Expectations Of New Bar Council President

Barrister Sama Francis Asanga of the renowned Sama Law Chambers, a  North West Cameroon-based Law Firm that provides legal services in Cameroon and the rest of the world through an established  professional network with other Law Firms worldwide and within the country emerged as the new Bar Council President in elections described by many observers as heated and overtly democratic. Barrister Sama’s victory over his peers to emerge as the Bar Council President replacing Barrister Eta Besong Jr. could be likened to a caesarean delivery, as the Elective General Assembly that was earmarked for two days finally took four days to resolve all its outstanding issues.  Barrister Sama’s victory was welcomed by a cross-section of his colleagues who see in his election a new dawn for the Cameroon Bar that has of late been riddled by some internecine squabbles that polarised and balkanised the Cameroon Bar.

Prior to Barrister Sama’s election on Tuesday August 14, 2012, the General Assembly of the Bar Council that went into session in the Bamenda Congress Hall on Saturday August 11, 2012 had after two days of deliberations succeeded in electing the President of the General Assembly and the Vice. Barrister Tang Emmanuel was elected to the post of President of the General Assembly of the Cameron Bar Council while Barrister Nana Viviane secured the Vice Presidency of the General Assembly.

The Ntumfor Reconciliation

In spite of the bickering and the wrangling that characterised the Bamenda Bar Council General Assembly, one thing remains clear: that lawyers after all agreed to meet in a General Assembly. This agreement to meet in an Elective General Assembly was brokered by the all time Peace Crusader, Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle who invited Barrister Hippolyte  Meli, President of the General Assembly and Barrister Eta Besong Jr. President of the Bar to his office in Douala. The invitation of Ntumfor came on the heels of an imminent split in the Bar Council due to a misunderstanding that emerged between the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Bar Council on when, where and how to organise an Elective General Assembly. The misunderstanding degenerated into a mutual mistrust, thus hindering the organisation of an Elective General Assembly of the Bar Council, leaving the Eta Besong Jr led Executive in office two years after the expiry of their tenure of office. Even an attempt by Barrister Meli to organise a General Assembly in Yaounde flopped as administrative officers stepped in to disperse lawyers from the Yaounde Congress Hall. This situation further exacerbated the existing conflict and lawyers went on strike deserting the courts. The government was hard hit by the lawyer’s strike just like plaintiffs and defendants, especially as lawyers deserted the courts for close to one week.    

Ntumfor swung into action and as usual rescued the situation by allowing the two belligerents to talk out their differences. At the end of the reconciliation in his office in Douala, both Presidents issued a joint communiqué that sanctioned the reconciliation and billed a date for the Elective General Assembly. It was this Elective General Assembly that held in Bamenda and came out with a new team at the helm of both the General Assembly and the Bar Council. And Ntumfor Nico Halle who brokered the peace deal for the elections to hold was readily at down into a happy end as elections went through hitch-free.

The Daunting Task Awaiting Barrister Sama Francis

Barrister Sama Francis has won the Bar Council Presidency at a moment when there are talks of an imminent split in the Bar. Fortunately, Barrister Sama Francis is quite aware of the internal squabbles that rocked the Eta Besong Jr executive to the point of crumbling the Bar Council.  The tenure of Tchoungang just like that of Eta Besong Jr has been considered by many lawyers as uneventful. This has been so because debts have accumulated, lawyers are disinterested in the Bar especially as colleagues have been picked up and incarcerated and the Bar Council has been very indifferent to their plight.

Barrister Sama Francis in his policy speech muted that in order to ensure and improve on the efficiency of the Bar Council, its deliberations would be computerised. He added that the Bar Council will henceforth make policy declarations on matters of law and its dignity will be restored as the law profession is for people who can and not for people who want. He promised to make an appraisal of the prevailing situation of the Bar Council and to embark on consultations to chart a better road ahead.

 Shortly after his election, Barrister Sama Francis set to work as he told his peers that it was time for action. He told the press that he was not going to be a little dictator at the helm of the Bar Council but to work with everybody, especially the past Bar Council Presidents in a synergy to make the Bar Council and lawyers regain their lost glory. Barrister Sama Francis is expected to bring sanity in the law profession by proposing and meting out sanctions on wayward colleagues that drag the profession in mud. He is equally expected as a matter of urgency to look into the cases of colleagues that have been locked up while insuring that lawyers pay in their dues to enable him make the long standing Secretariat Project a reality. Barrister Sama Francis as Bar Council President is equally expected to institute dialogue and bring together all lawyers to speak one language for the betterment of their profession. And Barrister Sama Francis seems to be up to task, evident by the fact that he frowned at his peers who stood against him and immediately the results were declared left the hall. To him the victory was not his but that of the Bar Council that was witnessing a new dawn.

Barrister Sama To Copy Barristers Gorji Jinka, Luke Sendze, Yondo Black, Akere Muna And Ben Muna

The ululations and joyful songs that followed the declaration of Barrister Sama Francis as the new Bar Council President were telling of the expectations from him by his colleagues. This was so because the last two mandates of the Bar Council were not eventful to the distaste of many lawyers who witnessed or heard stories about the tenures of Gorji Jinka, Luke Senze, Yondo Black, Akere Muna and Ben Muna at the helm of the Bar Council. Given that Barrister Sama Francis is very proactive and has proven his worth in the courts in Cameroon, lawyers are very optimistic that he will greatly reform the Bar Council for it to regain its dignity. Barrister Sama himself is very optimistic on this score as he told journalists in Bamenda on August 15, 2012 that “The time of playing the Ostrich with the aspirations of the Bar Council is over. History will tell that once a young professional of Baba village in Santa Sub Division of the North West Region, a Presbyterian Christian by faith served the Cameroon Bar Council diligently for the betterment of all Cameroonians.”

Barrister Sama Launches Appeal To The Media

There is no gainsaying that the relationship between journalists and lawyers over the years can be likened to that existing between fowls and cockroaches. But Barrister Sama an ardent advocate of press freedom seems to see it differently. He fervently feels that the press should and is supposed to be the Goodwill Ambassadors of the Bar Council. During the press conference that he granted a day after his election, Barrister Sama Francis called on the press to inform the world that Bamenda town, the historic town in Cameroon was chosen to hold the General Assembly of the Bar Council in order to usher in a new dynamic in the Cameroon Bar. He reaffirmed the resolve of the Bar to stand by journalists in times of crises. He congratulated the population of Bamenda that for four days running hosted lawyers that travelled to Bamenda for the General Assembly.

It is worthy to recall that Barrister Sama is the lead advocate of the Sama Law firm that has been in legal practice since 1982. The Sama Law Chambers equally offer internship to University Students who wish to take law as a career. For this reason a Legal and Career Assistant is there to orientate students. The areas of operation by the Sama Law Firm include amongst others, International Trading, banking, Investment and Finance, Commercial Litigation, Arbitration, Alternate Disputes Resolution, General Public Notary, OHADA Legislation, Criminal Law, Corporate Law, Corporate Restructuring, International Joint Ventures, Project Finance, Real Estate Development, Product Liability Law and Media Law.