Rights lawyer and ex-chair of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has faulted Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN’s condemnation of the decision to subject newly cleared SAN-designates to security screening by the Department of State Services (DSS), asserting that the rule was made by the former Chief Justice Olukayode Ariwoola in 2022 and that nobody condemned it at the time.
The former General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had described the DSS screening of SAN-designates as a dangerous intrusion into the independence of the legal profession.
But Prof. Odinkalu, in a statement made available to Law & Society Magazine, stated that: “A lot of people labour under the misapprehension that we have an ‘independent’ legal profession.”
The full statement reads:
These people are being both nonsensical and dishonest. These people are pandering. They should not be taken seriously. Muyiwa is campaigning to be the next NBA president and the 1st from Southwest since Aketi.
The rule requiring new SAN candidates to be screened by EFCC, ICPC and SSS was made by Olukayode Ariwoola in 2022. No one has called attention to that detail, nor has anyone called him to explain why. But they are frothing.
All the applicants knew about it before they applied. Those rules governed SAN designation in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, the applicants who applied under those rules now want to be exempt from SSS screening. They could have objected before the applications. They chose not to.
It is like applying to join the Ogboni and then objecting to the rituals, or indeed, applying to be ordained a priest but objecting to the Litany of the Saints being said over your prone figure. It does not wash.
As someone who has been screened by the SSS more than once, I do have personal issues with their processes. I also believe that the Ariwoola rules can be operated more professionally and less intrusively.
They are not telling you that the NJC has a similar requirement for judicial appointments. Why have they not objected to that?
The idea of creating a SAN exception to the rigorous vetting of SAN candidates does not wash.
By the way, under the Instrument No. 1 of 1999 to the National Security Agencies Act, the SSS has responsibility for vetting senior statutory appointees. That applies to judges. SAN designation is statutory, and it is considered to be a senior appointment under the law.
A lot of people labour under the misapprehension that we have an “independent” legal profession. That is the entire point of “The Selectorate”.
There is no such thing in Nigeria, and people should stop this thing about “independence” of the legal profession in Nigeria. The profession is regulated by 5 bodies:
- General Council of the Bar
- Council of Legal Education
- Body of Benchers
- Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee
- Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee
All of these are statutory, and the government has an in-built majority in every one of these 5 bodies, as anyone who has sat on or worked with any of them will know.
The NBA is an NGO. Or am I missing something?
If we want an independent Bar, let us fight for it. That will begin with a redesign of the institutional architecture for the governance of the Bar. But at the moment, it does not exist. The insiders love it the way it is. And have no intention of yielding up.
Akinboro had, in a statement on Tuesday, stressed that the conferment of the prestigious rank of SAN is a professional recognition, not a political favour, and should not be tied to the whims of security agencies or political actors.
