Why NBA withdraws from National Conference

NBA President, Okey Wali

The NBA protested the single slot allocated to it.
The Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, has said it would not participate in the ongoing National Conference to protest the single slot allocated to it by the Federal Government.
According to a communiqué issued after its executive meeting in Ekiti State, the association said one representative from the body was insufficient for it to make an impact at the conference.
“In view of the fact that so many legal issues would be addressed at the national conference, it is only fitting and proper for the umbrella association of all lawyers, the profession with expertise on law making in Nigeria should have more than one slot,” the NBA President, Okey Wali, announced in the communiqué he signed.
Mr. Wali, who was the sole nominee of the association to the Conference, had stayed away from the inauguration of the 492-member talk shop in Abuja on Monday evening by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The NBA was among the 13 professional bodies given one slot each, according to the modalities released by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim, in January.
The other associations are Nigerian Society of Engineers, Chartered Institute of Bankers, Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria Institute of Management, Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria, Association of National Accountant of Nigeria, Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria, Nigerian Environment Society and Nigeria Economic Society.
But in a protest letter sent to Mr. Anyim a few days later, Mr. Wali said the association would not accept the slot offered it and urged the SGF to reconsider the issue.
“We do not believe that the single slot given to the Nigeria Bar Association will be impactive enough, and so, we request that you please reconsider the one slot offer to the Nigerian Bar Association, as we regrettably will be unable to accept that offer,” the NBA President said.
However, Mr. Jonathan had explained during his last media chat that though the single slot was allocated to the NBA as a body, many lawyers not picked on the ticket of the association would be delegates at the conference.