Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN, the the 31st president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), was elected with 22,342 votes out of 34,564 valid votes cast, to defeat Joe-Kyari Gadzama, SAN and Jonathan Taidi.
This landslide victory came with it, great expectations that YC as he is fondly called, will hit the ground running.
But one year after, has this expectation among others been met?
Most lawyers we spoke to, expressed disappointment with the YC administration and insisted that the vigor and passion they say during YC’s campaign, has not been translated into his administration of NBA.
Some shared their opinion on what went wrong.
Looting of Conference Material.
Y.C.Maikyau OON, SAN started his administration with a baggage from his predecessor, Olumide Akpata, Esq. The AGC held in Lagos, ended in a fiasco over vandalization of conference material collecting Centre and looting of materials. Olumide Akpata consistently vowed that protestors will be prosecuted by his successor. YC Maikyau, fail into this trap and set up a Committee to look into the looting. The Committee indicted innocent lawyers, who were captured in CCTV footage, not looting or vandalizing but mere passing by. These lawyers threatened to sue the Registered Trustee of NBA. As at press time, nobody had been prosecuted but the poor handling of the situation, chipped off some of the pre-election popularity of YC Maikyau.
Another baggage from Olumide Akpata that sent YC’s administration on a crash course, was the Olanipekun saga.
Chief Wale Olanipekun SAN’s firm was accused of professional misconduct over the actions of a partner in his firm.
NBA under Olumide Akpata, petitioned LPDC to determine the possible culpability of Chief Olanipekun and other partners of the law firm, although the chambers had distanced themselves from Ms Ogunde’s conduct.
Apart from this, NBA asked Chief Olanipekun to resign as Chairman Body of Benchers.
YC continued this “fight” and BoB, dug in, stood by their chairman and refused to admit Olumide Akpata into their midst as a member. This embarrassment further wobbled YC’s popularity and people started distancing themselves from him.
It came to a head, with the Assistant Secretary, signing the Communique of the first YC Chaired NEC. The red flag went up too early, that all is not well within YC’s team. What could be the problem?Exco members started leaning and weeping on any shoulder that cares to be available that, that YC Maikyau, is not allowing them to function and deliver the campaign promises as contained in their manifesto.
The Exco we learnt, are bubbling like active volcano and may erupt into full blown rebellion soon, as most of them are eying vying for one post or the other, come 2024.
Law Society Of Nigeria
After the election, the losers, attempted to revive a rival association to the NBA called Law Society of Nigeria. Like a king whose kingdom is threatened with balkanization, YC Maikyau went on the offensive and many opined that, he was too bullish in his approach, particularly his infamous position against Nimi Walson-Jack, whom NEC resolved that, “for acting as a Solicitor to the promoters of the new Law Society be stripped of his privileges as past General Secretary and consequently, be suspended from being a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Association.”
2023 General Election.
While the 2023 General Election was yet to be concluded; while the NBA Election Monitors/Observers were yet to send in their reports, YC Maikyau went on air to score INEC above 80% success in the manner it conducted the election. This brought the reputation of the NBA to abysmal low.
Lawyers fearing backlash from the public, quickly disassociated themselves from NBA’s position on INEC’s conduct of the election.
It is not all knocks for the YC administration in the past one year. NBA under him, has bared its fangs against actions, comments by anybody, particularly politicians who sought to discredit the judiciary or make a mess of the court.
Former Women Affairs Minister, Pauline Tallen, took a direct hit for her comment referring to a court as kangaroo. NBA sued her and prayed that she should not be allowed to hold any public office again.
YC has consistently and punctually reached out to colleagues in distress, personally calling and consoling bereaved ones. He was personally in court and engaged the Lagos Commissioner of Police over the Christmas eve murder of Bolanle.
On a scale of 1-10, lawyers while longing for improvement in this last lap, have scored his administration 8.75.
To track YC’s performance, get a copy of his campaign manifesto; Dynamic Bar and tick off as he performs or underperforms as we head into the final lap of his administration.
The verdict out there is, YC is lost in office and have not lived up to his pre-Election posturing as warrior philosopher, who was coming to restore the dignity and image of NBA before Nigerians.Below are 10 points agenda culled from the Dynamic Bar Manifesto of YC Maikyau and you are at liberty to tick off the ones he has met in this past 1 year.
1.Access To Credit. “My administration will actively engage with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding the classification of law firms as Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to enable them benefit from fundings available to SMEs through the CBN.”
2. Stamp and Seal
The ultimate objective of my administration would be to move to a safe and secure electronic stamp system. In the meantime, we will continue with the current policy of issuing 48 free stamps to members.
3. Young Lawyers
We will prioritise young lawyers from day one and provide funding for their activities to enable achieve their goals. We shall strengthen the YLF and strategically position the young lawyers for leadership succession through participation in the activities of the NBA and appointments into committees.
4.STATE OF THE NATION
We will make consistent calls on the Government to show demonstrable commitment and increased investment in the National security, in order to contain the menace of security challenges.
5. We will recover, reform and reposition the NBA as an Association fit to compete with any reputable Bar Association around the world. We will run the association and make the members’ welfare and satisfaction the priority of our administration.
