Driving from Enugu to Owerri with my learned friend to attend to a hearing at the High Court, a Police man at a check point commenced a conversation with me.
Upon discovering that we are lawyers, he asked how much we bought fuel this morning, I said “N720 per litre”.
He asked “is that not expensive?”, and I quickly concurred.
Then he pointed at me and my colleague and said “You people are the problem of this country. You lawyers in the judiciary are the reason why Nigeria is bad like this”. 
You can imagine my shock at such a barefaced accusation against lawyers, from a policeman who had just collected money from the car in front of me.
But you see, we cannot hide from the fact that over the years, that mentality of the policeman is spreading and gaining popularity amongst ordinary Nigerians. It is widely said that “The Judiciary is the last hope of the common man”; but unfortunately the common man now believes that there is no hope for him, and has placed the blame squarely on Lawyers.
The “common man” has no interactions with judges who make the decisions, but lawyers live amongst them, so they can only relate their frustrations against the judiciary and judicial decisions to lawyers.
Many of them do not even understand that there are judges who make decisions and lawyers who plead cases before the judges. They see us, both the bar and the bench as one and the same.
On one occasion during a conversation when we made the point that there is the bar, to which lawyers belong, and the bench, which are the judges who make the decisions, one chap asked a simple question. He asked: “where do the judges come from? Can somebody become a judge without first being a lawyer?”. The answer is obvious. It is from the body of lawyers that judges are selected.
As lawyers, we must begin to understand the climate and the times we are in. We must make a definite finding that we are living in precarious times as lawyers. The legal profession is an Honourable profession, and the only profession tasked with pursuing the cause of justice and the rule of law. The motto is the NBA is “Promoting the rule of law”.
We must understand that there is a sense of disillusionment among the general population of Nigerians with Nigeria. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that the Judiciary (which they only know as Lawyers, mostly) have failed in protecting the interest of Nigerians.
The level of injustice in the country is staggering. Daily, people are going through hell. Oppression, intimidation, hunger, and harsh economic policies have degraded the common man so much that he lacks confidence in himself to even survive. In the midst of these life threatening challenges, they see news of corrupt politicians who loot their common wealth recklessly without mercy, some of whom now pay close to 1 million dollars for the school fees of their children in advance. The common man sees lawyers as being complicit, and co-conspirators with politicians in bringing him to his knees. That would be why a brazenly corrupt policeman would accuse lawyers of being the problem of Nigeria.
If this trend continues, we may get to a point where lawyers will become endangered species. We may get to a point when identifying as a lawyer will expose one to risk.
Back in the day, as kids, lawyers were looked at with admiration. Lawyers were looked at as being close to saints. Everybody wanted to be a lawyer. Parents wanted their kids to be lawyers. Villages celebrated when they got their first lawyers. Lawyers fought for the rights of the common man with boldness, even against military juntas. Lawyers fought hard to protect the fabrics of the Nigerian society and its existence.
Those were the days of the likes of Chief G.C Onyiuke SAN, Prof. Ben Nwabueze SAN; A.N Anyamene SAN; Chief A.O Mogboh SAN; Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN; and of course my Principal Chief Enechi Onyia SAN, OON (of blessed memory).
That was the ilk of lawyers we had then, and under their watch, the Bar was a watchdog for and on behalf of the common man in Nigeria. Today, the testimony, from the point of view of the common man, is entirely different.
This is a wake up call. We must rise up to our calling. We must look at our predecessors and walk in their footsteps. Those esteemed and revered legal giants could walk the streets in any part of the country without fear. They had earned the magnitude of reverence they enjoyed. Today, the lawyer is becoming endangered, viewed as a suspect in all the vicissitudes that have befallen the common man. The common man does not understand that some lawyers are victims too, like themselves.
We must begin to make serious concerted efforts to rescue the Nigerian society, and ourselves. We must find courage to speak up whenever the occasion demands it. We must begin to speak truth to power, and demand that the right things are done at all times. We must be seen to be ferociously fighting to promote the rule of law and the course of justice. That is the only pathway to redemption.
•Emmanuel Onuoha Esq.
Writes from NBA Enugu Branch
