Compulsory CPD Face-Off: NBA Threatens to Drag Anti-CPD Advocate Steve Sun to Disciplinary Committee Over Use of NBA, Supreme Court Logos — Sun Fires Back, accuses NBA of “weaponization of disciplinary powers”
The simmering dispute over the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) compulsory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) policy has flared into open confrontation, as the association formally threatened to haul vocal critic, Mr. Steve Nwankwo, popularly known as Steve Sun, before the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) over alleged unauthorized use of the NBA and Supreme Court of Nigeria logos on his law firm’s letterhead.
In a letter signed by NBA General Secretary, Dr. Mobolaji Ojibara, the association alleged that Sun, through his firm Nwankwo and Nwankwo, had been sending correspondences bearing the two official emblems, a move it described as “illegal, malicious, and intended to bring both the NBA and the Supreme Court into disrepute.”
“This conduct amounts to gross professional misconduct which could be met with appropriate disciplinary action if proven to be true,” the NBA stated, giving Sun seven days to explain why he should not be referred to the LPDC for “unbecoming conduct.”
The association also attached a copy of the controversial letterhead to its correspondence, insisting that the matter would be treated urgently.
Reacting on social media, Steve Sun dismissed the allegation as laughable, linking it to what he described as the NBA’s “weaponization of disciplinary powers” against critics of its policies.
“I wasn’t surprised because I already knew that my fierce advocacy against their illegal commercialization of the CPD policy was a serious thorn in their flesh,” he wrote.
Sun argued that as a duly enrolled barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and a long-standing, financially up-to-date NBA member for over 15 years, he had every right to use the emblems.
“There is no unauthorized use of NBA or Supreme Court logos by Steve Sun, unless you’re suggesting that I’m a fake lawyer,” he stated. “As long as my name remains on the Roll of Legal Practitioners at the Supreme Court vault, I retain the inalienable right to use both logos.”
The activist accused the NBA of acting in bad faith, pointing out that the same letterhead now deemed offensive was used in a formal complaint he submitted to NBA President Afam Osigwe, SAN, last year — a letter to which the association had responded without objection.
“You either approbate or reprobate, but you can’t do both,” he said, citing the Supreme Court decision in OYEGOKE v. IRIGUNA.
NBA Letter
Sun gave the NBA President seven days to retract the letter and issue an “unreserved apology,” warning that failure to do so would result in a lawsuit.
“It wouldn’t be my first time of suing the NBA and it may not be the last. The suit is already ready,” he declared, adding that the association’s letter was defamatory because it insinuated that he was “probably a fake lawyer.”
He further criticized a proposal to amend the NBA Constitution to give the National Executive Council (NEC) — and by extension the sitting NBA President — direct disciplinary powers over members, calling it “draconian” and urging lawyers to reject it at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting in Enugu.
“All hands have to be on deck to shoot down such a proposal… to avoid a total weaponization of disciplinary powers against legitimate dissenting voices,” Sun warned.
