How we saved NBA from disintegration – Barrister Rafiu Balogun

Chief Rafiu Oyeyemi Balogun was among the pioneer students of the faculty of law, University of Ilorin in 1993 and graduated in 1999, no thanks to the protracted ASUU strike then. He later proceeded to the Bwari campus of the Nigerian law School Abuja and was called to the bar in 2001. After the completion of his NYSC programme at the chambers of the erudite and highly revered Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali in Ilorin, he was retained. After his 7years tutelage, he went ahead to establish R.O Balogun & Co. (Crystal Chambers) with the Head Office situated along Taiwo Road Ilorin. In this interview with ACTING EDITOR, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM, he talks about some current issues in the legal profession. Excerpts:
As a former legal adviser of national NBA, how was your experience like?
It’s not easy because sometimes as a legal adviser, you find it difficult to advise the NBA President and the General Secretary because actually they’re your boss. And that was why they have to scrap that office. How do want to say you want to advise Senior Advocates of Nigeria who has his own opinion and still your boss. During my time, we had lot of issues and I think God really wanted me to be there at that time. There was a time one of the lawyers in Lagos went to court to say we didn’t register out constitution in a case that would have disbanded the national NBA.
(Cuts in) You mean the NBA national constitution?
Yes! He said the NBA was not registered with CAC and the lawyer wanted to nullify the positions of all those who had been in offices previously for several years and even nullify the election that brought us in to pave way for a caretaker and he got judgment against us at the federal High Court. But it was because of my swift reaction based on the previous experience in core litigation from the serious training received from my boss who I spent seven years with, Yusuf Ali (SAN). So I already knew what to do and didn’t wait for judgment which did not come immediately. The lawyer wanted to enforce that judgment and we would have been sacked, NBA would have been at disarray then. So I filed notice of appeal immediately same day because I was in court, I was also preparing my notice of appeal as I was listening to the judgment, there and then I prepare my stay of execution and then the pending appeal was filed the following day. So it was a serious battle and I need not wait for the NBA president or the secretary to do that. It was a serious mistake for the NBA to have scraped the office of the National Legal Adviser that it was not necessary. It is a serious mistake on the part of the leadership because somebody must be in charge. People have been suing the NBA and the Legal Adviser is like the Attorney General of the bar who will coordinate other lawyers in the NBA for defense. Now we have Legal Practitioners Committee in which the legal adviser is also a member and he will act between the team of legal prosecutors and the NBA executives and interface if there is any issue. I think it’s the ego of our leaders that called for such scraping. On the whole, I enjoyed myself as the National Legal Adviser of the NBA during my time because I was able to work. Before I came in, people think there was nothing happening there but when I came in, there were lots of cases and being someone who is at home with litigation, I enjoyed myself. But been NEC member for years has prepared me for future assignments with the NBA at the national level.
Would you like to run for the office of NBA president in future?
For now, I am not interested in NBA politics and I hope to pursue my career at the profession. In the future if God okays it, then all well and good. We have lot of cases that we must attend to now. What I love doing most is going to court and preparing briefs for argument, not going to CAC or land registry.