‘The Bar’ according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 6th Edition, at page 79, as a ‘noun’ in British language (among other meanings), means ‘the profession of BARRISTER (a lawyer in a higher court): to be called to the Bar (i.e. allowed to work as a qualified BARRISTER), while in the American language, means ‘the profession of any kind of lawyer’. In the Nigerian parlance, some of the Nigerian locals or laymen refer to a lawyer as ‘the Bar’! whenever the statement ‘the Bar’ is made, it is a reference to a lawyer and not necessarily the profession of that lawyer. Hence, this is the context of the use of ‘THE BAR’ in this paper (i.e. a reference to a lawyer). Also, in the said Oxford Dictionary (supra), at page 79, ‘behind bars’ is an ‘idiomatic expression’ which means ‘prison’. In essence, the purport of the topic of this paper ‘’THE BAR’, BEHIND THE BARS’ signifies ‘a lawyer in prison’. Whereas, in other words, it depicts ‘a lawyer whose conducts are likely to take him to prison’ and whereas, the ‘prison’ in reference is beyond the earthly prison rather ‘heavenly prison’ or to say in another words ‘the hellfire’! This topic is carefully chosen as a reminder to a Nigerian lawyer to be cautious of the ways he goes about carrying out his professional duties in this life and to be reminded that escaping the bars of this life might not necessarily mean escaping the bars of the heaven! Furthermore, it is a reminder to such lawyer to remember that even lawyers, especially the evil or corrupt ones (regardless of his status whether as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria or not or a Judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria or of a lower court or not or as a politician or no or whatever he might be) might be charged and arraigned before the Court of Heaven whose Judge is God Almighty and might likely be proceeded against in prosecution, conviction and sentenced to an eternal condemnation and or imprisonment for a term of period in the Hellfire or a life imprisonment! Hence, this topic.
First and foremost, (though fallaciously) some persons have opined that Nigerian lawyers are the root problems of this nation (though lawyers have disputed this accusation as untrue and derogatory)! Some persons even opine that lawyers are liars! Though these are opinions of these persons and these their views are not new to majority of us as lawyers. Then, if these are the opinions of these persons (though not all citizens (as some still appreciate and respect lawyers generally and identify the good and righteous ones among the lawyers), may be due to the roles performed by some members of the legal profession and their legacies left undefeated), then, it calls for deep thoughts and a sober reflection as it shows that our societies are losing (if not that they have lost total) hopes in our roles as lawyers in our societies and in the nation as a whole. What then are the purposes of evolving a caliber of professionals called ‘lawyers’?! Is there any role for evolving these lawyers?!
Who is a lawyer?
First and foremost, it is important to consider who is a lawyer ‘The Bar’? According to Wikipedia online, ‘A lawyer or attorney is a person who practices law, as an advocate, attorney at law, barrister, barrister-at-law, bar-at-law, canonist, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, legal executive, or public servant preparing, interpreting and applying the law, but not as a paralegal or charter executive secretary. Working as a lawyer involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific individualized problems, or to advance the interests of those who hire lawyers to perform legal services. The role of the lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions.’.
Responsibilities of being a lawyer (according to Wikipedia online):
‘In most countries, particularly civil law countries, there has been a tradition of giving many legal tasks to a variety of civil law notaries, clerks, and scriveners. These countries do not have “lawyers” in the American sense, insofar as that term refers to a single type of general-purpose legal services provider; rather, their legal professions consist of a large number of different kinds of law-trained persons, known as jurists, some of whom are advocates who are licensed to practice in the courts. It is difficult to formulate accurate generalizations that cover all the countries with multiple legal professions because each country has traditionally had its own peculiar method of dividing up legal work among all its different types of legal professionals.
Notably, England, the mother of the common law jurisdictions, emerged from the Middle Ages with similar complexity in its legal professions, but then evolved by the 19th century to a single division between barristers and solicitors. An equivalent division developed between advocates and procurators in some civil law countries; these two types did not always monopolize the practice of law, in that they coexisted with civil law notaries.
Several countries that originally had two or more legal professions have since fused or united their professions into a single type of lawyer. Most countries in this category are common law countries, though France, a civil law country, merged its jurists in 1990 and 1991 in response to Anglo-American competition. In countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below.’.
Our Nigerian Courts have also contributed to the explanation of the roles of lawyers in Nigeria, for instance, in the case of PDP v. JIME & ORS. (2019) LPELR-48229(CA). , the Court of Appeal of Nigeria stated the role of lawyers in the administration of justice thus
“It is pertinent to remind lawyers that the administration of justice and the justice delivery system are in the business of service delivery to the members of the public, Thus, it behooves every stakeholder in the justice system to take all necessary Steps to promote a cost effective, timely and efficient system so as to engender public confidence in Our justice system. We must never lose sight of the fact that justice rooted in public confidence and it is essential to social order and security. It is the bond of society and the cornerstone of human togetherness, Justice is the condition in which the individual is able to identify with society, feel at one with it and accept its rulings. The moment members of the society lose confidence in the System of administration of justice, a descent to anarchy begins. I have consistently emphasized this point and have severally referred lawyers to the eternal words of a great jurist, J Wesley McWilliams, who writing in an American Bar Association Journal in January 1955 (41 ABA 1 8) wrote in an article he tided “The Law as a Dynamic Profession” thus: “We belong to an ancient, to a great, to an honored profession. The practice of Law is a worthy calling, it has rewarded us with success and with prestige and leadership in our communities. It has given much happiness and the good life. From it we have received the gratitude and respect of our friends and neighbors whom we have served. Our word affords intellectual pleasure with dignity and independence, in competition with whom we have cemented warm friendships and enjoyed happy for these blessings, we cannot but have a sense of gratitude and of obligation. The most productive, unselfish and wholly repayment of the obligation is constructive work to increase the effectiveness of our judicial system and of the profession.” It is hoped that lawyers will tow this line of honour and integrity and contribute their share to increasing the effectiveness of our judicial system, rather than clogging it with useless, baseless, selfish and egoistic litigations.” Per HABEEB ADEWALE OLUMUYIWA ABIRU, JCA (Pp 55 – 57 Paras E – D).
Also, the Court of Appeal of Nigeria has the following to say about the role of judicial officers, judges and lawyers in the administration of justice as follows TUOYO & ORS v. AGBA & ORS. (2014) LPELR-24533(CA), “Before putting the very last dot to this Judgment, I have deemed it expedient to reiterate the trite axiom, that the fundamental and primary duty of a Court is to most undoubtedly do justice according to law. Undeniably, justice cannot be administered in vacuo. It must be administered in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of the land. Most regrettably, the legal profession, exemplified by the Bench and Bar in this country, has been subjected to an age-long and orchestrated prejudice. Thus, there is an urgent need, more than ever before, for the legal profession to engage itself in a more realistically critical self appraisal, with a view to redefining its set goals and objectives. Very often than not, Court processes are used to frustrate or delay the administration of justice by making all sorts of frivolities and, useless applications for adjournment of cases. Undoubtedly, inordinate delay of cases in Court contribute in no small measure to (i) the vast expenses of litigation; (ii) frustrate litigants; (iii) create a pitiable figure of the lawyer, nay the Judge, thereby generating loss of confidence in the entire judicial system. As aptly observed by the Supreme Court: Lawyers may enjoy the splitting of hairs on obtuse legal points but that extravagant exercise has the result of weighing heavily on the pockets of litigants and unnecessarily exhausting the energies of the Appeal Courts. See BAKARE VS. ACB LTD (1986) 3 NWLR (Pt.26) @ 47; per Aniagolu, JSC (of blessed memory). In our considered view, there is so much that both the Bench and Bar can do to salvage the Nation by steadfastly ensuring that our legal system is right in tune with contemporary realities vis-a-vis “contemporary public opinion”. For, as Sir Samuel Coke, erstwhile Chairman of the Law Commission of England and Wales, once aptly remarked: The extent to which human activity is governed by law is enormous. Because of this, one such measure of the health of any society is the extent to which is legal system is in tune with contemporary realities and contemporary public opinion. It is the aim of all those who are responsible for legal policy to ensure that the legal system satisfies all these requirements; but they will not succeed in that aim unless they are able to discern contemporary realities and to assess contemporary public opinion with a fair degree of accuracy.” Per IBRAHIM MOHAMMED MUSA SAULAWA, JCA (Pp 74 – 76 Paras D – D).
Also see the case of NKA v. EZE (2017) LPELR-43451(CA), where the Court of Appeal of Nigeria held thus on the role of judicial officers, judges and lawyers in the administration of justice “…it is pertinent to remind Legal Practitioners of their importance in the administration of justice and adjudication in our Courts. The celebrated learned Law Lord, DENNING, MR., in Pett v. Grey Hound Racing Association (No. 1) (1968) 2 ALL E.R. 545 at 549, had this to say on the importance of lawyers, hear him: “It is not every man who has the ability to defend himself on his own. He cannot bring out the points in his own favour or the weakness in the other side. He may be tongue-tied, nervous, confused or (even) wanting in intelligence. He cannot examine or cross-examine witnesses. We see it every day! A magistrate says to a man: You can ask any questions you like, whereupon the man immediately starts to make speech. If justice is to be done, he ought to have the help of someone to speak for him, and who better than a lawyer who has been trained for the task?” Furthermore, the lawyer’s eloquence, dexterity, skills in argumentation and power of oratory and persuasion, was also reiterated in Waugh v. British Rails Board (1979) 2 ALL E. R. 1169 at 1176, per Lord Simon, L.J., thus: “As it rarely happens that a man is fit to plead his own cause, lawyers are a class of the community, who by study and experience, have acquired the art and power of arranging evidence, and applying to the points at issue, what the law has settled. A lawyer is to his client all that his client might fairly do for himself, if he could.” Further see Dr. Johnson’s Observation in 5 BOSWELL’S LIFE OF JOHN (BIRBECK HILL Edition) 26. I think with that, I should only add that a word is enough for the wise lawyer.” Per TOM SHAIBU YAKUBU, JCA (Pp 18 – 19 Paras C – F).
The above case laws, underscore the importance of lawyers in the administration of justice for a better Nigeria, the failure which has gained lawyers a fallacious accolade of being addressed as ‘lawyers are liars’! Therefore, we as lawyers must rekindle our honour and public trust to change the status quo and to then reecho a new dimension of appreciation in the heart and on the face of the members of the public.
Furthermore, as lawyers, it is our roles to be ‘advocates’ and ‘activists’ for positive change in the societies. The word ‘Advocacy (the noun form of the verb advocate)’ according to the Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th Edition, Electronic copy, means ‘the work or profession of an advocate. The act of pleading for or actively supporting a cause or proposal. While an ‘advocate’ is defined by the same dictionary as ‘1. A person who assists, defends, pleads or prosecutes for another’. And the word ‘Activism’ according to the same dictionary is defined as ‘a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue’. Therefore, every lawyer must ginger the activism accustomed with the legal profession. In the same vein, the words ‘to ginger’ according to the Webster On-line Dictionary means ‘to make lively’. With due respect, it is worse for a community where there is a single lawyer to have bad road, not to have constant electricity supply, not to have good and portable water, to be harassed in one way or the other! This is because, the community expects a pay back from the lawyer as a defender of the right and assurer of justice for all. Some persons would call such lawyer as ‘Barrister’ or ‘the Bar’! This is because they expect some concerns from such lawyer. Rather than for the lawyer who is expected to save them or protect their interests or to advocate for them to perform his roles, whether they have money or not, such lawyer disappoints his people and join them in complaining and pleading or even to cause the society to lose confidence in the System of administration of justice! There is therefore the need for our improvement in our roles as lawyers! So, we can imagine a society or a nation where both the citizens and the leaders do the right thing! That is the kind of nation where all is right with Nigeria and lawyers are engineers of these positive changes!
Furthermore, therefore, every lawyer must rise up in activism against injustice, oppression, inhumanity of one against another and must keep standing for someone’s right, environmental and societal sanitation, sanitation of the corrupt system, speaking against abuse of powers and office. Etc., even though we make money from the profession. So, if a lawyer does not take the side of public interest with great concern, how then would the society be reformed?! The roles of a lawyer as a reformer is even well informed in Rule 1 of the Rules of Professional Conducts for Legal Practitioners, 2023-herein after referred to as the RPC which provides thus ‘A lawyer shall uphold and observe the rule of law, promote and foster the cause of justice, maintain a high standard of professional conduct, and shall not engage in any conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner’. That is why a lawyer who has failed in his roles to the society and the nation would suffer just as the members of the society would suffer and such a lawyer will be among the complainants without finding solutions to the complaints of his people! A lawyer to me, is a saviour to his people! He is their great positive hope! He is their trust! He is their guide and if I may be permitted to say, with due respect, that if the society is in disarray, a lawyer should be held responsible for the evil that has befallen his people, with due respect! This is just an analogy of the extent of the importance of a lawyer to reforming his society, his people and the nation at large! That is why being a lawyer is sometimes referred to as ‘a call to serve’ (that is serving God through humanity).
Despite all the above having been said about the roles of a lawyer, it baffles one to find a lawyer who is corrupt, acting in the most unprofessional manners all for material gains! Some lawyers could even kill fellow man or advise their clients to take fellow man’s life or the life of the other litigant or his counsel! It has almost become that for any evil that a man does, a lawyer somewhere might be his adviser who has advised him to commit the crime! How unconscionable are these kind of lawyers! Some of the lawyers have stained other good and conscious lawyers on earth to be taken as ‘all lawyers are liars’ or ‘all lawyers are corrupt’ in the minds of the people! If the Nigerian Bar Association itself actually has zero tolerance for gross professional misconducts of these lawyers, these lawyers ought not to have their ways in the legal profession! The disciplinary body to punish for professional misconducts are no deterrence to these lawyers perhaps because they are well connected, they are politicians and or cabals in the Nigerian Bar Association or in the Nigerian politics! These lawyers are like syndicates in criminalities in the legal profession! Their mission is all for money or material gains! I must however observe that the legal profession itself is pure, good and purposeful! Whatever unconscionable these lawyers are doing with the legal profession is their personal or individual nature- they could do the same or the worse in any discipline or profession they find themselves!
Furthermore, it is the best for these unconscionable lawyers to be aware and or be reminded that whereas, in other words, ‘their immoral and or corrupt and or evil conducts are likely to take them to prison’ and whereas, the ‘prison’ in reference is beyond the earthly prison rather ‘heavenly prison’ or to say in another words ‘the hellfire’! Hence, the topic of this paper has been carefully chosen as a reminder to a Nigerian lawyer to be cautious of the ways he goes about carrying out his professional duties in this life and to be reminded that escaping ‘the bars’ of this life might not necessarily mean escaping ‘the bars’ of the heaven after death! Furthermore, it is a reminder to such lawyer to remember that even lawyers, especially the evil or corrupt ones (regardless of their status whether as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria or not or a Judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria or of a lower court or not or as a politician or no or whatever they might be) might be charged and arraigned before the Court of Heaven whose Judge is God Almighty and might likely be proceeded against in prosecution, conviction and sentenced to an eternal condemnation and or imprisonment for a term of period in the Hellfire or a life imprisonment!
Finally, it is hoped that this paper would compel a positive change in the life of every lawyer who reads this paper beyond my imagination and or expectation!
Email: hameed_ajibola@yahoo.com
