Will NBA now sheathe the sword with the completion of Chief Wole Olanipekun’s tenure as chair of the Body of Benchers? LANRE ADEWOLE and SUNDAY EJIKE examine the nuances of a year-long battle.
Last week Thursday, frontline Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Wole Olanipekun bowed out as the 50th chairman of the Body of Benchers; the body of practitioners of the highest distinction in the legal profession. The sectoral applause was resounding, for achievements considered to be unprecedented, including the completion of practically-abandoned multi-billion Naira Abuja headquarters of the Body, committing President Muhammadu Buhari to increase in salaries of judicial officers, financial independence for state judiciary, among many others. For stakeholders, it was a glittering tenure.
But it was also a tenure blighted by an unending acrimony between the respected Chief and two successive leaderships of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); the current and the immediate.
Immediate President of the Bar, Olumide Akpata, had sought, with no success, to force Chief Olanipekun out of office, due to a scandalous influence-peddling move by his now-former partner, Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde. The Body stood behind its embattled chairman, despite Akpata’s best effort and Olanipekun stayed on.
Then Akpata’s ally and protege, incumbent Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), succeeded his friend and patron as NBA President and sustained the war of attrition against Olanipekun and his leadership of the BoB.
In an infamous letter to the Body, seeking to oust Olanipekun, Maikyau accused the members of the illustrious congregation, which includes the Chief Justice of Nigeria, his predecessors-in-office among other respected legal titans, of playing the ostrich, sparking a sectoral outrage.
Calling on the members to kick Olanipekun out, over the misconduct of his partner, Maikyau said, “I am fully persuaded, if this approach (forcing Olanipekun to step down) is approved and adopted by this Body, it will mark the dawn of a new day for the Legal Profession in Nigeria and the eminent and distinguished members of this Body would have individually and collectively vindicated themselves from the negative insinuations and narrative created in the minds of the Nigerian public.”
BoB again, stood behind his chairman, but held an extraordinary meeting earlier in the year, which sources in attendance, described as stormy. Nigerian Tribune also gathered from a senior member who wasn’t present at the said meeting, that the minutes from the meeting also recorded the peace effort, as stormy.
The battle-line.
While the infraction of Ms. Ogunde is put forward to the public as the altruistic purpose of the current NBA leadership for going after Olanipekun, findings by Nigerian Tribune revealed there are likely personal issues, surrounding the unending call for the termination of his BoB headship, before the tenure of the Silk, ended last week.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that in a January 2023 application, Maikyau as NBA President had requested membership of BoB for his immediate predecessor, Akpata, which wasn’t unusual in itself as Akpata, is deemed qualified by his headship of the Bar. The application was rejected by Olanipekun’s leadership. That was before Maikyau’s letter to BoB members, asking them to force Olanipekun out.
There are two versions to the rejection story. One, is that the secretary of the Body, upon receiving the NBA request, simply escalated it to the appointment committee, without running it through the chairman, an alleged aberration for which Olanipekun reportedly queried the secretary. The appointment committee reportedly considered the application and found it inchoate. As requested by statutory laws guiding the process, the curriculum vitae (CV) of the applicant must be attached to the application, which wasn’t the case in the request submitted by Maikyau.
Though some senior members found the rejection excuse curious because Akpata is known to all the sector’s stakeholders as a former Bar president, but everyone agreed that the request should be resubmitted and proper procedure, followed.
Akpata’s membership request returned with his CV pinned to it, but the BoB leadership would still not consider it, this time, pointing out that NBA was owing in its statutory financial duties to the body, during Akpata’s headship and no application from the Bar, would be considered until the debt, is paid.
Those who do not believe that Olanipekun was blindsided by the BoB secretary and the appointment committee disputed the claim, alleging that, the immediate chairman, aided by a former President of the Court of Appeal, who once ruled the National Judicial Coumcil, like a colossus, masterminded the rejection of Maikyau’s request for Akpata.
To buttress their claim that Olanipekun and other senior members of the body were against Akpata coming into the fold, possibly due to his unrelenting move to ease Olanipekun out over Ms. Ogunde’s misconduct, Nigerian Tribune was told that despite the reported debt NBA owed to BoB, two other senior lawyers up for consideration the same time Akpata’s application was filed by Maikyau, were admitted, leaving only the former NBA president, out, in the cold.
This alleged bias was said to have rankled Maikyau and the development was widely believed to have been the proverbial last straw in the crisis of confidence between the two institutions.
Nigerian Tribune was further told that even when Maikyau expressed his readiness to pay on the spot whatever amount NBA is owed to BoB, to clear the path to Akpata’s membership, the Body of Benchers, would not be definite, reportedly promising, to reach the Bar with requisite correspondence on the debt.
Olanipekun left the Akpata membership brouhaha behind, yet to be resolved.
Divided they stand.
A very senior member of the BoB told Nigerian Tribune that at the stormy peace meeting where Maikyau’s letter against Olanipekun, was to be considered, the NBA president was roundly condemned, because of the choice of words, employed in pitching his case for Olanipekun’s ouster, to the members. Apart from the fact that his letter was reportedly not considered, a vote of confidence was said to have been passed on the Olanipekun leadership. The fact that the Ogundegate had been investigated by the statutory bodies in the justice system, with Olanipekun being in the all-clear, is said to have been the argument of pro-Olanipekun camp, to prove that Maikyau was playing ethnic card, to rid the prestigious office of a Yoruba man. If the Olanipekun-must-go agenda of the NBA had succeeded, Mary Odili, a former Supreme Court, who is the new chairman of the body, would have taken over, as the then vice chairman.
At the said meeting, heavyweight members of the body, like former CJNs, who are Life Benchers, reportedly asked rhetorically if they were the ones being referred to as playing ostrich in Maikyau’s letter. The NBA president was said to have lost a lot of goodwill ground to the aggressive tone of his letter and the combative words, he chose in making his point. After his vindication by the Body, Olanipekun reportedly took a victory lap against Maikyau, reminding him of their long-standing working relationship and how the Bar president had always called him a honourable man until the application to admit Akpata as a member, came up.
At his send forth dinner, Olanipekun, still referenced the botched NBA putsch, to oust him, noting that the NBA has no power to ask a sitting chairman of the Body of Benchers to recuse self.
The Ekiti high chief also acknowledged that the BoB is peopled by the best in the legal profession in the country, while thanking members for their support during his tenure. “What is life about? We all pray that we end well. I started well a year ago as the Chairman, Body of Benchers, and I have ended well. I am at peace with myself and I pray that God will be at peace with me” he said to the gathering that included the governor of his state, Abiodun Oyebanji.
In what Olanipekun’s supporters would further latch on in locking-up their conviction, that the NBA leadership was pursuing a personal agenda against their man, the Maikyau-led exco, still aimed a last-minute victory over the Silk, as it tried to stop the new vice chairman of the Body, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, seen as an ally of Olanipekun, from enjoying what should have been a statutory promotion on seniority basis, though this time, the NBA “rebels” could not be accused of ethnic agenda, because the person proposed to jump over Awomolo, is another Yoruba seasoned lawyer.
According to BoB register, Chief Awomolo is next to the new chair; Odili, followed by Chief Albert Akpomudje SAN, then Mrs Funke Adekoya, Dr Olisa Agbakoba SAN, and Chief J.B Daudu SAN in that order of seniority, compelling that the Osun-born SAN, should take the position vacated by Odili.
But Maikyau and his men, would not give up without a fight. In a letter dated March 27, the Bar leadership nominated Mrs Adekoya for the post.
The letter which was unveiled at the meeting of the BoB, read in part: “I am delighted to inform you that the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA-NEC), at its meeting held on 23 March 2023, in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, unanimously approved the nomination of Mrs Funke Adekoya, SAN (Life Bencher) as the NBA representative for the position of Vice Chairman of the Body of Benchers upon the exit of the current Chairman, Chief Wole Olanipekun, OFR, CFR, SAN. A copy of the NBA-NEC resolution is attached for your reference;
“The nomination is in recognition of her impeccable record, exemplary conduct, and contributions to the development of the legal profession in Nigeria.
“NBA-NEC acknowledged the invaluable role she has played as a quintessential Bar leader who is always committed to raising the standard of legal practice and uniting the Bar. A copy of her Curriculum Vitae is attached;
“Kindly bring this nomination to the attention of the Chairman and members of the Body”.
24 hours to Olanipekun’s exit, Nigerian Tribune was informed by a top source that the Birnin-Kebbi Resolution, would be soundly defeated despite NBA having 30 slots in BoB.
The prediction was a bull’s eye, as Awomolo was unanimously endorsed as VP, expected to take over from Odili on March 30, 2024, marking another win for the Body and his immediate chairman.
The Body of Benchers is composed of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (Life Bencher) and all the Justices of the Supreme Court, President of the Court of Appeal, the Attorney General of the Federation, Presiding Justices of the Court of Appeal divisions, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, the Chief Judge of the FCT, the Chief Judges of all the States, Attorneys General of all the States, the Chairman of the Council of Legal Education, 30 legal practitioners nominated by the NBA and not more than 10 legal practitioners who appear to the Body of Benchers to be eminent legal practitioners of not less than 15 years post call.
NBA seems poised to shake things up in BoB. The question is, how long can it be resisted?
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