Over 5,000 Lawyers Register With New NBA

More than 5,000 lawyers have registered to join the newly formed New Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Naija News reports that some lawyers of like minds had decided to form a new association following alleged peddling of sectional interest by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).

This was following the withdrawal of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State from among speakers at the NBA virtual conference.

They said the recent rumblings from the NBA was leaving much to be desired within the ranks of Concerned Lawyers especially from the Northern part of the Country.

The statement reads in part, “What has been happening recently has exposed the inability of the NBA to manage and contain the heterogeneity of its members as well as their various interests.

“It’s penal powers have been deployed discriminatively on the basis of ethnicity and regionalism.

“As a body of Lawyers who have undergone training towards ensuring the promotion and protection of Human rights and liberties, the NBA is supposed to live above sentiments, regionalism and discrimination on any basis and of any kind. Therefore, the NBA cannot afford to be seen not to be upholding the rights and freedom of its own members if at all, it should be seen to be practising what it preaches. As the Hausa saying goes: *Idan Kura tana maganin zaho, ta yi ma kanta* (If Hyena has cure for diarrhoea let her use it for herself).

“The New Nigerian Bar Association have been watching the activities of the NBA, an association we all looked forward to joining with high hopes before being called to the Nigerian Bar, forcing idiosyncrasies of few on the majority of its members especially in recent times.”

The NNBA had last week written to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, informing him to the establishment of the group.

In an interview with Premium Times on Monday, Abdulbasit Suleiman, a co-convener of the NNBA, denied that thedis-invitation of El-Rufai was the reason for creating a faction of the NBA.

He said: “We, the conveners of the new NBA, are not fans of el-Rufai.

“We all have our reservations on el-Rufai’s government. But since you have invited this man, let’s hear from him- for him to answer our questions before we take any action against him.

“Some people wrote a petition against him without giving him a fair hearing. This is against our motto, which is to uphold the rule of law. We did not do that. El-Rufai was not given that opportunity.”

Suleiman said one of the reasons for creating the new association is that the NBA is being run by a “cabal” who do not care about the welfare of the larger population of lawyers.

“Reasons for forming the new NBA are many but the first is that the NBA is being hijacked by some few cabals,” he said.

“NBA activity is just circulating between some few people. We have more than 200,000 registered members in Nigeria but I can tell you authoritatively that less than 100 people are benefiting from the NBA.

“Most of us are not benefiting from the NBA. We are paying our dues, we follow all the rules and regulations but our benefits and interests are not being protected.”

Suleiman said the intention of the group is not to create division but to create a competition for the NBA.

“We are not dividing the bar. We are trying to form an association to create a competition for the NBA,” he said.

“If we have two or more, there will be competing. If we look at developed countries, they have more than one lawyers’ associations. Why must we restrict ourselves to one.”

“As I’m talking to you now, we are still counting. We have more than 5,000 members that have registered with us and we are still counting.

“Starting from tomorrow, some state governments will be receiving our letters, notifying them of the formation.”