By Mojirayo Ogunlana
The 8th of March was the International Women’s Day.
What usually takes place on this day annually, are speeches, panel discussions, webinars, photo ops, purple ribbons on black jackets, and all the usual ceremonies.
Rhetoric and rhetoric without definitive actions. The use of sugarcoated words and expressions at activities designed to disseminate the usual adjectives – strength, resilience, inclusion, empowerment; and while all these activities are recorded in advancing the rights of women, it is very important for the Nigerian Bar Association to do something less ceremonial. It’s time it read its own record on women leadership.
The fact is that the NBA record on women leadership of the Bar is but a dot of an entire page.
Dame Priscilla Kuye is often referred to as one woman who led the Bar when she served as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association from 1991 to 1992. More than three decades later, she remains the first and only woman to hold that office. In fact, Dame Kuye only came into that office because the President at that time, Chief Clement Akpamgbo, SAN, was appointed the Attorney General of the Federation.
Dame Kuye was not the first of many, she was the first, and still the only woman to occupy that office till date.
This year, the theme of the International Women’s Day reads -“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”
For a profession which stands for justice, equity and fairness , one wonders what equity looks like after thirty years of male leadership of the Bar.
Over the years, the usual complaints have been that there is a shortage of women to take up political positions, but today, no sincere person can say that the problem is a shortage of qualified women. Women at the Bar have long supplied the proof that not only are they qualified , but they are capable of leading and they are willing to serve the largest Bar in Africa. Women have built chambers, argued appeals, chaired committees, taught students, mentored young lawyers, and held Branches together when the applause had gone elsewhere. Women have led Bar associations in other climes, and even within the Nigerian legal profession, women now lead important Sections and Branches.
At this point in history, the Nigerian Bar is not being asked to attempt some dangerous Constitutional experiment. What it is simply being asked to do, is to stop treating female leadership as though it were a novelty too fragile to survive contact with power.
It’s high time we gave the women at the Bar their long awaited flowers and the time for this is now!
Women have done the work. They have shown up. They have paid the price.
However, they have not often been given the final ‘go ahead’. As it’s usually a thing of endorsement more than qualification.
We now know it’s not an issue of merit. The simple question is whether the Bar is ready to allow the leadership it has professed is needed.
I remember clearly how I felt standing before the wall of past Presidents of the Nigerian Bar Association and only one woman was displayed amongst the sea of men. It was truly uncomfortable. I felt small and irrelevant in a profession that advocates for equality and fairness. While the larger society discusses what it means for Nigerian women to be provided reserved seats at the National Assembly, it would be a good sign if the Nigerian Bar took the Bull by the Horns to show our Legislators that women are not figurines expected to decorate our discussion tables, but that they are capable of heading that table.
A profession may preach equality all it likes, but if its own highest office keeps returning to one familiar sex, then it would seem it suffers from a dissonance.
This is why Dame Priscilla Kuye’s historical place is both inspiring and uncomfortable. Institutions often know how to honour breakthroughs they do not intend to repeat or make a norm. They turn pioneers into portraits. They celebrate them, quote them, and keep them safely in memory.
The praise sounds generous.
Its real function is containment.
The first woman is admired so that the second can wait.
That is not honour. That is a delay with good manners.
The true way to honour Dame Priscilla Kuye while she’s still here with us, is not to keep admiring her uniqueness. It is to show her that many can follow in her steps.
This is not a case of charity. It is not an argument for tokenism. It is not a plea to lower standards for the sake of the moment. It is simply an argument for sincerity. Is the Bar sincere enough to allow a female lead? Is the Egbe Amofin ready to give grounds for a woman to lead as it is well known in Yoruba history that women led and were proud leaders until colonial infiltration of our long respected cultures and traditions.
If the Bar truly believes what it says about fairness, it should have the courage to apply that principle to itself.
A woman President of the Nigerian Bar Association would not diminish the office. She would show every young woman stepping into the profession that the highest office is an attainable goal with hard work and commitment to the Bar.
She would show younger men that leadership is not a hereditary male title passed quietly from hand to hand under the table of custom.
There is no better time as now for the Nigerian Bar Association to stand out proudly to set the example for the Nigerian society at large, by pulling its full weight behind a woman.
As the world continues to reflect on the International Women’s Day, the NBA should take a more proactive step. It should stop praising women for carrying the profession and finally entrust her with the leadership of the Bar.
The NBA has qualified, capable, and visionary women ready to serve.
The question is no longer whether they exist. The question is not whether they are qualified or capable.
The question is whether the Bar is ready to move from rhetoric to reality.
Mojirayo Ogunlana
Digital, Gender and Media Rights Advocate
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
