PROTOCOLS

I am delighted to welcome you all to this auspicious and very distinguished occasion – the 17th Annual Conference of the NBA Section on Business Law (SBL), taking place in Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence and commercial nerve-centre; the 6th largest economy in the continent – the beautiful city of Lagos.

This is the second of the NBA Sections conferences that is taking place in the beautiful city of Lagos this year, for which I must, on behalf of the NBA, express my immense gratitude to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for once again graciously hosting the Nigerian Bar Association. Also, on 22 June 2023, the Governor was the Special Guest at the NBA Lagos Branch Elders Dinner, where my predecessor in office was given an award. We thank Mr Governor, and we are very grateful for the leadership qualities he brings to bear in the affairs of Lagos State.

For me, this is my first SBL Conference since assuming office as President of the Bar, a position you all graciously elected me to. The last SBL Conference was in Abuja – then I was a candidate. I now have the singular honour and privilege to say ‘thank you’ to you as a Section.

Coming at the onset of a new administration both at the centre and in majority of the states, the theme of this year’s conference: “Nigerian Business Landscape: Priorities for Law Policy & Regulation”, is apt and well-timed. It affords us the opportunity to interrogate recent developments in the business environment and how they have affected business operations and avert our minds to creating policies, regulations, and an enabling environment for businesses to thrive and grow. It also affords us the opportunity to interrogate one of the several tasks before the new government, infrastructural deficits. We must consider both the physical and social infrastructural deficits with a view to building the right legal, regulatory, and commercial frameworks that will attract and retain the right public and private sector partnerships for sustainable growth and development. It should be emphasized that, laws, rules and regulations must at all times be ultimately geared towards promoting peace and generating economic growth and empowerment of the citizenry.

Concerned about the plight of our colleagues across the nation and the need to provide better remuneration for our colleagues, the NBA worked so hard to come up with the Legal Practitioners Remuneration (For Business, Legal Service and Representation) Order, 2023. When fully implemented, we expect to deal with undercutting by colleagues and, hopefully, this will generate prosperity and empowerment amongst us.

Closely related to this is the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2023. We have, as NBA, decided to take the bull by the horns. The fight against money laundering and terrorism financing is the Lawyers’ fight and we must be self-regulating in this regard, as we all come together to be at the vanguard against the scourge of money laundering and terrorism.

In my goodwill message to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, at a retreat it organized on Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Counter-Proliferation Financing Compliance, held on 21 – 22 June 2023,  I took the liberty to caution that we must not, in the fight against money-laundering and terrorism, do anything or take steps that will in any way appear to compromise the sovereignty of our nation. We must demand reciprocity of conditions or terms and resist any attempt to subject Nigeria and Nigerians to double standards. We cannot afford to swallow hook, line and sinker all conditions and terms that may be imposed by other nations without recourse to our peculiar circumstances. While we must remain firm and resolute against any form of criminality, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have an economy to grow and over 200 million Nigerians to carter for in a country with poor literacy level, high infrastructural deficit with only about 25% of Nigerians participating in the formal economy. I must admit that this is a delicate balance, but it is one that we must all strive to attain. We must, consequently, always consider our peculiarities as a people and the varying but legitimate elements that propel our economy.

I implore all speakers, participants, and discussants to bear in mind that Nigeria is in dire need of a departure from complex regulation, bureaucratic red tape and bottle necks which have historically constituted a burden and disincentive to all economic actors in Nigeria thereby hurting the economy. Striking the right balance between regulation and/or reforms and economic growth are pivotal to a strong national, and I dare say, regional economy.

It is my hope and expectation therefore that we will rise from this conference with workable proposals that we can present before the relevant policymakers, with the hope and aim to influence the laws, policies and regulations that will see to the improvement of the business landscape in Nigeria.

I cannot fail to specially applaud the Section Chair, Dr Adeoye Adefulu, for the very eventful year and the dexterity with which he has piloted the affairs of the Section. I thank the members of his EXCO too for supporting him. The members of the 2023 SBL Conference Planning Committee are acknowledged and appreciated for all their efforts towards ensuring that we all have a wonderful conference experience.

The 2023 Annual General Conference of the NBA is coming up from 25 August to 1 September 2023, with the theme ‘Getting it Right: Charting the Course for Nigeria’s Nation Building’. I invite you all to participate as we discus ways by which we shall recover, reform, and reposition our dear country, Nigeria.

Thank you all for listening. I wish everyone of us a very rewarding conference experience.

Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau OON, SAN

PRESIDENT