By Lawal Ogienagbon
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) was almost torn by internal strife in 1984. The crisis was not over who presides over the pressure group’s affairs, it had to do with the appearance of its members before the tribunals set up by the military regime of Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as he then was.
The bar then led by Prince Bola Ajibola, who died on April 9, resolved that lawyers should not appear before the tribunals because they were headed by military officers. But one lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, openly kicked against the NBA resolution. Fawehinmi as a staunch fighter against corruption felt that it was wrong of NBA to take that stand when the issue at stake was graft.
He said he would appear before the tribunals to help them in their work to recover public funds from corrupt politicians. Since no one could be bigger than his group, Fawehinmi was suspended from NBA. Concerned lawyers and judges waded in to resolve the dispute, all to no avail. It went to court and Fawehinmi won that case which is today cited as Fawehinmi versus NBA.
The legal dispute was just the beginning of the matter. A bigger fight was yet to come. The court case set the tone for it. The NBA, it seemed, never forgot the role of Ajibola, its former president in the military tribunals’ saga.
It put him on ‘trial’ over the matter years after his uncompleted tenure, which ended abruptly in 1985 after his appointment as Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation by military leader, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. It all happened at the NBA Annual General Conference held on the then one and only Nigerian Law School (NLS) campus in Lagos in 1989.
By then, the irrepressible Alao Aka-Bashorun had become NBA president. It was during his valedictory bar conference that Ajibola’s ‘trial’ took place. The auditorium of the NLS was filled the day he appeared at the conference to, as he put it, ‘defend himself’. Not many lawyers had expected him to come. That Ajibola was there says a lot about his courage and character. He shocked many of his “learned friends” by turning up at the well-attended conference. All the radicals of the bar were there. After all, it was the occasion for one of them, Aka-Bashorun, to showcase his stewardship.
Aka-Bashorun, some lawyers are wont to say even up till today, was the last NBA president! They may be right. After his tenure, NBA became a shadow of itself. It became closer to the government and less concerned about happenings in the society, contrary to the credo of the first Nigerian lawyer, Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams that: “a lawyer lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country”.
The bar’s disagreement over the military tribunals exposed it to the larger society and the dispute threatened its existence for long, even after Ajibola’s appearance at the 1989 NBA conference. Will Ajibola come or not? The argument went back and forth among lawyers. Traditionally, the attendance of the attorney-general (AG) at the bar conference is a given. As the nation’s chief law officer, it will not bode well if the occupant of the office, at any point in time, does not show solidarity with his constituency during its most important event.
Ajibola’s appearance threw the NLS into bedlam. The din was earshattering. Some heckled him, some cheered him and some just watched bemused. Ajibola himself was a spectacle to behold as he took his seat in the hall. Every other thing ceased as he became the focus of attention. The underlying issue, which was mentioned in whispers, was that he sold out as NBA president in order to become AG.
Then, it was time for him to speak. Ajibola cleared his throat and thanked the NBA leadership for inviting him. He said he was aware of all the talks about his position on the military tribunals. He wondered why he was being blamed for the NBA resolution on the issue. “How can the NBA resolution be Bola Ajibola’s resolution? I was only a servant carrying out the directives of my masters. If I didn’t implement it, the same people now accusing me would be the first to say I am afraid of confronting the government”, Ajibola said to a standing ovation.
In the twinkling of an eye, he had won many of his traducers to his side. The ovation was deafening. When members of the audience saw that he was not done yet, they kept silent. It was obvious that Ajibola came prepared, to appeal to the sense of reasoning of his colleagues, as he called them.
“Dear colleagues, I have been called names and crucified, without being given an opportunity to defend myself. I don’t think that is fair. As lawyers, we must always uphold the principle of ‘audi alteram partem’ (hear from the other side). How can I be condemned without being heard? The NBA cannot be the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge in its own case”. That was the clincher and the whole hall rose on their feet, clapping. Needless to say that he was discharged and acquitted.
A few years later, NBA became enmeshed in a leadership crisis, which it is just recovering from. For the bar, its glorious past may yet return, if it continues in its rediscovery path and takes to heart the Sapara Williams’ credo of service to humanity. Ajibola lived the credo. May he find rest in Allah’s bosom.
