After the rigorous campaigns and beehive of activities that culminated in the election of the fiery, fair, frank and bar man per excellence; Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as President and other officers of the Nigeria Bar Association at Abuja in August 2008, it was good to see learned colleagues and patriots from all over the country gathered in Minna, Niger State between Wednesday 26th to Friday 29th November 2008 for the first National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA for the 2006-2008 service year.

My interactions with NEC members before the meeting portrayed a picture of enthusiasm and interest to attend, participate and contribute to professional development and nation building. As early as 12.00 noon on Wednesday 26th November 2008, delegates began to arrive from all over the country. The national secretariat had in October, 2008 made reservations for 100 rooms and paid 75 per cent of the total amount charged. The general secretary, Ibrahim Mark, Esq. also sent notices of the NEC meeting to all statutory NEC members well in advance.

The hotel, however, breached the contract NBA had with it when it released only 30 per cent of the rooms reserved and paid for, citing circumstances beyond its control as an excuse. The no-nonsense NBA President led the national officers to compel the hotel management to make contingency arrangement, which arrangement fell short of the need of lawyers/NEC members. Apart from the drawback of inadequate accommodation, the Minna meeting will, no doubt, go down in history as one of the most successful. The Chief Judge of Niger State; My Lord, the Hon. Justice Jibrin N Ndajiwou was ably and amiably represented by My Lord, the Hon. Justice Gado at the cocktail party organised for NEC members by the Niger State Judiciary on the night of Wednesday. The opening ceremony was attended by the Chief Servant of Niger State; His Excellency, Dr. Muazu Babagind Aliyu, who spoke for 30 minutes on various controversial national issues ranging from God-fatherism to hypocritical implementation of Shariah law in some states of the federation. His Excellency hailed the emergence of fellow comrade, Adams Oshiomole, as Governor of Edo State through judicial process as one of the best thing for Nigeria, having traced his relationship with the Edo State helmsman to the second Republic when they were both labour activists.

The highlight of the opening ceremony was the launch of the Capacity Building Project of the NBA President, which the Niger State Government facilitated with N5, 000,000, the cheque of which was unprecedently released the following day.

The project is Aketi's way of ensuring that the Nigerian lawyer is kept in tune with global trends in the legal profession by attending seminars, lectures and workshops within and outside the country. Ceremony over, NEC went to official business with the President's speech and the launch of the 15-point Agenda of the new leadership tagged: The Road Map to a Greater Bar -A Better Society through Courage and Consistency. As usual of NEC meetings, debates were robust, intellectual and idealistic. Names of the co-opted NEC members were announced by the president. At the end of the two-day meeting, a press conference was addressed by the president where the communiquÈ was read.

The Minna meeting, however, was only attended by statutory NEC members, who explained the presence of J.B. Dauda, Esq. SAN as the only Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in attendance. The Minna Branch of NBA did its best in ensuring that conference materials were not in short supply. The absence of such cerebral and motivating speakers like O.C J. Okocha, Esq. JP, SAN, MFR; Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN; A.B Mahmud, Esq. SAN; Ofodile Okafor, Esq. SAN; Chief Emeka Ngige SAN; J.K Gazama, Esq. SAN; Mrs. Funke Adekoya SAN and Olisa Agbakoba, Esq. SAN, OON, Tony Oka, Jam Jam, Kazeem Gbadamosi, Chief Akuro George, Nurudeen Ogbara and Blessing Ukiri, (who came late) was noticeable.

The first Vice-President; Ikeazor Akaraiwe Esq., summed up the feelings of the attendees when he said "this is a successful meeting, we hope Osogbo branch will improve on the experience of Minna in February when it hosts NEC". The Aketi vision that will take the bar to its next level is indeed on course.

Debate on contentious issues like the 2008 Annual Conference and the application for the registration of body of Senior Advocates are reserved for the Osogbo meeting come February, 2009. May the Almighty God ensures that we are alive, in good health and that our country, Nigeria, is equally alive and in good health by then and several years thereafter. And may He increase us and our nation in wisdom, wealth, fairness, consolidation and growth.