Is the NBA in short supply of resource persons? By Ejiro Ofoye

There are moments when an institution must pause—not necessarily because it has acted unlawfully, but because a particular decision raises deeper questions about judgment, standards and institutional identity.

The decision to invite Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, as a panellist at the Nigerian Bar Association’s Annual General Conference has generated considerable debate within and outside the legal profession. And the question I ask is a simple one: Is the NBA in short supply of resource persons?

I ask this question not as an attack on VeryDarkMan, but because it raises a fundamental question about the standards, judgment and intellectual character expected of an institution as important as the Nigerian Bar Association. Let me make certain things clear from the outset. This is not an argument that only lawyers should speak at NBA conferences. It is not an argument that people without formal legal training have nothing useful to contribute to discussions involving lawyers. Neither is it an argument that unconventional voices should be excluded from serious national conversations.

People outside formal institutions can bring perspectives that professionals may not possess. Journalists, activists, entrepreneurs, technology experts and ordinary citizens can all make valuable contributions to public discourse. The legal profession must not become an echo chamber where lawyers speak only to lawyers. But that is not the issue here. The real issue is whether popularity, social-media influence and the ability to attract public attention should, by themselves, be sufficient considerations for selecting resource persons at the premier gathering of Nigerian lawyers. It is important to make a constitutional distinction. The Nigerian Bar Association is not the Judiciary, nor is it an independent arm of government in the constitutional sense. The Judiciary occupies a distinct position within Nigeria’s constitutional structure, and judicial independence remains fundamental to the proper administration of justice.