The Annual Conference of the International Bar Association has come and gone, but for those who missed it or those who simply want to relive the memories, this week's edition is an IBA Conference Special Edition.
It's impossible of course to pack one week's worth of events, each worth telling, into a single 16-page edition, so we will in the weeks to come publish more about the conference and all the cutting edge developments in law and the legal world.
For me, two things were memorable about last week's conference. One was the Keynote Address by Bob Woodward at Sunday's opening ceremony at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Woodward of course, is the investigative journalist with The Washington Post who, with Carl Bernstein, broke the Watergate Scandal.
I was 11 years old when the scandal eventually consumed the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, America's 37th President, but even though I didn't fully understand the details of the unfolding events, I was especially interested because just a few years before, I had lived and schooled in the United States when Nixon was President. Those were pretty interesting times - Vietnam, the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with China, desegregation, busing, the big bad Soviet Union, Nixon's re-election campaign, what began as the news of an innocuous burglary at the D.C Headquarters of the Democratic party, et al. When Nixon eventually threw in the towel and resigned in 1974, the first and only US President to do so, I knew history was being made. And that I was living in interesting times. I read all I could about it from my dad's magazines and pestered him with questions - this was, remember, before the internet, 24/7 news on TV, cable TV and Information-now-at-the-touch-of-a-button age!
One name that kept cropping up and which stuck in my young mind was Bob Woodward, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to, finally, hear him speak in person in Vancouver. He didn't disappoint either. An extremely articulate and gifted public speaker he was able to, effortlessly, keep the attention of the over 4,500 lawyers (no mean feat) gathered in the auditorium for the over one hour duration of his address and the question and answer session which followed.
In terms of my excitement and anticipation about speakers at IBA conferences in the last decade, I would say that for me Woodward ranks right up there with Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's Minister Mentor - and that is saying a lot; Minister Mentor Lee is a man I admire a lot.
Our cover this week takes the conference from the perspective of Woodward's address. Details within.
The other memorable aspect of the conference was my visit to Vancouver's superior courts of record - the Supreme Court (the equivalent of our High Court) and Court of Appeal.
I asked Mrs. Funke Adekoya, SAN and Mr. Ikeazor Akaraiwe to oblige THISDAY LAWYER with a write-up of their impressions and perspectives of their own court visit and they graciously obliged, press deadlines and all. Details within.
Having missed the official court visit because tickets were quickly snapped up, we went there on our own - THISDAY, The Sunday Newspaper Editor Yusuph Olaniyonu, THISDAY Director Personnel, Gbayode Somuyiwa and I.
We could only shake our heads in wonder - and again, this is saying a lot. I make it a point to visit courts in the diverse countries I happen to find myself in and I have written about a few of such court visits on these pages (I was even a litigant in one, in Singapore); so it would be right to assume that I am not that easily impressed. Right? Wrong! On this occasion we could only shake our heads and crack feeble jokes amongst ourselves that beholding this sort of thing tended to make one behave like someone who had never travelled and so would gawk at all around him! Of course, we were terribly pained in our hearts that as blessed as we are in Nigeria with crude oil resources and all, our judiciaries which should boast of all these things other judiciaries have and take for granted are either underfunded or lack the imagination or the will to shake things up or all three.
One technology that held some degree of fascination for me was the recording technology. We'd approached the court registrar of one of the several courts we'd wandered into and asked her questions about it. All she had to do, she'd said, was jot down a few notes every 10 minutes, the computerised device did the rest. It was online real time. She was kind enough to demonstrate its use to us. If she, for example, required parts of what had transpired in court the day before at say 10.49am, she simply clicked on the day and exact time and listened to what had transpired. The device, she said, was backed up in Victoria (the capital of British Columbia). I thought it was pretty neat! And I desperately wished we had similar devices back home! If anything, our Judges will live longer! And counsel too! From less stress and an easier way of doing things.
We also, at another court where a criminal trial was going on, were opportune to speak with a Queen's Counsel we had approached when the court rose. I was surprised to learn that to be a QC in Canada you were not required to bring a junior to court, nor were you required to keep any in chambers. He told us about the QC selection process which relied a lot on recommendation from peers and the bench before going through the process, with the Attorney-General, Lieutenant General and Governor General all having their input. Occasionally there was some politics involved, but generally the process was transparent.
We also noted that they had done away with the wig. I'm sure we remain the only country, or one of the few, that give Ede & Ravenscroft something to live for! Even England is gradually ditching the wig. But. I guess we love our pomp and pageantry. I know many lawyers who'd rather die than give up their wigs and who might knife you at the very suggestion that they do!
We left the courts feeling very dejected (if you read Funke Adekoya's piece, she also spoke about Nigerian lawyers who left the court visit feeling dejected!). Well, read about the rest in the two articles within.
One issue our Association, NBA, must take up very seriously and in good time before next year's IBA conference is that of obtaining visas for Nigerian lawyers. Attendance this year by Nigerian lawyers was significantly down because many (some of whom were billed to speak at sessions) were either denied visas or decided not to go through the process which basically required that you bring everything but the kitchen sink! I was fortunate to already have a multiple entry Canadian visa otherwise I honestly think that for the first time in almost a decade I would have seriously considered not going for an IBA conference.
It is very demeaning to be considered guilty from the beginning (of wanting to run away from your country and stow away in theirs or of being a drug trafficker or of wanting something or the other from their system and playing it) by foreign Embassies and High Commissions in Nigeria and having to prove otherwise. It would ordinarily be funny were it not so degrading. Why should they make such baseless assumptions? The amusing thing is you then end up seeing some funny characters and wonder how on earth they were granted visas in the first place!
Surely those countries have laws in place for deporting persons who have overstayed their visas or are involved in crime or are playing the system? Except they are saying they have no confidence in the efficacy of their system, why not let those laws be enforced when the occasion arises?
Ironically, some Nigerian lawyers simply applied for their Canadian visas stress-free on visits to the US or UK where the process was for all of an hour and a half from start to finish! They walked out with the same visas that required at least two weeks and the kitchen sink back home!
It's time the NBA begins to robustly engage our Foreign Affairs Minister (who fortuitously presently is a lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), the Ambassadors, High Commissioners or Consuls-General of the countries involved, as well as the International Bar Association prior to the conference and well before these issues rear their ugly heads.
The foreign missions in particular must be made to understand that we are professionals, i.e. a desirable group of persons. More, we are going to their countries to spend our hard earned dollars for the benefit of their economies. Last week's conference for instance, injected an estimated (conservative) $7m into Vancouver's economy in just seven days! This may be pedestrian economics (shame! From the daughter of an economist! But. I digress) but if 10% of participants at last week's conference were Nigerians (and they were), then 10% of that (conservative estimate of) $7m, i.e, $700,000, came from Nigerians. In reality, probably much more. Not to mention the jobs created. And the spinoff effect from the good reviews participants (like me) will give about the desirability of Vancouver as a holiday or conference destination. Many of these benefits are intangible.
And those Missions must be made to understand that we will not suffer harassments at their borders either. Personally I wasn't harassed on arrival in Canada and haven't heard of anyone who was. However, I recall that Auckland 2004 wasn't quite like that. On arrival, almost all the black persons arriving New Zealand were harassed; presumably, they'd never seen such numbers of blacks in one fell swoop! I was very irritated that I was asked to produce my return ticket which the Immigration officer examined as if he were studying for an exam! And I had to restrain myself from yelling at the fellow that even if I wanted to do an 'Andrew' it most certainly would not be in the uttermost most part of the earth, especially as he could see valid visas to the US and UK which were English speaking and much closer to home!
If no progress is made, then it may be time to re-consider and review our participation at such events. Hopefully, it won't come to that, but it's time the NBA takes a stand.
Enough of the poor attitudes and bad behaviour from foreign missions and point of entry! Our country may be far behind in terms of development, we may not have the best government ever, some of our citizens may be involved in undesirable behaviour abroad, but some of us have vowed to effect change and live and prosper in Nigeria. And some of us cannot live anywhere else either. Chew on that.
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