Members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Supreme Court yesterday clashed, after the court barred NBA President, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Muhammed Bello Adoke, from making speeches at the swearing-in of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN).

The drama this time

The incident started when the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Usman Alhaji Musale, told the gathering that only the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Aloysius Katsina-Alu, and the representative of the newly sworn-in SANs, could make speeches.

The NBA president protested immediately, saying that it was not part of the tradition and that the invitation he got showed that he and the minister were to speak at the event. Mr. Akeredolu said if there were any changes in the programme, the court ought to have notified him beforehand. However, Supreme Court Justice Dahiru Mustapha said anybody who was not comfortable with the arrangement should walk out.

The NBA president attempted to leave the venue, but was prevented from doing so by his colleagues. To register his protest, he refused to collect the CJN's speech.

After the swearing-in, Mr. Akeredolu led a delegation to the office of the CJN, whom NEXT learnt apologised to the president, saying that there was a mix-up at the event. Mr. Mustapha also apologised for his utterances.

However, Kayode Ajulo, lawyer and chairman of the Egalitarian Mission Africa, in a terse text message to NEXT, said "what happened today has never happened in the history of the legal profession in Nigeria. It will be unfortunate if speeches should be censored by the very institution that ought to spearhead expansion of the scope of freedom." He called the day, "a black Monday" for the legal profession,

But in a phone conversation with NEXT, Mr. Akeredolu said what happened was the result of an innocent mistake. "It has nothing to do with my own speech as the Attorney General and the body representing the body of the SAN were also denied from giving a speech," he said. "It is an innocent mistake that I hope will not be repeated next time."

He further added that the justices "did not robe to come to the court; they just wanted to roll the event into the new legal year."

Unconfirmed reports have it that Mr. Akeredolu was asked to delete some statements from his speech and the cancellation came when he declined.

The cancelled speech

In the aborted speech made available to NEXT, Mr. Akeredolu said the award of the privileges to wear silk entails a strict adherence to merit in everything. He said that the criteria must be such that practitioners can safely assert that certain applicants merit the award. A situation where it seems that only juniors in the chambers of certain influential people are successful once they apply, calls for serious review, he said.

"It is worth reiterating the fact that any measure put in place to select from among the best, those who come forward for recognition must be transparent," the NBA president's speech read.

In the speech, Mr. Akeredolu mentioned recent calls to scrap the SAN title by parties who are genuinely aggrieved by the current state of things. The NBA president also suggested to the CJN the need for the convocation of a meeting of all stake holders with a view to resolving the issues.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloysius Katsina-Alu however said the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) should be retained in spite of criticisms trailing the selection process.

"While it may be true that some of the criticisms of the process of conferment have been sired by the sour grapes, we must admit that the process of the exercise of any power cannot be immune to error." Mr Katsina-Alu said that to improve this, a committee had been set up to review and improve the selection process, adding that there had been two reviews in the last five years.

New SANs

Mr. Musale, the Supreme Court's chief registrar, said the Privileges Committee, the body charged with the responsibility of appointing Senior Advocates of Nigeria and led by Justice Katsina-Alu, met in Abuja about two months ago to consider the applications for 2009.

According to him, a total of 126 people applied for the rank. Of these, 19 were academics while 107 were legal practitioners. The committee accepted 19 applications - in accordance with the guidelines for the conferment of the rank. The accepted applicants were sworn in yesterday.

They include Mike Ozekhome, Nella Andem-Ewa, Joseph A. Nwobika, Offiong Effiong Bassey, Sylvia Shinaba, Dorothy Udeme Ufot, Francis Dike, Chukwuma Uchenna Ekomaru, Arthur Obi Okafor, Etigwa Owa, Jadegoke Adebanjo Badejo, Abiodun Ishola Layonu, Adekunle Babatunde Ogunba, George Oguntade, C. O. Toyin Pinheiro, Olusina R. Sofola, Samuel Mosugu, Andrew I. Chukwuemerie and Fabian Ikenna Ajogwu.

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