28th June, 2012
A Lagos high court sitting in Ikeja, while restraining the Nigerian Bar Association and its officers from carrying on the validation exercise of legal practitioners in Nigeria has declared that Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has no right or duty to regulate the legal profession in Nigeria or validate the records of legal practitioners in Nigeria.
The judgement of the court was sequel to a suit filed before the court by a Lagos lawyer, Barrister Oluwole Kehinde, challenging the power of the NBA, having regard to the provision of sections 2 (1), 3 (1), 4 (1) and 24 (1) of the legal practitioners Act that Nigerian Bar Association has no legal right or duty to regulate the legal profession in Nigeria or validate or verify the records of legal practitioners in Nigeria.
Oluwole submitted that by virtue of section 2 (1) of the legal practitioner Act cap L 11 laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, a person is qualified to practice as a barrister and solicitor in Nigeria if his name is on the roll of legal practitioners and by virtue of section 7 (1), a person is entitled to be enrolled if he is called to the Nigerian Bar by the body of benchers in pursuance of section 4(1) of the Act and produces certificate of call to the Bar to the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court.
Therefore, such a person is entitled to practise law in Nigeria without subsequently submitting himself to any other body, including the NBA for verification or validation of his records for the purposes of any regulation of the legal profession in Nigeria.
Consequently, Oluwole argued that the NBA does not have the legal right or duty to embark on the current exercise whereby lawyers are being made to mandatorily pay a fee and submit their call to bar certificate to the NBA for purposes of verification and validation of their records.
He argued that it would result in establishing a parallel roll or database of legal practitioners, different from the authentic roll with the Supreme Court. This, he contended, would certainly create avoidable confusion and would be prejudicial to lawyers who are unable to meet up with the conditions and timetable set for the so-called verification of records.
He submitted that there is no law in Nigeria that empowers the NBA as a body to verify or validate the records of legal practitioners and, therefore, the exercise by the NBA is illegal, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
Nigerian Bar Association did not enter appearance neither did they file any process in this matter despite being served with the court process.
In her judgement, Justice Opeyemi Oke said: “I have carefully considered the application before me together with the affidavit in support and the written address of the Mr. Oluwole Kehinde and the authorities he cited therein and it is clear that a person is qualified to practise as a barrister and solicitor in Nigeria if his name is on the roll of legal practitioners and a person is entitled to be enrolled if he is called to the Nigerian Bar by the body of Benchers and produces certificate of call to the bar to the chief registrar of the Supreme Court.
“Also, the duty to maintain the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria is vested in the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court.
“The NBA is an association of lawyers and its duties as outlined by its constitution does not include validation and verification of the record of legal practitioners in Nigeria, neither does it entail the regulation of the legal profession in Nigeria. Judgement is hereby entered in favour of the claimant accordingly as per the originating summons and affidavit in support of it.
“Consequently, the call by the NBA for mandatory validation of records of legal practitioners in Nigeria for a fee constitutes a flagrant breach of the statutory role of the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria; it is, therefore, unlawful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”