Ernest Sumelong
23 November 2008
interview
The newly elected President of the Cameroon Bar Association, Barrister Eta Besong Jnr, has said he hopes to leave the Bar better than he met it. Eta Besong revealed that he wants to see lawyers better off; fight for the payment of emolument to lawyers and ensure regular organisation of Bar exams. In this exclusive interview with The Post, the Bar President talks about the Law School Project, up grading the status of lawyers and the unity of the Bar.
Barrister, you were recently elected President of the Cameroon Bar Association. How far have you come?
I think I have come a long way to where I am now but it is just for the last two and a half years that I started gunning for the position of the President of the Cameroon Bar Association. All along I had been a member of the Bar Council without pushing forward towards being president.
What projects/plans do you have for the Bar Association?
No matter what projects a President has he must know that he works with a team, which is the Bar Council. There are things which are within the exclusive region of the Bar Council and there are those that are the prerogatives of the Bar President. So, when it comes to those things which are the prerogatives of the Bar President, I will do those things which are provided for by the law.
But when it comes to activities of the Bar Council, those are decisions which are taken by the Bar Council as a whole not by the President of the Bar who is just one out of 15 members of the Bar Council.
There are a lot of things the President has been thinking about; continuous training of pupil lawyers, respect for ethics of the profession, seeing that we can also fight for the payment of emoluments to lawyers, seeing that we can be in very good terms with the Ministry of Justice, seeing that exams are conducted when they are supposed to be conducted, seeing that we can raise funds to carry out projects for the Bar Association. But you see these have to be decided by the Bar Council in the near future in its next meeting.
If there are certain things you would want to see happen in the Bar Association in your tenure, what would those things be?
I would want to see that lawyers are better off than they are today financially, morally and academically. Those are the basics because a lawyer who is not financially stable, who is not socially stable and who cannot live by the sweat of his profession is bound to be a lawyer in trouble. And when one lawyer is in trouble all the lawyers are in trouble. We are our brother's keepers.
We understand that the Bar is fragmented, how do you plan to re-instate unity in the Bar?
I hear people say the Bar Association is fragment but I don't believe in that. The Bar Association is not fragmented. The fact that one advocate holds a different opinion from the other does not mean the Bar is fragmented. I think that the Bar Association is still intact; the lawyers are lawyers.
What is the fragmentation about and what can even cause fragmentation? During elections people choose candidates and teams they want to vote for, but that is not fragmentation. I think lawyers are in a confraternity. Elections come and go but lawyers remain friends and brothers with or without elections.
Can you attempt an appraisal of the Tchoungang-led administration that you took over from?
It is not in my habit to criticise or give value judgment to terms of office of other people. Barrister Tchoungang has done what he could do within the means he had. I have come to succeed that office and I will do what I have to do with the means I would have. I cannot judge him. So, I have come and met the Bar where he has left it. The important thing is for me to take the Bar one step further.
Last year, the Tchoungang executive started negotiations for a Law School, how far has it gone and what are your plans for that project?
Well, I was a member of the Bar Council under Barrister Tchoungang and I heard like many other people that there were projects for the opening of law schools in Buea and Yaounde. To tell you the truth I have not seen any documents which make any law school operational either in the next one week, or month or in the nearest future. So, it is difficult to say what I can do about that; whether I can carry out or continue that project.
Barrister Tchoungang and I have been talking and he would be handing over to me. I will see the documentation, I would see whatever projects there are left either to be started or uncompleted and then I would continue. Let me first of all see the things and know where I am or am going to. That decision is not the prerogative of the Bar President, it is of the Bar Council.
We don't see the Bar owning structures such as secretariats; are you considering things like that?
The Bar is renting premises in Yaounde where it has its head quarters. There, you would have offices for the President of the General Assembly, the Bar President, Treasurer and the Secretary. We also have workers there. But if you are talking about structures that are our own, then we don't have. But we will think about that.
How will you want to see the Bar Association at the end of your mandate?
I have been in the Bar Council for a long time now and I have watched the Bar go from day to day. Now, I am at the head of the Bar; I know where I am now and know what people expect of me. The only thing I hope to do is to leave the Bar better than I met it, God being my helper.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
