By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS)
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of *dignity and discipline* .We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence”
-Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”,August 28, 1963.
The leadership (National Officers) and administrative staff (Executive Director, and ICT and Secretary) of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) have conducted themselves with utmost “dignity and discipline”.
The NLS “dignity and discipline” in the face of unrelenting attacks and illegal provocation by the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is something that students of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) are supposed to use as a case study of exemplary leadership and team work.
From the date December 2023, when a Federal High Court in Abuja gave a favourable judgment in favour of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) ordering the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) in compliance with Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 (as altered), it has been one attack after another.
The Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and who was supposed to apply legally approved methods, refused and resorted to extra-judicial methods such as publishing DEFAMATORY comments against the NLS on both social media and traditional newspapers.
In accordance with it’s principled “dignity and discipline”, the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) refused to respond in kind by engagingin a social media war. Instead, it submitted it’s complaints to the courts of law which were already handling the appeal filed by the same CAC and the NBA.
When these social media methods did not achieve the desired results, the Registrar-General of the CAC, then resorted to writing petitions against the NLS to law enforcement agencies such as the Department of State Security Services (DSS), Police and even the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) requesting them to shut down the website and other operations of the NLS. NITDA is on record as refusing by telling the Registrar-General of the CAC that only a court of law can give an Order to that effect.
With their characteristic “dignity and discipline” the Executive Director of the NLS personally went to the DSS and Nigerian Police to respond by Submission of both written and oral evidence, to all these petitions by the Registrar-General of CAC.
Even though some members of the National Officers of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) also have connections within the Nigerian Police and other law enforcement agencies, and could have “unleashed” such law enforcement agencies upon the Registrar-General of the CAC, the NLS resisted the temptation of returning “fire-for-fire”. Instead they chose the path of “dignity and discipline” by reporting all these harassment to the courts of law and the National Human Rights Commission by a visit to the Executive Secretary.
They also paid a visit to the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to formally notify him of the illegal actions of the Registrar-General of the CAC.
All these foregoing, points to the maturity of the National officers of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS). This maturity cannot be attributed to only one person alone namely Mela Nunge, SAN, who currently serves as the President of the NLS. It is a result of the collective maturity displayed by all the National Officers of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) who came on board sometime in July 2024.
It is not as if everything is smooth sailing or there are no challenges within the Nigerian Law Society (NLS), however they have managed to manage their egos and internal revolts internally without bringing it into the public domain.
To the contrary, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is recently embroiled in an internal revolt at it’s Rivers State branches that has now spilled into the public domain.
The crux of the matter is that the eight Chairpersons of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) branches wrote a letter to disassociate themselves from the decision of the headquarters of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) whom they accused of not caring them along as Local Organising Committee (LOC) in the forthcoming NBA national conference due to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
In opposition to the letter written by the said 8 Chairpersons of the NBA in Rivers State, another group of lawyers have written a disclaimer that the said 8 Chairpersons of the NBA branches of Rivers State do not represent the views of the majority of lawyers in Rivers State.
This recent crisis speaks volumes, it shows that the leadership style of the NBA is bereft of democratic ideals and lacks both the “dignity and discipline” and amicable dispute resolution methods that are the now the characteristic trademarks of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
Roll over NBA, welcome the Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
Perhaps it is time that the national officers, EXCO members of the headquarters of the NBA and all it’s chairpersons from the 218 NBA branches should attend a seminar on leadership style to be delivered by the national officers of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS)!!!!