Mazi Afam Osigwe is the immediate past General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, A former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Abuja Branch, A Notary public and a member of Body of Benchers. He is the Founder and Managing partner of Law Forte, a law firm based in Abuja. In this Second Part Exclusive and no hold barred interview, He shared with Bridget Edokwe of www.barristerNG.com, his thoughts on issues around the Nigerian Bar Association, his 2018 Presidential Ambition, His view on SAN and many other issues.



Bridget: You appear very popular in NBA particularly among Young Lawyers. How did you achieve this massive popularity?

Afam: Well, I wouldn’t know whether I am popular or not but I have done service to the Bar as Chairman of NBA Abuja Branch and as the General Secretary of NBA. I have done my little best in contributing in service to the NBA and service to lawyers. If in the course of doing these works, lawyers have a fair view of me, it is something I may not be able to do much about. The little I can say is that whatever position of responsibility I find myself in, I try to make sure that I discharge the functions of such office to the best of my ability, that I am accessible, responsive and responsible to lawyers. I try to make sure that I address complaints brought my way either through phone calls, text messages, email or whatever means and I try to be fair to all that I have dealt with. For the offices that I campaigned for, I did my best to ensure that I kept my campaign promises and I remain open to the people and I make myself highly accessible to them and I am always open to listen to their suggestions and their criticisms. If that has in any way made me popular, I am Grateful to God for that but I am not able to judge. I can only rely on what I am told and not that I can tell you that I know this personally. I have tried to do my best in all circumstance without fear or favour I always discharged my duties diligently and to justify the confidence reposed in me by the majority that gave me the votes and also the minority that did not have that confidence but still gave me room to act in such capacity after being elected. And to them, I owe gratitude for whatever I may have been able to achieve and continue to trust them that all of us will always endeavor to make for a better Nigerian Bar Association and indeed a Nigerian nation.



Bridget: There is a strong rumour mill on Social media that you will be contesting for the NBA presidency next year. What is your reaction to this?

Afam: Well, I don’t rule that out because I believe that legally, I am qualified to run for NBA President and I am consulting and since the ban on campaign has not been lifted, I will not be able to make a categorical statement but I can really say that when the ban is lifted and we are to confirm those who are running, I will likely be found amongst them, that is among those jostling to head the NBA in 2018. So to that extent, I can say that suspicion is not entirely wrong or misplaced.



Bridget: I came across an article on social media accusing you of hating and despising the revered rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. How do you respond to that?



Afam: There is a saying in my place that if you want to ask about me, don’t ask a man who hates me because he will tell you that I am dead. Those who don’t see anything good in what you do right, will manufacture a false story and go into overdrive to spread falsehood against you. In their quest to do maximum damage to you they take their insidious story to social media. They shamelessly put out their fabrication because they know that our courts are not really strong in terms of what they award as damages for defamation. People defame others without blinking an eyelid. In answering your question, I will say that as an Igbo man, if I were living in the village, I would have taken the ọzọ title and it is a title people take when they have distinguished themselves and achieved some level of excellence. And if could take that in a traditional Igbo society, the thing that is similar to it in the legal profession is the rank of Senior Advocate. Even though I am a member of the Body of Benchers, nothing will please me than to take the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. I cannot therefore hate and despise that which I aspire to. To suggest otherwise concerning me, can only emanate from a dark and mischievous mind.

In any case the allegation should not be surprising in a season of politics. Those who are not able to fault your stewardship, will only rake up mud against you. Despite the false allegations intended to distract me, I must maintain my cool. At times like this, I find comfort in the words of Mitchelle Obama that “When they go low, you go high”. People must be able to make a distinction between what I believe in concerning the leadership of the Bar and my respect for the rank of SAN. My belief which is being distorted is that going by the NBA Constitution, aspiration to the leadership at the Bar is not conditional on one being a senior advocate. In other words, senior advocate is not a sine qua non for one attaining leadership at the Bar. So whether back to the question, yes, I have reverence for the rank of SAN. Yes I hope to be a senior advocate. As soon as I meet the minimum requirements of having the number of cases, I shall be applying to be a senior advocate. I cannot condemn that which I desire. I mean it is irreconcilable, it doesn’t make sense and anybody who knows me knows that I strive for excellence both in my practice and in everything I do. One of the biggest achievements I will take at the bar is being conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate but I do not think that one must have it in order to be able to contest for leadership positions at the Bar. There has been so many presidents of the Bar who never attained that rank or who were not SAN when they were elected NBA President. There is no suggestions that they were bad Presidents because they were not Senior Advocates or they shouldn’t be because they were not senior Advocates. People should not muddle that up so that they will give a dog a bad name to hang it. But I know that lawyers are discerning and they know when people sell them a lie. And this is an entirely falsehood fabricated from the figment of the imagination of whoever wrote that. Whose name I would not want to mention because I don’t think it is important. They are actually trying to distract us from issues at hand. But we will remain focused.



Bridget: So the Allegation that you are Anti-SAN is false?

Afam: It is totally unfounded. None of them will tell you that he had a conversation with me or I issued a statement. I subscribe to the view that to attain leadership at the Bar. If you are a Senior Advocate, that’s fine, if you are not, that’s also fine. That If the NBA thought it was important for you to take the top Job, you must be a senior Advocate, We should have put it in the constitution. It is a not there and my view is merely an interpretation of the position of the NBA constitution which has set out qualifications to be a president of the NBA at 15 years post call, you must have been in NEC for 2 years, you must have paid your practice fees for the last 3 years, paid your branch dues. Nothing more than these.

All I understand people to be simply doing is to elaborate on that view by saying “It is not a Constitutional requirements” and that was actually in reaction to those who say ” before you aspire to lead the Bar, you must be a Senior Advocate”. It has nothing to do with whether it is good to be a senior advocate or not. It has more to do with ” Is it imperative that one be a senior advocate to aspire to be president” and we remind them that Dr Mudiaga Odjeh, Alao Aka Bashorun, Prince Bola Ajibola, Charles Idehen to name a few were NBA Presidents without taking Silk at the time of their election. And that tradition has continued to be maintained in our constitution. So we are merely interpreting the law. Why would you detest a position of distinction? I support the rank of Senior Advocates and by the grace of God, I will take it some day. I don’t think that one’s inability to get it at the time of running for office should be counted against him or should be used to say ” oh you are not qualified, you can’t run”. No and my holding such views is legally founded on the NBA constitution and therefore unassailable and nobody should read a so called custom that does not form part of the law into the constitution to defeat the clear wordings of the constitution. And I think we are lawyers, so we are only interpreting the NBA constitution and nothing more.



Bridget: Do you support the Abolition of SAN privilege?

Afam: I do not support that. I had a recent meeting with Pa Tunji Gomez and I said ” look, I do not share your views but If the issue is that there are abuses, that there are certain wrong-doing by some persons who hold that rank, then, I agree with you that NBA could do more to ensure that no such abuses occur, that people do not use that rank to the disadvantage of other lawyers who are not senior Advocates or even to the disadvantage of clients “. And I said even in our society, we revere elders, that’s a rank. In churches, in mosques, elders are revered. So there is always some form of title taking in the society and if at the Bar, we have chosen to make our own Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Benchers, then among Benchers, life Benchers, there is absolutely nothing wrong in them. But if in the operation of this ranking system, there are abuses, there are unfair advantages, there is injustice meted out to those who are outside of those ranking systems, we address them but not to say, because we have a headache, we chop off our head. No, I don’t think so.



Bridget: There is another social media article alleging that you are supporting Young Lawyers to insult and rubbish SANs. How do you react to that?

Afam: I am not aware anybody is insulting any person but I think people for political reasons try to attach me to articles written by persons saying that you don’t need to be an SAN to be President. That you could be be an SAN or non SAN. And people gave it a spin to mean an insult and like I said, people could play politics with anything but they can’t play politics with the truth because at some point the truth will come up, no matter how long you suppress it. The articles are out there and if they can link me with any insult of any young lawyer or person insulting the elders, I will like to see it. I also think I am not a young Lawyer and I have been thoroughly insulted by persons I believe are being paid by some senior lawyers to write rubbish against me. Forgive my choice of words but for want of a better way of describing it. And I have not suggested that senior lawyers are now insulting some other senior lawyers or young lawyers. But it is a season of politics where emotions can get high and I have not sponsored any persons and I never will sponsor any person to insult another person whether senior or young lawyer.

In my place, we say that the elders should not die young so that the vultures will not be mistaken for chickens. Knowing that I am also gradually inching into that class of senior lawyers, I mean, this is my 18th year post call, I am a past General Secretary and a life member of NEC, and a Bencher. So by my ranking in the profession, I am Elder. It will be inconceivable for me to sponsor young lawyers to attack people within my bracket in the profession. It beats my mind and if they can find any such person, please let me know. But people will try to paint you black, throw mud at you, I have read so many things, some persons try to post a funny article that I abused his wife, I have heard so many things but it is not everything you respond to because there is what is called propaganda and people try to throw out propaganda and knowing that by my nature, I don’t respond to most of those things, they keep sending them out in the hope that they will fool some gullible persons into believing that what they are saying is the truth. But it is not unrelated to the suspicion that I will be running for NBA President but I welcome them but we will remain focused on issues affecting the Bar. Not on mudslinging.

Bridget: There is an article by Mr Julius Atenawehmera accusing you of disrespect to Bar elders and using Mr Joseph Silas Onu to cause disaffection within the unity Bar. How do you respond to that?

Afam: I wish I could accuse Julius too of being used by somebody to cause disaffection. I read that article by Julius and I could only shake my head. One, you don’t write an article and said “abusing elders” and not a single instance was given. And if Joseph Onu had issues with people and it is attributed to me, then it means that in this our profession, people are not respected. People have their freedom of expression and I have never encouraged Joseph Onu or any person to insult any person. I know Joseph had issues with the Chairman of the Exco in which he served and they had their political differences which led to Petitions being written to the NBA which affected the workings of that Exco. It will be terribly wrong for anybody to attribute that to me. And I think I should say this, first time, I attended meeting of the then aspirant for NBA Abuja Chairman (under whose tenure Joseph served), it was Joseph that convened that meeting to inform us that, that Agada Elachi was running for Chairman. So to that extent, I can say they were very very close. They were friends and if they fell out, I can’t be blamed for what happened between them and whatever maybe the other blow-out from it. And you don’t just wake up and throw mud at somebody and say “He is sponsoring people to insult elders” and no single instance is mentioned. T

Those who caused problem in the unity Bar know what the cause of the problem is. It is attempt to tamper with the democratic process where people sit down before candidates have picked nomination forms to say that Mr A will be disqualified and will never be Chairman. And if people want to say that, people should be bold enough to say that, that is what is causing division in the unity Bar. A decision of a group of people that the Electoral process must be tampered with and then refusing to take a legitimate directive from the NBA National Secretariat overruling their position to unlawfully disqualify a candidate Ezenwa Anumnu, who was otherwise qualified run for that office. The same people who argued then that the national Secretariat cannot direct the branch Electoral Committee, when it came to Bwari Branch where the Electoral Committee cleared I. O. Peters to run for Chairman wrote to the General Secretary to say, this man is not qualified, Electoral Committee cleared him and the General Secretary of NBA not a committee set up by NEC wrote a letter directing Electoral Committee of Bwari to disqualify that person. The same people applauded it but in Abuja Branch, they ignored it and claimed that they cannot be directed and they went ahead to conduct election for a candidate they knew was not qualified. Instead of accepting their role in the crisis, they want to outsource it to me, because I happened to be the General Secretary as at the time the crisis erupted. So the problem in Abuja is not abuse to elders or anything, it is about people feeling that they can play God with the branch and determine who can run for office and who will not run. Who will be shot down before he/she attempted to run. A past Chairman who was a member of the Branch Electoral Committee invited me to a meeting late at night at a time the electoral Committee was yet to call for nominations to inform me according to him that ‘Elders of the branch had decided that Ezenwa Anumnu will not be Chairman of the branch because I was ‘supporting him, and that in fact he would be disqualified’. The crisis has more to do with undemocratic forces who arbitrarily decide that a candidate will be disqualified not minding he is yet to pick nomination form or that the call for picking of nomination forms has not been made.

Abuja branch crisis is simply a clear case of lawyers not respecting the rule of law. When you sit down and say “he he will not be Chairman” even when that candidate has not picked nomination form, you can only forment crsis when that candidate is ultimately disqualified and he challenges it.

In Abuja, they went ahead to disqualify Anumnu. There is every wrong with such a process. And such a thing can only lead to division in a branch. And people who also go ahead even in the face of court orders to disobey court orders, to say, ” we must do what we want, you can’t do anything, we will keep you out” When NEC and AGM said that a person is Chairman of a Branch and the national Secretariat of NBA refuses to accredit him as Chairman, even in absence of a court order removing him or a superior decision. Those are the persons causing division not me because I didn’t do that.



Bridget: Many Branches of the NBA had Pre-Election Controversies: Unity Bar, Bwari Branch, Ikeja Branch, and Even Lagos Branch all attributable to the Uniform Bye Law. What will be your advice to Branches on how to avoid these controversies?

Afam: Lawyers must learn to respect the law, The NBA constitution together with the uniform Bye Laws, I believe have enough provisions to resolve disputes and people should not be allowed to subvert the will of the people or refuse to obey the laws and get away with it. People should not be unlawfully stopped from ascending power through popular votes. Look at Lagos Branch, since they held the election, there is no dispute from it because the branch conducted its elections in accordance with law. When you look at the law and feel you can bend it to suit you or that the law does not count, you will keep on having problems in branches. If act as a people ruled by law and will respect this law, we will be able to move forward. Some of these issues will no longer arise. And when people think that they have listening ears either at the National Secretariat or somewhere who can say ” Do it, nothing will happen”, and nothing actually happens when they do it, then this crisis will continue.



Bridget: From your response; does it mean that only a group of people decide what happens at NBA Branches?

Afam: There are branches that have what they call CABAL who feel that it is either their way or the high way, who feel that if they did not anoint you, you cannot amount to anything and who see any attempt by any person to win an election without their anointing as an affront that must be crushed. And who may go to such desperate length as getting the person disqualified because he is not their preferred candidate and then, they ensure that nothing happens that even that wrong doing will never be addressed. These are some of the challenges we face and it is pervasive in many branches.



Bridget: What is the way forward in resolving these issues in Branches?

Afam: Our motto is promoting the rule of law, respect the law, allow democratic process even if you have formed a group in your branch, if you have a candidate, make sure he is a good candidate who will be acceptable to the people. Do not tamper with the law. Do not use your influence to get persons who are not qualified to be qualified or to disqualify qualified persons. Allow the law to take its course. Allow the people to have their say. If it favors you or your candidate, you rejoice, if it doesn’t, you accept the decision of the people.



Bridget: What can you mention as the major achievement of Austin Alegeh SAN Regime?

Afam: Well, I will say quite so many things. We are able to introduce an insurance scheme which for many years NBA does not have in place. Any lawyer who pays practice fee in a particular year, automatically got an insurance scheme for 1 million Naira. Then completion of the NBA house which I consider a milestone, a monumental achievement of that administration and being able to successfully introduce a personalized stamp for lawyers which has been in the works for many years and which was an improvement on the one proceeding it which only had a serial number and also introducing the affinity card and some other membership benefits for members. And also running an administration that focused more on making members have a sense of belonging, a sense of knowing that the association is looking out for them. By applying the monies they pay to render services to lawyers. I think these are some of the great achievements of that administration which I am proud to be part of recorded.

Bridget: There is this accusation that the NBA House , though a great achievement, was hurriedly finished and as such , many fixtures were not done up to Standard. How do you react to that?

Afam: Well, the building is there and it is left for people to take a visit to know whether it was of substandard quality but it still stands out there as a symbol of what the NBA can do by prudently applying its resources. It may well be that there is some areas that may still need a little bit of attention but it will be unfair to say that the building was hurriedly done. Now, when you do a building, there may be issues that may also bother on maintenance like lift. When you install lift, you have to have a service with the installers to maintain it. I don’t know whether it is the kind of things you are referring to but the building is fully functional with three lifts installed and I do not know whether NBA went ahead to sign and pay for the service agreement for the maintenance of the lifts. Every owner of a lift will tell that you must pay for servicing of lift, you have to periodically service it so that if there is any problem, the service providers will come and fix it. I have not been to that building in a while, so I will be unable to comment. And I also know that people were interested in renting some floors in that building and those that contacted me, I referred them to the Secretariat to make enquiries and if it was poorly or hurriedly done, they wouldn’t want to rent it. One of the entities that wanted to take it was a bank. I may never know what came out of that discussion. And you can take a visit to that place and see for yourself. It is just like buying a brand new car, lovely condition, it will now depend on how you run it. The car is well built but if not well maintained and run, the car could become a jalopy in one or two years. But I know that the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the now acting President who commissioned it commended the NBA and noted that if it was a government project, it would probably have taken more than 5 years to be completed. And we did it below budget. That building was estimated to be a 2.5 billion naira project. We completed it at 1.7 billion including some outstanding payments that were to be made because NBA didn’t have enough money to install the big transformers. So it was taken that those payments will be made complete it. So this 1.7 billion naira included some outstanding payments to be made to those who will install certain equipment to complete the work. So at the time we left the completion level was at 95 percent.


Bridget: Austin Alegeh SAN Regime under which you served did a lot to improve members welfare. Members paid very little to attend AGC, Insurance package upon paying practice fees etc. What really inspired this welfarist Approach?

Afam: Now we realized that lawyers feel that they make make payments and have nothing to show for it. Lawyers believes that NBA collects so much money especially for conferences and still make them pay so much and we felt that since NBA is a brand and has ability to get corporate entities to partner with it and donate money and even some government entities, that conferences should be subsidized in such a way that money gotten from third party sources towards funding of the conference should be used to defray this cost. So we shifted the cost from members to encourage greater participation. When you are a brand, that people want to do things with you. It becomes easy for you to do some things, so it was not rocket science. Some people were willing to partner with us and put in money. So members didn’t have to pay so much to be part of it. We are not unmindful that some in some international conferences, people pay higher but this is Nigeria and for as long as lawyers want to feel that the association cares about them. That they are the centre piece of the attention of the association for so long was it imperative that those things be done for people to say ” Yes, we have reason for paying practice fees and we benefit from it”.



Bridget: 2016 Annual General Conference was hailed as World Class by members because it brought so many exciting features without any major cost to members. How was your regime able to do that without any cost on members?

Afam: It is back to what I was saying, being able to raise fund and also apply what you get judiciously. Knowing what to prioritize. Knowing what to do to get your members involved to know that you made elaborate plans to accommodate them, to make them a fine part of it, especially young lawyers. Having a young Lawyer go home with a brand new car which was won in a fair and transparent process. So when you put all these things in mind, you will see how it is easy for an association like us not to impose great financial burden on members to participate in conference and still be able to deliver on all these.



Bridget: What is your advice to this present administration of NBA?

Afam: My advice to the present administration is to remain focused. To carry out the manifesto that ensured it won election And also listen to what lawyers have to say. And also have an open door policy and be accessible and at all point in time, to keep to that which it has promised lawyers and then deliver on them. And also speak at critical moments and continue to let lawyers know the primacy their office roles in their practice life.



Bridget: The 2015 NBA Constitution passed under your watch as the NBA General Secretary has been embroiled in controversy due to a case by Mr. Olasupo Ojo at the Federal High Court. Has the anomaly complained of been resolved and rectified?

Afam: Well I understand the constitution has been registered. I think it is important to say this, there were two prior amendments before 2015 which it has come out were not registered. Ordinarily it is the work of the legal adviser to register the constitution and companies and Allied matters Act did not specify the time frame within which that registration should be made but before we left office, we commenced the process of the registration of the constitution. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened in the course of that matter in court and the attention of the Court was not drawn to the fact that application to register that constitution has been made and all outstanding annual returns filed with the CAC and requisite application made. And be that as it may, I understand that matter is on Appeal and will therefore not like want to comment on it. But NBA appealed the judgment of the Court and still proceeded to complete the registration process. My understanding is that the judgment is to the effect that all actions based on the unregistered constitution before be void and not that the Constitution is void. Olasupo Ojo admitted in his court processes he filed that the constitution was passed at an Annual General Meeting. So my understanding of his complaint is that it was not registered. So there are two things CAMA required, that the constitution be passed in a general meeting and it be registered. These things are conjunctive. So if one is done and one is partially done, to my mind without commenting on the case, I do not think the actions ought be void. But that is matter for the court to determine. But I can say, relying on Information supplied by the NBA president at a forum, that the registration of the constitution has been completed. And that in a case, increasing the course of it, they were also able to compete the registration of two previous constitutions that was not also registered. So the constitution is fully registered and to me, that should address the issue.

Afam Osigwes interview has been widely circulated in the media..