By Ogbu, Blessing Ekpere, Esq.

At the general meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Garki Branch which held in February, 2024, it was resolved that an Electoral Committee be constituted to oversee the processes integrated in the conduct of the Branch elections. Accordingly, Mr Victor Orizu was appointed the Chairman of the Committee while Ms. Michika Rosemary Usa was appointed the Secretary. Other persons were also appointed to serve in the Committee.

The Constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association makes generous provisions for the electoral process. Part I of the Third Schedule thereof is the Uniform Bye-Laws for the Branches. Article 16 of the Uniform Bye-Laws is of paramount significance. Sub-article (1) provides thus: “Not later than ninety (90) days to the date of the election, the Electoral Committee shall announce the date of the date of the election as fixed by the Electoral Committee and invite nominations of candidates for the various offices and shall publicise the provisions of the Bye-law relating to eligibility to contest and eligibility to vote and also issue election and campaign guidelines. Provided that no candidate shall commence any form of public campaign until the campaign guidelines are issued or released.”
Consistent with this provision the Garki Branch Electoral Committee on the 3rd of March, 2024 published the notice of election date, nomination of candidates and byelaw of eligibility to contest and to vote. Specifically, the Electoral Committee under the subheading titled “Election Timetable” stipulates that:

“(1) Election campaign to elective offices shall commence after the screening of prospective candidates. (2) Nomination of candidates and submission of forms starts from 18/03/2024 and ends on 28/03/2024. Forms can be downloaded from the Branch WhatsApp Platform and submitted at the Branch Chairman’s office located at Suite 4 Plot 22 Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki, Abuja before 12 noon on 28/03/2024 (4) [sic] Screening of candidates shall commence on the 03/04/2022(sic) to 05/04/22(sic) from 09am to 4pm at a venue to be decided by the Committee. (6) [sic] the election date is slated on 21st June, 2024”.

On the 5th of April, 2024, the Branch Electoral Committee cleared the following persons for the declared offices: Olarenwaju Temitope Omotayo-Ojo, Anthonoy Bamidele Ojo and Giwa Victor for the office of the Branch Chairman, Hanna Ugbojoide Umaru for the office of the Branch Vice Chairman, Kanu Chibuikem Imo and Ogechi Oleka Duruaku (Mrs) for the office of the Branch Secretary, Chidiebere Chima Onyechere for the office of the Branch Assistant Secretary, Damilola Victoria Alabi for the office of the Branch Publicity Secretary, Rosemary Ogechi Ogazi for the office of the Branch Welfare Secretary and Love Ozioma Obiezu for the office of the Branch Treasurer. No expression of interest was received for the offices of the Branch Financial Secretary, Branch Social Secretary and Branch Provost.

Because the Electoral Committee was driven by motivations that were altogether self-serving and scarcely beneficial to the Branch, it deliberately refused to do its job as an unbiased electoral umpire. It cleared persons who were patently unqualified to run for the offices in which they expressed interest. Because it was fixated on returning certain candidates as elected, attendance register was doctored and a lot of underhand dealings unworthy to be named among legal practitioners executed with the cavalier impunity typical of Nigerian politicians. The outcome is a miserly voters list that has only fifty-three persons as eligible voters. Following a fusillade of petitions to the NBA Branch Election Appeals Committee (North), the Appeals Committee on the 19th day of June, 2024 disqualified all the candidates except Anthony Bamidele Ojo for the office of the Branch Chairman, Damilola Victoria Alabi for the office of Branch Publicity Secretary and Rosemary O. Ogazi for the office of Branch Welfare Secretary.

Today, the Branch Electoral Committee purporting to derive its power from Article 16(3) of the Nigerian Bar Association Uniform Bye-Laws for Branches 2021 but in actual facts acting at the instance of an unseen but not unknown puppeteer issued a notice today, the 20th of June, 2024 calling for fresh nominations to the vacant offices of the Vice Chairman, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Financial Secretary, Social Secretary and Provost. It fixed the 28th day of June, 2024 as the date for the polls while maintaining a devious silence on the elections fixed for tomorrow, the 21st day of June, 2024. In purporting to call for fresh nominations, the Electoral Committee disingenuously avoided designating the process as a by-election. This announcement has thrown the Branch into serious disquietude.

Article 16(3) stipulates what every Branch Electoral Committee must do whenever candidates are disqualified. It reads thus: “Where there is no qualified candidate to fill the office, the Electoral Committee shall fix a date for a by-election in respect of that office and shall call for fresh nominations thereto.” There is a reason the word “by-election” is used in this sub-article. It presupposes that the elections of patently qualified candidates must hold on the date already published pursuant to Article 16(1) of the Uniform Bye-Laws. In the case of Garki Bar that date is the 21st day of June, 2024. For the positions for which their candidates have been disqualified, fresh nominations shall be called and the steps enumerated in sub-articles (1), (2), (4) and (5) followed. That is why it is called by-elections; there must be an election before there will be a by-election.

It will be unconstitutional for the Garki Branch Electoral Committee to fail, for whatever contrived reason, to conduct the Branch elections tomorrow, the 21st day of June, 2024. It is certainly ultra vires of its mandate for it to purport to agglutinate both the elections and the by-elections as if both terms are fungible. In other words, the Electoral Committee cannot treat the elections for already screened and qualified candidates as if it is a by-election and the by-election for freshly nominated candidates as if it is the main election.

Apparently, with the doctored voters list and the reckless disenfranchisement of bona fide members of the Branch, the Branch Electoral Committee – which has lost the confidence of members of the Branch and is anything but independent and fair – is determined to foist a state of predeterminism on the Branch by purporting to conduct the by-election in the life of the current executive council of the Branch. This is crass lawlessness and dystopian construction of lucid and unambiguous provisions of Article 16 of the Uniform Bye-Laws. By purporting to conduct the by-elections in the life of the spent executive council, the Branch Electoral Committee is working to people the incoming executive council with the handpicked stooges of the puppeteer of the Branch Electoral Committee. In the congregation of learned minds, this is an aberration that must not be allowed to stand. The Garki Bar elections must hold tomorrow, the 21st day of June, 2024 as already scheduled and published. The incoming executive council reserves the prerogative to conduct the by-elections. This is consistent with established electoral best practices.