The Planning Committee of the African Bar Association (AfBA), Malawi Conference 2022, has described as totally regrettable, an LNBA interoffice circular suggesting a rather needless denial of the convening of the Bar's Conference slated for Lilongwe, Malawi, from August 7-11, 2022.
The Committee clarifies that membership to the African Bar is exclusively personal and not collective or institutional, and as such, the Bar leadership which has been democratically elected to steer its affairs, does not have to seek the permission of any of its agents to determine the next conference venue or appoint anyone to carry out its activities.
The Committee clarifies that the information circulated on social media and other news outlets is meant for individual lawyers, jurists, politicians, economists and business people desirous of attending the AfBA Conference Malawi 2022 as well as those who have been officially invited through written communications.
The Planning Committee which is headed by Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, who is also Chairman of the Advisory Board Committee of the African Bar, says the LNBA's circular clearly represents a complete misunderstanding of the decision reached at the Niamey, Niger Conference in 2021, that led to the selection of the Republic of Malawi as a host country, the appointment of the Planning Committee Chair, as well as the selection of Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor as this year's Keynote Speaker.
The Committee dismissed as absolutely untrue claims that the LNBA is not aware of the Malawi Conference and indicated that the President of the LNBA was officially written on June 30, 2022 and is currently in possible of the communication.
The Committee wishes to inform the general public that the Malawi Conference 2022 is not an LNBA program, instead, it is the exclusive conference that is being planned and organized by the African Bar which is the parent body of all local Bar Associations throughout Africa.
Meanwhile, the Planning Committee regrets what it terms as a complete error of judgment, and says while it looks forward to meeting the LNBA leadership on next Monday to amicably resolve whatever concern it may have, it however wants to set the record straight that it has never acted whether directly or indirectly in the name of the LNBA, and therefore, maintains that it will continue to work with individual lawyers who are desirous of attending the Malawi Conference 2022.
