AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN, NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION, OWERRI.
By Chinedu Agu
There was once a town where a chief priest was the custodian of truth and justice. The people looked up to him to speak whenever evil men defiled the land. But when thieves began to plunder the market, he said nothing. When warriors began to terrorise widows and orphans, he turned his eyes away. Seeing that the one who ought to speak was silent, the wrongdoers grew bolder, their hands heavier, their cruelty without shame. In time, the people began to whisper: “If the custodian of truth no longer speaks, then truth itself is dead.” Thus, the town sank deeper into rot, not because evil was powerful, but because the voice that should have rebuked it chose to remain mute. And as the Latin maxim reminds us, _corruptio optima pessima est_ — the corruption of the best is indeed the worst.
Prof. Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature, captured this tragedy in words that ring louder with each passing day: “The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.” The graveyard of nations is filled not merely with the bones of tyrants, but with the silence of men who should have spoken.
Mr. Chairman, I write with a heavy heart because silence, especially the silence of the Nigerian Bar Association Owerri Branch, has become deafening in the face of judicial desecration in Imo State. Our bar, once the bastion of courage, now carries the burden of complicity through its muteness. And as it is said in our villages, when the flute refuses to play in the festival, the masquerade dances awkwardly. Today, governance in Imo State dances awkwardly because we, the Bar as a pressure group, have refused to play the flute.
Imo State groans today under the weight of the collapse of the justice sector:
1. Since May, we have had no Attorney-General, the chief law officer of the State, as though the law itself is in exile.
2. Since 15 November 2024, there has been no Acting Chief Judge, a travesty unknown to any constitutional democracy.
3. Vacation Courts, which serve as the last refuge for the oppressed during recess, are absent, leaving our people to the cruel jaws of detention without trial.
4. The Tiger Base Unit of the Nigerian Police now struts about like a militia, detaining, brutalising, and humiliating citizens with reckless abandon, knowing that there is no functioning judiciary to check their excesses.
Yet, Mr. Chairman, in all these, NBA Owerri has chosen to stand aloof, as though silence is a mark of wisdom, when indeed silence here is nothing but cowardice dressed in borrowed robes.
I dare say: if Owerri Bar cannot rise when the judiciary is in chains, when will it rise? If it cannot speak when citizens are brutalised without access to courts, when will it speak? If it cannot defend the sanctity of the justice system, then of what use is its toga of nobility?
It is for this reason, Mr. Chairman, that I urge you: do not wait until the next monthly General Meeting. Summon an emergency meeting of the branch this week, where these matters will be placed squarely before the Bar. Justice delayed is justice denied; so too, action delayed is action lost.
Mr. Chairman, let me remind you that the noble motto of the Nigerian Bar Association is “Promotion of Rule of Law.” This is not a hollow chant for banners and letterheads; it is a solemn charge that we, as officers in the temple of justice, must live out daily. To promote the rule of law is to resist lawlessness, whether it comes from government, police, or even the judiciary itself. To promote the rule of law is to speak when others are gagged, to act when others are paralysed. It is to rise tall where others crouch in compromise.
This is why I titled this letter, “Time for NBA Owerri to Stand Out and Stand Tall, or Henceforth Remain a Timid Dwarf.”
History will not forgive a Bar that refused to stand out when its people were devoured. Posterity will not remember us for our dinners, AGC appearances, or football trophies; it will remember us for whether we stood tall when justice was on its knees.
Mr. Chairman, it is time to choose:
●Will NBA Owerri continue to be a timorous dwarf, hiding in the shadows of compromise, or will it stand out and stand tall as the conscience of the society?
●Will you, as Chairman, choose the applause of transient political masters, or the enduring honour of history’s verdict?
●Will you remain silent, waiting for another voice, or will you, like the trumpet in the night, rouse the conscience of the Bar and the people?
The NBA in Owerri must demand the immediate swearing-in of the Acting Chief Judge; the immediate appointment of not just a constitutionally-qualified but also suitable lawyer as the Attorney-General; and the dismantling of the Tiger Base terror machinery. Anything less is a betrayal of our oath, our calling, and our history.
And if these demands are not met in seven (7) days, then the Bar must wield its ultimate weapon of protest: a total boycott of the courts in Imo State, upon resumption. For what courts do we attend when there is no Chief Judge? What justice do we seek when the seat of the chief law officer is untenanted? What dignity do we preserve when the police are the only judges in town? To continue to file processes and argue motions in such a hollow system is to confer legitimacy on illegality.
Sometimes silence is treason, but at other times, continued participation in a charade is complicity.
We cannot forget that in not-so-distant times, when the administration of Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha trampled heavily on the rule of law in Imo State, the administrations of NBA Owerri then stood firm and resisted the onslaught. Those Chairmen — from Ama Akalonu to S.C. Imo, SAN, from L.U.N. Nwakaeti to D.O. Nosike — refused to bend, and in doing so, they wrote the name of the branch, and theirs in gold. That proud legacy is what gives weight to the name “NBA Owerri” today.
It is that tradition of standing out, standing tall, and rejecting dwarfism that must not be lost, for once a Bar that once stood tall learns to crouch, it risks being remembered only for its silence.
To remain quiet in times such as this is to endorse tyranny. To speak is to stand tall, even if alone. And as it is said, the tree that refuses to bend in the storm is not weak—it is remembered as strong.
Mr. Chairman, the choice is yours: Stand out and stand tall, or henceforth remain a timid dwarf.
● Agu is the past Secretary, NBA Owerri and Member, Advisory Council.
