ATTENTION: MUSTAPHA M. KASHIM, ESQ.,

RE: OPEN LETTER TO MR. ADETUNJI OSO, SAN “THOSE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULD NOT THROW STONES”: A REJOINDER  

My attention has been drawn to your letter to me, titled “Those Who Live in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones” At first, I did not consider it necessary to respond for two reasons: I do not personalize issues, I make my point and move on, and in this case, I had moved on. The second reason is that, I do not engage in back and forth on a personal level which I thought reacting to your open letter might lead to. I am however compelled to react not to dignify your deliberate distortion of facts, but to put the records straight and in proper context.

I was not at the Enugu NEC Meeting. The brief I received with regards to the Enugu NEC Meeting is that, in keeping with the best tradition of insulating the leadership of the Bar from partisan politics, “my aspirant” as you put it, shared and distributed his souvenirs and materials outside the official meeting hall where only the LOC and national officers had the exclusive control of what happened. He followed these best traditions and practices in Benin and Akure NEC meetings that you referred to. At the Benin NEC meeting, “your aspirant” and “my aspirant” both set up their tables side by side each other in sharing whatever souvenirs that they had outside the meeting hall. At the Akure NEC meeting where I served as the LOC chairman, all the aspirants had equal opportunity and a level playing ground to display their banners and share their souvenirs outside the meeting hall as well, using their independent staff and supporters. These are verifiable facts with videos and pictorial evidence.

At the Enugu A.G.M. hall, following an objection against “your aspirant’s” leveraging on the open and partisan support from Mr. President in using some members of the A.G.C. Planning Committee to distribute her branded souvenirs to members inside the hall, the president in good conscience then, stopped “your aspirant” from using the meeting hall to distribute her souvenirs and propagate her partisan agenda.   

I am not sure you were at the Maiduguri NEC meeting or that you are even a NEC member. As against what happened at Enugu NEC meeting, the meeting hall was hijacked for “your aspirant” with impunity even when other aspirants were there seated and represented. First, a member of NBA Damaturu Branch, Kadai Ali Sulaiman was prevented from coming near the meeting hall until he removed his Aarenation branded cap for obvious reasons. Now, juxtapose that with the adoption of “your aspirant’s” branded water as official water distributed and shared to the NEC members inside the official meeting hall by LOC members and other agents of the National Exco of the Bar. The branded bottled water was openly displayed on the President’s table. There are videos and pictorial evidence of this too. Inside the hall, some got the official LOC branded water while some got both. I only got “your aspirant’s” branded water. What has changed between Enugu AGM when Mr. President stopped your aspirant from hijacking the official meeting hall for campaign and distribution of campaign materials and now is that some vested interests in the National Exco have become brazen, believing they can act with impunity in their desperation to promote their adopted and preferred aspirant, taking all of us for cowards who would not have the courage to challenge them.

Learned Counsel, you missed the point. What the people found condemnable and objectionable is not the mere open demonstration of partisanship by the President as condemnable as it was. What the public found more reprehensible, condemnable and objectionable is the fact that Mr. President  compared his open display of partisanship and his “I cannot be neutral in the coming election” declaration because he is eligible to vote, to President Tinubu’s exercise of his power to appoint INEC Chairman in an election he will be contesting in. The question is, when did we as an association start drawing inspiration from the politicians we daily condemn as being corrupt? Is it not a thing of shame that as an association that professes to protect democracy and the rule of law, our constitution and practice cannot give us a more democratic process of appointing members of NCBA than the Nigerian system? I think the Nigerian electoral system is even more democratic and open than the NBA electoral system, particularly under the watch of our dear President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN.

For an association that has had all the outcomes of its presidential election contested bitterly in court since the introduction of electronic voting, what we need are: a suppression of personal political interest; an assurance of neutrality; and a declaration of non- partisanship from its national leaders, particularly the president who had the task of appointing members of ENCBA, and not a declaration of “I cannot be neutral in the coming election” even if the president does not mean it. Again, I say to you that President Tinubu has done better than our President on this. President Tinubu daily gives assurance of giving all his opponents a level playing field. You may believe it or treat it as political statements.

My learned friend, I do not envy you or the task you have chosen for yourself. Our dear president has come under public scrutiny, starting from his undemocratic annulment of an electoral process unprovoked and now this. Your task and that of others is to do damage control and I do not intend to engage you in a back and forth regarding that task. My job, like I said, is to speak to Mr. President and I have done that and moved on, leaving you and others to continue to “shalaye” on behalf of Mr. President. So, take this as my last words on your letter.

May God bless you and bless NBA more.

Adetunji Oso, SAN

Former Chairman, NBA Akure, NEC Member and Secretary, Governing Council of Egbe Amofin