE SESSION
(TUESDAY, August 23, 2016).


STATE OF ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN NIGERIA: ACTION NO MORE WORDS

SESSION CHAIR - Hon. Justice Ishaq Bello, Chief Judge FCT High Court

SPEAKERS -
1. Sanni Garun Garbas, Attorney General of Jigawa State
2. Solomon Arase, Fmr. Inspector General of Police
3. Dr. Ifediora Orakwe, Comptroller-General of Prisons
4. Chukwuma Machukwu-Ume SAN
5. Sen. Umaru David, Chairman, Senate Committee on Justice and Human Right
6. Chief Magistrate Victoria Isiguzo

HON. CHIEF JUDGE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY

The Chief Judge of the FCT introduced the speakers and reminded everyone in the plenary session that they are on a course for action and not mere words regarding administration of criminal justice in Nigeria. According to him, successful regimes have taken steps towards reforming various systems in this country and the criminal justice system is not an exemption to these reforms. In 2015, the bill for the Administration of Criminal Justice Act was passed into law and this has been tagged to be revolutionary, however, there are various elements which tend to be draw backs to the possibility of best practices in administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, hence the discourse.

MR. OLAWALE

According to him, since 1999, there were no fewer than 19 committees that have been set up to review the state of our criminal systems but all the efforts proved fruitless and were like an innocuous mamba because they led to nothing; however, during the administration of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, there has been a great reform which led to the enactment of the Administration of Criminal Justice ACT (ACJA). He praised the latest development emanating from the enactment of the Act, especially in the area of anti-graft war and security, however, he criticized the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria with regards to certain fundamental areas. In summary, he stressed the following exhaustively;

1. That the presumption of innocence needs to be strictly complied to

2. That the judiciary has some scrutiny to do in the area of appointment of competent judges and justices and the propriety of judgments (lately there have been various conflicting decisions from court of co-ordinate jurisdiction)

3. That the issue of Federal or State police is not the basic problem of Nigeria, rather Nigerians need an effective Nigerian Police Force that serve the interest of Nigerians

4. The prison institution is decaying as most of the prisons are filled with inmates who have not been convicted but are awaiting trial (hence jail break is the direct consequence of prison congestion)

5. That our Prison Act needs a reform

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF JIGAWA STATE

According to him, The Administration of Criminal Justice in Nigeria is a very difficult exercise because AG of States cannot prosecute federal offences that occurs in their State. He urged that the AG Federation should give an automatic fiat to AG of State to prosecute all federal offences emanating from the State.

MR. SOLOMON ARASE

He stated that the Nigerian Police Force has had series of Police reforms since the dispensation of President Olusegun Obasanjo. According to him, the 2012 Police reforms raised salient issues such as:

Privatization Capitalization Management

Here he explained that there is need for intelligent officers to adopt international best practice. In elaborating this point, he mentioned the case of Jeffrey Azuka who on the 1st of August 2009, murdered a Ghanaian in UK. On the 17th of August, he changed his identity, took his brother’s passport and came back to Nigeria. By March 2014, the metropolitan police in the UK called the FG informing the Nigerian Police about Jeffrey’s presence in Nigeria. An extradition order was given and he was sent back to the UK for trial, there he was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment.

However, in Nigeria, the case is always different; Chief Olu Falae’s kidnappers were charged on the 17th of October 2015 at the High Court in Akure and till now nothing has happened.

He stressed that there should be synergy between investigation and judicial decisions because if the people kept in prison are on the increase without any judgment, then jail break cannot be avoided.

Community Partnership between the Police and Enforcement Agencies

The police should endeavour to win the minds and trust of the people so that they can co-operate with them.

Disintegration

There should be unity and co-operation among the members of the police force irrespective of their division or grade, hence, a non-sentimental and unbiased succession policy should be put in place.

Extra-Judicial Killing

Every Police Officer should know that since they cannot produce life they have no right to take the life of anyone in unreasonable circumstances and if done they would be prosecuted and jailed with immediate effect.

In conclusion, he stated that the appointment of any police officer must be duly scrutinized and all officers must have good academic background and not just mere education background, they should have fair knowledge of the law (at least a diploma in Law), for one cannot enforce a law he knows nothing about. This is why during his tenure he formed allegiance with NBA to create orientation programmes on law related matters to Police officers and also a legal building was set up at the national level to ensure that the Police are properly trained.

DR. ORAKWE

He adopted the views of Mr. Olawale with respect to the state of Nigerian Prisons. He further explained that one of the problems pertaining to criminal justice in Nigeria is the Prison system. He stressed that the reason for this problem is not farfetched as our constitution which happens to be the grud-norm of the law in the land fails to recognize the importance of the prison institution in the country, that is why there have never been a successful reform in this part and this issue was neglected in the last modification of the constitution.
According to him, the prison is meant to be a barometer for measuring the health of the criminal justice system of a country, but in our case the issue of prison congestion arising from inmates who are awaiting trial have really made our criminal system worse (in Namibia, no one stays on awaiting trial for more than three months, the law automatically acquits you). He cited references to the Port-Harcourt Prisons which has a capacity of 804 inmates but houses 3,842 inmates out of which 3,409 are awaiting trials and no fewer than 400 are convicts. The prison is meant to be an institution that tends to guarantee public safety by separating the ‘poison from the innocent ones’, but sadly that is not quite the case.

Contributions of Dr. Orakwe

1. The prisons should be part of the constitution;
2. They should be properly funded
3. The powers of the Comptroller-General should be spelt out

COMMENTS

Yusuf Ali SAN suggested that those that want to lead should undergo the following:

1. They should undergo psychiatric test
2. They should be made to spend few days in the prison because he who knows it, feels it.

Mr Ken SAN made it known that what causes awaiting trial is the Police. The Police most times maliciously put people in custody so that they can meet up with their selfish demands for bail. Once they cannot meet up with the requirements for bail they stay in custody awaiting trial.

Prof. Utuama SAN, former Attorney General and Deputy Governor of Delta State suggested that fiat should be given to Attorney General of the State to prosecute federal offences.

A former Attorney of Ekiti State Mr. Obafemi wants action to be taken on all the suggestions made at the Conference.

Also, the Police should be conversant with the ethics and language of the state before been deployed to that state.

Lawyers should be recruited to all Security Agencies in the country.

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF SHOWCASE SESSION
(WEDNESDAY, August 2
SETTING STANDARDS: THE FUTURE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

SESSION CHAIR - T. J. O. Okpoko SAN, Past President, Nigerian Bar Association

LEAD PRESENTER - A. B. Mahmoud SAN, President-Elect, Nigerian Bar Association

SPEAKERS -
1. Dr. Koyinsola Ajayi SAN, Olaniwun Ajayi Law Practitioners
2. Muhammed Hassan Liman SAN, Hassan Liman & Co
3. Barbara Omosun, Paul Erokoro & Co
4. Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN, Onyechi Ikpeazu& Co
5. Layi Babatunde SAN, Layi Babatunde & Co
6. Andrew Odum, NBA, Asaba Branch
7. Ope Olugasa, Managing Director, GIT-LawPavilion

SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR - His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, Governor, Rivers State

The Chairman, Chief Okpoko SAN started the session by welcoming the distinguished Speakers and other Conferees and called to the mind of everyone the essentials of the topic at hand which centres on the future and development of the legal profession. In his modulation, he introduced the speakers in no particular order.

A. B. MAHMOUD SAN

He expressed his gratitude to all members of the Bar for being given the opportunity to share his thought on the topic aforementioned. He started by highlighting important sub-topics with respect to the day’s session discourse, these were;
1. The historical evolution of the legal profession
2. The current trends/challenges facing the legal profession
3. The external threats
4. The challenges facing the Nigerian Nation
5. The failure of the legal profession
6. The vision of #ABraveNewBar

The Historical Evolution of the Bar

He ran a brief chronicle on the evolution of the legal profession which dates back to the 19th century particularly in 1862 when the British introduced the court system in England. With respect to Nigeria, what could be deduced from the historical trace were;

• That the 1st indigenous Nigerian lawyer called to the English bar in 1879 was Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams

• That Court system in this country was introduced pursuant to the 1876 Supreme Court Ordinance and amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate

• That the first Faculty of Law in Nigeria was first built in the University of Ibadan

Accordingly, he stated that presently, we have 40 Law Faculties in Federal Universities, 20 in State Universities and 10 in private Universities. It is important to know that Nigeria produces 6000-7000 Lawyers annually who are trained in these tertiary institutions.

Challenges Facing the Legal Profession

The relative challenges as mentioned are:

Declining ethical and professional standard
Declining quality of legal education
Growing number of lawyers
Loss of confidence in the legal profession

External Threats
Globalization
Increasing inter-connectedness
Intrusion into the Nigerian legal market (directly and indirectly by foreign law firms) which has posed a major challenge for lawyers in the country
The obligation of Nigeria as a member of the World Trade organisation (WTO)
New technologies and New knowledge and skills
Disruptive legal innovations - Most Universities in Nigeria still do orthodox and less important courses while in other parts of the world, there are new models of legal education and courses
Disruptive legal innovation in legal services delivery
Automation
Challenges facing the Nigerian legal profession
Poverty
Corruption
Over population compared to productivity and GDP reduction
Inequality
Youth unemployment
Internal conflicts (for instance, the insurgency in the North East region, Niger-Delta clash)

Failure of the Legal order

The Nigerian Legal Profession has made huge contributions to national development but failed to achieve basic goals.

The vision of “A BRAVE NEW BAR”

He stated that the vision of the ‘brave new bar’ is basically to create a legal order that will guarantee the right to development for Nigerians. The creation of the brave new bar will be focused on key areas;

• Regulation: In the aspect of regulation, the question to be asked is whether we need a new model of regulation or whether we could modify the already existent regulation model. Thus there is need to interrogate the regulatory architecture of the legal profession to ensure that the required changes are made for the legal profession to move forward.

• Representation: Here, he stated that our focus should be on what the NBA needs to do to ensure that the legal profession is well and adequately represented. He added that the representative role of the NBA needs to be re-engineered in order to bring it up to date with new innovations.

• Public Interest: This entails the need for the NBA to remain courageous in speaking out on national issues and also having a clean judiciary. He finally advised all lawyers especially the senior lawyers to remove the notion that they can get richer in an ailing economy.

MR. OPE OLUGASA

He re-established the need for immediate adoption of ICT as the world has gone global and Nigerian lawyers ought to be attuned to modern technology devices and migrate from the tunnel of analogue modus operandi. His points are presented as follows;

• That LawPavilion is the official ICT partner of the NBA

• That by virtue of LawPavilion’s ICT services there is the introduction of the NBA mobile App available on android devices, which can be used for the following; Conference Management, Payment of Bar Fees, Download Conference Papers, Manage Conference Sessions, Questions and Polls, Capture Contact Details, Get in touch with other lawyers and much more

• He traced the history of law which dates back to the time where there was inscription of laws on tablet of stones, then to scrolls, books afterwards before the introduction of the computers

• Since inception of the computer, lawyers across the globe have tried to make legal practice easy and fast by putting those legal authorities in electronic form

• That with the invention of LawPavilion Prime, legal research and law reporting has become much easier and our judgments more predictable by the introduction of "Legal Analytics" which the product, Law Pavilion Prime is all about. Hence, it cannot be said to be overstretched that LawPavilion Prime is geared towards assisting the Bench and the Bar to meet up with the evolution of legal practice in the digital world

• That the LawPavilion Prime is launched today and is available at the LawPavilion exhibition stand in the Civic Centre

BARBARA OMOSUN

She spoke from the young lawyers’ perspective on the future of young lawyers. She stated that young lawyers need to have the consciousness to thrive in the legal world in order to stay relevant. She advised young lawyers to engage in a lot of pro-bono services required to build up the necessary experience and skills and in addition to this she encouraged the need for mentorship and support for young lawyers.

In conclusion, she stated that the graduation of lawyers need to be strictly scrutinized in order to reduce the over-population of lawyers which has posed a threat to their employments and welfare. Lastly, she was of the view that young lawyers need to be respected and well remunerated because they have needs to cater to.

LAYI BABATUNDE SAN

He stressed on the fact that our well being is based on the well-being of the society and that as legal practitioners we cannot live in isolation. He furthermore added that;

• Friendship needs to be restored in all sectors of the legal profession
• There should be synergy between the elected officials of the NBA and the people who work with them.
• The NBA officials should be accountable

MR. ANDREW ODUM

His focus was on the regulatory bodies of the legal profession and urged the NBA to help fight corruption in this profession. He made it clear that the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which spells out the ethics of the profession, needs to be highly complied with. He expressed his dissatisfaction towards the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee (LPRC) whose activities in the country cannot be boasted about.

QUESTIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
We need a department in our Association called the research and development department which should contain full time staff.
Young lawyers need job security
There should be a static vision of our bar and should not depend on the new president elected
There should be a breakdown of our regulations into manual for compliance
Pupillage is a means of slavery and should be scrapped
What about law clinics in our Law schools
Mr Layi’s reaction was that young lawyers need to be patient for he was once a young lawyer before he became a SAN.

NBA President-Elect reacted to some of the contributions as he stated that there are very good law clinics in our schools but they need to be improved and well equipped. He also explained that the vision of a brand new bar is not set to upturn the vision of the NBA but it is the vision of his campaign which tends to drive his ideas to the mind’s eyes of all legal colleagues.

NBA 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE: HIGHLIGHTS OF PARALLEL SESSION - VIP HALL, CIVIC CENTRE
(WEDNESDAY, August 24, 2016).


A CONVERSATION WITH THE CONTROLLER-GENERAL OF PRISONS

LEAD PRESENTER - Alhaji Jafaru Ahmed, Controller-General Nigerian Prisons Service

SESSION CO-CHAIRS -

1. Hon. Justice Adamu Turaki, Federal High Court, Abeokuta
2. Chief Honourable B. M. Wifa, B.M. Wifa Chambers

SPEAKERS -
1. Tony Ojukwu, National Human Rights Commission
2. Uju Agomoh, Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action
3. Theresa Eghe-Abe, NBA Benin Branch
4. Nathaniel Ngwu, Legal Resources Consortium

The comptroller General of Nigeria Prisons was duly represented by Dr. Ifediora Orakwe; while Hon. Justice Adamu Turaki was duly represented by Mr Ibrahim Mukhtar.

The session began with a presentation by Chief Hon. B.M wifa, he gave his introductory remarks and called the representative of the Controller General of Prisons to make his presentation.

DR. IFEDIORA ORAKWE

Dr. Orakwe gave his presentation on the nitty-gritty of the Nigeria Criminal Justice of Nigeria. He began by speaking on the inevitability of crime in every society. According to him imperfection in the society makes crime inevitable but the defence between one society and another is not on the quantum of crime committed but the way and manner the crime is handled.

He stressed the fact there is an inter relationship between the police that effects the arrest, the judiciary and the prisons as they all make up the criminal Justice system.

When convicts are brought into the prisons they are classified and subjected to the various treatments for their reforms.

He stated that in the prisons there are so many accused awaiting trials. He stressed on the need for classification in the prison system e.g minor, Major and provincial.

Another challenge faced by the prisons is congestion, so many awaiting trial. He concluded by stating that the major role of lawyers is to ensure that awaiting trial inmates are not kept in the prisons. He also stated that it bestows on the Bar and Bench to champion the restoration of the criminal justice system so that we can have sanity in the society.

MRS. UJU AGOMOH

She began by stating that there was a time we did not have prisons in the African Criminal Justice System. She took our minds to the Rwandan Society where the “Gachacha system” was employed. She explained that it aided the fastracking of prisoners who had pleaded guilty and within 3 years the Rwandan society was able to reduce the number of awaiting trial inmates drastically.

She stressed the fact that the cost of the prison system includes more than the cost of maintenance of the inmates and the prison staff.

She asked a salient question “Does everyone who commits an offence deserve to be in prison?”

She concluded by saying that the time has come where lawyers and other law enforcement agencies invest in the rehabilitation of prisoners.

THERESA EGHE-ABE

She started her presentation by lamenting on the welfare of the Nigerian prisoners. The stressed the fact that our prisons harden criminals instead of changing or rehabilitating them.

She focused on youth empowerment scheme in the country. With this scheme, youths will be gainfully employed.

She concluded by urging lawyers to take on Pro Bono cases to reduce the number of inmates in our prisons.

NATHANIEL NGWU

He stressed on the need of the Nigerian prison system. He stated the need to build up the prisons to international standards.

He also stressed the need to reform the Prison Service Commission. He condemned the phrase “imprisonment with hard labour” stating that it goes against the ethics of the prison system.

MR. IBRAHIM MUKHTAR

Representing the Hon Justice Turaki, Mr. Muhktar stated over congestion as the problem of our prison system which is caused by the police force and the Judiciary.

He condemned the nonchalant attitude of some prosecutors who prosecute their case without due diligence. He also, gave an opinion on "if corruption eliminated from criminal justice system, the system will function as it ought to.