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I was in
Abuja
on May 9, 2007. I traveled, on invitation, to attend the afternoon Call to Bar ceremony at the
Nigerian
Law
School
.
It was a ceremony to formally admit to practice the successful candidates in the bar examination administered in February 2007.
For the lay person, the Nigerian Law School in Abuja (with campuses in Lagos, Enugu and Kano) is a vocational institution established to ensure that prospective barristers and solicitors are properly trained or otherwise educated before unleashing them into the society. This is the final training stage for those who have acquired their undergraduate degrees in law from Nigerian Universities.
There were 466 candidates for this afternoon ceremony. These men and women, before the ceremony began, had noisily mingled with friends and relatives, photographers, hawkers of films and camera batteries, hawkers of bottled water and soft drinks, and sellers of legal magazines and literature. There were at least 1500 guests and well-wishers all dressed up in their formal and festive outfits.
At exactly 1:00 p.m. the candidates (or aspirants, as they were known) lined up at one entrance to the building designated for the ceremony. They lined up peacefully, quietly, solemnly but cheerfully, wearing their gowns and bibs and carrying their wigs in their hands. They lined up with military precision and demeanor. And they walked toward the entrance with dignified air.
As each candidate reached the entrance, he or she was inspected by a lady whose name I did not get but who apparently was a person of authority at the law school. I saw her examine the hair of each female aspirant, running her hands through some, and then inspect the black gown and other material before ushering the candidate into the hall, satisfied. The men were equally inspected very carefully before they were allowed in.
I would later find out that the candidates had strict instructions on appropriate physical appearance and that each and every one complied. In hindsight, I now saw why all the men cut their hair so close to the skin that they were almost bald. In hindsight, I saw why the women had no attachments to their hair and generally left their hair short and natural. Everyone reminded me of my elementary school assembly days without the runny nose and wrinkled shirts and shorts. They reminded me of order and obedience to authority so badly absent from our other civilian institutions. I was proud.
I was even prouder at what followed when all 466 candidates and about 1500 guests had taken their seats in the big hall designed like a theater.
As the Body of Benchers (judges and justices) walked in to take their seats, everybody, candidates and guests, stood up. After the Body of Benchers had taken their seats, the guests also sat down. But the candidates, all 466, were instructed to remain standing until they were told to sit. With dignified obedience to authority, these candidates who, in reality, included men and women already set in their ways as teachers, employers, and business men, stood with military precision, holding their wigs in their hands like a battalion of penguins in their resplendent black and white outfits. I was proud.
I was extraordinarily proud that following the formal request by the Director of the law school to the Chairman of the occasion (president of the Court of Appeal, the Honorable Umaru Abdullahi) to admit the aspirants to the Bar, the candidates (I mean the aspirants) stood, and remained standing, for more than one hour as each person’s name was called.
Each aspirant called would walk to the Body of Benchers, bow or curtsy, walk to the president of the Court of Appeal, shake his hand, walk past him to receive his or her certificate, then walk back to his or her seat, not to sit down, but to resume a standing position. They stood until each and every one of the 466 had been called. They stood until they were told to now put on their wigs. They stood until they were formally informed by the Chairman that they were now admitted to the Bar. They stood until they were told to now sit down. Then, and only then, did a thunderous applause escape from the hands of all the guests and well wishers.
The president of the Court of Appeal, apparently making the utmost use of the news media whose cameras graced the occasion, took a parting swipe at politicians who are planning to judicially challenge the results of the just-concluded elections: “I want to warn such politicians to follow proper protocol and leave our judges alone. I say this because any judge who is derailed from following proper protocol will lose his or her job”. This political shot earned him the highest decibel of all the cheers and applause of the entire ceremony.
At the end, the new lawyers (now Barristers) were told that they must have dinner with the Benchers as a compulsory final act. They were directed to another building designated for the dinner. In a single file, still conscious of the continuing need for order, respect, and obedience to authority, the Barristers walked quietly, solemnly but cheerfully, past the gawking eyes of the well-wishers, waving to one and smiling at the other, as they disappeared into the new building for the dinner.
In the midst of all the rituals inside the building I noticed that the attentive guests, a representative sample of the Nigerian masses, did not stir, did not talk among themselves, and did not exhibit the usual impatience of the typical Nigerian as the ceremony, which lasted for about two and half hours concluded. That these guests took their cue, their lesson, their respect for order and discipline from the new lawyers’ exhibition of obedience to authority, without the usual coercion of the Nigerian army or the police, made me proud.
The Nigerian judiciary is, and has always been, the most disciplined and most orderly branch of the Nigerian government and the militaristic
Law
School
, no doubt, has largely shaped and molded the souls who live and teach this orderliness. I have no doubt that the new lawyers of 2007 will continue to teach by example. Proud, once again, to be a Nigerian.
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Posted by Robot| 12.05.2007 08:06