Lagos Lawyer Condemns Enugu NBA Conference for Giving Inexperienced Melaye, Adeyanju Platform Pursue ‘Futile Narratives’
A Lagos-based lawyer, Barr. Clinton Nwabaa has condemned the organisers of the 2025 Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for derailing from the age-old practice using the AGC to advance the legal profession.
Nwabaa in a statement shared on his social media handle on Thursday said that the Enugu AGC was turned to a “farce and hypocrisy” where “political interlopers” were given a platform court “controversy and futile narratives.”
The lawyer who was speaking on the “platforming” of legal newbies like Senator Dino Melaye and Deji Adeyanju said that it was painful and unacceptable for the organisers to bring people who have no experience in the law practice to lecture legal luminaries on issues of law.
According to the lawyer, “the NBA has inverted the mentor-apprentice dynamic, forcing bar elders with vast experience to “listen” to juniors who bring nothing but controversy and futile narratives.”
He maintained that AGCs and other high-impact gathering of lawyers were usually an avenue for interrogation of the rule of law and justice administration, but the Enugu conference was turned to a mockery of what the legal profession stands for.
His full position reads:
NBA AGC 2025: The Legal Profession’s Descent into Farce and Hypocrisy
The convoluted charade at the AGC 2025 is not about advancing legal discourse or justice; it’s a damning indictment of a profession in freefall. By platforming these political interlopers, Melaye with his bombast and Adeyanju with his novice bluster, the NBA has inverted the mentor-apprentice dynamic, forcing bar elders with vast experience to “listen” to juniors who bring nothing but controversy and futile narratives.
The result? A conference that mocks the rule of law it claims to champion, eroding public trust in lawyers as guardians of justice and exposing the bar as a playground for the ambitious and unqualified.
Until this year, legal gatherings maintained some dignity; now, they are just another venue for ego-driven spectacles, where “guidance” on access to justice comes from those who have spent more time in headlines than in courtrooms.
The NBA must reckon with this embarrassment or risk being seen as complicit in its own diminishment.
C.O. Nwabaa, Esq.
Former NBA/YLF Chairman, Ikorodu
