By VC Ononye
It was a gathering of high profile wigs in the legal profession at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka on Saturday as they honoured one of their own and former Attorney General of the Federation of Nigeria,Sir Clement Emeka Akpamgbo with a memorial Lecture in honour of his memory.
The theme of the lecture was,”Role of advocacy in promoting justice in Nigeria”.
The maiden lecture convened by a distinguished lawyer,Chief Emeka Ngige SAN,focused on the legacy of late Sir Clement Akpamgbo who mentored numerous legal practitioners and contributed eloquently towards the growth of the profession.
But while eulogizing the late Sir Akpamgbo on his monumental legal strides in the annals of Nigerian jurisprudence and practice of Law,one of his closest associates,a 90 year old lawyer,Mr J H C Okolo SAN,deplored the many negative challenges faced by the legal profession in the country.
He blamed the political class for interfering and compromising standards of the judiciary adding that those like him who practiced with early British lawyers and judicial officers are at a loss what has become the ugly fate of Nigerian judiciary today.”All kinds of people join politics today and call themselves Honourables and there is no single honour in them.They are the ones compromising standards and bastardizing the judiciary”,he lamented.
While delivering his lecture,another close associate of late Sir Clement Akpamgbo,Chief Chris Uche,described him(Akpamgbo) as one of the most formidable appellate advocates of his generation and a “Field Marshall “of the Law.
According to Chief Uche,”Sir Clem was not merely an accomplished lawyer ; he was a school of advocacy in himself and a courtroom strategist who has raised a generation of distinguished lawyers many of who are judges and senior advocates.
While suggesting the way forward for the present generation of legal practitioners inorder to sustain the legacy of Sir Clement Akpamgbo,Chief Uche among other things,called for a revival of fearless advocacy by lawyers.
According to him,”We live at a time when political pressure,social noise and institutional anxieties can tempt lawyers into compromising standards”.Access to justice he maintained,will not emerge from statutes or slogans alone,it will come from strong institutions that work,courts that command confidence and advocates who combine skills,courage and integrity in the service of justice.
Chief Uche also called for a renewal of mentorship adding that every enduring legal culture is transmitted from one generation to the next since younger lawyers must not be left to improvise their professional values in a vacuum.
Earlier in his opening remarks,the chairman and convener of the memorial Lecture, Chief Emeka Ngige SAN, said it was fitting to convene such a lecture to immortalize Sir Akpamgbo who he said was not only a mentor but a legal luminary who has built men and women of repute who thought it wise to collaborate with Nnamdi Azikiwe University faculty of Law to organize the lecture 20 years after Sir Clem Akpamgbo’s death.
Welcome addresses were presented by the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Professor Ugochukwu Anyaehie and Dean of Faculty of Law,Professor Felicia Anyogu.
The traditional ruler of Asaba Kingdom HRH, Professor Epiphany Azinge, SAN, Senator Ndi Obi, JHC Okolo SAN, Chief Emeka Etiaba, SAN, Rev fr Barr Ikenga Oraegbunam, Iyom Bernadette Nwachukwu, Past President of Association of National Accountants (ANAN) Chief Anthony Nzom, Professor Frank Okoh, and many other distinguished personalities spoke volumes in acknowledgement of the positive contributions of Sir Clem Akpamgbo towards the growth of the legal profession in Nigeria.
