A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, has made a strong case for the recognition of multiple Bar Associations in Nigeria, arguing that a single umbrella body is inadequate to effectively serve the country’s estimated 250,000 legal practitioners.
Gadzama made the submissions during an intervention at the 2025 International Bar Association (IBA) Conference in Toronto, held on the theme of Fundamental Right to Freedom of Association and Right to Peaceful Assembly, where he specifically sought to know the position of the IBA on the controversy surrounding Bar plurality in Nigeria. Addressing the stiff resistance faced by the Nigerian Law Society (NLS), Gadzama stated:
“A new association in Nigeria, the Nigerian Law Society, has witnessed a very stiff opposition. In fact, the association has thousands of members” He contrasted Nigeria’s situation with that of other jurisdictions with far fewer lawyers, noting: “We have had the last intervener having just 500 somewhere. So many other countries have just less than 500 as total number of lawyers in their jurisdictions or countries.”
The senior lawyer further disclosed that despite a subsisting court order directing the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to issue a certificate of registration to the Nigerian Law Society, the order has allegedly not been complied with. “Despite the refusal of the Corporate Affairs Commission to register, having been ordered by the court to give a certificate, and who is also here as a participant at this conference, things are not really being done properly in different sectors in our country with all the challenges we’re facing,” Gadzama said.
To reinforce his argument, he cited several countries operating multiple bar associations. On Ukraine, he remarked: “I know of Ukraine in Miami over there, when the President of the Ukrainian Bar and the President of the Ukrainian Law Society were appreciated and given plaques.”
Referring to South Africa, he said: “In South Africa, you have now nine Bar associations.” He also mentioned Syria and Gambia as jurisdictions with multiple Bar Associations despite having relatively smaller numbers of lawyers. On the United Kingdom, Gadzama stated, “In UK, I belong to the International Division of the Law Society of England and Wales.
I have been called to the English bar as far back as 2008″. Situating the issue within the broader mandate of the legal profession, Gadzama said: “My understanding of what the role of a lawyer is, is to promote the defense and the safeguard of human rights in whatever form”. He questioned the rationale behind opposition to multiple platforms for Nigerian lawyers, adding:
“What’s wrong in having those platforms? Because they are not there to fight themselves, but why the opposition in a country where you have over 250,000 lawyers and one umbrella, one body is certainly not enough to give them the opportunity, the platform to express their position individually, corporately, in the fight and the promotion of rights of groups, individuals in our country.”
Gadzama also referenced the conference keynote address, stressing the need for boldness in the legal profession. “We’ve listened to the keynote on Sunday, when we were told that the most important attribute of any lawyer is what? Courage.
That courage is needed everywhere,” he said. In a response that aligned with and reinforced Gadzama’s submissions, the Secretary-General of the IBA and former President of the American Bar Association, Deborah Enix-Ross, openly supported the idea of multiple Bar Associations, drawing from her experience in the United States. “I’m licensed in New York.
There is a New York State Bar Association that is a voluntary Bar Association, so I don’t have to belong to that Bar. But I do, or I did, as well as the American Bar Association, because they offer different things,” she said. Deborah further endorsed Gadzama’s position by noting that plurality within the legal profession can be healthy.
“I would have thought that a bit of healthy competition is good in any jurisdiction, provided that these bar associations are independent.” She, however, emphasized that such associations must be grounded in core professional values, stating: “The key is that any Bar Association has to stand for some fundamental principles, including the support of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, independent legal profession.”
