Dear Esteemed Senior Advocate / Colleague / Bar Leader,

We Fought A Good Fight!

Compliments,

Thank you for your support.

At 11.00 pm yesterday, the polls for the 2020 Nigerian Bar Association (‘NBA’) National Elections closed and winners emerged. I was not among the winners. So I apologise that (much as some of you desired and I dearly wished) I will not be your General Secretary for 2020 – 2022.

It has been a long, arduous, but very exciting journey up to this point. I would say that my desire to serve as General Secretary of the NBA took fruit sometime in 2014 during my illustrious service to the NBA Lagos Branch (the largest branch of the NBA) as Chairman. On the 23rd of August, 2019, I took the first overt step towards achieving the dream by sending out thousands of emails to colleagues all over the country welcoming them to the “cosmopolitan city of Lagos (the host city of the 59th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association) – the cauldron where all things mesh”.

Since that email, it has been an exciting mix of travel, visits, events, courtesy calls, speeches, emails, messages, videos, interactions and reaching out to colleagues. I have not been alone. I have had the constant and active encouragement of friends and colleagues within and outside Nigeria who have given of their time, energy, financial resources and contacts to support the dream. The initial core strategy team of loyalists snow-balled into a growing army of supporters in Lagos, around the Country, and friends in diaspora.

From the beginning, I was clear that these are critical times, and that as the members of the NBA go to the polls this year, “the calibre of persons to be elected must be of paramount interest to all of us.” I was convinced that “we need men and women of vision, administrative capacity and intellectual sagacity to steer our ship forward. We need leaders who possess the qualities of integrity, charisma, erudition, competence, quiet dignity, gentlemanly comportment, capacity for work, preoccupation with excellence, and the ability to inspire others to action.” And I sounded the alarm that the “stakes are too high for us to fail!”

A lot of concerns have been expressed about the management of the election process. The NBA is still smarting from legal challenges to the last two national elections (2016 and 2018). The allegations of voter fraud and manipulation that were made in the wake of the last elections and denied by the #OfficialNBA have become the subject of criminal charges filed recently in Court by the EFCC. I am one of a large number of NBA members who have expressed concerns about the profession and the NBA, and who dearly hoped that we would get it right this time. It was expected that we would all collectively ensure that we have a 2020 contest that would be universally acclaimed as ‘credible, transparent, free and fair’.

I commend the Electoral Committee of the NBA (‘ECNBA’) for the work they have done under rather unusual conditions (Covid-19 Pandemic, the resulting lockdown, and travel restrictions) and given the realities of the usual ‘Nigerian situation’. A lot more could and should have been done by the ECNBA to ensure a truly ‘credible, transparent, free and fair’ process. A number of complaints were made before and during the elections, and it is unfortunate that some of them that speak to the credibility of the process were not resolved. It is something that the members of the NBA ought to be concerned about addressing. We have been down this road before. We should not allow this to become the norm with our elections.

I congratulate Mr. Olumide Akpata who has emerged as the incoming President of the NBA. I have no doubt in my mind that he will pursue his agenda of ‘making the bar work for all’. I also congratulate all the newly elected National Officers. In particular I extend a warm (pre Covid-19) handshake to Mrs. Joyce Oduah who beat me by a clear margin to emerge as the General Secretary-elect of the NBA. I wish her well in discharging the onerous responsibilities of the office over the next two (2) years.

To all the Candidates who (like me) lost out in this process, I say ‘hold your heads high, we fought a good fight’. There were no losers in this contest. I am of the firm view that the 2020 National Elections were enriched by the keen competition for various offices – the level of debate and interaction was raised, and Candidates were challenged to come forward with Manifestos and Campaign Agendas which, if implemented, can only improve the association and enure to the benefit of our members.

We should now wait for the inauguration, and then hold the newly elected Team to their individual and collective promises. We must have a new NBA, and we have collectively elected a new leadership that has pledged to take us there.

I end by thanking you and all my supporters for your demonstrated confidence in me and overwhelming support of my candidacy. I do not take your trust and sacrifices lightly. I am eternally in your debt, and can only pray that God will show you much more of the love and friendship that you showed me. We did not win the General Secretary slot this time, but we have earned the admiration and respect of everyone.

We must all remain resolute in our quest to improve the Bar.

Very warm regards, and God Bless You.

Alexander Nduka MUOKA
www.alexmuoka.com
08033009242