General Bar Council Meets Today

The General Bar Council (Bar Council), will today 29th November, meet to deliberate on the affairs of the NBA.
Venue: Abuja Continental Hotel, Abuja (formerly Sheraton Hotel,
An informed source, stated that the fiasco that happened at the just concluded NBA-AGM, is top on the agenda.
He further stated that the NBA has remained dysfunctional since the epic accusations against the NBA by some Exco members were made at the floor of the AGM.
COMPOSITION OF THE GCB.
By virtue of Section 1(2) of the Legal Practitioners Act (LPA), the GCB is composed of the following:
i. The Attorney General of the Federation who shall be the President of the Council
ii. The Attorneys General of the States and
iii. 20 Members of the NBA and not less than 7 of them shall be legal practitioners of not less than 10 years standing.
FUNCTIONS OF BAR COUNCIL.  
Section 1(1) of the Legal Practitioners Act (LPA), CAP L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 (“Legal Practitioners Act”) states;  “There shall be a body to be known as the General Council of the Bar (in this Act referred to as “the Bar Council”) which shall be charged with the general management of the affairs of the Nigerian Bar Association (subject to any limitations for the time being provided by the constitution of the Association) and with any functions conferred on the Council by this Act or that constitution.” Article 7(1) (a) – (d) of the NBA Constitution 2021 (as amended), the powers of the General Council of the Bar shall not include:
i.) Any control over the budget or finances of the NBA;
ii.) The power to appoint representatives of the NBA to any statutory, executive/judicial or other bodies;
iii.) The power to issue any statement purporting to express the views of NBA on matters of public interest or matters affecting the legal provision generally;
iv.) The power to make any arrangements whatsoever (including the drawing up of an agenda or choice of venue) for the annual general conference or any other general meeting of NBA.
Article 7(2) of the NBA Constitution, “if at any time, due to unavoidable circumstances or any emergency, an election cannot be held at the appropriate time or the National Executive Council is incapable of functioning, the General Council of the Bar shall be convened with powers to constitute a 10-member caretaker committee of members of the Association to run the affairs of the Association for not more than the unexpired tenure of the National Officers or until when new National Officers shall be elected.
Thus, if the Bar Council exercises its power to constitute a Committee of NBA Members to run NBA affairs in emergency or unavoidable circumstances, the limitations provided in Articles 7(1) of the NBA Constitution will not apply.

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