By Lillian Okenwa
As arguments on whether Academics are deserving of being conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria continues, more senior lawyers share their thoughts on the issue.
While Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN advised that the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC stick to the standard indicated in its guidelines, Professor Alphonsus Okoh Alubo, SAN said there are many more issues that astute senior lawyers, must worry about.
Ogunwumiju in a WhatsApp chat pointed out that sticking to the rules as it affects academics was “the basis of the Award to Prof. Ben Nwabueze – his books on Constitutional and Administrative law, Nwadialo on Civil Procedure, Sagay on Contracts and Torts, ST Hon on Evidence, I O Smith on Land Law, Jelil Omotola on Conveyance, Abayomi on Wills.”
According to the Senior Advocate: “Truth be told, if six academics are awarded every year, how many of them can say they publish works that have the sort of impact on legal practice that these books have had? Maybe two or at most three. Now, people apply with a compilation of essays or articles written by others just because they compiled them. People apply with a digest of decisions. No attempt to analyse these decisions
“Did you know that the great Gani Fawehinmi got his rank under this category for his publication the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports, NWLR? Same with Deji Sasegbon. These men published works that no serious practitioner can do without.”
However, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olatunde Adejuyigbe has expressed his disapproval of the ongoing debate. Adejuyigbe who observed that the argument is a waste of precious time noted that the application and conferment process of the rank is currently lacking in integrity and merit.
Adejuyigbe said: “It is bewildering that precious time and energy have been dissipated on a banal topic that leads nowhere. A cart-pusher on the streets knows that the rank of SAN is in the same league of devaluation like the Naira. In Nigeria, distinction just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. These days anyone who is well trained in the art of Rankadede can get the rank. It’s a pity that Late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister never applied for the coveted rank.
“It is only in this our own dear native land that those who should be behind bars are celebrated as leaders of the Bar. It is an open secret that many of those who have been conferred with the rank as Advocates either snatched, borrowed or purchased cases in the Appellate Courts in the bid to meet the requirements. Many of those who took up some criminal cases pro bono before their elevation to the inner bar abandoned such cases thereafter.”
Also, he accused Senior members of the Bar of complicity in the declining status of the rank by sidestepping the guidelines for the award of the rank.
“The fault is not in the guidelines but in us. Many Advocates who have gained mastery in circumventing the guidelines are following the footprints of their seniors in the inner bar. In the days of yore, a good Maths teacher was interested in the workings that led to an answer and not just the correct answer. But that’s not what we do. Just pile up your cases, do your runs and you’ll get a boarding pass.
“When you read pleadings, written addresses, and briefs of arguments authored by some ” giants” in the inner bar you will come to terms with our prevailing Ichabod and seek solace in the Book of Lamentations.”
Insisting that priority in public discourses with legal practitioners should be on salvaging the dire condition of the judiciary and the SAN title which he maintained is currently suffering a deficit in honour, the SAN said:
“There was no issue at all when Professors of Law who are worth their weight in gold were conferred with the rank. They maintained fidelity with academia which is their first love and rebuffed the seduction of another mistress. But times have changed.
“What should be of concern to those who mean well for our nation and the legal profession is the reform of our moribund and dysfunctional justice system. The sterile discourse on the award of the rank to academics is not helpful in any way. All resources should be geared towards the attainment of a virile justice mechanism. Regardless of the route a lawyer took to the inner bar our nation is still afflicted with a system that serves anything but justice. No sane lawyer should be proud of what goes on here. Let’s stop this meaningless squabble over fish and turkey, beans and porridge. There are more serious issues which deserve urgent attention.”
On his part, Professor Alphonsus Okoh Alubo, SAN said: “It is a travesty to have people destroy the ladder they used in climbing up. Needless miasma. There are so many issues that astute senior lawyers, must worry about: Administration of justice, corruption in the judiciary, how to fill the current void in the Supreme Court with the number of retirement of justices, the appointment of Senior lawyers to the Court of Appeal so the jurisprudence of the court can be enriched, etc. Only God knows what would happen in the next few years, with this acerbic clamour from relatively younger Silks.”
