Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Femi Falana, has criticised the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over its decision to invite social media activist, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), to speak at its ongoing 66th Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt.
Falana, who spoke in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, said the NBA should prioritise experienced professionals and experts when selecting speakers for its conferences, particularly on specialised issues such as national security.
His comments followed the controversy generated by VDM’s appearance at the conference, where he spoke on insecurity and alleged issues surrounding the country’s security architecture.
According to Falana, NBA conferences in the past provided platforms for intellectual engagement, where speakers with established expertise and experience challenged lawyers to think deeply about important national issues.
“In those days, the NBA brought individuals who had paid their dues, who were coming to engage lawyers intellectually. We wanted to learn from them, and so the NBA was not… none of our conferences was a side show in the past,” he said.
Falana argued that the credentials and experience of invited speakers should correspond with the subject of discussion.
He said anyone invited to address lawyers on national security should either have played a role in the country’s security architecture or possess demonstrable expertise in the field.
“So, if you are bringing an expert to discuss the security of the country, either from the private or public sector, such an individual must have contributed to the security architecture of the country,” he said.
The SAN warned that inviting individuals without relevant experience to speak on specialised matters could undermine the intellectual purpose of the NBA’s annual conference.
“But when you bring people who have nothing to do with the security of the country, there are problems,” Falana said.
He drew a comparison with discussions on media freedom, arguing that such issues should feature journalists, academics and other practitioners with experience in the field.
His comments came after the presenter referred to arguments by some lawyers, including Professor Chidi Odinkalu, who defended VDM’s invitation on the grounds that the legal profession could benefit from hearing directly from members of the public who interact with the justice system.
Responding, Falana acknowledged the importance of public engagement but maintained that such engagement should be matched with the subject being discussed.
“With profound respect to my very good friend Chidi Odinkalu, he was talking in the general sense. We’re talking of this particular case,” he said.
Falana said there would be nothing wrong with inviting members of the public to speak where the subject was justice delivery and the experiences of citizens with the justice system.
“If we are talking about justice delivery in the country, we now want to hear from members of the public, that will have been okay,” he said.
However, he maintained that discussions on national security should involve individuals with direct knowledge of security operations or people who had experienced insecurity, including victims of abduction.
Falana Wants NBA to Return to Intellectual Tradition
The senior lawyer urged the NBA to return to what he described as the intellectual tradition of its conferences, recalling the impact of presentations delivered by prominent legal scholars and jurists in previous years.
Falana cited the late Dr Akinola Aguda and former Supreme Court Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, whose conference presentations, according to him, generated public debates long after the events.
“In those days—the submissions of some of our lecturers, like the late Dr. Akinola Aguda when he addressed us in 1985, or the late Justice Oputa when he addressed our conference in 1987—for several days and weeks, their submissions became matters of public discourse,” he said.
He added that lawyers debated the presentations and newspapers published editorial comments on them, describing the experience as an important part of professional learning.
“And I think lawyers, as I said, we should go back to that era,” Falana said.
The human rights lawyer also urged the NBA to carefully examine the records of political leaders invited to speak on democracy and the rule of law.
According to him, former heads of state and political leaders should be subjected to scrutiny based on their records while in office.
He said speakers addressing lawyers on democracy and the rule of law should be able to demonstrate that they respected court orders, protected citizens’ rights and upheld press freedom while in power.
The controversy surrounding VDM’s participation at the NBA conference has continued to generate reactions, particularly following his presentation on insecurity and allegations concerning the conduct of security personnel in relation to kidnapping and other security challenges in Nigeria.
