My Son, NBA Conferences Are for Bar Advocacy, Not Aluta Spirit

By Olabode Opeseitan

An epic inter-generational dialogue unfolds between an illustrious Senior Advocate of Nigeria (VSAN) and his excitable baby lawyer grandson (BL)—capturing the tension between idealism and experience, passion and reason, Aluta chants and sober Bar advocacy.

VSAN: So, my learned son, how was your experience in Enugu? Your very first Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference.

BL: Big Daddy, it was lit! It was dope!

VSAN: Hmmm. Young man, you should know by now that when you’re speaking with me, you must use words people of my generation can at least pretend to understand.

BL: (laughs) Sorry Big Daddy, forgive me. I got carried away. I meant it was truly great—so memorable.

VSAN: Alright. So, what was your “aha!” moment?

BL: Honestly? First, Enugu itself. The beauty, the serenity, the trees lined along good roads, the atmosphere and warmth of the people. It was one of the biggest shocks of my life.

VSAN: (nodding knowingly) I felt a similar tug on my heartstrings when I first visited a decade ago. But why were you so shocked?

BL: I expected the same old story—poor governance, neglect, underdevelopment. But what I saw was different. I saw vibrance. I saw intentionality. I saw results. Evidence of purposeful leadership. It shook me. From now, I will never again casually join the mob chorus of “nothing works in Nigeria.”

VSAN: That, my boy, is the power of reality. Experience teaches us more than slogans ever will.

BL: (thoughtful) You’re right, Big Daddy.

VSAN: Yes, and with time, you’ll mature in the way you measure governance. High emotion will always give way to cool reflection.

BL: (suddenly animated) But Big Daddy—oh! The real highpoint of the conference for me—it was when Seun Okinbaloye asked that big question: “Has Nigeria improved under President Bola Tinubu compared to two years ago?”

VSAN: And…?

BL: The entire hall roared together—NO! You needed to hear it. The thunder, the unity of that rejection! Ah! I nearly jumped out of my seat. It was electric! For me, that was the moment of the conference—the Bar speaking in one voice. It felt like history.

VSAN: (frowns deeply, shakes head slowly) You see, that’s exactly what worries me about your generation—and sadly, about the present NBA leadership.

BL: How do you mean, Sir?

VSAN: A Bar Conference is not meant to resemble a student union rally, where passion and noise drown reasoned deliberation. The NBA is an intellectual vanguard; its gathering must be rich with scholarship, policy dissection, and serious national interrogation. But what we saw in Enugu? That was Aluta spirit masquerading as sober bar advocacy.

BL: But Big Daddy, the people were only expressing themselves.

VSAN: Expressing themselves, yes—but blindly. You do not take a nation’s economic complexity and reduce it to “food is expensive, transport is high, therefore nothing is happening.” That is lazy reasoning, unworthy of the Bar.

An NBA Conference is supposed to be different in character from a townhall of uninformed opinions. We don’t merely react—we must dissect interventions, interrogate policies, compare data, project long-term implications.

When you sweepingly condemn the government, did anyone pause to note that the very hall in which you shouted “No!”—that magnificent edifice—was completed after over two decades of delay, finally finished only because of reforms that freed up funds by removing fuel subsidy? Did anyone factor that increased federation allocations have strengthened states, enabling projects like that in which you sat so comfortably?

BL: Hmmm… Big Daddy, I never thought of it that way…

VSAN: That is the difference. Emotion cheers today, but intellect guides tomorrow. If the Bar descends into cheap choruses, who will hold the nation’s compass steady with rational critique?

BL: (pauses, humbled) Maybe we got carried away. But Sir, it was our truth in the moment. Even if emotional, I think it came from a place of pain.

VSAN: Pain, yes. But the Bar must transform pain into clarity. That’s our duty to history. If we abandon that, what separates us from the crowd?