By Adesina Ogunlana
What is this ‘ayam’ reading about Femi Falana, SAN predicting balkanisation of the NBA and saying that ‘ cabal’ has taken over the NBA? To say the least , ‘ayam’ very amused , if the news is indeed correct ,the report , I read has Falana going on to say that the leadership of the NBA has been setting up questionable caretaker committees in some Branches even when the emergence of such national leadership is questionable . I laugh and sneer at the same time .
With due respect, any body who really know facts about the many inconsistencies of Falana and still take him serious , is himself or her self not serious . When did Falana SAN, begin his concerns about the NBA ? I boldly say that you hear his voice generally on national NBA matters , at elections time . Like all political animals , Falana has his preferences at all times , but then the preferences often do not come out tops and when such disappointments occur,he begins to complain seriously ….until next time of failed expectations. My perception is that Falana is more of Mr CONVINIENCE than MR CONSISTENT in NBA matters.
In 2016 , when the out going President , Augustin Alegeh SAN wrongly purported to remove me as Chairman upon an election I won at the NBA IKEJA BRANCH and set up a one man caretaker committee of Nurudeen Ogbara Esq, to administer Ikeja , not only was Falana happy at my purported political overthrow , Ogbara admitted publicly via Channel’s Television that he had sought and received professional guidance from ‘ Authority Falana’ to take on the assignment . Through out the bitter, tough and rough one year leadership tussle between my self and Dele Oloke Esq , the chap thrown up as factional chairman by the eventually futile efforts of N Ogbara , Falana was a supporter of Oloke and my extremely malicious adversary . In that struggle , Falana supported the application of the obnoxious principle of retroactivity in the interpretation of legislation as to have me removed from office . It was no bother of his then that the NBA national leadership and even the NEC have no powers under her constitution to remove Branch Executives .
However it came to be that some three years later,in 2019 , Paul Usoro SAN as NBA President then caused the removal of Bayo Akinlade, Esq as Chair NBA IKORODU BRANCH ., purportedly for flouting and frustrating certain electoral dictates of the national body in Ikorodu Branch matters. . Guess , who championed Akinlade’s cause ? You guessed right , it was no other than their ‘ Authority Falana . Akinlade’s relatively speedy judicial victory in the matter was largely due to Falana ‘s famed dexterity and artistry of law in his back yard jurisdiction of Ikeja . The case was never handled either at Abuja or Ikorodu o. Note , please too that Ikorodu has a high court o
Much later after the case was over and Akinlade reinstated , I had cause to interact with N Ogbara , Akinlade’ s big opponent in the Ikorodu Bar and whose faction instigated and favoured Akinlade’s removal ,over the role of Falana in the matter, considering his stance on the propriety of my removal as Branch Chairman of Ikeja in 2016 by NBA national leadership , a stance tantamounting to a clear volte face. Ogbara only sighed deeply and said ‘ But we all know Femi now , that’s Oga for you ‘
In June 2020 , the national leadership of the NBA dealt NBA IKEJA BRANCH another unfair cut , by dissolving the Tiger Bar Electoral Committee, setting up a three man Caretaker Committee to manage the Branch . Did Falana speak out against the move ? No , instead he seriously discouraged the clearly humiliated and embarrassed Chairman Dele Oloke (2018-2020)not to fight theoppressive and flagrantly unconstitutional action of the national body . I know this emphatically for a fact . Faced with the dastard action of the national body above , I reached out to Dele Oloke , despite his morbid animosity for me ( remember that Oloke had some days earlier maliciously refused to issue me a Letter of Good standing , jeopardising my chances of contesting in the NBA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION) to encourage his leadership to fight off the national body’s oppression and hold the Branch elections if ‘even if it was only one of the chairmanship candidates that was ready to participate in the election , where the purportedly dissolved Electoral Committee was ready to do their job ) . Oloke consequently called a meeting of the candidates to which I was invited. His Secretary and legal acviser were also present . At the meeting , only one of the candidates expressed his interest in having the election hold. Oloke concluded the meeting on acquiesing to the dictates of the national body after announcing thus ‘ I have tried getting our elders to this meeting but was not successful . The ones I managed to reach had other engagements . I have spoken wjth Mr Femi Falana who I take as the spokesperson of the Elders and he counselled we should not do the election as we dont have time on our side and I dont want to be seen as not listening to our elders ‘
In all of the instances above , where is the consistency on the part of Falana SAN? He is accusing others of cabalhijacking jn the NBA , but is he not CABAL head in the NBA IKEJA BRANCH ? But more important, is it not mere opportunistic grandstanding and mischievious trumpeteering of Falana to be predicting the imminence of bulkanisation in the NBA ? We have heard in recent times of threats of splits in the NBA just for two ‘reasons’ to wit , Dele Adesina’s loss in the presidential election via an untidy election and the disinvitation of Governor El- Rufai of Kaduna State as Speaker at the NBA AGC . Are these reasons good enough to contemplate the dismemberment of tbe NBA?
Lest we forget , in the election that Dele Adesina lost , was Falana not announced with Chief Niyi Akintola SAN as spokespersons for EGBE AMOFIN on matters arising thereof ? Now when and how did Femi Falana SAN WELL KNOWN as a ‘ Pan Africanist’ and’ Nigerian nationalist ‘ become an Egbe Amofin IRRENDENTIST chieftain ? Was he ever really a member of the Egbe Amofin ?
In Africa , elders are duty bound to be sincere agents of harmony and conscentious builders of their community and not opportunistic drummers of war beats and ‘ town scatterers
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