‘NOUN Act vital for competition’

Mr. Silas Joseph Onu, an Abuja lawyer, is a former publicity secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abuja branch. In this interview with Legal Editor John Austin Unachukwu, he speaks on the allegations of corruption against NBA President, Abuja branch crises, the Electoral bill, role of youths in politics and national issues.

Some people asked the NBA President to resign as a result of his alleged involvement in N1.4 billion fraud. What is your reaction to this?

I am concerned that the manner in which the Economic Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) has handled this case has bungled it and now makes it to appear as a politically-motivated prosecution with the aim of getting at the Akwa Ibom State government.

The danger in this is that, while Paul Usoro (SAN) is the legal counsel to the Akwa Ibom State government in his personal capacity in which he carried out the brief in question, his prosecution is being handled in a manner that could rubbish the entire Bar.

Why do you say this?

The EFCC is sensationalising the entire issue, not because of Paul, but because of Paul’s current position and they hope that he will be forced to betray his client. It is not strange for lawyers to face prosecution as a result of suspicious transactions done for and on behalf of their clients or suspicious payments made to them by their clients. Every day, lawyers answer such questions and do come out of them unblemished. I know very many Senior Advocates who are paid billions by states and Federal Government for jobs done and none is facing EFCC prosecution. Many of these SANs even own and maintain fleets of private jets they don’t manufacture anything, just fees from briefs.

So, why is this Usoro matter different?

The EFCC has for, sometime now, held that the Bar is a corrupt institution, and I don’t disagree with that. But, trying to destroy it because of such notion is also not right, especially when the move is politically motivated.

I understand that the EFCC perceives Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN) as a pro-Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) NBA president and desires to rattle him into cooperating with the incumbent ahead of the 2019 General Election, along with the Akwa Ibom State government. Are you not concerned that this issue is coming up immediately after the attempt to take-over the Akwa Ibom State Legislature failed? The EFCC has no tact in their approach as their fight against perceived political opponents of the President is too obvious. So, in this regard, I will not support the call for the NBA President to resign. I understand that the political division in the Bar will also play a part in the call for the resignation of the President, but that will be an unfortunate day for the Bar. If our leaders are to fall victims of political manipulation by the government, then the Bar is truly lost and I will not support that.

Usoro (SAN) must be supported by all lawyers of conscience through this ordeal so that the Bar will have a voice before, during and after the 2019 general election, that is real issue in the entire prosecution drama.

What is your reaction to President Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act recently amended by the National Assembly?

First of all, majority of Nigerians are in agreement that the 2010 Electoral Act has a fundamental defect, even the President is in agreement here. The defect is solely the fact that, while the use of a computerised card reader has brought some level of sanity in our elections, especially with the recent improvements made on its effectiveness based on the lapses observed in the 2015 election, it has no legal backing whatsoever. Simply put, if former President Goodluck Jonathan, was desperate for continuation, as we are witnessing, he would have simply challenged the entire election for not having been conducted in accordance with our Electoral Act and he would have succeeded in court.

So, what happened after that?

President Buhari benefited most from that experience and the magnanimity of former President Jonathan. Therefore, it should be expected, and correctly so, that President Buhari will be the front runner in the quest to include the use of computerised card reader in our electoral law. But, we have sadly, seen a President who continues to place his individual interest over and above that of the entire nation. His decision to reject the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2018, which effectively enhanced the conduct and transparency of our election was solely selfish as his decision was anchored on his chances of winning election in 2019 if the process were to be credible, transparent and predictable.

What of his reason that there are errors in the electoral law as passed by the National Assembly?

There is no law anywhere in the world that is perfect. Even the Ten Commandments made perfectly by God were not able to solve human problems as humans are imperfect in adhering to the law of God. So, President Buhari should not hide under the canopy of seeking a perfect legislation before assenting same. The word “amendment” exists for a purpose. It is because of the fact that no human law is expected to be perfect that an amendment to laws became part of legislative functions. Since the inception of our democracy, the Electoral Act has enjoyed continuous improvement through various amendments. This amendment is no different from of the past as it sought to take our electoral process a step further from where it used to be. But, we have seen a President who will rather than act Presidentially, do his selfish bidding against the entire interest of Nigerians. This is a betrayal of trust and should ordinarily cost Buhari his Presidency.

His failure to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2018 did not come to many Nigerians as a surprise as his desperation for continuity in 2019 is visible even to the blind. Buhari is willing to burn down this nation if his second term bid will be realised afterwards. This is a shame and no one should feel any sense of pride in defending this failure by Buhari to be enthroned as a statesman, he lost a rare opportunity. That is why I am, just as many other Nigerians are, calling on the National Assembly to put aside partisanship and act in the overall interest of the nation by overriding the President’s assent and pass the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2018 into law as an Act of the National Assembly and take the credit of saving this nation from the chaos as a result of the greedy quest for power by an individual.

What do you foresee as the effect of not passing this bill into law before the 2019 general elections?

Not passing this Amendment Bill into law before the 2019 election is to allow the nation slip into electoral uncertainty that is capable of snowballing into a major crisis for Nigeria. This nation has already bleeding and any politically motivated crisis may be the end of us all. Let there be a Nigeria that is greater than any of its sitting President. After Buhari, Nigeria should exist. He is not Nigeria and our laws cannot be made to suit him or his interest. This all began with the sequence of election and he kicked because of his interest. The nation bowed to his will and since then he hasn’t backed down on imposing his will on the nation. We must move on and the National Assembly is once again called upon to save Nigeria as it once did in the past.

The National Open University Act has just been signed into law. It permits graduates of the varsity to attend the Nigerian Law School and do the mandatory one year NYSC. What is your reaction to this?

It is good for competition. We have few institutions to cater for the hundreds of thousand Nigerians seeking admission to study law. The National Open University (NOUN) has proven that it is capable of delivering the programme and they will be subjected to accreditation by the Council of legal Education. So, if they scale through the standard set by the council, I see no reason Nigerians who prefer that option should not be able to obtain it.

The NYSC is an important phase of every graduate’s life. NOUN graduates must not be denied the opportunity of discharging their national duty in NYSC programme. It is their right as graduates to serve and I don’t even think that any further law is require for that to happen.

So, I congratulate NOUN and all its prospective law undergraduates.

You were the Publicity Secretary of the NBA Abuja branch and have followed events of the Bar closely. What is your view on how to resolve the Abuja branch crises?

Yes, I was the Publicity Secretary of the Abuja branch, popularly called the Unity Bar, between 2014 and 2016 and that was when the boiling rots in the Branch finally exploded. The crisis was one of injustice, corruption and impunity mostly perpetrated by the very senior members of the Branch (mostly Senior Advocates of Nigeria) who believe that the Branch is their private possession and only what they approve of can take place in the branch. Members pay their membership dues dutifully and expect to enjoy some basic rights of membership. However, what used to happen was that certain big wigs want to dictate who can become what in the Branch. That culture of anointing candidates for leadership led the Branch into a messy reign of corruption and impunity by those leading it. A situation where a chairman will spend over N40 million Branch money without the knowledge or approval of the Executive Committee or the General Meeting became my experience while serving in the Executive Committee.

What did the branch do to checkmate such happenings?

Well, some of us protested against such conduct as our by-law clearly stated how expenditures should be executed and that was the genesis of the crisis in the Branch. There are those who felt that even if the evidence against the chairman was so glaring nothing should happen as the Branch belong to them and in the word of one them “we have given you the money” (A very Senior Advocate speaking at the Branch AGM of 2016, alluded that even though the Chairman took money illegally, he, on behalf of the Branch, converted such illegality into a gift). So, with the sharp division predicated on what is right and wrong, the Branch went into election and the candidate that represented justice won that election and the big men struck again by declaring people who didn’t even qualify for election as chairman and secretary.

What was the position of NBA national on the crises then?

Then, the A. B. Mahmoud (SAN) -led National Executive Committee compounded matters by taking side with their friends, who are the big men to further sustain the crisis since then, even in the face of many Federal Capital Territory High Court orders against doing so.

What is the lasting solution to these problems?

So, to sincerely answer your question on how the crisis can be resolved, I can only say that we have reached a stage of irretrievable breakdown of trust and only the creation of a new Branch for the dissidents can resolve the imbroglio. Many of us, the young lawyers, will never trust these big men or their surrogates with our time or money. No organisation, group, society or nation state can survive unrelenting acts of injustice.

You have been very active in the affairs of the Bar, what is your view on the current state of the NBA.

Just as the crisis of the Unity Bar, was ignited by mindless corrupt acts and lack of regards for law, rules or persons, that National body has become even worse as we saw in the immediate past administration. Offices not known to our constitution were created to accommodate cronies with fat salaries and allowances. We saw an office created with the name “Chief of Staff” in an association that already has an Executive Director whose job description encompasses what a “Chief of Staff” will do. We saw a General Secretary who took pride in breaking the law and asking people to go ahead and litigate the matter, simply because that will also give him a window to brief his friends at NBA’s expense. The last administration spent over N400 million of members’ dues on frivolous travelling and no one is shouting. The impunity of the immediate past administration and their total desire to finally destroy the NBA was made manifest in the conduct of the 2018 National Election.

What do you mean by this? How?

That election was nothing but a fraud and as usual, some unscrupulous lawyers now commit fraud and simply tell the victims to go to court. The mantra “Go to court” has become a very big cover for criminals, especially those with knowledge of law and access to the Judiciary, knowing that such an action will only end up being frustrated and thereby leaving the victim worse than he was when he/she went to court.

Under the last NBA administration, we witnessed the highest level of disregard to court orders and judgments. We also witnessed the highest level of illegal activities by the leadership of the Bar.

Can you give specific examples?

One of such was the opening of a Branch Account for NBA Abuja by the General Secretary without the knowledge of the Branch. He operated that account alone and later handed it over to a Branch Executive appointed by the President and himself. This is a disgrace for a body of lawyers as the standard of operation was nothing but abysmal. The new administration that came in amid a fraudulent electoral process, one that I had predicted from the inception, in which financial members, including me, were brazenly disenfranchised and were asked to go to court. One would have imagined that an administration which came in with such a bad reputation will make haste to redeem its image by exposing acts of corruption perpetrated by those who brought them in to do a clean-up. However, we recently saw this administration published a document it titled: “Forensic Audit” of the NBA Account, which was just a shameless effort to hide the infractions done by the immediate past administration. The audit was a generalisation of wastages as it blames the entire NBA for the financial recklessness of the immediate past administration. There is no indication or report about who did what and why it was done. The report was a massive cover-up of the rot that took place during the administration. So, the state of affairs in the NBA is that of gloom.

How do you think we will get it finally resolved?

As lawyers, each of us must be alive to our calling as ministers in the temple of justice. It is sickening that some lawyers have become so separated from their calling and are even worse than armed robbers. We must begin to deploy the mechanism of law against organisational infractions as an association. People must be punished for the wrongs they do while leading the Bar, not only when they steal money, but whenever it is established that such leaders fail or refuse to adhere to the provisions of the association’s Constitution. NBA is largely governed by the will of those elected to serve, instead of the provisions of the Constitution. The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee has become a tool in the hands of the Bar leaders to harass dissenting members, who are seen as not being loyal to the leadership – it has lost its relevance.

What is your view on the Not-Too-Young to run bill that was recently signed into law by the President?

The Not-Too-Young-to-Run Bill signed into law by the President, which amendwd the Constitution, is a step forward though it has been overrated as a step forward for the youth, but I hold a different view. The challenge of the youth isn’t really the issue of age, it is the issue of cost of political participation in Nigeria. The ages that have been reduced aren’t really realistic as any serious young man or lady will still be in school at that age in Nigeria. So, what we should be advocating for is to cut down the cost of politics in Nigeria and that can only be attained if we reform internal party politics by ensuring that party members have a determining say in who lead the party and who becomes the party candidate – no by special arrangements that will make an individual $55 or $80 million rich at the end of party primaries.

You were a prominent member of the Nigerian Youth Council to the extent that you contested for the Presidency of the Council. What role do you canvass for the Nigerian Youth in our current democracy?

The Nigerian youth have come of age in our quest for leadership transition across board. As a Christian, I am a strong believer in the fact that while the youth will always be visioners, the elders are dreamers. The Nigerian youth can successfully discharge the duty of leadership without much huddles. We are aware of a few bad eggs, who unfortunately, are privileged to be Governors and have become bad representatives of the youth. They have, by their conduct, portrayed the Nigerian youths as not really prepared for the task of leadership.