Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
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Academic and Literary Discrimination: The Error in Sylvester Udemezue’s Insightful Exposition on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)

Copyright © 5 September 2020 By Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
Reproduction of this article is prohibited and actionable, as it violates the moral and intellectual property rights of the author, Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee

Sylvester Udemezue (a Nigerian lawyer and a prolific legal writer), in his insightful article published online about a week ago, “An Expository Inquisition into the Hallowed Place of Nigerian Bar Association as the Most Far-reaching Regulator in Nigeria’s Legal Profession”, has rightly discussed some of the salient legal facts that make the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) NOT just an ordinary association registered under Nigeria’s Companies and Allied Matters Act. The Nigerian Voice and The Nigeria Lawyers are some of the online media platforms that published the said article.

The Nigerian Bar Association is currently Nigeria’s one and only professional association of licensed lawyers (barristers and solicitors of the Supreme Court of Nigeria). The existence of the Association has momentous explicit and implicit statutory support in several pieces of primary and secondary (subsidiary) legislation on the governance of legal education, legal practice, and the affairs of Nigerian lawyers. Sylvester Udemezue mentions those provisions in his article.

Sylvester Udemezue has therefore corrected some of the outrightly wrong viral opinions on the issue of the legal status of the Nigerian Bar Association, which include the opinions of some Senior Advocates of Nigeria. He therefore deserves commendation for his important analysis, although not exhaustive, on the proper legal status of the Nigerian Bar Association.

However, on the issue of proper writing, it is unethical and unacademic for Sylvester Udemezue to specifically mention the name of a lawyer (whose article or write-up he criticises), but in the same breath omit the name of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (also a lawyer, but with a higher professional status) whose article he also criticises. That double standard amounts to academic and literary discrimination, which I intend to correct through this article.

Sylvester Udemezue states in his article in question:

“I had on 29 August 2020 read a very enlightening commentary by a very respected learned silk and human rights advocate[1] on the sad state of affairs within the Nigerian Bar Association, among other issues, especially as they relate to membership of the Association and threat by some allegedly aggrieved NBA members to pull out. An aspect of the learned silk’s commentary had suggested that ‘Even though the NBA is represented in these statutory bodies it does not have the legal capacity to regulate the conduct of any lawyer who has been called to the Bar in Nigeria.’ ”

Referring to the above quote by the said Senior Advocate of Nigeria and commenting on the opinion of another lawyer who is not a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Sylvester Udemezue continues:

“Although I do not agree with this statement, it was a comment I saw later, on 30 August 2020, on a platform that goes under the name ‘NBA Matters,’ which informed my decision to immediately do the present paper. A learned friend, Mr. Olasupo Ojo[2] had written that NBA is not a union but an ordinary association like that of pepper sellers registered with the CAC. Go and dig deep pls.’ I had decided to take up the challenge, and I have dug deep. The present commentary is the result of my ‘digging deep.’ I hope my friend, Mr. Olasupo Ojo[3] and indeed all Nigerian lawyers would read this and see that NBA is not like a ‘pepper-sellers’ association,’ but is an association of all lawyers duly called to the Nigerian Bar. Beyond this, and with the greatest respect to both the learned silk[4] and my friend, Mr. Ojo,[5] I hold the view that the NBA is not just a regulator in Nigeria’s legal industry, but indeed the most far-reaching regulatory body within the legal profession in Nigeria.”

In literary and academic writing, such discriminatory treatment of authors (in this case, mentioning the name of one author but deliberately omitting the name of another author on the same issue, based on their relative professional status) is totally unacceptable. There are no lesser mortals in the writing world. Senior Advocates of Nigeria are NOT entitled to any preferential treatment in any legal or academic discussion, contrary to what Sylvester Udemezue has wrongly done in his article. The same standard applies to even the most distinguished professors of law and those in other disciplines. You cannot discriminate in references to sources and citations, based on status or any other consideration.

Any person who says or writes anything, makes his / her opinion liable to the same degree of professional and academic scrutiny, which includes mentioning his / her name as the citable source or the author of that opinion. That is the universal standard.

On another viral related issue, I intend to publish an article to correct the wrong opinions against the legal possibility of the formation and existence of parallel legitimate professional associations of Nigerian lawyers. I posit that it is possible to have such parallel associations if the formidable legal hurdles are overcome.

Therefore, it behoves Olumide Akpata (the newly inaugurated President of the Nigerian Bar Association), the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association, and other stakeholders to address all the genuine concerns of members of the Association nationwide and effect all the necessary and overdue reforms to ensure the continued existence of the Association as the only professional body of Nigerian lawyers. “There is strength in numbers” and “unity is strength”, according to popular sayings.

Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
PhD in international human rights law, legal information technology (legal informatics), indigenous customary law and indigenous rights
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Lawyers Directory

5 September 2020

[1] Emphasis added.

[2] Emphasis added.

[3] Emphasis added.

[4] Emphasis added.

[5] Emphasis added.

Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
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