How Noble is the Nobility of the Legal Profession Today?
By Rabiu Muhammad Gama
AREWA AGENDA – The legal profession is an imported vocation. Its root is traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. In its modern form, it is British. The foundation of the legal profession is made up of the Bar and the Bench (Lawyers and judges). Human society is intertwined with social ills and vices. The purpose of law {read: Legal Profession} is to shape and preserve the moral standard of society by promoting social justice. To preserve the moral sanctity of society the society has to be purged of social ills and vices. Therefore, the legal promotion is considered as a noble Profession and this is not unrelated to its noble purpose.
However, in recent times, the envious nobility of the Profession is beginning to fade away. Unprofessional politicking within the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), gross professional misconducts that some lawyers are, unfortunately, competing against one another at displaying, ravaging partiality in the legal academia and rampant allegations of corrupt practices hovering around the Bench all converge and constitute a formidable force that is chasing nobility out of the profession.
The NBA
“The Nigeria Bar Association [NBA] is a good example [of a civil organization that is national in scope, rather than tied to a particular ethnic group or religion]. It has branches in every state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory… it is probably the largest professional association in Africa. And, by definition, its membership advocates for the rule of law and the continued existence of the Nigerian state.” – Campbell (2011)
A lawyer that was called to the Bar a decade ago cannot read the above quoted paragraph without being attacked by a wave of nostalgia for the good old days. Some disturbing and deeply alarming developments coming out from the NBA recently, which, to my dismay, have cast lawyers in ignoble light and painted the Profession with a dirty brush. The cancellation of Governor El-rufai’s invitation as a panelist at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA, Sparked off some unprofessional exchanges among the learned professionals of the noble Profession. Misguided utterances that were laced with religious and ethnic sentiments were weaponzed and used by some lawyers to attack their learned collegues who protested the cancellation of the El-Rufai’s invitation with derogatory terms like Aboki, Bandit or even Boko Haram – an act totally unbecoming of officers of noble profession. To say that has tarnished the image of the profession to those outside the profession is a pure understatement. That is not all, some members of the NBA, from one corner of the country, broke away and formed what they called the ‘New Nigerian Bar Association’ (NNBA). How can professionals who take pleasure in priding themselves as ‘learned’ came down that low?
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Professional Misconducts
The Legal profession is presumably a noble profession. Lawyers are the august officers of the profession. Legal practitioners are expected to live and sustain the highest level of professional standard at all times – in and outside the courtroom. Ubiquitous Professional misconducts among legal practitioners today has placed a very huge question mark on the nobility of the Legal Profession
The Legal Practitioners Act empowers the Bar Council to, among other things, make rules that would regulate the practice of the Legal profession, hence the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners in Nigeria (RPC). The RPC contains some codified rules of ethics that officers of the Legal Profession in Nigeria are required to comply with. It is made for the maintenance of discipline and to ensure the highest standard of professional conduct among legal practitioners.
Much to my annoyance, it is now rather common and fashionable to see lawyers using ‘barrister’ as a title just to tout and show off their membership of the noble profession, even though the court has held the practice to be ‘unprofessional and improper’. Flagrant abuse of lawyer’s robe is not uncommon today. We all living witnesses to when the Social Media was inundated with pictures of some new wigs that raped and desecrated the lawyer’s robe in the name celebration of their call to the Bar. Going to a client’s house or place of business to take Instructions is now an ordinary trend despite being banned unequivocally by the RPC. Collecting appearance and professional fees on court premises rampant today. These are just some of the common unprofessional conducts that have permeated the nook and crannies of the legal Profession of which a host of lawyers are guilty today.. With these unprofessional misconducts among legal practitioners one may not resist the temptation to ask “Is the Legal Profession still a noble profession?
Legal Academia
Corruption, in this sense, had to do professional abuse of powers, privileges and wanton disregard of the rule of law ranging from prevalent sharp practices in admissions, examinations, research, teaching, tenure and academic promotions. In many of our universities, particularly in state-owned universities students that are not qualified to study law are allegedly offered admission at the instance of top officials in state governments or highly ranking traditional rulers. Well, when the grooming camp of the future members of the Noble Profession is now compromised and is bursting with such ‘unnoble’ acts, it won’t be out of place to question the nobility of the noble profession since its future is clearly compromised. Sad.
The Bench
Judicial officers all over the world are expected to eschew bias and corruption in the discharge of their duties. This presupposes that a Judge should not manifest animosity, partiality, or hatred or favoritism or demand or accept any form of gratifications in any judicial proceedings. The court is the last hope of the common man. Judges adjudicate over trials and hearings. They enforce the rules of the court and hear arguments from counsels, receive and review evidence and listen to witness testimony and give their rulings. How noble is this responsibility. Sadly, in recent years, a lot of accusations of bias and partiality are being leveled against the Bench. The transparency and impartiality that the Bench is famous for is eroding by the day. The trust that the society have for the Bench is on the decreese.
In conclusion, the legal Profession is, without an iota of doubt, a noble Profession. However, the unprofessional politicking that has permeated the NBA, the spectacular display of Professional misconducts by some legal practitioners, the partial acts that have become the order of the day in the legal academia and the allegations of corruption leveled against judicial officers have all converge together to put a huge question mark on the nobility of the legal Profession. Until and unless brutal and swift actions are taken to expunge the legal Profession of these cancers that are eating deep into its nobility, that question mark would remain there and may end up devouring the remnant of the previously-unquestionable nobility of the profession. You cannot leave your home dirty and unkempt and expect your neighbor to respect and admire you for it. When your home is out of order, you cannot earn the respect of your neighbor. Until that order is restored, please excuse me to ask ‘how noble is the nobility of the Legal Profession today?’
Arewa Agenda is a Publication of Young writers/journalist from Northern Nigeria towards Peaceful Coexistence and National Development through positive narratives
