One of the conveners of the New Nigeria Bar Association (NNBA), Abdulbasit Suleiman, has said over 5,000 lawyers have shown interest in joining the proposed body of lawyers.
The intending members are from the North and seven Southern states, Suleiman said.
He said prospective members had been asked to compile lists in their branches across the country.
Those who have subscribed to NNBA membership, he added, included Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) from the North, though no SAN from the South had indicated interest.
Last Thursday, two Kaduna-based lawyers, Nuhu Ibrahim and Suleiman, announced the formation of the NNBA.
They said this followed the Nigerian Bar Associationโs (NBAโs) withdrawal of an Annual General Conference (AGC) speaking engagement it offered Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, among other grievances.
But the decision of the NBA National Executive Committee (NEC) was mostly opposed by Northern or Muslim lawyers who alleged political, ethnic and religious bias against the governor.
In a protest, some branches of the NBA in Bauchi, Dutse (Jigawa) and Kaduna (Muslim lawyers) boycotted the conference, which held last week.
But the immediate past president of the association, Paul Usoro, denied any other reason than those stated by NBAโs NEC for asking El-Rufai to stay away.
The NNBA promoters have notified the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) of their plans in an August 28 letter by Ibrahim as Convener 1 and Suleiman as Convener 2.
Suleiman told newsmen yesterday that the conveners had also written similar letters to the Attorneys General of the 36 states.
He added: โI never called for only lawyers from the North (to join NNBA); it was a general call. We are all lawyers, we are brothers. So, it is not restricted to Northern lawyers only.
โI am not a northerner; I am from Oyo State, Ogbomoso. Nuhu Ibrahim is from Kaduna, Southern Kaduna, to be precise.โ
Suleiman explained that although he could not confirm the exact number of lawyers that had indicated interest to join NNBA, they were more than 5,000.
โI canโt give the exact figure. Some minutes ago, I received a call from Lagos, from some lawyers who said they were interested. So, I directed the lawyer to compile the list over there. So, we are still counting, and I canโt give you a particular figure now,โ he said.
According to him, legal practitioners from at least four other Southwest states had indicated interest.
โOndo, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti too called. They have been calling on behalf of themselves and their colleagues over there. Weโve been asking them to compile their lists over there, to know how many lawyers are coming over from there, before we now make a general list and make it available to the publicโฆ
โWe also have lawyers from Anambra and Rivers states.โ
Suleiman claimed that the proposed NNBA had the backing of several SANs.
โWe have SANs among us. I received calls from SANs and other senior lawyersโฆ They said they are behind us. So, rest assured that we have all lawyers from all levels. There are senior and young lawyers among us.
โFor now, no SAN from the South, but we have some senior lawyers. Weโll be approaching state Attorneys General. We have sent letters to them already. They should be receiving the letters from today (yesterday). They were sent by courier service.โ
On the funding of the roupโs activities, Suleiman said: โWe are using our personal money to do this.โ
The group did not foreclose reconciliation with the NBA.
Some SANs, including Chief Mike Ozekhome and Mallam Yusuf Ali, have called for caution over the formation of a new body of lawyers.
Ozekhome urged the conveners of the NNBA to have a rethink.
In a statement, he warned that dividing the NBA along ethnic and religious lines โwill further magnify the nationโs existing and troubling fault linesโ.
โI, therefore, humbly pray that Nigerian lawyers, our respected Elders of the Bar, eminent Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria; Benchers, the NBA, Council for Legal Education, the young lawyers in their thousands, the Academia, the corporate tendency of the Bar, all religious clerics and patriotic Nigerians, should dissuade those who are aggrieved and threatening to form a new Bar.
Ali called โfor understanding and cautionโ among aggrieved lawyers.
He advised that if in the future such a split becomes necessary, โit shouldnโt be borne out of disagreement. It should be something that comes because our numbers have become so huge and that there are needs. It should also be a pan-Nigerian thingโ.
In another statement, Mr. Jibrin Samuel Okutepa (SAN) noted that without an amendment to the Legal Practitioners Act, there is only one Nigerian Bar.
But he stressed that any aggrieved lawyer could constitutionally opt out of the NBA.
