Alao Aka Bashorun

Femi Falana

The late Mr. Alao Aka-Bashorun led NBA from 1987-1989.

When Mr. Clement Akpangbo became the Attorney-General of the Federation in 1991, his 1st Vice-President, Chief Mrs Priscilla Kuye, became the Acting President.

So Mr. Aka-Bashorun was not the NBA President in 1992 when the conference took place in Port Harcourt.

But under the Alao Aka-Bashorun leadership, the NBA rejected any form of financial inducement from the Babangida military junta, which co-opted, corrupted and destroyed many professional bodies in the country.

The NBA funded its annual conferences held in Kaduna (1988) and Lagos (1989) without financial assistance from any government or financial institution.

In building the NBA secretariat in Lagos, Mr. Aka-Bashorun used his goodwill to make it a joint development between the NBA and HFP, a reputable
building and civil engineering company, which specializes in conventional building construction. The building in the heart of Victoria Island in Lagos currently
generates huge rents for the NBA.

The NBA stopped paying courtesy calls on military governors during its business-like NEC meetings.

On one occasion, Gen Babangida met Mr. Aka-Bashorun at a public event at the then Nicon Hilton hotel (now Transcorp hotel) in Abuja. At the end of the event, the military president approached the NBA president and invited him to the villa for a meeting.

Mr. Aka-Bashorun politely rejected the invitation by saying: “Mr. President, I will honour your Excellency’s invitation when I complete my term as NBA President. For now, I can not take the bar to the barracks.”

In view of the undeniable fact that the NBA is richer than when Aka-Bashorun led it in the late 1980s, it can fund its own conferences without donations from governments.

*Femi Falana is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria