THE President Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Mr Joseph Bodunrin Daudu (SAN) has said the body will partner with the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) to achieve a strategic plan for the development of the law.

He made this remark at a one-day dialogue on the institute’s programme at its Akoka, University of Lagos campus.

Some of the issues raised include how to make lawyers global players, tackling problems in the bar and bench, and restoring the public’s confidence in the judiciary.

In a chat with The Nation, Daudu said: "From the discourse you can see that the institute is a worthy partner for us in all the agenda that were tabled, and we find their intervention very attractive and worthwhile and we hope that we shall work with institute to achieve our strategic action plan."

Appraising the agenda setting programme, Daudu said: "This programme has enriched us. We have taken a lot of ideas from it and we’ll take it back to the NBA to go and implement."

NIALS Director-General, Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN), said: "We are quite elated and obviously humbled by the fact that this maiden edition turned out pleasantly well and the president of the NBA did exceptionally well in trying to address most of the issues that we raised.

"Well, we at NIALS were able to articulate as many issues as possible. Primarily, he acceded to the fact that most of the issues were germane and has obviously agreed to the fact that some of them will be implemented during his tenure, especially making the NBA a global player.

"We were also impressed by the fact that he touched on the justiceability of some sections of the Constitution and the role the NBA can play to ensure that this is brought to the front burner.

"As an institute we have done so much in that regard but we know that with the cooperation and partnership with the NBA, a lot can be achieved in terms of testing the waters.

"The institute was also able to impress it on the Bar president the importance of a clear cut evaluation policy, judicial evaluation in particular, specially to address the issue of corruption that is rife now in the judiciary.

"Apart from whatever is going on now at the National Judicial Council (NJC), the NBA president has acceded to the information given to him that there is every need for the NBA also to have its own monitoring policy.

"He has also accepted that he will get back to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA and something must be done immediately to make sure that such an organ is set up to get the public to accept and develop new confidence in our Judiciary, especially now that we are moving into 2011 election.

"It is important that people should have full confidence in our Judiciary and not believe that anything goes. That obviously does not help in accountability in a democratic process. We take it that a lot has been said and a lot has been achieved in this maiden exercise of the setting of the agenda programme.

"The Institute is fulfilling its mandate of trying to help develop policies or formulate ideas for other people to do their job and do it creditably well."

Prof Nnamdi Aduba said: "I really commend the Bar President for stooping low. Most of the bar presidents we have had didn’t know that there is a lot of reservoir of information in the academics. So, he has done very well by coming down and from what he has done now, he has more than many options for him."

For Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, the discussions were a new vista in the interaction between the "town and, the gown." He added: "The academics have been so insular, so this is an opportunity and I want to commend the president of the Bar for creating the time to come here for this exchange.

"This type of development is to be commended and of course, we should improve on it and clearly the outcome of this meeting has already provided the platform to build on it."

For Prof Paul Idornigie, the programme was a good idea because nobody has a monopoly of knowledge.

"For the NBA president to achieve his objectives and to ensure that the NBA does not remain the same after his tenure, he needs assistance and this kind of programme will assist him to achieve his objectives."

Said Prof. Lanre Fagbohun: "The NBA is a very important body within our system and for you to have the NBA president and some members of the Bar attend this breakfast meeting and interact with the members of the NIALS, it goes a long way in setting an agenda for the NBA.

"Nigeria now is at a very critical cross-roads. There are so many challenges. We believe that the NBA is so well positioned to be able to play, no just a strategic, but also a very important role in meeting some of these challenges, proferring solutions to some of these problems.

"So, what the NIALS has done with this meeting is to share views with the President of the NBA, give him our perspectives of how some of these problems and challenges can be tackled.

"We know that Daudu is a very, very robust minded person. We know that he is also quite articulate, so sharing these views with him will enable him to put quite a number of our own thoughts into his own processes and utilise them in the affairs of the NBA."

Culled from The Nation Newspaper, 18^th January 2011.