By J.S. Okutepa, SAN
I have read the views of some of my colleagues that the NBA should return the sum of 300 million donated to it by the legitimate Rivers State Governor for the 2025 annual general conference of the Bar that was initially scheduled to hold in Rivers State in August this year.
Some of my colleagues went further to make arguments and submissions that the NBA should not collect money from government and that NBA must be self-funding. Plausible and sound as these arguments are, I think most of these arguments are not rooted in the realities of our situations as Nigerian lawyers.
But before returning to this, let me repeat what I said before on this N300 million. I have expressed the view that “I think even if the 300 million given to NBA by Gov Sim Fubara was for the hosting rights, as the illegal and unconstitutional Sole Administrator of Rivers State stated, it will be unconstitutional and unlawful for NBA to return the money to the Sole Administrator. Doing so will amount to recognising the said Sole Administrator as a legitimate authority in Rivers State.
I do not even think the Sole Administrator deserves any reply from the NBA. If the Sole Administrator feels so strongly about his case, he should go to the court and enforce the breach of the alleged contract of hosting rights, and we will meet him there in court. In any case, was he appointed as a debt collector or to restore peace in Rivers State, which peace his appointors felt Gov Sim Fubara could not restore. What absurdities of illegality.
I stand by this view. The illegal and unconstitutional Sole Administrator can go to court. We will meet in court. But my main concern here is the trending suggestions by my colleagues that NBA should refund the money and that NBA should not be funded by those in power. I love these suggestions. Let us begin by showing examples.
Those making suggestions that the money should be refunded should start by making donations to the NBA for the NBA to refund the money to the Governor of Rivers State when he is reinstated.
As far as my knowledge goes, NBA survives solely from donations from governments and other willing donors for its annual general conferences. The conference registration fees are not sufficient to host our annual general conferences.
How many lawyers in Nigeria are willing and ready to give huge donations to NBA for its annual conferences? How much do we pay as membership fees to fund NBA activities? Even the practising fees we pay, not many lawyers want to pay. Are we ready as lawyers to have an independent bar that does not go cap in hands to fund its activities and conferences.
Many times, we have problems with even paying for annual conferences. Year in year out, we have arguments for and against the conference fees. How many senior lawyers, especially the senior advocates of Nigeria, and senior members of the profession are ready to pay one million Naira each as conference fees to attend the NBA conferences, for instance.
But we as lawyers are ready to pay huge amounts as conference fees to attend IBA and CLA in addition to flight tickets and accommodations. While I deeply appreciate the views of my colleagues on the need for NBA to be self-funding and self-sufficient in its conferences, we must all agree to fund the association and let the association be accountable.
NBA must invest and become profitable to stand shoulder high. Be that as it may, I do not see any reason to give the money back because it was not tied to hosting right. If we all agreed that NBA should not take money from the government, then let us all agree to fund NBA.
