Bayelsa lawmaker, others dump PDP for APC

A member of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Alfred Egba, and other members of the Peoples Democratic Party have dumped the party for the All Progressives Congress. Egba, representing Yenagoa Constituency 1, announced his defection to the APC on Friday. Other members of the House who were denied tickets to return to the Assembly were said to have perfected plans to leave the PDP before May 29.

During the PDP primary election last year, no fewer than 16 lawmakers said to be loyalists of former Governor Timipre Sylva failed in their bid to clinch the party’s tickets. With the victories of the APC at the federal and many states, there appears to be noticeable cracks in the PDP in Bayelsa State. Adducing reasons for his action, Egba said he dumped PDP because the party could no longer give him the needed covering. Egba, a close ally of Sylva, said he moved to APC with his supporters and associates. He said his associates included a former Special Adviser to Sylva on Special Duties, Chief Sonme Ogilogi, and a former commissioner in the state Independent Electoral Commission, Chief Tom Egba. He said, “The PDP is clouded in a series of controversies with parallel structures of leadership. The party is surrounded by the emergence of a factional chairman, while another person still claims to be in charge of the party leadership. “The PDP has been hijacked and there were many occasions when I was never aware of developments in my constituency and the PDP in the state even with my position as a member of the House of Assembly under the platform of the PDP. I have consulted with stakeholders and also sought the face of God before deciding to quit the party.”

Power shift: From Ota farm,Otuoke to Kaduna

Kaduna has become what former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Ota farm was since Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) became the country’s President-elect. Kaduna has become a Mecca of sort to politicians and other interested stakeholders who have been thronging the city to congratulate the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Retd.), on his victory in the March 28 presidential election. Groups and other prominent individuals are not left out in showing their solidarity to the winner of the election described as fair and credible by observers, international and local. Buhari, who defeated the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was said to have started calling the shot from Kaduna in what pundits believed was a move to strategise on how to form the next government. Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, is the seat of power, but it is believed that the country home of any President in office usually commands heavy traffic as people seeking one favour or the other throng the place. Buhari hails from Daura, Katsina State, but preferred to stay in his Kaduna home pending the May 29 inauguration of his government. Sixteen years ago, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Obasanjo, who was then a prominent farmer in Ota, Ogun State, had just returned from prison over a coup plot attempt against the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. He joined active politics to contest for the Presidency on the platform of the PDP in the 1999 general elections against Chief Olu Falae of the Alliance for Democracy. Following his assumption of office as President, Obasanjo’s Ota home became a centre of attraction to politicians, members of the business community, traditional rulers, civil society and student groups, among others. This, experts said, was natural as people would gravitate towards any President or leader in power for myriads of reasons. While some will want to be around such a leader for appointments and political gains, others want to be seen as being friends of the President. As President between 1999 and 2003, Obasanjo was believed to have wielded a lot of influence and power at home and abroad. Obasanjo’s administration won the support of Western power for strengthening Nigeria’s renascent democracy. He also won international praise for the country’s role in crucial regional peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia. He was re-elected in 2003 in a tumultuous election that was said to be characterised by violent ethnic and religious overtones. His main opponent, Buhari, who contested on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, challenged the outcome of the election in court, but lost the bid to have Obasanjo’s victory nullified. Some of the achievements which endeared many to Obasanjo, according to experts, include increasing the country’s Gross Domestic Product by six per cent, helped partly by higher oil prices; ensuring that Nigeria’s foreign reserves rose from $2bn in 1999 to $43bn on leaving office in 2007; securing debt pardons from the Paris and London club amounting to about $18bn and paying another $18bn for the country to be debt free. As the 2007 general elections were drawing nearer, politicians, who believed that Obasanjo could be very busy in Aso Rock, Abuja, increased their visits to Ota especially during weekends in order to get his blessing for the purpose of picking PDP tickets for elective offices. Through Obasanjo’s firm grip on the PDP, a former Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, emerged as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2007 general elections, in spite of his poor health. Yar’Adua’s victory in the poll shifted human traffic from Ota to Katsina. Politicians and contractors, who wanted to remain relevant in the scheme of things, turned their attention to Yar’Adua’s country home. But Yar’ Adua had yet to spend the mandatory four years in office when power suddenly moved to Otuoke, Jonathan’s home in Bayelsa State, due to the then President’s poor health. While Yar’Adua was seeking medical attention abroad and after many weeks of waiting for him to resume his official duty, the Senate adopted the doctrine of necessity, the extra-legal action, to save Nigeria from imminent crisis. The Senate’s action created the platform for Jonathan to become acting President, but Jonathan was sworn in as the substantive President on May 5, 2010 after Yar’Adua’s death. Like he did for Yar’Adua, Obasanjo invested his energy in the emergence of Jonathan as the PDP presidential candidate in the April 16, 2011 presidential election, which he won against Buhari of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change. The 2011 general elections were trailed by violence in which many people were killed and property valued at several billions of naira destroyed. No sooner than Jonathan’s government was inaugurated that Otuoke became the beautiful bride of construction firms and interest groups that wanted to remain the friends of the government. A construction giant, Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, which felt that an old church building in Otuoke was not befitting of a President’s village, seized the initiative to cement its relationship with Jonathan by building a new 2,500-seat church in the town. Though seen by some people as bribe, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Reuben Abati, said that the church gift was part of the Corporate Social Responsibilities of the construction firm. “A contractor who has worked and continues to work in Bayelsa State and other parts of Nigeria thought it fit, in fulfillment of its corporate social responsibility, to facilitate the renovation of the small church in the President’s home town of Otuoke,” Abati had said, President Jonathan lost his re-election bid to Buhari in the March 28 presidential election. As usual, Buhari’s victory in the poll has now shifted the people’s attention to Kaduna, where he has been receiving eminent visitors. The journey that necessitated the power shift to Kaduna started last year when the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ANPP, CPC and a section of the All Progressive Grand Alliance merged to form the All Progressives Congress, the party on which platform Buhari won the last presidential poll. While political pundits believe that Buhari is in Kaduna to prepare for the inauguration of his administration holding on May 29, friends, politicians and stakeholders, including top businessmen, religious leaders and diplomats from within and outside the country have been thronging the city to congratulate him and also discuss critical issues that border on the continent. The United Nations Secretary-General’s Representatives in West and Central Africa, Mohammed Ibn Chambas and Prof. Abdoulaye Bathily, were said to have visited Buhari in Kaduna where they discussed the threat of Boko Haram insurgency. Early in the week, Obasanjo and President of Ivory Coast, Alassan Quattara, also met with the President-elect. Though details were not made available, Obasanjo’s meeting with Buhari was said to have lasted for several hours at a private residence in Unguwar Rimi, Kaduna. But Quattara said his visit to the President-elect was mainly to congratulate him on his victory. He also promised that his country and Nigeria would work hand in hand to ensure stronger integration of West African region. For Buhari to succeed in his yet to be inaugurated administration, observers are, however, asking him to seize the opportunity created by the visit to ask questions on competent and technocrats he might appoint as ministers. The convener of Save Nigeria Group and founder of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, asked the President-elect to shun issues such as zoning and religion if the right people must emerge. Bakare, who spoke at the Wema Bank 70th commemorative lecture in Lagos early in the week, said, “We just have to wait for few weeks to see how things would go. I pray that the north that has been out of power for some time will not say, ‘now it is our turn,’ whether we would see round pegs in square holes and begin to attract incompetent people. The most competent, the fittest and people with capacity and ideas should be the ones to go for.

“It would look beautiful to put things together if you have the mind to do it and if you have the right people to occupy these places, regardless of their religion, regardless of their agenda and what part of the country they are from, as long as they are able to deliver what would bring us out of this backwardness.” A social commentator, Mr. Dare Adeiya, could not agree less with Bakare. He said that Nigerians would want Buhari to hit the ground running shortly after the inauguration of his government on May 29. Adeiya said, “Buhari may have promised Nigerians many things, including total eradication of poverty in the land, but he should pick those that are most pressing among them for implementation. Youth unemployment and building of infrastructure demand urgent attention. “In fact, I am expecting him to use the few weeks he has before the inauguration to consult with relevant people and organisations so as to ask questions about those he will appoint as ministers and advisers in his forthcoming administration. “The President-elect can, as well, seek advice from some of the people that have been visiting him in Kaduna on how to move Nigeria forward.” A lecturer with the Department of Local Government Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Francis Fagbohun, described the frequent visit to Buhari as normal things, but asked the President-elect to sieve good materials from pretenders. He said, “Now that the President-elect has become the bride that every politician would want to associate, he should resist the urge to surround himself with those that will not tell him the truth. Buhari is a leader of all, but he needs to scrutinise very well, especially when appointing his ministers. He needs people who are nationalistic in their thinking, not those with parochial interest.”

I won’t die because Jonathan lost election –Clark

A former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, has said it is wrong for anyone to think that he would die because President Goodluck Jonathan lost the March 28 presidential election. Clark, who was one of the supporters of the President, spoke with journalists on Friday in Abuja. He said some people had been going round with rumours that he collapsed when he heard about the outcome of the presidential election.

It will be recalled that the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), defeated Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the election. Clark, who said he was travelling to London on Friday night, said he decided to speak with journalists before the rumour mongers would go to the market again and say that he had been flown abroad in air ambulance. The Ijaw National leader wondered why some people could be thinking he would die when he was not the one that contested election. He said even the President that stood for the election had conceded defeat and congratulated Buhari. He said, “I am here today to tell you that I am not dead. Or am I dead? In every election, there would be winners and losers. The same thing happened during the last presidential election. “I am alive. Today, I won’t talk about what happened before, during and after the election. That will come another day. “I am talking to you now because I am travelling tomorrow and some people will go into the streets and say I was carried into air ambulance. “President Jonathan that contested election had congratulated the winner and the whole world acclaimed him for conceding defeat. “Jonathan was the one who contested election, I didn’t. So, why should I die.”

‘Arrest govt officials moving with private guards’

Chairman, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has asked the acting Inspector-General of police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to arrest government officials, candidates and politicians moving with private guards during today’s supplementary elections. Jega said failure of these set of people to fully comply with the laid down rules for the general elections led to the cancellation of the elections in the affected states. He said this was also the reason that made the commission to declare the governorship polls in Imo and Abia states inconclusive. Jega spoke when the police boss visited him at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

Arase said he was at the commission’s headquarters to intimate it of his preparation for today’s reruns. Jega said, “Some of the challenges we face during the recent governorship elections were associated with the refusal of government officials, candidates and politicians to comply with the election rules. “This phenomenon was largely the cause of the problems in particularly Imo and Abia states.” While congratulating Arase on his new appointment, the INEC chairman recalled that the immediate-past IGP, Sulaiman Abba, had worked cordially with the electoral commission that saw the relationship reached its highest level in history. Earlier, Arase said having assumed duty just two days ago, he took measures that would ensure problems-free supplementary polls today. He said fresh approach was being adopted to tackle the security challenges encountered during the recent polls with senior police officers deployed to the states where the polls are taking place. Arase said the police would not allow anybody to create any chaos, as perpetrators of the election violence would face the wrath of the security agencies.

African leaders happy over Jonathan’s defeat –Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said African leaders were happy over the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.

He told an audience at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC that his checks in a number of African countries suggested they were happy over the result of the election. He said some Nigerians described President Jonathan as a moving train who was stopped from collapsing Nigeria. The former President, who led the African Union Observation Mission to the April 2015 General Election in Sudan to the event, said, “I have visited six countries since the election, they are as happy about the results. It is good not only for Nigeria, it is good for Africa and I believe it is good for the world.” He also advised African leaders to shift from the mentality of clinching to power by all means, urging them to demonstrate statesmanship for the survival of the African continent. Obasanjo also said that the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) , “has moved Nigeria one very important step up in our democracy.” He also advised African leaders to have consultations with elders in order to promote public accountability and pave way for leaders who were fearful of giving up power to step down in favour of a future of statesmanship. The former President said, “Governance reform and capacity-building programmes, for example, are apt to look everywhere but within. For a change, let us move away from the melancholic issue of what is wrong with Africa. “If we are truly committed to invigorating conversations about an Africa-focused, Africa-led and Africa-driven framework for substantive self-determination and sustainable development, it is important to rethink and reframe how we situate Africa at the centre of inquiry.” Obasanjo said countries like Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon were among countries with leaders reluctant to give up power for fear they might “land in prison or in the grave.” “What if African statespersons made a coordinated effort, measured against concrete benchmarks, to strategically learn from their own scorecards to help implement home-grown solutions for leadership, governance and succession in government, business and civil society sectors?” he asked. Meanwhile, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, Princeton Lyman, described the former President as one of the world’s leading statesmen, adding that he set an example for governance. He said the last general elections couldn’t have been successful without the input of the former President

Speaker/Senate President: PDP plots to take control of N’Assembly

There are indications that the Peoples Democratic Party is scheming to assume control of the National Assembly following the failure of the All Progressives Congress leaders to agree on zoning of offices. it was gathered on Friday that the PDP caucuses in the two chambers of the National Assembly were plotting to benefit from the squabbles in the APC by teaming up with aggrieved elements in the latter. The aim of such an alliance, investigations showed, would be the emergence of a speaker and a senate president different from candidates approved by the APC.

It was learnt that the PDP hoped that by ensuring its choices emerged as the speaker and the senate president, it would “snatch” the control of the eighth National Assembly from the APC. A member of the PDP caucus in the House, who pleaded anonymity, said, “Although we are not disputing the fact that the APC should produce leaders of the National Assembly, we will ensure that those who will emerge are people we prefer, not the choices of the APC leaders. “By doing that, we will snatch the control of the National Assembly from them, just as the APC controlled the House through Aminu Tambuwal.” The APC leaders had on Thursday failed to reach a decision on zoning of political offices at their meeting in Abuja. There were reports that the APC’s National Working Committee had recommended some zoning arrangements to its National Executive Committee. According to the reports, the position of the senate president seat was zoned to the North-Central and the Deputy Senate President to the North-East. There were two accounts on the zoning of speakership. While one stated that the post of speakership was zoned to the South-West, the other indicated that it was meant for the North-East. The deputy speakership was said to have been zoned to the South-South But the APC, in a statement early in the week, denied the reports. Its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, urged Nigerians to disregard the reports and described them as products of hyperactive rumour mills. In spite of the APC’s statement, it was gathered that zoning topped the agenda of the APC leaders’ meeting on Thursday. The PUNCH had reported that no decision was reached at the meeting because the leaders felt that more consultations were needed on the issue. It was learnt that some of the PDP members in the incoming eighth Senate, who would occupy 48 of the 109 seats, had already begun talks with their APC counterparts from the North-East. The talks, it was gathered, followed the failure of the APC leaders to take a decision on zoning. The APC senators that have been mentioned as having interest in the senate presidency include Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central); George Akume (Benue North) and Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North). Based on the recent general elections, the APC will have 60 members in the eighth Senate while the PDP will have 48. Election into the Delta Central Senatorial District is still outstanding. Senate presidency candidates reach out to senators-elect Investigations revealed that the camps of Saraki, Akume and Lawan had commenced aggressive lobbying and strategic calculations to outsmart one another in order to occupy the seat. For instance, while the Saraki camp is currently seeking the support of the new PDP, which he led alongside Governor Rotimi Amaechi and others, to defect to the APC, Akume is relying on the goodwill he is enjoying from the leadership of the APC, particularly, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. The Lawan camp, on the other hand, believed that the North-East had been short-changed in the political office sharing since 1999. The camp has the backing of the APC senate caucus in the zone. It was learnt that the North-East sees the current development as an opportunity to demand for its own share of political offices. North-East APC Senate caucus may form alliance with PDP senators Sources said Lawan’s group had already reached out to the PDP caucus in the senate comprising the incumbent Senate President, David Mark, and 47 other members, with a view to forming a formidable alliance that would make their dream become a reality. Senators from the North-East were said to have promised the PDP caucus that they would work towards the emergence of one of them as the deputy Senate President if their dream of producing the Senate President materialised. Attempts to speak with Senator Ahmad Lawan and the APC North-East Senate Caucus on the alleged discussion with the PDP caucus in the senate over his ambition were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report. But reacting to the development, a member of the APC North-East Caucus, Ali Ndume ( Borno South ), acknowledged that his zone deserved its fair share of the leadership positions in both chambers of the National Assembly, but stressed that it would also seek the APC senators’ support. “The leadership of the party is doing everything possible to ensure that the zoning is done in such a way that it will be acceptable to all concerned,” he said. However, a senator from the North-East, who did not want his name mentioned, told one of our correspondents that his people might seek support outside the party, if the leadership of the APC failed to zone either the speaker of the House of Representatives or the Senate President to their area. He said, “We have 18 senators from the North-East, if we get the support of 48 PDP senators, we will get more than simple majority of 51 votes to produce the senate president. Already, there are 48 senators in the PDP camp. One is outstanding in Delta State. “We are having at least 66 votes if we perfect our alliance with the PDP.” When contacted, Senator Ayogu Eze, (PDP, Enugu North) said the PDP caucus in the senate would allow the APC senators to carry out their affairs without any form of interference from the minority party. He said, “I am in the PDP. I think it is the responsibility of the new majority party to determine how they will share their offices in the National Assembly. “I don’t want to get involved in their affairs because they were not involved when we were in the majority. We will allow them to do their show. “I am not sure that the South-East will lose out completely in the power sharing at the eighth National Assembly because the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had denied the rumour of zoning. He said all we are hearing about zoning are rumours” In the House of Representatives, the PDP caucus is also poised to play a major role in the emergence of the speaker, Saturday PUNCH investigations have revealed. It was gathered that the caucus was closely monitoring meetings of the APC leaders with the aim of working against their choice as speaker. A member of the caucus, who confided in us, said, “If the APC decides to impose a speaker on the House, which is what is likely to happen, it will naturally work with aggrieved elements.” The North-East, South-West, South-South and North-West are all eying the speakership. We gathered that views expressed by party decision makers at a meeting of the National Working Committee of the APC a week earlier, narrowed the search to the North-East and South-West. However, two APC towering political figures, one from the North and the other from the South-West, are said to have consistently disagreed in the course of negotiations, as each of them insists that the seat must go to his zone. “What is going on now is a battle between the North and the South-West; each wants to be in full control of the next government. “The North already has the President and they are likely to have the Senate President. The position of the South-West is that, if you add speaker to what they (North) have, it is too much power going to one part of the country. “That is why the South-West is insisting on having the speaker in addition to the office of Vice-President; indeed, a key APC financier has nominated a particular candidate for the job and has advised all other spirants from the zone to drop their ambition for the candidate,” a senior party official confided in Saturday PUNCH. It was learnt that the PDP plotted to cue into the “burble that will burst” in the event of the losing zone becoming aggrieved, to “file behind a neutral candidate that is competent and experienced” as the speaker. The PDP has about 140 lawmakers in the incoming House, as against the APC’s 200 lawmakers. “If the disagreement in the APC continues unresolved, there won’t be a guarantee that they will give block vote to the candidate of the party. They will be divided. “It will be easy for the PDP to woo the losing group for a team work to clinch the speakership, even if the candidate has to be an APC member,” one source knowledgeable in the calculations of the PDP told Saturday PUNCH. We are watching wrangling in APC –PDP caucus Deputy House Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, confirmed that his caucus was watching the wrangling in the APC with interest. He said it had been the tradition of the House to allow lawmakers pick a speaker of their choice, as the choices of political parties usually backfire or end up in crisis. Ogor said, “We are not going to be idle in the PDP by just sitting and watching. No, we will play a major role in how the speaker will emerge. “The much I can say is that nobody or party can impose a speaker on us. We agree that the party with the majority is the APC, but members will have to elect their speaker.” Asked whether this major role could also mean the possibility of a PDP member vying for the seat, Ogor said he would withhold his comments on the question. “I won’t comment on that question; but I will tell you that we in PDP will not be idle on this matter,” he added. South-South intensifies campaign for speakership Also, the South-South intensified its campaign for the speakership position to be zoned to the region on Friday. The South-South has two ranking APC lawmakers in the House going to the eighth Assembly, namely Mr. Pally Iriase, and Mr. Peter Akpatason. A group, the Coalition for Justice and Fairness, made a case for the South-South. It expressed surprise that nobody was mentioning the zone in the sharing of political offices in the incoming government. Coordinator of the group, Mr. Muraina Ahmed, said excluding any zone of the country from the power equation was a breach of Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, which provided for the federal character principle. Ahmed said, “For the records, the APC, as the majority party, has the conventional privilege to zone the offices of Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. “The nutty issue that will test APC’s abhorrence of impunity, which was one of the major reasons Nigerians voted for the party, is the zoning of the listed leadership offices in the National Assembly. “To be fair, there are extenuating circumstances that may hamper the even spread of legislative offices enumerated above to all the six zones in Nigeria. “For instance, the South-East has no APC senator at all and has not produced any ranking APC member of the House of Representatives. “The South-South has one senator who is a fresher and does not meet the ranking criterion. But the South-South has four members – elect for the House of Representatives, two of whom are ranking, with one of them, Pally Iriase, parading impeccable credentials and legislative leadership experience. “This is a golden opportunity that the APC must not miss. In the spirit of fairness and adherence of federal character, the position of Speaker, House of Representatives should be zoned to the South-South geo-political zone.” We will take position on Senate President, Speaker’s positions soon – PDP The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party is to meet with newly elected senators and members of the House of Representatives soon. The meeting will determine who among the numerous candidates to support among those aiming at becoming President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, disclosed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Friday. Metuh said until the meeting is held, the party could not say which candidate it would support or not. But he said that the party would support its members in the National Assembly to be active and also support the cause of the party. He said, “Well, we have met with them on the need to support the national leadership of the party as we plan to reposition the party. They have agreed to work with us on this matter. Attempts to get a reaction from the APC were futile. Several calls to the mobile telephone number of the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were neither picked nor returned. The first call was at 3:21pm, the second was at 3:23 and a text message on the subject was sent to him at 3:31pm. This was followed by another set of calls made at 4:17pm and 6:32pm, none of these efforts elicited a response as of the time of filing this report (6:35PM)

Chief Judge advocates English language lessons for lawyers

Justice Ishaq Bello, acting Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, has advocated for continuous education for lawyers, particularly in the use of English language. Bello stated this on Wednesday in Abuja at the launch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) stamp and affinity products. The Acting Chief Judge said that it was becoming rather irritating for lawyers to appear before a judge and continuously mix up their tenses in trying to present their cases. He observed that the declining standard of lawyers could be noticed in the quality of legal practice, where a lawyer stands from the bar saying “I didn’t did it” or “I saw them passes”. He urged the leadership of the NBA to do more to further encourage the continued education of lawyers, saying the trend was becoming quite irritating. “All lawyers must go through what is called Language Usage Course (LUC); all lawyers must be exposed to the dynamics of global evolving legal landscape.” He added that the only way lawyers could keep up was for the association to continuously encourage them to learn and urged the older lawyers to provide guidance to the younger ones. Similarly, the Chief Judge of Borno, Justice Kashim Zanna, reiterated Bello’s call, saying that it was quite embarrassing for lawyers to be unable to present their cases in good English language. Zanna also encouraged the NBA to quickly organise the training, saying that the continuous use of bad English by some lawyers in court was robbing off on all lawyers.