Nigeria’s legal community is in turmoil as several distinguished members of the Body of Benchers, the country’s highest regulatory and disciplinary body for the legal profession, have openly challenged the recent actions of its Chairman, Chief S. A. Awomolo, SAN.

The controversy began when, The Body of Benchers, under the leadership of Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, has recently reconstituted its committees, injecting new life into them for maximum efficiency and delivery of their mandate.
Life Bencher Edward G. Pwajok, SAN, rejected the reconstitution in a letter dated May 17th, 2024, questioning the Chairman’s authority to unilaterally alter committee tenures, create new committees, and appoint members without the full Body’s approval.

Pwajok, who was removed from the Appointments and Special Duties Committees and reassigned to the Finance Committee, questioned the Chairman’s powers to unilaterally alter committee tenures, create new committees, and appoint members without the approval of the full Body.

Pwajok alleged that the reconstitution might have been motivated by the Appointments Committee’s earlier decision not to approve the nominees of the immediate past Chairman as Life Benchers and Benchers. He also raised concerns about the lopsided ethnic composition of the new committee leadership, with six out of twelve committee chairs being of the same ethnicity as the current Chairman, calling it a possible violation of Nigeria’s Federal Character principles.

The senior advocate advised that the reconstitution be put on hold pending a full meeting and discussion by the Body, warning that failure to address the matter “transparently and fairly” could threaten the stability of the institution.
In a related development, former Nigerian Bar Association President Joseph Daudu, SAN, also rejected his appointment to the Body’s Security and Safety Committee “for compelling personal reasons” in a letter dated May 18th.

The crisis deepened when another Life Bencher, Hairat Ade-Balogun, OON, MCIArb (UK), in a letter dated May 14th, 2024, criticized the Chairman for establishing new committees without the participation of the entire membership of the Body in a General Meeting. Ade-Balogun argued that the Chairman’s unilateral action was “clearly outside the RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE BODY” and that the new committees do not serve the Body’s primary statutory functions of overseeing the Call to Bar of law graduates and disciplining erring members of the Bar.

Ade-Balogun also raised alarm over the backlog of law graduates awaiting Call to the Bar due to over-admission by universities beyond their allocated quotas. She claimed that graduates of correspondence colleges were being given preference for remedial classes and Call to Bar over those who had legitimately been admitted to the Nigerian Law School and passed the Bar Final Exams.
She challenged the Body to deal with this matter as an “EMERGENCY,” suggesting that some of the affected graduates may be parading as “practitioners” out of frustration, and called for a detailed report on the backlog of students and decisive action to address the issue.