An elite convocation of Nigerian lawyers is currently gathered in Lagos for the week-long Annual General Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association with the theme ‘BOLD transition’, and what an opportunity it offers Nigerians to look at their country through the eyes of some of their finest professionals ahead of general elections slated for next year.
As has become a yearly custom, the Conference has brought together some of Nigeria`s biggest players across different fields and they have wasted no time in putting the issues confronting Nigeria on the front burner.
Already, the leading candidates of the major political parties have all addressed the Conference as has globally acclaimed writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
A jog for justice
As the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari weaves into its eight and final year, many lawyers, and indeed the judiciary of which lawyers are critical stakeholders, are among many who cannot really wait to see the back of the current presidency. For those who eagerly await the day when the curtains will fall, there will be no tears.
The current administration`s anti-corruption war which started with so much fire but has since been doused by the brackish water of nepotism and cronyism put many lawyers under the cosh in its early days. The judiciary also took brutal hits with matters coming to a head when the houses of some judges were raided in the dead of night. in 2016. In 2019, when the odious anti-judicial orchestra claimed the scalp of Walter Samuel Onnoghen, the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, alarm bells clanged along the country.
If the foot was taken off the pedal of persecution of lawyers and judges since then, Nigerian lawyers have had other brutal challenges to contend with, none more so than an economy that has continued to stutter. Nigeria continues to lack justice as a country. There is neither social justice not economic justice. Environmental justice remains a long way away.
The pernicious insecurity chewing up large swathes of the country would not have become so pronounced were criminal justice not conspicuously lacking in the country.
Given the unique roles lawyers play in the life of any country, Nigeria`s aching lack of justice is a slap in the face that is as professional as it is personal.
A country in the throes of chaos
It has become apparent even to the blind that all is not well with Nigeria. And what a pity it is for Nigerians to watch a presidency that promised so much in 2015 petering out, having failed to achieve many of what it promised.
It may sound darkly amusing, but to say that the current administration has failed to live up to expectations would be to salt the reality with a little understatement. The forceful promise of 2015 has since given way to frustration and even apprehension that the Giant of Africa is on an irreversible march to disintegration.
For many years, poverty had made long furrows on the backs of Nigerians but Nigerians bore same with extraordinary fortitude. What is steadily proving backbreaking is the insecurity which has practically reduced Nigeria to a haunt of terrorist jackals. It is particularly Nigerians in rural areas that have been left to plumb the depths of Nigeria`s security despair. The situation has never been bol1der.
A bold,brave transition
It can only be a good thing that with the country looking into the abyss, 2023 which is only months away will bring with it an election year in which Nigerians would have the opportunity to root out the rodents who have been laying waste to the country layer by layer.
Nigerians neither need a soothsayer or a confectioner to tell them who to vote. If the shocking turn of events in the country the last seven years is not cautionary tale enough, the fact that it could get even worse may just be.
Kene Obiezu
