First half of the article
MY original intention this week was to discuss a different subject. Record-breaking heatwaves are increasing demand for cooling, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to warn of mounting pressure on electricity systems. I intended to argue that Nigeria must urgently treat grid restructuring and coordinated distributed energy systems as national priorities for affordable electricity, cooling, industry and economic development. Events, however, have compelled me to postpone that discussion.
Last week, I wrote about the shameful Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential election and asked whether Nigerian lawyers could effectively guard Nigeria’s democracy if they could not convincingly guard the integrity of their own professional election. My argument was never merely about the NBA election. It was about the extraordinary influence the legal profession exercises over the Nigerian state. Lawyers shape constitutional interpretation, prosecute crimes, advise governments, and litigate or adjudicate election petitions that often determine political power because the legal profession occupies both the Bar and the Bench. The NBA is therefore one of Nigeria’s most consequential democratic institutions. Yet, reports indicate that neither the president-elect nor some of her principal opponents cast their own votes. Worse still, no one knows whether the litigation over the election will outlive the NBA President-elect’s two-year tenure.
Since that column was published, I have received several messages from lawyers, including one purportedly attributed to a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. In it, he lamented the conduct of the NBA election and made a startling observation: “Honestly speaking, I have since come to the conclusion that the NBA as presently constituted is irredeemable.” He questioned reports that candidates spend billions of naira to lead a professional association, pay practising fees for colleagues, sponsor hotel accommodation, finance branch activities and conduct campaigns resembling political elections. He also alleged that some candidates enjoyed financial backing from federal and state governments. Whether those allegations are proven remains to be seen. When a lawyer of that stature reaches such a conclusion, Nigerians should pause and reflect.
Against this backdrop, the visit of the President-elect of the NBA to President Bola Tinubu has naturally generated public discussion. The NBA’s leadership should maintain both the reality and appearance of independence from the political executive for the health of our democracy. What should Nigeria do when one of its foremost Senior Advocates concludes that the NBA is “irredeemable”?
The monopoly of justice
The NBA is more than a professional association. Lawyers defend constitutional liberties, challenge executive excesses, prosecute crimes, protect private rights and interpret the laws upon which society rests. The Attorney-General of the Federation and all 36 Attorneys-General must be lawyers. When such an institution experiences an internal crisis of confidence, Nigerians cannot afford to dismiss it as merely an association quarrel. It becomes a societal concern.
These events reinforce a central argument in Chapter 8 of my forthcoming book, The Unfinished Nigerian Project: Rule of Law or Rule of Lawyers? A Case for Adopting a Jury System.
My concern has never been that lawyers are less ethical than engineers, doctors, accountants or teachers. Rather, it is that Nigeria has concentrated extraordinary institutional authority over justice within a single profession. Lawyers monopolise the Bench, the Bar, all thirty-seven constitutionally guaranteed offices of Attorney-General, constitutional litigation and the interpretation of the Constitution itself.
Power that is concentrated eventually becomes power that is insulated. We separate legislative, executive and judicial powers because no institution should become accountable only to itself. Has this monopoly over the justice system created incentives for the increasingly rancorous and heavily monetized struggle for leadership within the NBA? That is the constitutional question before us. Perhaps if the administration of justice is shared with other Nigerian professionals, “their learned colleagues” might conduct their own leadership recruitment more civilly.
Justice must belong to society
Some readers responded to my earlier column by arguing that Nigeria is simply too corrupt for a jury system. One reader cited a recent criminal trial in the US State of Minnesota involving Somali defendants, where an attempt was made to bribe a juror. His conclusion…
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