JUSTICE TSOHO'S ORDER: BEST NBA GS HAB

Distinguished Colleagues,

The first female Attorney General of Lagos State, first female Chair Body of Benchers, the Best General Secretary NBA ever had Hairat Balogun, Grand Dame of the Nigerian Bar Association, has suggested to me to take steps to resolve the NBA impasse.

Look the NBA Trustees are judgment debtors/defendants to the suit and seem incapable of moving forward. They held a meeting last week at which Asiwaju Awomolo SAN presented a good memo but at the time of writing no one has a written decision, if any.

Here is what I propose:

1.  A Mediation committee should serve better than Body of Trustees considering that all of them BoT are parties.

2.  Members of the mediation committee should not include any past President of NBA – These gentlemen don’t seem to have the nerve to call a spade a spade. They only gather to fight under-dogs. Imagine Olisa Agbakoba more keen on appointments than Principles. When he was NBA President he mildly suggested that I should take SPIDEL. That was ten years ago I ignored him cos the principles I was pursuing were more important to me than the appointment. Settle the issues and thereafter everybody join in building the Bar.

3.   They say the best committee is ‘one-person committee’.

4.  Hon Hairat Balogun alone could constitute one-member mediation committee and I will help her arrive at a just and conscionable result because she is a woman of principles.

5.  The NBA 2015 Constitution has been discarded because the court has said it is a nullity and those who filed a notice of appeal dated 31^st March 2017 do not quite seem too keen on their appeal. I am aware that the Federal High Court Registry Abuja met with the parties and records had been settled. The court has 60 days to compile records which expires 31^st May and Appellant abandoned the court officer.

6.  The appellant wanted stay of execution they didn’t get it.

7.  The appellant wanted to set aside the judgment of Justice Tsoho of 30^th March 2017 and failed  thereby.

8.  The respondent/plaintiff/judgment creditor took out contempt of court (committal to prison) Form 48 against AB Mahmoud SAN and his team et al but because it required personal service which couldn’t happen they will have to be served by publication or pasting or other methods.

9.  CONCLUSION: No dispute is too complex for us to resolve. Some had resolved more complicated issues skillfully. A B Mahmoud SAN whom I do not talk to and J K Gadzama SAN whom I do not talk to – they also do not talk to each other. Let them talk to themselves in the greater interest of NBA.  Alternatively let the mediation committee get them to talk.

10.              Thank you!

C N Ajie Esq.