SIR: We have a culture in the legal profession of having a Bar/Bench Forum to primarily build and strengthen relations between the Bar and the Bench. These meetings are also vital in exchanging ideas, identifying and suggesting solutions to teething problems within the profession as it relates to the courts.

Now, this forum only holds at the instance of a Chief Judge with an agenda set by the CJ alone (as far as I know). Some CJs convene these meetings quarterly while some may not even have one in a whole year so it’s really not a forum that is veiwed as compulsory.

Who is invited to these meetings? From the Judiciary: The CJ, Admin Judges, other very senior Judges, the CR, DCRs, some Admin Magistrates from Districts, the ACR.

From the Executive: The AG and the Solicitor General or their representative. From the Bar: All NBA Branch Chairmen, maybe up to 4 of their members (selected by the Branch Chairmen) and few SANs.

The CJ leads about 250 Lawyers who are judges, magistrates and Customary Court Presidents. The AG leads about 400 State Counsels. The NBA Lagos Branch Chairman leads over 12,000 lawyers. The NBA Ikeja Branch Chairman leads over 8,000 lawyers. The NBA Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry Branch Chairmen collectively lead about 3,000 lawyers. Without a doubt, the burden of leadership rests on the Bar and not on the Bench.

How then should we approach Bar/Bench Forums?What kind of conversations should we be having and how do we set protocols and standards to ensure that these forums are monitored, assessed and are established to produce achievable deliverables?
Is it enough to go into these forums with no records, no established or recorded facts? Without a report delivered by the office of the CJ? Are audited reports of cases filed in Court presented to the forum to review and proffer solutions to reducing backlogs and congestion of court dockets? Is there an anti-corruption index? Is there a review of; or statistics of complaints received and resolved by the judiciary presented at these forums? Are the respective NBA Branches required to come prepared with reports outlining what they are doing within the Branches to improve Justice delivery? All NBA branches have an internal committee called the Judiciary Relations Committee or something of that nature…Do our Branch Chairmen attend the forums with reports from that committee?

We keep saying that law practice is a business; but we are yet to be accountable for the positions we hold within this profession. We do not understand that with titles and positions comes great responsibility. We are yet to prioritize Judiciary spending, hence our courts are incapable of delivering justice to the people who pay dearly for it.

Our NBA Chairmen should simply come together to device a strategy of engagement, establish protocols and standards. The Judges and Magistrates hold their titles in trust for a term certain; they are appointed and not elected into office so they are limited in what they can achieve. The Bar on the other hand has more power and freedom to express itself. We must not wait for a court building to fall on the members of the Bar before we realize that even the judge, on whose head the building falls is also a member of the Bar.
• Bayo Akinlade is a former Chairman of NBA Ikorodu Branch. He is the Convener of Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary (FIACIJ) and Citizens Support for Lower Courts. Akinlade is the current Publicity Secretary of Nigerian Law Society (NLS)