NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION NBA ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE 2009: THE MOTHER OF ALL CONFERENCES By: Ademola A. Adewale

The recently concluded NBA Annual General Conference 2009 which held between the 15th - 21st August 2009 in the city of Lagos after about decades absence from the nation's commercial capital was indeed a major milestone in the annals of Annual Conferences of the NBA; it can without any fear of contradiction, be aptly dubbed the mother of all conferences.

It was on all accounts an outstanding success establishing a superlative template from which all other Bar Conferences will henceforth be assessed. Indeed, the next annual Bar Conference scheduled to hold in 20101n the nation's capital Abuja has its work clearly cut out.

The 2009 Lagos Conference was a classic even if rare show of our greatness as a nation and the limitless potentials of visionary leadership and planning when displayed with unwavering commitment. In the process many myths were shattered and stereotypes debunked. For a long time Lagos had been denied the Hosting rights to the conference in favour of much smaller states/cities on the nebulous claim of being a security nightmare yet Ten Thousand Sharply dressed brief case carrying lawyers swooped on the City at the peak of the conference, there were no single reported incident of armed robbery, mugging and bag snatching, there were of course myriad incidents of missing phones, wallets and pilfering as could be expected of such an occasion even in safe Geneva and Dubai. Equally shattered was the notion that the ordinarilly challenging traffic situation in the city will go hay wire if a large number of people and vehicles were to congregate in any part of the city famed worldwide for its intractable snarling traffic known in local palance as "hold up" or "go slow" with skilful and astute traffic management Lagos miraculously managed to have some semblance of order in the notoriously busy Victoria Island/Lekki corridor. That is inspite of throwing 40 Lagabus buses all fully conditioned into the mix. Throughout the duration of the conference branded buses were available to transport delegates from the venue of the Conference at Eko Holiday Inn and Suites to various locations in the State as far flung as from Ajah – to Toll Gate and from Festac to Ocean View parking lot from 7am - 10pm daily with the result that many mobile delegates found it convenient to park their cars at the Hotel throughout the conference shuttling between the conference and Hotel rooms in the fully air-conditioned buses. On the first working day of the conference, there was a General/Lunch. Even earlier on Sunday the 16th August there was a well attended cocktail party where sumptuous refreshment were served. Then throughout the duration of the conference there was affordable foods and drinks at the Friendship Centre at the Ocean View by the Bar Beach specially set up for the conference. A resident DJ. was also on hand to dish out both the latest and current musical vibes interlaced with ever green hits of the days of yore.

Conference materials in terms of publications, magazines, leaflets and even CD's and D.V.D's were available in over abundance. As for vendors of Books, Law texts, Robes, wigs and all manner of professional accessories, shirts, collars, collarettes, Bibs, wind collars, trousers etc they made impressive sales all throughout the conference and many of them must still be smiling, all the way to the Banks several days after.

As is usual with all Bar Conferences long lost friends, colleagues were reunited with new friendships, alliances and partnerships struck. Talking about reunions the 1986 set of the Nigerian Law School to which I proudly belong held its annual re-union dinner which to me was one of the high points of the conference. More will be said about this reunion later.

In the area of lectures, seminars, workshops, symposia and the intellectual and professional education that is the hallmark of the Legal Profession, the 2009 Bar. Conference raised the standard to the next level with an impressive array of very erudite and reputable Guest Lecturers and Discussants who had achieved distinction in their specializations from where they educated their colleagues. The choice of topics spanned a wide range of issues of the day from electoral reforms, toe- commerce, admissibility of electronic generated evidence, Legal framework for the convergence of digital technology and ICT, Trial by Media. Constitutional amendment etc were not any less impressive. There was a deluge of conference materials with every conferee leaving the conference with huge wad of legal literature and materials.

Daily, conference halls were set up with a bottle of water on every seat and legal literature, while in the area of sanitation the activities of LAWMA Lagos State Waste Management Authority were commendable, almost every 5 minutes; LAWMA cleaners went round the halls picking up litter and debris and dropping them into large black cellophane bags and carting them away at regular intervals. Mobile toilets were also available for free to everyone pressed to answer the call of nature.

Over all it was a grand performance by every one connected with the organization of the 2009 Bar Conference, the Lagos State Government, the Conference Planning Committee, the Local Organisation Committee and the 3 branches of the NBA in Lagos State.

Indeed it will take a book-like report to fully capture the essence of the conference all that can be attempted in this short article is to highlight some of the more memorable events and to capture the highlights of the conference on a day to day basis.