NBA 2018 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION-
MY FINAL CHOICE IS PAUL USORO, ESQ.,SAN
– HE IS THE BEST OF ALL THE 3(THREE) CONTESTANTS
1. Distinguished learned members of the inner and the utter Bar, I pay my tributes to you all and most especially our always unjustly impoverished young lawyers who are ironically in the majority but are pitiably left with meagre resources, very lean briefs and paltry/ insulting wages.
2. I beg all of you both the Senior lawyers and especially the Young lawyers , in the spirit of brotherly camaraderie existing among us as learned friends , to please VOTE for PAUL USORO SAN as the next NBA President.
3. I have x-rayed and examined critically all the 3( three ) remaining contestants for the office of the Bar President and I have empirically come to a firm and irresistible resolute conclusion that Paul Usoro Esq,SAN is the best and primus inter pares among all the remaining 3 candidates since the unjustifiable and arbitrary disqualification of my original candidate, Mazi Afam Osigwe Esq.
4. I was very happy when Mazi Afam Osigwe called me on phone on Monday this week and he told me and I verily believe him that HE HAS INSTRUCTED AND APPEALED TO ALL HIS SUPPORTERS AND WELL-WISHERS TO VOTE EN MASS FOR PAUL USORO ESQ., SAN . However, he said that this is without prejudice to his pending litigation in court over his disqualification.
5. WHY PAUL USORO ESQ., SAN IS THE BEST AND SHOULD BE VOTED FOR AS THE BAR PRESIDENT FOR 2018 – 2020
6. We cannot afford to entrust NBA to any of the aspirants without tangible and or visible presence both locally and internationally in terms of professional exposures and organisational management experiences.
7. I am a private legal practitioner based in Ibadan with bias for civil litigations like Paul Usoro SAN and Arthur Obi Okafor SAN.
8. I have traversed and criss-crossed the 36 states of Nigeria in the course of legal practice pursuits since I started Advocacy under Chief Bayo Aluko-Olokun SAN of blessed memory in Kaduna in 1993/1994 , the city where I met the ebullient, unassuming and honest Masuuud Alabelewe Esq., also a Corp member with Gbenga Atoki Chambers .
9. I later moved to Ibadan to join Dele Akinmusuti & Co. from 1994 till 1998 for the best mixed of Solicitors & Advocacy practices. Dele Akinmusuti”s law firm was then the most organised and most structured law firm in Ibadan after the law firm of S.P A.Ajibade &Co. and Akin Delano & Co. I was the Practice Manager in the firm from February 1995 to September 1998 whenI left the firm to join the foremost and most successful Partnership law firm in Nigeria, Olujinmi & Akeredolu in October 1998 and I was with the chambers till April 2002 when I was sacked by Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN for an alleged rudeness unbecoming of a legal practitioner.
10. Kazeem Gbadamosi Esq. (KGB) and my humble self teamed up to establish Adebayo & Gbadamosi, Legal Practitioners in October 2002 and we fashioned the law firm after Olujinmi & Akeredolu.
11. Lest I bore you with all the above mentioned details, the point that I am trying hard to make is that I have been a very active legal practitioner since I was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1993 till date and also that I have been a very active Bar Man since NBA was brought to live again 1999??
12. I make bold to say that I have never heard of Arthur Obi-Okafor Esq., SAN and I have never met him throughout my professional voyages all over the country.
13. The first time ever I heard about him was in 2017 through my very good friend and soul mate , Emeka Obegolu Esq who asked me to support Artur Obi Okafor SAN for the NBA President .
14. I know Prof. Ojukwu very well as an erudite law teacher at the Nigerian Law School , also as a sound and excellent Resource person and an astute trainer at NBA conferences, workshops, sections, fora and semina.
15. Also, Prof. Ojukwu SAN once headed or was one of the leaders of the Easter Bar Forum which he has now despised and condemned during the ongoing Bar politicking. But nobody can deny the fact that Professor Ernest Ojukwu SAN is a consummate Bar Man.
16. I have known Paul Usoro SAN since 1998 when I joined Olujinmi & Akeredolu as I used to follow Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN (Aketi) who is the incumbent Gov of Ondo State to “Paulo”s (as Aketi used to call Paul Usoro Esq,SAN) law office at NIDB Building on Broad Street, Lagos severally between 1998 and 2012.
17. Paulo’s law office as at that time was well structured, neat, organised and fully computerised with a functioning website and full internet access that I was always fond of taunting the legendary Aketi on when the law firm of Olujinmi & Akeredolu would rise up to become a mega modern law firm like Paul Usoro & Co.
18. Aketi would only retorted and dismissed me then with ” Oj , O serious. May be you dont know that Paulo was both a typist and a stenographer before he read law.”
And I would reply him jokingly too that ” Just exactly like your Partner”
19. Let me state at this juncture that Aketi is the best among Nigerian Senior Legal Practitioners who will naturally always and at all times relate with any lawyer ( no matter the age at the Bar),as equal colleague and a friend. The Principal/ Junior relationship is alien and unknown to the legendary Aketi.
20. I have been told by Samuel Onwukwe Esq., a colleague of mine who had his national youth service at our law firm and later loined Paul Usoro & Co.that Paul Usoro Esq, SAN is also in the mould of Aketi in terms of that robust and excellent relationship with younger colleagues in his chambers.
21. To the glory of God, I relate with my colleagues in chambers in the same manner which is an attribute that I learnt from the duo of Aketi & Paulo.
22. Let me digress and even talk briefly about Mrs Ufot Usoro who is even more active Bar person than Paul Usoro SAN.
She is a very prominent member of the Bar and she left her indelible footprints on the sand of time of NBA and SBL in particular when SBL was evolving .
She served as the DG of NIMASA and bowed out gracefully when she refused to compromise her stoic corporate governance principles. Only very few Nigerians can do such. Mrs. Ufot Usoro shall definitely be a valuable and veritable partner to her husband by offering him sincere and genuine advice and guides in administering the affairs of the NBA.
23. While some Past Presidents of the Bar resorted to the unknown but yet very expensive office of the Chief of Staff , Paul Usoro SAN will naturally have ex-gratis a seasoned, experienced and well-grounded partner in the administration and management of Bar Associations , a First Lady in the charming , elegant and brilliant Mrs. Ufot Usoro.
24. In terms of active Bar experience, Paul Usoro Esq, SAN has the best bar experience over and above the other 2( two) candidates.
25. Similarly , the law firm Paul Usoro & Co. has over the years been one of the Platinum Sponsors of the NBA conferences and programmes just like Wole Olanipekun & Co., Banwo & Ighodalo, Olaniwun Ajayi & Co., Aluko & Oyebode, AELEX, Okeke & Ajumogobia to mention just some of those top flying law firms who at every conference, seminar, section and forum of the Bar always sponsored NBA functions .
26. Sadly however some Bar Officers are always waiting in the wings to spend some and pocket most of those donor funds.
27. The law firms of Arthur Obi Okafor SAN and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu SAN both combined together cannot match a quarter of the funds donated by Paul Usoro & Co. to the NBA over the years.
28. And I am confident that one of the nemesis of the NBA is that those who contribute little or nothing to the Bar in terms of sponsoring of the Bar programmes are in most cases the parasitic beneficiaries of the Bar as they see Bar Offices as an avenue to unjustly enrich themselves to the detriment of the Bar and all of us.
29. Such financial haemorrhage of the Bar are more common and worst among the occupiers of the office of the General Secretary of the Bar in the last 10 years till date.
30. My great Egbon and reverred Silk, Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN is an exception to this general rule as it is on record that that he never engaged in corrupt and fraudulent practices, embezzlement of funds, maladmistration and abuse of office and powers when he was the NBA GS. He discharged the functions of that office creditably and I am always proud of him.
31. Also, in terms of international exposures, Paul Usoro SAN towers far ahead of the other 2 candidates and that sacred fact cannot be controverted.
It was even alleged and being rumoured that a candidate for a particular Bar office totally
lack exposure to the extent that the personality has never travelled out of the shore of this country and yet he is aspiring to be an officer of the Bar in this IT age.
32. Again, Paul Usoro SAN is the only detribalised Nigerian among the 3 contestants . Though an Akwa- Ibomite by descent , he lives all his life in Lagos and the South-West , he schooled in the South-West and has the headquarters of his top notch law firms in Lagos since he was called to the Bar. His other branch offices are at Abuja , Uyo and Port- Harcourt.
33. Also, he is ITC savvy which has placed him.in the vantage position of being fully ready and prepared to take our Bar to the level of the International Bar Association.
34. Paul Usoro Esq., SAN is not im the full and gainful employment of any tier of Gvernment in this country and as such he is very free and not under any inhibition whatsoever to talk truth to the throne or power as the case may be unlike a Presidential Aspirant who works for one of the Federal Government’s Council in charge of Legal Education.
35. Finally, all the powers that be and the cliques within the Bar are opposed to Paul Usoro SAN ‘s candidature simply because they believe and are of the firm convictions that Paulo is too independent and would therefore be uncontrollable for them. Also, that he cannot be tossed arround as they like.
36. Let us free and liberate the Bar from the Cabals that had held the Bar by her jugular to ransome by VOTE massively for Paul Usoro Esq., SAN for a PUrified Bar.
37. The dawn of a new era in the Nigerian Bar is here, please VOTE for Paul Usoro Esq, SAN as the NBA President.
38. I am #PU-rified . I stand with Paul Usoro SAN.
DATED this 16th August, 2018 at Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo Esq,
Immediate Past Hon Attorney-General of Oyo State of Nigeria.
