Advocacy for Bar Licence Freedom (ABLIF)

RE: ‘PREVENT NBA’S CPD POLICY FROM REVOKING LAWYERS’ LICENCES’

SUSPENSION OF ACTION ON THE CPD POLICY ‘ONLY’

• Dear Comrades! I salute you all for your relentless struggle against the Nigerian Bar Association Institute of Continuing Legal Education-herein after referred to as the NBA- ICLE regarding its Continuing Professional Development-herein after referred to as CPD– mandatory policy and which aims to deny us as Nigerian lawyers our constitutional and statutory right to practice as legal practitioners duly enrolled by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, for failing to meet up with CPD points, while it relies on the purported Rule 12(3)(a)-(b) of the 2023 Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (RPC) and Rule 23 of the 2025 NBA MCPD Rules, whereas, the Legal Practitioners’ Act, 2004, governs the legal practice and the legal profession in Nigeria, as a statutory law.

1. Dear Comrades! With your relentless supports, we, together, immediately engaged the NBA through media advocacy and other relentless engagements while calling for an immediate review of the obnoxious policy against us as Nigerian lawyers.
2. Dear Comrades! We observe that the NBA-ICLE was adamant on not shifting ground on the policy and did all that it could to justify why Nigerian lawyers under such policy should have their practicing licence revoked on ground of no CPD Points; and in direct response to the reluctance, we Comrades were also determined on a ‘No retreat, no surrender’! ‘No friend, no enemy!’ approaches.
3. Learned Comrades!  I must commend you all that our online petition with the title ‘PREVENT NBA’S CPD POLICY FROM REVOKING LAWYERS’ LICENCES’ has continued to gain public attention and the attention of learned Comrades across the nation of Nigeria and abroad as well as the attention of stakeholders in the legal profession and the government; and the signatures to the said petition has continued to increase on a daily basis and most happily, within 24 hours of starting the petition, it has gained not less than 373 supporters of this petition, while the petition has continued to gain widely circulation with not less than 377 petition shares and 1, 121 petition views! Nevertheless, we believe in the result; not the number!
4. Dear Comrades! Gratefully, our efforts and struggle were not in vain! On the 24th June, 2025, I received an email personally which contains a directive by the President of the NBA (MAZI AFAM OSIGWE, SAN), (which I believe a number of Comrades must have received on their emails too), wherein the President made some directives (which contains Nine (9) paragraphs) reviewing the obnoxious CPD Policy by the NBA-ICLE. Most noticeable, paragraph 1 of the directive states that ‘No lawyer will be compelled to attend any accredited Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training, as every lawyer has the right to choose which training to attend’. Also, paragraph 4 of the directive states that ‘Lawyers can make up the five (5) CPD Hours each year by attending free seminars conducted by accredited institutions or by attending free trainings organized by the NBA ICLE, NBA Branches, and any other service providers’. Furthermore, paragraph 5 of the directive states that ‘As a result of concerns about the cost of some of the advertised trainings, the NBA ICLE Board should immediately exercise its statutory powers to vet the pricing of CPD courses to ensure that they are affordable’. Paragraph 8 of the directive also states that ‘Accredited NBA branch-level trainings and activities form part of the recognized avenues for earning CPD points’. Also important to state is the paragraph 9 of the directive which states that ‘The ICLE Board should also encourage NBA branches, Faculties of Law, and other law training institutes to accredit some of their courses and programmes so that lawyers enrolled in their programmes can claim CPD Credit points for them’. (Underlining is mine for emphasis).
5. Dear Comrades! I must state and plead with you all that the recent directive above by the President of the NBA requires to be given our consideration for a change of planned public actions in the interest of the association of which we are all members.
6. Dear Comrades! It is however important to observe that the directive by the President of the NBA, ‘was quite ambiguous’ as to whether lawyers who do not meet the CPD points will have their practicing licence revoked?!
7. Nevertheless, permit me to state the words of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) which states that ‘It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You all have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean that you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result’. Hence, it is undeniable that our relentless struggle and actions so far in solidarity as comrades against this obnoxious policy through our media advocacy and other engagements with stakeholders paved way for a review of the earlier released two separate notices by the NBA-ICLE (the first having been released on the 11th June, 2025, while the second was released on the 20th June, 2025)! I must commend your struggle, learned Comrades! Now, respectfully, dear Comrades! The President of the NBA himself has intervened in the situation. He has issued this recent directive, which to some extent (even though all our reliefs have not been granted), has considered our grievances which shows our impacts on the policy review!
8. Sequel to the above, dear Comrades! I humbly appeal that we suspend our actions on this CPD Policy ‘only’ (including the online petition) while we continue to engage the President of the NBA, the NBA stakeholders and the appropriate government authorities on how NBA Policies especially the one on the CPD Point, will continue to build Nigerian lawyers rather than destroy them! Hence, this press release.
9. Dear Comrades! I must state firmly that it is not over yet until it is over! Permit me to reecho the words of Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) which states that ‘There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest’. Hence, this emphasises that while we can’t always stop injustice, we must always protest it! 

•  On a final note dear Comrades! I appreciate your relentless efforts and struggle and I humbly state that ‘A luta continua Victoria ascerta (the struggle continues, Victory is certain)!

Sincerely yours in solidarity and comradeship!

Email: hameed_ajibola@yahoo.com     08168292549.