Gideon Osagbemi, a Kogi indigene but Kwara based legal practitioner is Chairman of the Young Lawyers Forum (YLF) in the state. In this interview with ACTING EDITOR, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM, he talks about the challenges facing the association and junior lawyers in the state viz the strides that have so far been taken to address the issues among other matters of sundry interest in the polity. Excerpts:
How did you emerge as chairman of the Kwara State chapter of Young Lawyers Forum?
YLF had its succession in December 2019 after the last administration’s tenure has to be replaced. The reason was that after the election of the last executive headed by MK Alawaye, who was elected in December 2019, but before he could assume office, he had another engagement that will not allow him serve his tenure and so the office became vacant. He was enlisted into the Nigeria Army and had to leave private practice. Hence members of YLF unanimously resolved that we should take on the mantle of leadership haven been an active member of YLF all along who has served in different capacities in YLF and NBA. YLF is for lawyers between 1-7 years at the bar.
So why were you given the task to continue?
The members felt I was capable and competent.
Have you demonstrated that since you assumed office, what has happened?
We thank God, although the administration came in at the time of COVID-19, we have made some modest achievements since January 27 that we took over. The first is that we have revitalised and rebranded YLF by making it more attractive to the members and non members. Before our administration, we had about 150 members but due to our efforts in branding and projecting YLF plus out integrity, we have been able to attract over 370 members. Also we have improved on the relationship between YLF and NBA. As the chairman of YLF, you are likely to work with two NBA chairmen. One immediately you step in and another when you are about to leave. I have worked with two NBA chairmen and I can tell you confidently that we had a smooth and robust relationship which has transformed into advantages for YLF like the gift of two vehicles won by two young lawyers under the Chief Wole Olanipekun Young Lawyer’s Lottery Scheme. Furthermore, we extended our tentacles for the first time in Ilorin to NYSC lawyers and they have now joined and they are happy we attended to their issues. We helped them settle down in the profession and in the town they found themselves. We also assisted our members to resolve any issue they may have the national body of the NBA and the national body of the YLF. On collaboration, what YLF did is to prevent or resolve all issues relating to relationship. We are able to put that aside and pave way for development under the immediate past chairman and now we have also established a good working relationship with the new NBA administration led by Abdulganiyu Bello who has graciously allocated an office space for YLF at the bar centre, which has never been done before. Also, we in the last 7 months have provided palliative support during lockdown for members to cushion the effect of economic downtime and we where the first body nationwide, whether at the NBA national branch or FIDA to roll out palliatives to over 200 members with the N1.6m we raised among others. We have also set up a committee called community service with the sole intention for community development and offer professional service free of charge to defend people standing trial in court but who do not have the wherewithal to retain legal services through which we assisted people in getting their cases discharged. YLF was also a strong advocate against rape. These are some of the things we have done despite our limited resources.
If you look at the dynamics of practice in Nigeria and Kwara State as an example, a lot of young lawyers complained about the remuneration from their principals who accused them of unseriousness, lack of endurance and that they are always after money. What is your take on this?
The truth is most young lawyers are very hardworking and it is untrue to say young lawyers are not useful, hardworking or not contributing to the office, that they just want to get paid, that is not true. It is the young lawyers in every offices that do 80% of the job, quote me anywhere. It is untrue for any principal to say young lawyers are just interested in money. It’s not as if they don’t work, why they complain is that what they are getting is not commensurate with the work they do. But you cannot give what you don’t have. For a principal to have a young lawyer as staff, he knows he has a duty to remunerate him but the question that arises is how well is the man doing for himself to be able to pay his staff well. This is an economic issue that affects everybody. But there is a way out. If a young lawyer is employed in an office and he feels his income does not commensurate with his input, he has the option to quit because the day a lawyer is called to bar, he has the practicing license to practice on his own. The option is there for young lawyers to either persevere to get the experience or chose to start off on your own so that what you get is absolutely yours. If you make mistake in the job, learn and move ahead just like a new born baby trying to walk.
How have you intervened in such acrimony?
The truth of the matter is that the issue is beyond YLF. As a branch, we can almost not do anything about it, including the national body. I say so because there have been attempt for the past 3 years under the former president of NBA AB Mahmud to introduce minimum wage or remuneration clauses into the NBA constitution, but how practicable is it has been an issue and reason why it has not been resolved. For now, the only thing we can do is to advocate and probably one or two persons can improve. But for a permanent solution I wouldn’t know how NBA can achieve that but it’s actually beyond the powers of YLF because we will be the beneficiary and you can’t be the one to determine what will happen. But we are advocating and whenever the opportunity comes, we speak on the issue.
Have you had any instance where the issue of YLF pitched you against your principal?
The tenure is still new, for now it has not happened because we are just over 7 months. But Let me say that my boss happens to be a lift ambassador of YLF it means he has been a supporter, a pillar of YLF before he could be made a life ambassador of YLF. If there is any principal who is in support of YLF, Bar Rafiu Oyeyemi Balogun is number one. So we may not likely have such confrontations. As for the new NBA chairman who has allocated an office space to YLF because of our robust relationship, so far now there has not been confrontation but if there is need, we would do that. Already I have written to him on two occasions demanding for better improved conditions for YLF.
How has been your partnership/relationship with other YLF nationwide since you assumed office?
We have a forum of YLF chairmen and secretaries in branches and we have been coordinating our members for national activities. Concerning the NBA national palliatives, it was through the branches that names were collated. We resolve members issues for them at the national level. Presently there is a competition coming up for YLF nationwide and Ilorin branch was the second branch to register.
Funding is an issue for every organisation, as the chairman of YLF how have you been able to scale through it?
When I was talking about COVID-19 packages for members, remember I said we took over with no kobo in the coffers of YLF but as of today, we have embarked on N1.6m worth of palliatives for members. We have been able to achieve this because we had supporters, sponsors, well-wishers who believe in our leadership and are ready to support us. The situation has not changed because we don’t take dues, levies, or any form of money from members but source for fund for anything we want to do. We still believe in that.
What of NBA, are they not committed financially to YLF?
Today, NBA has a supervisory role over YLF and if you supervise a body, then you have a duty to cater for the person so sometimes we run to NBA like during Covid-19 where they supported us with N50,000. We believe subsequently, NBA still have a moral duty to support any programme YLF is executing and we are also pushing that there should be a definite or statutory mode of funding YLF from NBA. That is part of our present demand now. We don’t want to start coming cap in hand, let there be a definite financial autonomy for YLF like making certain parentages (like10%) of certain fee available to us. Let us get something out of what we paid to run our association.
What has been your most difficult moment so far in office?
The most difficult time was when we were raising fund for our members because we didn’t have any source. So we had to use our ingenuity to source for fund. At a point some, people encouraged us, some are not so encouraging but as someone who wants to achieve something if you are facing challenges it’s normal to feel bad. But thank God we have moved past that phase now.
What is your advice for young lawyers?
I will advice my members to remain focused to take their job seriously. The economic situation might be challenging but it only gets better when you are hardworking, they should continue to be focus and support NBA, be good ambassadors and not involved in crimes, shortcuts.
