“In those days—in those days, the submissions of some of our lecturers, like the late Dr. Akinola Aguda when he addressed us in 1985, or the late Justice Oputa when he addressed our conference in 1987—for several days and weeks, their submissions became matters of public discourse,” he said.
“Editorial comments were written on them, lawyers debated them even after the conference, and we learned from them. And I think lawyers, as I said, we should go back to that era.”
Falana also said the NBA should carefully consider the credentials of political leaders invited to speak on democracy and the rule of law, arguing that their records in office should be subjected to scrutiny.
He said, “So if you’re going to have a former head of state to address lawyers to talk about democracy or rule of law, then you must bring someone who can say, ‘When I was in power, there was not a single court order that I disobeyed, I didn’t lock up people illegally, I didn’t harass the media,’ and so on and so forth.”
The controversy over VDM’s appearance at the conference has continued to generate reactions, particularly following his allegations concerning the conduct of security personnel in relation to kidnapping and insecurity in the country
