The Former Chairman of NBA Lagos Branch, Otunba Martin Ogunleye, has endorsed Joyce Oduah, FICMC as his sole candidate for the Office NBA General Secretary, in the forthcoming coming NBA National Election.
In a signed statement released on Monday, 20 July 2020, Otunba Martin Ogunleye stated as follows:
“The office of General Secretary of the NBA is akin to the office of the Registrar of an organization and is effectively the organizational head of operations and administration of the secretariat.
Who would be most suited to occupy this office? The answer to my mind is that the candidate must possess strength of character, experience and a deep vision to turn around the fortunes of the organization.
The next question is how do we decipher which aspirant fits this bill? I am often amused when supporters of candidates and election-time analysts often tout one candidate or the other as being ‘better’ than another. This is ludicrous as all candidates are lawyers and would not sit for any examination to determine who scores higher marks than the others.
The only way to determine suitability of a candidate is to examine his(her) antecedents such as to see what impact the candidate has had on his constituency in the past.
Prior to 2013, all branches of the NBA had no definite way of determining what comes to them as share of the Annual Bar Practicing Fees which is the main source of income of these branches. The result was that every branch just made do with whatever was sent to them.
Then came an amazon, Joyce Oduah and she introduced a simple but effective solution to the long drawn problem: she introduced Codes for each branch and with this came an enormous leap in the income of every branch. Lagos branch which had a total income of a paltry N400,000+ in 2012 got N6,050,000 in 2013 immediately after the introduction of the Bar Code. Now Lagos gets almost N14,000,000 annually. The same is true for all branches of the NBA in Nigeria.
I am therefore not in doubt that the National Secretariat of our Association would benefit from the visionary leadership of Mrs. Joyce Oduah and I thus endorse her to emerge as the General Secretary of our great association for 2020-2022”
Many Lagos based lawyers have reported that this endorsement is a game changer and as such they will also support Mrs. Joyce Oduah, FICMC because they hold Chief Martin Ogunleye in high esteem. They also reported that the endorsement has thrown other candidates gunning for the Office of General Secretary off balance.
Otunba Martin A. Ogunleye is one of the most respected Lagos Bar leaders. He has served as the Chairman of Lagos Branch from 2015 – 2017, 1st Vice Chairman from 2011 – 2013 and as Chairman, Surulere Lawyers Forum between from 2008-2012. He is currently the Chairman of Egbe Omofin, Lagos.
