'Why the Brouhaha?' By Adesina Ogunlana

Is that how we are made? I mean, are human beings monopolists by nature? Is it always true as the Yorubas say Alakara ko fe eke lo miran din (The confectioneer wants a mono market) if it is true, then is it right? But can one say it is wrong when one cardinal law of Jehovah (who certainly is not God of only the Jews), is?
“Thou shall have no other God besides me? A commandment which many modern women have very easily adapted to read - Thou shall have no other wives besides me. To this law many husbands of the modern age have concurred with a liberal cache of salted away lovers. A lover you know is not necessarily a wife. I was reflecting along the lines above because of a certain recent development in the Nigerian Bar Association - opposition to the official registration with the C.A.C of proposed bodies of lawyer groups other than the NBA.
I wonder why the NBA has been opposing the registration of these other bodies in the light of the fundamental right of freedom of association, so clearly enshrined in our Constitution. At the Minna NEC meeting in November 2008 and the Oshogbo NEC meeting in February 2009, there were huge out-cries against efforts of certain promoters to register the Association or is it Society of Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
The main grouse of opponents of the proposed group is the fear that it will ultimately undermine the NBA and cause it to become irrelevant. Harsh words such as “wicked” “greedy” “selfish” were epithets freely hung as ornaments on the supporters of the proposed silks’ group.
At the Sokoto NEC meeting just last week, the General Secretary of the Bar, Ibrahim Edward, sorry, Eddy Mark told the gathering that there are some other groups of lawyers seeking registration.
Though there were one or two “silky” voices in support of the registration of these groups, a large percentage of attendees railed against the registration. As for me, I buy the pro-registration arguments of “Sis Funke” (Mrs. Funke Adekoya S.A.N). What the always comely silk contended at the meeting on the issue can be summoned as follows:
(1) The constitutional and fundamental rights of freedom of Association permits and very legally so the existence of special interest groups in the legal profession on account of its size.
(2) The NBA cannot cater for the varied special interests of her numerous members, or at least meet them as effectively as special interest groups, which of course are much smaller entities, and with narrower focus, can do.
(3) The special interest groups can become allies and partners of the NBA to achieve common goals under the monolithic umbrella of the NBA.
I think those opposed to the registration and existence of special interest groups are flying in the face of uncompromising reality.
For those who do not know, there is a law which states that “the bigger an organisation, the higher its chances of splintering into smaller units. And the splintering cannot be stopped. As the children of Oduduwa would say “Agidi or an Oogun o ran.”
I hope I am not being irreverent now but maybe the only major religion that has not splintered is the African Traditional Religion - and that only because abinitio, the faith is already “splintered” into one thousand and one deities and oracles, in a cosmogony that may be termed a confederacy of gods and goddesses with a weak centre of one central Almighty or Super Deity.
I respectfully submit that since the objects and aspirations of the special interest groups must be by far narrower than the NBA’s and can at best only complement the NBA’s, and furthermore since these special interest groups simply cannot have the muscle and stature of the NBA, there is nothing to fear about them.
Now more important, fear or like them, can any one, in the fall of the constitution prevail against the existence of any associations with lawful objects. I have prepared a list of prospective special interest groups of lawyers seeking for registration with the Company Affairs Commission. They are as follows:-
(1) Association of Pot-Bellied Lawyers (APBL)
(2) Perennially Pregnant Women Bar (PPWB)
(3) Lawyers-Without-Chambers Bar(LWCB)
(4) Nursing mothers/Fathers Bar Forum (NMBF)
(5) Militant Groups Counsel Bar (MGCB)
(6) Lawyers-In-Politics Bar (LIPB)
(7) Congress of (Happily and Unhappily) Married Lawyers (CHML)
(8) Landlord-Lawyers Bar (LLB)
(9) ‘Isi-Ewu’ Consumers Bar (IECB)
(10) Bar Against Further Use of Wigs and Gowns in Courts (LABAFUWGC)
(11) Preacher-Lawyers Bar (PLB)
(12) EFCC/ICPC Practitioners Bar (EIPB)
(13) Handicapped Nigerian Lawyers Bar (HNLB)
(14) University Law Lecturers Bar of Nigeria (ULLBN)
(15) Premiership Soccer Fanatics Bar Society (PSFBS)
(16) Lawyers Married To Lawyers Bar (LAMALAB)
(17) Association of Lawyers-In-Kidnap-Rich states (ALAKIRIS)
(18) Foreign Universities Trained Nigerian Lawyers’ Bar. (FUTNLB)
(19) Association of Locally-Trained-But-Foreign Based Nigerian Lawyers (ALOFBNL).
From all indications, it does not appear that the NBA can do any better than any of the above mentioned special interest groups in their various areas of interest. So why the brouhaha?