Lagos — Holla! By the time you read this, this year's annual general conference of the International Bar Association in Buenos Aires would have entered its third day. However, as at the time of writing this the conference has not started.

I arrived Buenos Aires Friday night (October 10). By the time the conference kicks off Sunday, over 4,000 lawyers from 120 countries would have converged in the Argentine capital for the most prestigious annual gathering of the world's international lawyers. Of this number, some 550 plus are expected from Nigeria, roughly 14% of the gathering.

The opening ceremony promises to be exciting; moreso because eminent economist, Hernando de Soto will be the keynote speaker. De Soto, the founder and President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine and his institute is regarded as one of the most important think-tanks in the world.

With the financial crisis and economic meltdown playing out in several countries, the latest being Iceland which is on the brink of national bankruptcy with ripple effects in the UK and other countries which have invested in Iceland's banks one of which has failed, de Soto is sure to have the ears of everyone present.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect but as our plane prepared to land in Buenos Aires, I couldn't but marvel at the aerial view. What I saw was a well-planned, sparkling city; it was a sight to behold! No power cuts here, that's for sure!

And from what I've seen so far, not for nothing is the city called the Paris of South America.

Do we have lessons to learn from this South American country? Certainly. Their economic mainstay is agriculture. Soy, wheat, maize and beef. Agriculture contributes some $26b annually to the national economy. Not oil. Proof again, if we needed it, that we can survive without oil as our regions once did, before the discovery of oil. So important are the farmers here and so seriously does the Argentine government take them that a farmers' strike (over a tax increase on exports) that has been on and off for some months was finally called off just Wednesday when the government conceded some grounds.

Argentina has since her economic collapse and devaluation of her national currency, the peso, earlier this decade regained her footing and is enjoying a renaissance. I still recall vivid images on TV in 2001, of bank runs, high unemployment rates, looting and rioting which eventually culminated in the resignation of then President de la Rua.

I did later confirm from a Nigerian who's been resident here for the last two years that save, for one brief occasion, he could hardly recall any power cut. Nigeria, he said regretfully, has no business with power cuts, a situation which most countries have moved past and that what was needed was the political will to put in place solutions, since the problems were well known. Nothing new there. And there we (PHCN et al) were, beating our chests just last week that we had generated the highest wattage ever recorded of electricity in the country. All of 3,040 miserable watts. Tragic! I might add that for many people including me, this boast meant absolutely nothing since at the time of this great feat, our homes and offices were either wallowing in darkness or being powered by generators.

I should mention that the current President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is a lawyer.

Back to the conference, over 150 topical sessions on diverse legal issues will take place throughout the week. IBA conferences are always a useful way of gaining firsthand knowledge of the latest trends in the profession. They also afford the opportunity of sharing ideas and views with lawyers from different jurisdictions and feeling the pulse of the profession globally.

More on the conference, and Argentina, in subsequent editions.