ELIZABETH VINCENT, Yenagoa

Governor of Bayelsa state, Senator Douye Diri, on Thursday, received Kenyan lawyer and activist, Professor Patrick Lumumba and his wife, Celestine, in the government house, Yenagoa, with a call on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to intensify efforts at enforcing discipline and best practices among its members.

Governor Diri made the call when the executives of the Yenagoa branch of the NBA, visited him to introduce the eminent professor who is in the state to deliver a keynote address at the plenary session of the 2026 Law Week.

Represented by his deputy, Dr. Peter Akpe, the Bayelsa chief executive emphasized the need for the NBA to work with other critical stakeholders to protect the ethical values and professional conduct among legal practitioners to forestall further erosion of the nobility and respect associated with their profession.

Governor Diri, however, commended the Yenagoa NBA for its vibrancy and commitment to promoting legal scholarship, public discourse and professional excellence.

According to him, the NBA Yenagoa branch was creating a platform through its 2026 Law Week for meaningful conversations that would inspire positive change and strengthen democratic institutions in Bayelsa and the country at large.

He, however, urged the association to use the conference as a peer review mechanism to ascertain where it was, where it is and where it is supposed to be in terms of global best practices in the legal profession.

Governor Diri, who described professor Lumumba as a powerful voice for good governance, accountability, Pan-African development and principled leadership in Africa, urged the former Director of Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to make Bayelsa his home.

His words: “We are especially delighted to learn that your 2026 law week will feature one of Africa’s most respected legal minds, a public intellectual and advocate of ethical leadership, professor P.L.O. Lumumba, as the keynote speaker.

“Professor Lumumba is a known and powerful voice for good governance, accountability, Pan-African development, and principled leadership. His presence in Bayelsa is not only an honour to the Nigerian Bar association, Yenagoa Branch, but also a valuable opportunity for intellectual engagement and reflection on the future of our nation and continent.

“The theme of your Law Week, ” Securing the Future”, is both timely and profound. It speaks to the collective responsibility of leaders, institutions, and citizens to build a society founded on justice, equity, accountability and sustainable development.

“These are values Professor Lumumba has consistently championed and which align closely with the vision of the ASSURED prosperity administration.

“As a government, we commend the Yenagoa branch of the NBA for its commitment to promoting legal scholarship, public discourse, and professional excellence,we are particularly pleased that through this year’s law week, the branch is creating a platform for meaningful conversations that will inspire positive change and strengthen our democratic institutions.”

In his brief remarks, Professor Patrick Lumumba noted that Nigeria still occupies an important position in Africa, stressing that whenever Nigeria punches its weight, the entire continent would realize her full potential.

Lumumba, who expressed appreciation for the warm reception accorded him and his wife, said it was his second visit to Bayelsa state, which he described as a strategic geographical location with high prospects of development.

Also speaking, the chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yenagoa branch, Mr. Clement Kekemeke, noted that the eminent Professor Lumumba was specially invited as the keynote speaker NBA Law Week to give the programme an international visibility.

Expressing the NBA’s gratitude to Governor Diri and his deputy, Dr Peter Akpe, for granting them audience, Mr. Kekemeke disclosed that the Yenagoa NBA currently boasts of over 1,500 practicing lawyers in its fold, making it one of largest in the South South geopolitical zone of the country.

The Yenagoa NBA Executives were accompanied on the visit by the Chairman of the Law Week Planning Committee, Mr. Jude Rex . Ogbuku, and an elder of the bar, chief Fedude Zimughan (SAN).

For a better society

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