George Etomi holds a Master of Law (LL.M) from the London School of Economics & Political Science, University of London. He also had his Law School attachment programme at the law firm of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo & Co in Lagos. Prior to his appointment as the Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business Law, he has once served as Chairman, Finance Committee of the association. A member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) was in 1990 appointed to represent Nigeria on the legal sub-committee of the United Nations General Assembly.

Shortly after the inauguration of the NBA sections on Legal Practice and Business Law by the NBA President, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), he spoke to the Guardian’s Assistant Judicial Editor, Gbolahan Gbadamosi on significance of the two sections; the need for more reform on the criteria for the appointment of the rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and more. Excerpts:

Q: Over a year ago, you said that “specialisation is an idea which time has come and there is nothing we can do about it.” Can you relate your prophesy to the inauguration of Sections on Business Law and Legal Practice of the NBA two weeks ago in Lagos?

A: The inauguration of the section is an emphatic yes to the proposition you are talking about and law is beginning to assume more and more intricate dimensions requiring special knowledge in specific areas in order to give maximal beneficial service to client and society.

Besides, with the over-reaching demands brought about by globalisation, it is important for Nigerian lawyers to improve on their skills so as to match their foreign counterparts. One way to do that is by specialisation. I’m not saying it will happen overnight, but I’m simply saying the time for specialisation is here.

Q: Proffer more reasons for the inauguration of the sections.

A: The association needs to reach as many if not most of its members as it can manage. This is because from a time when the total number of lawyers was less than a thousand in Nigeria, there are now at least forty-five thousand members called to the Bar and still counting. If the NBA does not reshape itself to reach out to every one of its members, the association will become weakened by reason of its inability to tap its very best. For example, most lawyers involved in commercial law practice as well as our colleagues who work in industry as in-house counsel partake minimally in the activities of the NBA and this is not desirable.

The association needs to strengthen itself to resist the attempt by other professions to forage into legal practice. We have accounting firms, estate management firms, etc, all trying to engage in legal practice which development, if not curtailed, can spell doom for the association.

Q: Looking at the committees on Business Law, Sports Law is omitted; can such omitted specialised law still be included?

A: Sports Law is included even now (s. 1b) of the by-laws of the section, but having said that, the section has powers to create even more committees as the need arises (s. 1 of the by-laws section). For example, we have interested members in such areas as tourism who have applied to be given a committee of tourism to cover their interest.

Q: Do you still maintain your position that the Law School should not be held responsible for the students’ poor performance? If yes, where do we locate the problems?

A: Yes, I still maintain the position because the Law School can only produce what it is given. The Law School cannot be expected to in one year to turn out brilliant lawyers when the fundamentals are not there in the first place. The problem is much deeper and goes to our educational system.

Law like every other subject area in this area has suffered neglect and therefore decline. I’m hoping that as we gather momentum in the section, we can walk closely with our law faculties to look into the whole issue of admission into the law faculties. Happily the Section on Business Law has already reached out to some of our academic counterparts and together we will begin to look at the issue fundamentally.

Q: What is the best way to appoint the Director General of the Nigerian Law School? Is it not tidy to have a definite tenure for the office of the Law School D.G.?

A: I don’t mind the present system of appointment as long as it is based on the recommendation of the Council of Legal Education. Academics should not have tenure, so like judges they should stay in office till retirement age. Thus if someone manages to become a director general early, it ought to be possible for him/her to bring about positive changes over a long period of time.

Q: Should entry qualification to read law in the country be second degree? Remember you moved from Eghosa Grammar School, Benin City to the University of Ife in 1972 to read law.

A: I’m inclined to agree, given at least what we see now. It makes a lot of sense to make law a second degree. In the United States of America for example, you cannot become a lawyer except you have a first degree, because it stands to reason that the mature you are the more you appreciate law better.

Q: In 1990, you were appointed to represent Nigeria on the Legal sub-committee of the United Nations General Assembly, on what platform where you appointed? Give an insight into your assignment at the UN.

A: I was nominated by the Ministry of External Affairs to represent Nigeria in one of the legal sub-committees on drafting at the United Nations (UN). The assignment involved collating and taking the position of member countries and putting them in legal form. It is important to have your country represented because if you take part in the debate and you are not around during the drafting period, important elements of a regional position might be omitted and therefore you might lose in the drafting segment what you had won in the debate. For example, a lot of African countries look up to Nigeria to lead them in taking a position in a lot of these UN debates and you will be letting them down if you win the debate but are absent during drafting. To debate is one thing and to have your views truly represented is another.

Q: Comment on the ongoing mergers among banks in view of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N25 billion capitalisation.

A: My first position is that it would have been more ideal if these mergers had evolved so that you have likes in bed with one another. However, in the peculiar instance of this country it may require precipitate action to bring about change and this is what the Central Bank of Nigeria is doing. The ultimate beneficiary will be the real sector of the economy because stronger banks can afford to lend long term and therefore grow the economy.

Q: Do you support the attempt to reintroduce pupillage for the new wigs before setting up chambers?

A: It is important for new wigs to train under senior lawyers but practicability is the problem. We don’t have enough good law offices to meet the demand. It would be unfair to hold new wigs down because they cannot be placed through no fault of theirs. We must find other ways of improving new wigs for now.

Q: Can EFCC under Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu be efficient without infringing on citizens’ rights?

A: Yes, the EFCC can be efficient without the need to infringe on citizens’ rights. There would naturally be instances where the lines are blurred and the EFCC needs the support of the judiciary to succeed. I also believe that he time has come for the EFCC to dialogue with the NBA on this whole issue of infringing on citizens’ rights as it pertains to the performance of their civic duty with a view to finding a middle ground to sanitize the system and the importance of respecting the citizens’ right.

Q: As an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for International Legal Studies (CILS) in Salzbury, Austria, what is the relevance of the fellowship to you and the nation in general?

A: The fellowship is recognition of my contribution to legal scholarship and this has been over several years. I believe that any credible honour bestowed on any Nigerian professional outside these shores would be considered an honour because tells the world that Nigerian professionals can hold their own amongst their counterparts elsewhere.

Q: In the beginning, you and now Senator Udoma Udoma had a brief stint as lecturers at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, why did you leave? Give reasons for your answer.

A: Let me set the records straight. I got appointed to lecture but did not in fact begin before I left because when I went to take my seat, I met Udoma, now Senator who had a three month stint at lecturing and had told me that he kept falling far short of what he believed our expectations will be. In other words, the decline in our university system had commenced about then and we doubted if we would find it fulfilling if we had continued as lecturers. So he left for Chase Bank and pointed me in the direction of Chris Ogunbanjo and Co. Shortly afterwards, I went to Chase and convinced him to come join me at Chris Ogunbanjo and Co. and that was how we both worked there for sometime.

Q: Your last publication was in 1998, what is responsible for this? Is another work in the offing?

A: That is not correct as I have done things from 1999 to date:

• “Mergers and Acquisitions in Nigerian Law” (Paper presented at the 16 th Course in Drafting Commercial Agreements and Banking Documentation, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, May 2001);
• “Challenges of Funding Nigeria’s Telecommunications Industry – The Policy & Regulatory Environment,” (Paper delivered at the Telecom Finance Seminar, 2002);
• “Selecting the appropriate business arrangement” (Paper delivered at the Continuing Legal Education Alpha Juris workshop series, July 2002;
• “Jurisdiction of the Investment and Securities Tribunal” (Paper delivered at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 2004).

Q: You acknowledged that some reforms have been introduced into the appointment of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), yet you said more still needs to be done. What are your suggestions?

A: I believe that adjustments should be made to accommodate commercial law practitioners who are into solicitor-type practice and whose contribution to the growth of the law is there for everybody to see.

Q: The last NBA General Conference in Abuja has been adjudged the best in terms of making over N15 million profit. As a former Chairman, Finance Committee of the NBA, what is your impression of the Abuja 2004 NBA Conference? Suggest ways for improvements.

A: I am very proud of what the Conference Planning Committee (CIC) of Abuja NBA 2004 Conference did. The members of the committee are very bright spots in the NBA and everybody wishing to hold future conferences will do well to retain them as consultants. However, as much as the last conference was successful from the point of turn out, revenue derived and quality of papers delivered, it was obvious that the large number of attendees could not be coped with. This resulted in the poor distribution of conference materials which caused rowdy scenes, etc. We need to improve in the area of managing large attendance at conferences.

Q: What is the future of the legal profession, taking into consideration the shrinking economy and the need for survival among legal practitioners?

A: The future for legal practice in Nigeria can be bright. It only requires us to prepare ourselves for it. This is one of the reasons I have pushed hard for the creation of sections so that lawyers continue to remain relevant to the developmental need of this country. For example, there is so much going on in reforms in which lawyers can play a significant role therefore benefit once they can acquire the knowledge and skill relevant to those areas, such as:

• The transport sub sector with the concessioning of our ports, maritime industry, proposed railway concessioning, etc.
• On-going privatisation of Federal Government enterprises;
• Banking sector reform;
• Health sector reform;
• Public, private partnership policy just to mention a few.

So it is really up to us because for as long as society exists, so will there be a need for lawyers.