At the inaugural ceremony of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okudanya, SAN, FCIArb. expressed her commitment to strengthening the integrity of the electoral process of the NBA. While acknowledging the controversy that followed the just concluded Bar election, the President was that on the point that the outcome of the election was not fraudulently pre-determined as she worked her to receive the mandate that brought her to the take the top job in the Association.
She however noted that there is need to reform the electoral process. In her words:
I am conscious of the fact that the election which brought us here generated controversy, and that technological difficulties prevented a number of eligible members from exercising their franchise. I do not accept the allegation that the outcome was manipulated or fraudulently pre-determined. I worked hard, took my message to lawyers across the country and received the mandate that has brought me before you today.
But confidence in an election is strengthened, not diminished, when legitimate concerns are examined openly. Our responsibility is not to trade accusations or remain imprisoned a the contest that has ended. It is to ensure that future NBA elections command even greater confidence that they already do among our members.
I will accordingly establish an Electoral Reform Committee, chaired by Dr Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, to undertake a comprehensive examination of our electoral architecture. The Committee will consult widely, receive memoranda and recommend the constitutional, institutional and technological reforms necessary to improve on our existing systems and deliver elections that remain transparent, accessible, secure, auditable and worthy of the Nigerian Bar Association.
Let me make something very clear. Universal suffrage has come to stay. Our task is to make it work better.
I invite my co-contestants, Egbe Amofin O’odua, our regional Bar fora, Branches, past leaders, young and older lawyers and every concerned member to participate constructively in this process. We may disagree about the election that has passed; but let us work together to build more confidence in the elections that lie ahead.
- I implore my co-contestants and members and future contestants to join me and lend their voices to condemning the increasingly distasteful practice of campaign abuse. This unwholesome practice has no place in a noble profession like ours and there will be scant tolerance for it under my watch.
We will deal swiftly and decisively with any lawyer who makes abusive and insulting posts against any colleague, senior or junior. Such lawyers will be reported to the appropriate disciplinary bodies and this will be made vey public, for bringing us all into disrepute in the eyes of the public who look up to us and are increasingly aghast, as all right thinking colleagues are, at the type of language that lawyers employ on social media against other colleagues all in the name of “politics”.
Dr. Prince I. Azubuike
National Publicity Secretary
Nigerian Bar Association
