Money rained down at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association’s annual meeting in Lagos on Monday as celebrities donated more than N3 million to the NBA women’s soccer tournament, which will be held as part of eight days of the conference.
In a speech on accountability, award-winning author and speaker Chimamanda Adichie urged citizens to hold themselves accountable before holding leaders accountable.
“A bold transition must embrace audacity and innovation. They have called me troublesome. Although it is never enjoyable to be called troublesome. I never set out to provoke for its sake. But I refuse to silence myself for the fear of what I might inadvertently provoke. It has always been important to me to say what I believe, to call out injustice.” She said.
“As long as we refuse to untangle the knot of injustice, peace cannot thrive. If we don’t talk about it, we fail to hold leaders accountable and we turn what should be transparent systems into ugly opaque cults.”
She said the financial compensation that men’s and women’s NBA teams receive for football competitions is “unfair.”
It is understood that the male team will receive 500,000 N500,000 while the female team will receive N200,000 as the winning reward.
However, following Adichie’s indictment, several personalities made donations to raise the women’s football prize pool to a total of N3,200,000.
Donors include Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, Nigerian Federal Minister of Labor and Housing Babatunde Fashola, SAN, Paul Edeh, and others.
In her closing remarks, she advocated for a justice system free of corruption and called on the NBA to use technology in court processes and domestic justice administration.
