If Nollywood had produced a movie with a title “$25 Covid-19 Palliatives for Lawyers”, I might have said that it was not possible. But it seems, anything is possible these days in Nigeria. Yes, a ‘total of 5,839 lawyers have started receiving N10,000 as “their share of the COVID-19 pandemic relief,” Paul Usoro, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association has said’. This initiative was funded by mostly senior lawyers in the nation. It is my hope that our lawyers are not that impoverished to have specifically filled forms for $25!
“These 5,839 younger colleagues constitute the first batch of the 1-4 years Post-Call young-lawyer recipients of these relief funds,” said Mr Usoro.
“I have already received directly and through third parties, including Branch Chairmen, messages of appreciation from the palliatives’ beneficiaries.”
Mr Usoro said the plan is to ensure that all the eligible lawyers receive their share of the relief fund not later than next week, the week of the NBA annual general conference.
“The slight delay in paying everyone is because we have had issues with the bank details of some of the eligible beneficiaries; these are being sorted out by the NBA National Secretariat directly with the lawyers.
“We also had a number of duplicated applications and unqualified applications (mainly lawyers who are overage including 2005 and 2008 Post-Call lawyers). These unqualified lawyers are being weeded out from the list of beneficiaries in order to share the palliatives only to the eligible lawyers i.e 1-4 years Post-Call lawyers.”
“Special thanks also go to the members of the NBA Welfare Committee for their selfless services. Apart from the fact that most of them also donated generously to the fund, none of the SAN members of the Committee accepted or asked for any allowance whatsoever for their Committee assignment.”
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They wrote all those long messages detailing sharing of N10k palliative? By the time it hits the recipient’s account, it’s no longer complete; Stamp Duty has taken its cut.
But this kind of sharing is something that needs to happen secretly and quietly, just like where a corrupt policeman is taking bribe from the members of the public; it’s always ‘solemn’ affair.
Apparently the young layers are staying with their uncles and aunts, and therefore needed money for toothpaste and recharge cards, so the senior guys decided to ‘alleviate’ their hardship by doling out some funds.
The Vice President went about sometime ago, sharing N5k and N10k to his compatriots, and he’s a lawyer too. Maybe lawyers have special relationship with small money palliative, they can help us explain. Even when some legal fees can feed a village…
But it would help greatly if we stop giving this sort of palliative to educated people, it doesn’t help anyone’s dignity; rather it diminishes their self worth. The damage is always bigger than the supposed assistance you think you are rendering. If it can’t be done without announcement, it’s better not to do it all. Human dignity must be preserved at all cost, few plates of food should never diminish it.
It is a shame for all lawyers in Nigeria today. Shame to them