Faults The NBA For Not Patronizing Other Companies Owned By Members, Despite Meeting Them For Sponsorship
*Asks Why Welfare Service Limited To Young Lawyers

The former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch, has questioned the decision by the current administration of the NBA to activate Law Pavilion Subscription for young lawyers, asking if the platform happens to be the only E-Law Report company in Nigeria.

In a statement, Akinlade Esq made it know that as a senior member of the legal profession in Nigeria and a seasoned Bar man, he has been able to x-ray the profession, as well as motives and impact of the legal professionals on the development of the profession.

He noted that he was concerned about how money was spent in the Association as well as how the NBA brand was being used to strike deals for a set of members. Furthermore, Akinlade in reaction to the NBA’s decision of activating the law pavilion Subscription, asked some salient questions.

First, he asked if the Lawpavilion was the only service provider in the field? He noted thus: “Is Lawpavillion the only service provider in this field? I happen to know of about 2 or 3 other service providers who interestingly are members of NBA but whose products our dear association has not deemed fit to exploit nor promoted. They are however approached at every NBA conference over the years for sponsorship and support.

According to him, this wasn’t ideal, as members have no choice despite the fact it was their monies the association is using to broker these deals.

In addition he questioned if it wasn’t proper that the Association not first patronize its members before going out of the reservation to choose a company who has no direct ties to our profession? He went to the extent of questioning what standards or parameters were used to select the service provider, as well as the quality of law reporting or mere technology that the NBA is purchasing? And were there any other competitive bids ?

Also, one of the questions posed by Akinlade Esq was the decision by NBA to make the subscription open only for a few members. “Why are we engaging in providing services for a FEW members instead of looking at supporting the entire membership of the NBA?” He asked.

He noted that some “Young Lawyers” have a better law practice than their seniors, and that if the legal profession is not designed to give them opportunities to develop, why is the association spending millions of naira of members collective inheritance to give young lawyers an advantage when some of these young lawyers refuse to do pupilage and pay their dues for the upliftment of the profession?

He stated that the best choice of action would be for these largess to be extended to law firms that have a minimum number of young lawyers under their supervision, this way the NBA can encourage and strengthen the law firms to build capacity and professionalism and encourage mega firms to develop.

On a final note, Akinlade went further to question why the service was not extend to the entirety of the NBA members, which in his view would cut down cost for members. His words read thus: “why not engage all electronic law reporting service providers, make their services available to all members who need them and use part of our resources to bring down the cost for each member.”

He noted that the Association could do better, and need not be self serving and corrupt, and that such issues like these, should be handled at Branch levels and not even national. Je charged his colleagues to think outside the box before the Bar takes on the character of politicians that they keep criticizing.