Impersonating a Lawyer

The Nigerian Bar Association has inaugurated a committee to address the issue of impersonation in the Legal community.

There are several reported cases of individuals who represented to the Court that they were Lawyers. This illegal act was reported in Lagos, Abuja, Warri and other parts of Nigeria.



A Journalist once asked me the question on how to identify a genuine Lawyer in the Court room considering the fact that some persons went to law school for instance, and didn't qualify. He also cited cases of law students representing clients while in the University and cases of disbarred lawyers who present themselves qualified to practice. I couldn't give a cogent answer to his question.

The truth is, an effective framework must be put in place to check this nefarious and illegal activity as it does not only ridicule this honourable profession but also communicates indiscipline to the general public.

In 2010, the then outgoing President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu introduced a digital bar initiative identity card. The card was inaugurated to curb impersonation, fraud and fake lawyers proliferating the Legal Profession. It was reported that the card would contain the data of the holder and the fingerprints of the holder.

However, the question is, how many lawyers have this digital card? And how efficient has the implementation been?

We hope that this proposed step of identification introduced by the present President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Okey Wali, to check these fraudulent activities will be more effective and will be implemented to the latter.