The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed a suit seeking to introduce the rank of “Blue Silk” for legal practitioners in Nigeria as an alternative to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), affirming that only the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) has the legal authority to confer the SAN rank on lawyers in the country and issuing a perpetual injunction restraining the applicants from conferring the rank of Blue Silk or any similar title on legal practitioners outside the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act.
In the judgement delivered on Wednesday, Justice James Omotosho held that the suit lacked merit and ruled that the applicants’ move to create and confer the rank of Blue Silk on lawyers had no legal backing.
In a forceful pronouncement on the unitary character of the Nigerian legal profession, Justice Omotosho held:
“The argument by the applicants that they have a right to freedom of assembly and association does not come into play here. The legal profession is not like joining a political party wherein one can jump from party to party. There is only one legal profession in Nigeria duly recognised by statute, thus a person cannot decide to form his own legal profession as the same would be contrary to the law and thus void.”
The judge further held that the applicants’ move to create and confer the rank of Blue Silk on lawyers had no legal backing.
“This therefore means that the acts of the applicants in seeking to award rank of Blue Silk on any legal practitioner in Nigeria is totally void and unrecognised by law,” he said.
According to the judge, the applicants’ actions violated the laws and regulations governing legal practice in Nigeria.
“The applicants cannot hide under fundamental rights to breach statutory provisions. This court will not allow it,” he added.
The judge also held that the applicants failed to prove that their rights to freedom of association and fair hearing were violated.
“The applicants have the burden to establish a breach of their fundamental rights but have utterly failed to do so. Their claim is therefore ungrantable and their suit will be dismissed,” he ruled.
The court subsequently issued a perpetual injunction restraining the applicants from conferring the rank of Blue Silk or any similar title on legal practitioners outside the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act.
The suit was filed by the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) and Tonye Jaja.
They sued the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Mobolaji Ojibara, the NBA General Secretary; Kabir Akanbi, Secretary of the LPPC; the LPPC; and the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).
In the suit filed in March, the applicants prayed for, among others, a declaration that the respondents’ actions amounted to a violation of their rights to freedom of assembly and association guaranteed under Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 10(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
They also sought an order restraining the respondents from referring them to the LPDC over their push for Blue Silk.
The applicants further demanded N50 million as compensation for the alleged violation of their fundamental rights, a public apology to be published in two national newspapers, and N5 million as cost of the suit.
They also argued that the Legal Practitioners Act did not prohibit the Blue Silk initiative and maintained that the respondents lacked the powers to sanction them over it.
They also claimed that the respondents reached conclusions against them without giving them a fair hearing and published notices that negatively affected their rights.
The respondents, in separate counter-affidavits, urged the court to dismiss the suit.
They argued that the applicants lacked the statutory powers to create or confer any legal rank such as Blue Silk on practitioners in Nigeria.
The suit followed a disciplinary notice allegedly issued to Mr. Jaja by Mr. Ojibara over the promotion of what the NBA described as an unlawful and unrecognised rank for legal practitioners.
The SAN is a highly coveted rank conferred as a mark of honour on lawyers with proven contributions to the development of Nigerian law through litigation or academics.
The rank is equivalent to the United Kingdom’s King’s Counsel (KC) or Queen’s Counsel (QC), depending on who the British monarch is at the material time.
The rank comes with a number of privileges, including reserved seats in the first row, referred to as the inner bar, in courtrooms. SANs also have their cases called first no matter their positions on the court’s cause list for the day.
Such decorated lawyers are unofficially referred to as “Silk”, a name inspired by the silk gown worn by the bearers of the rank. Junior lawyers generally wear standard lawyers’ gowns made from other materials.
Through their suit, the applicants had attempted to push for the creation of a separate, unofficial category of prestigious rank for lawyers, called “Blue Silk”, outside the SAN framework.
In February, the LPPC issued a statement disowning the “Blue Silk” title and warning lawyers against using it.
The statement, signed by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court and the LPPC Secretary, Mr. Akanbi, stressed that the rank of SAN remained the only legally recognised senior rank for lawyers in Nigeria. It said the “Blue Silk” title had no statutory backing.
The controversy followed the promotion of the “Blue Silk” initiative by Mr. Jaja, a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs in the suit, through ALDRAP, which sought to create an alternative honourary rank for lawyers, particularly non-litigation practitioners.
In November last year, the NBA raised concerns over Mr. Jaja’s activities and warned that no person or association had the authority to create a rank parallel to SAN.
Similarly, the Nigerian Law Society (NLS), in December 2025, distanced itself from Mr. Jaja and announced the cessation of his membership over the controversy surrounding the “Blue Silk” title and related activities.
The judgement of the Federal High Court delivered by Justice Omotosho on Wednesday represents a decisive judicial affirmation of the statutory framework governing the conferment of senior ranks in the Nigerian legal profession.
By holding that “there is only one legal profession in Nigeria duly recognised by statute” and that “a person cannot decide to form his own legal profession,” the court has shut the door on parallel rank-creation initiatives that operate outside the Legal Practitioners Act and the authority of the LPPC.
The perpetual injunction restraining the applicants from conferring the rank of Blue Silk or any similar title on legal practitioners outside the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act effectively brings to a close the Blue Silk controversy that has agitated the legal profession over the past several months — at least in so far as the conduct of the applicants in this suit is concerned.
For the NBA, the LPPC and the LPDC, the judgement vindicates the position they have consistently maintained: that only the rank of SAN, conferred by the LPPC under the Legal Practitioners Act, enjoys statutory recognition in Nigeria, and that no individual or association has the authority to create or confer a parallel rank.
