Former Minister of Education and Co-founder of Transparency International, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has challenged Nigerian lawyers to rise above complacency and confront what she described as the “elite failure” trapping over 133 million citizens in poverty.
Speaking at the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) annual conference in Enugu, Ezekwesili warned that the legal profession, which embodies the “heartbeat of professionalism,” cannot continue to abdicate its responsibility of safeguarding the rule of law and ensuring accountability in governance.
“You represent the best of minds. Anyone who is able to train and become a lawyer in Nigeria represents the elite of our society. But what is going on is an abandonment of responsibility by the elite,” she declared.
Ezekwesili, who is also a former Vice President of the World Bank, said the growing inequality in Nigeria was a direct consequence of distorted incentives that have made politics, rather than hard work, the primary path to wealth.
“Some 133 million of our people are pernicious trapped in poverty. A society that rewards politics instead of hard work cannot have a future. The legal profession must ask itself whether it has provided the necessary guardrails for the behavior of our political class,” she said.
She urged lawyers to hold politicians accountable and stop ceding the profession to “lousy politicians that want to destroy generations.”According to her, the NBA must lead discussions that restore integrity and fairness to the justice system, so that incentives in the Nigerian economy and society are realigned towards productivity and prosperity.
“This country has to go back to rewarding hard work. Any profession that rewards pre-vandalism behavior cannot be a profession that cares about tomorrow,” she insisted.
Ezekwesili concluded her address with a warning that if the legal community fails to act decisively, Nigeria risks entrenching poverty and destroying future generations.