By Steve Aya
The Legal Practitioner’s Privileges Committee has announced the availability of 2023 forms for Lawyers wanting to become Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), to start the process by buying their forms.
The LPPC, made this known in a statement released to announce the availability of the form for the 2023 award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The statement also put the application fee for the form at N1 million, which will be paid to obtain the form. This is a considerable increase from the N600,000 of last year.
In the notice, signed by LPPC Secretary/Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Hajo Sarki Bello, the period for obtaining the application starts from January 1, and closes on March 31, 2023. The notice also stated that the invitation was in accordance to Section 5(2) of the Legal Practitioners Act, 2004, and Regulation 10 (1) (4) of the Guidelines for the Conferment of the Rank of SAN 2023.
It reads: “The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (‘the LPPC’ or ‘the Committee’) hereby makes a formal call for applications, preparatory to the award of the rank for the Year 2023.
“Commencing with this year’s exercise, applications shall only be made online, and prospective applicants are directed to visit www.lppconline.com to make their applications.”
It notified prospective applicants that each person “must pay a non-refundable processing fee of N1 million only to any of the following accounts held in the name of the ‘Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (SAN)’: Account Number: 1014103141, at Zenith Bank PLC and Account No. 0213662834 at GTBank PLC.
“Upon conclusion of payment, an applicant should upload a copy of the evidence of payment on the application portal. The applicant will receive an email notification from the LPPC Secretariat confirming the applicant’s payment, and clearing the applicant to proceed with the application process online.”
The LPPC warned that any submission made after the deadlines “shall be treated as a non-submission”.
However, some Lawyers have questioned the propriety or otherwise of the new application fee for the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, as stipulated by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee in its 2023 Application Guidelines.
Some legal practitioners in the country, aside the increase from N600,000 to N1,000,000, have particularly queried the reasonableness of the fixed fee, given the disparity in earnings between Lawyers, and how the fee may have excluded some eminently qualified Lawyers from attaining the coveted rank.
Responding to such criticism of the new application fee, a Former NBA President, J.B. Daudu, SAN, described the new fee as appropriate.
According to him, “Taking the rank of SAN, is not a tea party. It is expensive. You need to go round all the courts you have practised, collecting certified copies of judgements that you have appeared in. You need to have a state of the art law office, you need to employ an IT consultant to upload all your requirements on the SAN portal, you will travel around three times to Abuja for interviews and submission of forms, you will have to do a number of pro bono cases at your own expense, and you will approach opposing advocates and Judges for references. Those invisible expenses cannot be less than N25 million at the very least. Then, if you are selected you will cough out not less than N10million for the robes and other thanksgiving ceremonies.”
Human Rights Activist, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, described the process for SANship application as flawed and corrupted, saying a lot of persons who did not meet the criteria have now been given the rank.
