8/12/2022.
To our Newest Members,
1. On behalf of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN, I congratulate you on your call to the Nigerian Bar. We understand and acknowledge the pride, joy, and sense of accomplishment that accompany one’s final attainment of the status of a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
2. You have by this single achievement, your natural age notwithstanding, joined the ranks of Nigeria’s educated elite and immediately assumed the position of thought leadership within that class. This is the burden attached to the nobility of the legal profession.
3. Generations of lawyers before you had served the cause of justice as required by the times and the societies they lived in. Lawyers like you fought imperialism, some secured our independence while some stood against military tyranny and returned Nigeria to democracy.
4. And now, your time is here – in a place and season where true leadership, particularly thought leadership, is under attack. We do not doubt that you are aware and conscious of the challenges that have plagued our nation, including the legal profession. We live in interesting times and the challenges may seem dire, insurmountable even, but we are confident that, with your years of legal training, you are prepared to serve the cause of justice while standing - even if alone - for truth and fairness.
5. Upon your call, you become a member of the NBA. The NBA welcomes you to the profession and the most influential Bar Association in Africa. We seize this opportunity to affirm the NBA’s commitment to supporting your growth and development as a young lawyer. We advise that you take immediate steps to activate your membership by joining any of our 127 branches in the country to take advantage of as many of the NBA’s programmes and initiatives as will be implemented through the branches.
6. In the meantime, please be informed that NBA committees on mentorship and employment as well as the NBA’s Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) are working tirelessly to create training, pupillage, and job opportunities which we hope that many of you would be able to take advantage of. We will continue to work with the ICLE and these committees, among others, to secure opportunities for Nigerian lawyers. One of our many aspirations as an administration is to create an enabling environment for a more prosperous Nigerian lawyer and bequeath a worthy profession to future generations of Nigerian lawyers, starting now.
7. Finally, please note that everything you do going forward reflects on the legal profession as a whole. You must therefore carry yourselves as worthy ambassadors of our noble profession. Your conduct must be above aboard at all times! I commend the virtues of honesty, dedication, hard work, and professionalism to you as virtues that will serve you well, and earn you a good name, prominence, and a comfortable living within the legal profession.
8. Do follow our social media handles to keep tabs on our activities. Also, kindly check our website and follow the link below to download the NBA Constitution and Rules of Professional Conduct to know more about the workings of your Bar and that you may be guided in your conduct as a legal practitioner - https://nigerianbar.org.ng/our-constitution.
9. Once again, congratulation and welcome!
Akorede Habeeb Lawal, Esq.
National Publicity Secretary,
Nigerian Bar Association.
Kindly click the link below to download the welcome address.
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