SAN decries poor welfare of junior legal practitioners

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Paul Usoro has expressed worry over the poor welfare condition of young lawyers in Nigeria.Usoro said the issue of welfare of young lawyers bothers him because it is a critical matter.

Speaking in Lagos with select newsmen, the senior lawyer said: “Most of us are bothered about it because we hear reports of places where young lawyers are paid N30, 000 per month and some instances N40, 000 per month as a take home pay.

“To use the Nigerian jargon, it doesn’t take you home. It is of concern for multiple reasons. When you don’t have a satisfied work force, the quality of work itself is impacted, the welfare of the person is imparted and there’s a multiplier effect in all sectors as far as that is concerned.” He noted that a number of things could be done about it, one of which is for the senior lawyers to decide to show example by taking care of the younger ones.

His words: “If they show example, then it becomes easy for them to persuade other people to follow. If for example it becomes clear to people that the president of the Bar Association employs juniors and he pays them well, it would be easy for him to use moral authority to persuade his other senior lawyers to do the same thing.

“Like Nigeria, you could have all the laws but if the people who are at the top could not lead by example, the law is just good as what is written. It is important that those who are the leading lights as far as the Bar is concerned show that it is the best way to address the welfare of juniors.

On the role of NBA in advocating and defending the rule of law, Usoro said the NBA has not done badly. “I believe that the NBA is playing its role,” he declared, adding that the association perhaps, needs to twiddle its information dissemination machinery.