Malami Inaugurates Bar’s General Council

•NBA tasks members on self-regulation

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami, yesterday, in Abuja, inaugurated the General Council of the Bar.

The inauguration which many believed was long overdue, was targeted at repositioning the legal profession in the country as well as reinstate public confidence.

Speaking at the occasion Malami disclosed that, “after initial challenges, we are succeeding in getting the General Council of the Bar on stream again, to enable it assume its pride of place in the legal community.

“The inauguration of the Bar Council today represents a remarkable milestone in our legal profession. It presents an opportunity for constitutional heads of the legal profession and members of the Bar to meet and deliberate on pertinent issues affecting the legal profession, especially in view of current challenges and public perception of the profession”.

The minister explained that the General Council of the Bar (Bar Council) was established by the Legal Practitioners Act and saddled with functions as may be prescribed by the Act and the Constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association.

“The importance of the Council’s activities cannot therefore be over-emphasised, and as such, there is an obvious need to reinvigorate the Council by ensuring that necessary structures are put in place which will allow it perform optimally,” he said.

The AGF therefore urged members of the council to remain committed to professionalism, adding that the NBA must work in synergy with the council “to build an enviable legal profession that will be beneficial to us all.”

According to him, “A body which consists of all the chief law officers in the federation cannot simply be ignored by any leadership of the NBA which is truly desirous of making significant impact on the administration of justice and promotion of the rule of law in the country.”

The Council which has the Attorneys-General of the 36 States of the Federation and 20 members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is headed by the AGF.

In his remarks, President of the NBA, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau, harped on the need for members of the legal profession to cultivate the habit of self-regulation of their conducts.

He expressed confidence that with the inauguration of the Council the absence of regulations guiding the conduct of lawyers in the country is over.

According to him, the main duty of the Council, “is to make rules from time to time on professional conduct and cause such rules to be published in the gazette and distributed” among the branches of the NBA.

He, however, lamented that the last time such function was performed was in 2007, when the then President of the Bar Council and then Minister of Justice, Mr. Bayo Ojo, issued the professional conduct rules which is the one in use today by the legal profession.