I have seen the perfidious write-up by Mr. Richard Nwankwo, a senior member and supposed leader in our dear Branch, Ikeja Bar.
By all standards, Mr. Nwankwo is supposed to be an elder and a stakeholder who should be committed to the peace, growth and development of the NBA due to his age at the Bar. Unfortunately, this is only the ideal but not the reality, particularly as his precedents and his latest divisive release has now shown that his interest lies in the entrenchment of negativity and promotion of regression.
Many average members of our Branch were shocked to read Mr. Nwankwo’s letter of lamentations. Shocked not only because his wicked disharmonious call came at a time when the Branch enjoys an unprecedented period of peace which has lasted since the year 2020, but also because it was coming at a very sombre moment in a Branch that is mourning the loss of two of its prominent members in quick succession, one being a former Chairman, the same one Nwankwo hypocritically called his “friend”.
Although I may understand the shock of these average members, but some of us who know the character and person of the author well enough, his selfish and unholy quest for power and relevance as well as his aversion to the advancement of the Branch, are not in the least shocked. It accords with his person that we know.
Mr. Richard Nwankwo has a long history of belly-aching within the Branch. He is a notorious growler. Do not take my word for it, but go through his write-up and do an objective analysis.
In the whole of his 32 paragraphed release, he curiously failed to substantiate any of his grievous allegations which supposedly necessitated his malicious and devilish call for the disintegration of a peaceful Branch. At least, such substantial references would have aided any objective and reasonable reader to consider his points, reason with him and make meaningful deductions therefrom.
However, for reasons that I consider obvious, eh failed to mention even just one person in the “tiny clique of lawyers” that he claims believes “that Ikeja Bar belongs to them exclusively”.
He also failed to give any single instance of any act, event or omission that supports his egregious position that the Branch is in a “shocking and outlandish state of affairs……..propelled by very strong and primitive selfish considerations, often coloured in ethnic garb” (emphasis supplied). To Richard Nwankwo and his little gang of misadvised co-travelers, Ikeja Branch is in an “outlandish state of affairs” JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY SO. Chikena! A Lawyer should have known better, but it is such a shame! The truth is that the situation Mr. Nwankwo struggled to portray does not exist in our own Ikeja Branch. Nwankwo’s release is nothing but a product of deep-seated hatred, tribal bigotry and ethnic irredentism. QED!
Richard Nwankwo, in a shoddy attempt to emotionally blackmail the Branch and then recruit more members into his hate camp, stated inter alia in his highly jaundiced write-up, that “members of other ethnic zones” are now considered “visitors” who are “only considered good for financial contributions …for them to manage, superintend and administer” and not for the “purposes of elections in the Branch …or holding certain positions in the Branch” .
Firstly, facts and figures clearly portray Nwankwo’s outlandish claim to be untrue.
I will provide the true facts below. Secondly, who are the “them” that Nwankwo is referencing as having shut out other ethnic zones only to manage their financial contributions? Your guess is as good as mine. You can see how dangerously this ethnic bigot of a man tried to promote ethnic disharmony within a hitherto peaceful Branch?
For better perspective and for the benefit of the average members of our dear Branch, I will do a brief and objective exposition of the antecedents of Richard Nwankwo and his co-travelers in the Branch. Please stay with me.
Richard Nwankwo is not just an average uninterested or apolitical member of the branch as he struggled to portray himself to be. He is an invested Bar politician who lacks the equanimity to deal with his streak of political losses in the Branch, particularly in the last election where he was one of the chief sponsors of Muna Esegine, Esq.
Mr. Nwankwo is a prominent member of the G-6, a political grouping within the NBA Ikeja Branch. Although Mr Nwankwo once aspired to run on the strength of the G-6 for the Chairmanship position of the Branch, he could not proceed because reports had it then that his group sensed his unmarketability. His manifest vile and uncouthness remain his greatest undoing.
Before I go further, I must ask this: who was schismatic Nwankwo referring to in his write-up as “them”? To my mind, he was simply referring to members of a particular ethnic extraction. Besides, Mr Nwankwo’s allegation of ethnic consideration in the election of members of the Branch Executive is an unfair insult on the collective integrity of the Branch’s voters who freely expressed their individual rights of choice. He has, by this, accused all the voters of the Branch of being ethnically motivated in the exercise of their right to vote for candidates of their choice. The question that we must ask is this: what do you do about the preference of the voters? Only Mr Nwankwo can say!
In the 2018 Branch elections, it was Nwankwo and his G-6 group that fielded Prince Dele Oloke as Chairman against Seyi Olawumi, Esq. and Adejare Kembi, respectively. Prince Dele Oloke won, of course. Also in that election, Roseline Obakolor, Chinedu Ifezue, Uju Okeke also ran and won as Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Financial Secretary respectively on the ticket of Nwankwo’s G-6. This was just six years ago and Nwankwo did not have a reason to complain.
Between 2018 and 2020, G-6 ran rudderless and ruthless in the Branch with its Prince Dele Oloke, Esq as Chairman.
From what I recall, it was two whole years of bitterness, fights, acrimony and disharmony in the Branch. It was during that period that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission desecrated our hallowed Bar Centre when they came to arrest a former Chairman on the invitation of members of the G-6.
In the 2020 Branch election, the candidates on the ballot for the position of Chairman were Bartholomew Aguegbodo, Esq., Dan Okoye, Esq., Mandy Azagba, Esq., Terry Badmus and Akeem Aponmade, Esq. For this same Nwankwo who is now maliciously wailing and falsely alleging ethnic alienation, the candidate of choice for him and his group was not one of the non-Yoruba persons. In fact, he was the Director-General of one of the two candidates of South-Western origin. The reason is not far-fetched.
I must state very emphatically that it is a fact that in Ikeja Branch, competence is the primary consideration for clinching elective positions rather than other primordial considerations. That, to my mind, is the hallmark of any standard democratic setting.
Even though there has been no form of exclusion of any group, I must also say that in exceptional situations where copious facts c a n e s t a b l i s h that certain groups in a political setting are politically disadvantaged, efforts are usually concentrated around advocacy to highlight the exclusion, push for equitably level playing ground, sensitize members of the excluded group to engender interest and participation, and, most importantly, mobilize the electorate to garner support towards electoral victory. In a democracy, power is never served a-la-carte. If Mr. Nwankwo would be truthful to his conscience, no ethnic group is provided with any special advantage platform, preference or undue opportunity in our political setting in Ikeja Branch. 
The Aguegbodo-led Exco marked the beginning of a new turn for peace, order, progress and steady development which the Branch has since witnessed up till today. It is this status quo that Mr. Nwankwo and his gang are now seeking ruthlessly and maliciously to disrupt, not via any democratic means but via blackmail, fear-mongering, tear-jerking and his highly immoral ethnic baiting. Without a doubt, he has failed. Peace will continue to reign in Ikeja by the grace of God.
In the 2022 election, for the number 2 position of Vice-Chairman (a Vice- Chairman is a likely or potential Chairman in the event of the resignation, elevation to the bench or other circumstances necessitating the unavailability of the Chairman), the Candidates on the ballots were Tracy Amadigwe-Dike and Olasunkanmi Fasule. Rather than supporting Tracy, a South-Easterner from Imo State, guess the candidate of choice for Nwankwo the, newfound ethnic champion, and his G- 6? Olasunkanmi Fasule. Ordinarily, that would have been a commendable act of unity and civility where a Candidate is chosen not on the basis of ethnic considerations, but on the conviction of capacity, but Mr. Nwankow’s motive was different. The question that will agitate any objective mind would be, if Nwankwo was truly and genuinely concerned about the exclusion of those he has mischievously and disrespectfully tagged “visitors” in Ikeja, how come he continued to work for their defeat at the polls, even when they were standing election against candidates from the same tribe he has chosen to unjustly profiled as “ they” in his evil write- up? M r . Nwankwo is fighting his own fight which he is shamelessly disguising as a fight for the non-Yorubas in the Branch.
He knows this and he knows the very dire consequences of the narrative he is seeking to push in the Branch. Does he care? Of course not!
In the recently concluded Branch elections held in June 2024, there were four candidates on the ballots for the Chairmanship position. Only one of them, Adeniyi Quadri, was of the Yoruba stock. Muna Esegine, the Matriarch of G-6 was Nwankwo’s candidate. In a historic election that has been nationally and internationally reputed as setting a new precedent in transparency, openness and fairness in the conduct of elections throughout the Nigerian Bar Association community, the electorate (consisting of all tribes and races from across the Country) overwhelmingly elected Adeniyi Quadri who won the election by a wide margin of votes that dwarfed the combined votes of the three other candidates. Over what then is Nwankwo’s problem with the democratic and free expression of the choices of the electorate? Would he had rather that his candidate be appointed, selected or simply handed the Chairmanship of the Branch without an election? Is he alleging that the epoch- making election was rigged? What exactly is his grouse? Of course he will not say but I believe that any objective mind will now see through his evil agenda. Nwankwo and his co-travelers have only one agenda and that agenda is to promote ethnic strife in the Branch as way of blackmailing the Branch into handing the reins of power to himself and his few co-conspirators through the backdoor, without a fair contest. While I am not in opposition to the freedom of any group of people to seek to Associate in any form they desire to, Nwankwo knows quite well that the fictitious Ikeja Branch 2 he is touting is a ruse, a selfishly motivated false consideration by a group of sore losers who confuse a deadweight for a lifebuoy.
All he has said in his junk of a release are lies and nothing but cheap lies. What an immoral, lazy way to play politics!
In Ikeja Branch presently, there is nothing like ethnic alienation or division. In the composition of Committees which is by appointments of the Executive Committee, due consideration have always been given to the various sections within the Branch, both tribe and gender considerations. I challenge anybody with contrary facts to provide t h e m . In elections, the beauty of any democratic experiment is the freedom of choice and to that end, no willing aspirant is ever barred, prevented or otherwise prevented from seeking any political office on the basis of tribe, race or gender. While respective political groups may exercise their prerogatives to present or support any candidate based on any of these considerations if they so wish, there is no system in Ikeja that prevent any body from seeking any office they wish to vie for, so long as they meet the criteria set by the Uniform Bye-Laws and the Constitution of the NBA.
Let’s not be unmindful of the fact that Richard Nwankwo is not alone in this self- destructive voyage, however. He has some co-travelers but they are quite few. Time will reveal them one after the other. As for now, I openly but quite respectfully challenge Mrs. Muna Esegine, Esq. to state where she stands in all these Ikeja Bar 2 drama within the next 24 hours. My challenge is premised on the fact that Richard Nwankwo is not only her political associate and ally in the same G-6 camp, but he was also a prominent member of her Campaign Organisation. Just in case she would retort that she does not owe me such a duty, I remind her ahead of time that she owes not only me but the members of Ikeja Branch before whom she stood to seek votes some few weeks back that duty. She is a stakeholder and a former officer of the Branch too.
As for Nwankwo, Ikeja Bar is not ready for his vile and bitterness. He must however be warned that some of us are ready to curb his fire and fury with finesse and facts; but with appropriate equal reaction where necessary. We have stayed for far too long in the wilderness and we will not allow anybody to take us back there. We will not allow him … . I repeat … . we will NEVER allow him and his gang to plunge Ikeja into another round of crisis. Ikeja Branch is a home to Hausas, Igbos, Yorubas, Ijaws, Ibibios, Kanuris, Efiks, Tivs, Igalas, Binis, Itshekiris and members of any of the approximately 250 tribes in Nigeria. The only criteria for membership and political participation are as contained in the NBA Constitution and the Bye-Laws for Branches. By the way, Richard Nwankwo’s office is at Ologolo in Eti-Osa Judicial Division. If he wants to put his Branch destabilization tendency into means adapted to its fulfilment, he should manifest it inside his Ologolo office.
Richard Nwankwo has his options before him and I will advise him to take them in peace rather than expose himself to further ridicule. He may either quietly proceed to any other Branch of his choice or form the Ologolo Bar Forum and promote it for eventual registration as a branch. Since Nwankwo has continuously exhibited his penchant for creating chaos, an attitude borne out of overrated sense of self-importance, he should freely exercise his right to freedom of Association by exiting peacefully. He should not disturb the quiet in the Branch while at that. Ikeja Branch is one and only one.
For us in Ikeja Bar, we shall continue to strive for a continuously united Branch where everyone is given the sense of belonging regardless of race, gender or religion. We believe in and will continue to fight for a Branch where a Yaro from Sokoto can contest and win elections against an Adedayo from Ogun State; an Ero from Delta State can contest and win Election against an Attah from Benue and a Hajara from Kwara State can contest and win election against an Efosa from Edo State. A Branch where leaders are elected only on the strength of their demonstrated leadership qualities and abilities, the clarity of their ideas and the soundness of their manifestoes and value propositions for the Branch. We have no more place for the divisive inclinations of the likes of Richard Nwankwo who have worked to keep the Branch backward for far too long.
We say NO MORE TO STRIFE AND DIVISION. BIGOTRY HAS NO PLACE HERE ANYMORE.
©️KAYODE ELUDOYIN, ESQ.
