I have a confession to make: I wanted to be a writer. One day, I was watching Nigerian Television Authority Network News when Chief Gani Fawehimin SAN made a judge to recuse himself in a matter that borders on failed bank issues because he said to the Judge:
“My Lord, you are the complainant, My Lord, you the investigator, My Lord, the Prosecutor and My Lord, the Judge.”
It was a delightful show of advocacy, and that made me decide to be a lawyer. When I got to the University of Benin, my then Dean, now Professor Tony Ogiamen warned us to follow the precedent we met. We were taught to follow our turn at all times.
At the Annual General Conference of the NBA in Abuja, Augustine Oyarekhua Alegeh, SAN FCIarb UK, who was the Chairman of a Session told the Governors, who were present and were also awyers that : “You will sit according to your seniority at the Bar.”
Things are not the same again. For some of the new wigs, it is now “Ten over Ten.” You will find a new wig having a law firm in his name on the day of his call to Bar. Does it mean he incorporated the law firm while in law school or was he a lawyer in his former life?
You can be anything in Nigeria. When it gets to law, you have to take your turn and wait for your time. Law is not showbiz. It does not conform to razzmatazz. In the legal profession, you must serve. Service is the fulcrum of rising in the legal profession.
A scenario, when a person that is less than a year at the Bar is sitting at the front roll with Senior Advocates of Nigeria, while lawyers who have had 5 decades at the Bar are sweating at the back, is an affront on the noblest of all noble professions in the world.
Also, all these new wigs should by themselves know that law is not showbiz. They should look for their place at the back.
The tradition at the Bar is time honoured. The Legal Practitioners Act is clear on the order of precedence for lawyers.
Social Media Popularity or political leverage has no place in placing the precedence of lawyers.
The legal profession is the only thing we have left. We will not surrender it to vagaries of expedient friendship.
We were here when they chose to be lawyers. Having become lawyers, they must conform to our rules.
A case where a lawyer less than a year at the bar is openly abusing a life bencher on legal issues on social media videos is completely unacceptable. It must not be allowed to happen.
You don’t throw bread to pigs.
Hon Justice Mohammed Uwais (CJN) as he then was said to us: “As lawyers, we live a subdued lifestyle, devoid of drama and free from controversies.”
We must defend our profession from invasive intruders masquerading as lawyers.
This is the most respected profession in Nigeria. We can not trade it off to some rookies, who in the legal profession, are butterflies that think themselves as birds.
About the Author:
Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., is the Convener of Vanguard for the Independence of the Judiciary.
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