Lawyers with Disabilities: The Acid Test for the Humanity and Acumen of An NBA Leader
With the National, and some Branches’, Bar elections around the corner, political campaigns are going haywire. Amidst the attendant engulfing razzmatazz, the average lawyer runs the risk of losing focus of the real issue, which is, who, among the pack, will better cater to the yearning of the generality of the Nigerian lawyers, and the larger society.
Interestingly, the contestants are fine men and women. And we often, hastily, conclude that countenance speaks volumes. Shakespeare, however, in his work, Macbeth, cautiones that “There is no art to find the minds construction in the face.” Bryan CJ, took it further, when he held that “even the devil himself knoweth not the heart of man.”
Against the foregoing background, Bowen LJ, threw some guiding light in the case of Edgington V Fitzmaurice (1985) 29 Ch D459 @ 483, when he held that “the state of a man’s mind is much a fact as the state of his digestion.” In the case of Setrena v R (1951) 31 WACA 132, the light becomes brighter when the court held that though intention is not capable of positive proof, it can be implied from overt act. In the circumstance in issue, a critical indicator for determining the humanity and acumen of each of the gladiators is his or her treatment of lawyers with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities are universally considered vulnerable. But then, which human being is not vulnerable, one way or the other, at least to some degree? Every human is indeed vulnerable, albeit to an extent. This is why a persons with disabilities can relate with the vulnerability of women, after all, there are women with disabilities; they can relate with the vulnerability of children and youths, after all there are children and youths with disabilities; they can relate with the minorities, as the case may be.
It may be interesting to note that persons with disabilities have been classified by the United Nations as the world’s largest minority group. What makes the persons with disabilities different in the circumstance is that their vulnerabilities may be generally aggravated.
It is empirically provable, that in any society, where provisions are made for the peculiarities of persons with disabilities, every other person in that society, with or without disability, enjoys a better life. Therefore, it logically follows that the NBA President or Chairman, as the case may be, who has the idiosyncrasy of favourably relating with and responding to the peculiarities of lawyers with disabilities can very well also relate with the peculiar needs of female lawyers, young lawyers and other lawyers, who have concerns about marginalization.
And no lawyer should make the mistake of assuming that any NBA President or Chairman, who turns a blind eye to the peculiarities of lawyers with disabilities will be kindhearted enough to be sensitive to his or her needs.
As the elections draw near, all the candidates are out and about, with all manner of impressive credentials and grandiloquent speeches. In any event, credentials and speeches, good as they may be, are not part of the scarce commodities among Nigerian lawyers. Hence, there is much more required in this circumstance.
So, in other to arrive at the NBA President or Chairmen, who will be broad-hearted and sensitive enough to accommodate the interest of the generality of Nigerian lawyers, let’s take a hard look at the track records and the body language of each of the candidates, towards lawyers with disabilities.
This, at least, is a good guide to make a decision we shall not regret tomorrow. The quality of the Bar Leaders we jointly choose at this critical moment, would be very defining not just for the Bar, but for the Nigerian nation.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Author
Daniel Amaechi Onwe Esq is the President of the Association of Lawyers with Disabilities in Nigeria (ALDIN).