NBA Presidential Aspirant Profile: Jonathan Gunu Taidi
Jonathan Gunu Taidi, lawyer, activist and humanitarian was called to the Bar on 23rd January, 2001.
His flair for humanitarian service saw him gravitate towards championing pro bono cases mostly for Awaiting Trial inmates under the Social Security for Better Future Initiative, a non-governmental organization which facilitated his attending the 15th Commonwealth Lawyers Conference in Nairobi, Kenya in September, 2007 and upon return ventured into full time private legal practice in Minna, Niger State.
J. G. Taidi, as he is more often called, is an active member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Minna Branch and has served that noble body in various committees. He was elected Secretary of the Branch in March, 2008 and together with the rest members of that Executive, succeeded in restoring the voice of the Branch which theretofore had regressed into no more than a glorified government parastatal.
In furtherance of his enthusiasm for serving the Bar, he was elected Vice Chairman of the NBA, Minna Branch, in May, 2010. His passion for using the law to help the downtrodden led to the resuscitation of the Pro bono scheme of the branch which resulted in the unprecedented discharge of over two hundred awaiting trial inmates, and convicts who mostly couldn’t pay off their option of fine.
Always eager to improve professionally, and understanding the need for capacity building, J. G. Taidi joined the Section of the International Law of the American Bar Association in 2007 and served actively on the Africa Committee between 2009 – 2010.
He was elected the Chairman of NBA Minna in May, 2012. During his term as Chairman, the Branch, among others, pursued the implementation of Section 121 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Although full implementation was not achieved, the Judiciary witnessed the unprecedented release of funds which were utilized in the areas of infrastructure upgrade, provision of functional library and improving the welfare of Judicial Officers, culminating in enhanced service delivery. Furthermore, the then Acting President of the Court of Appeal approved the establishment of a Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal in Minna which regrettably has still not taken off.
J. G. Taidi was appointed a Notary Public of Nigeria in 2014.
As a Bar Man with great respect for international best practices, J. G. Taidi joined the International Bar Association (IBA) and participated actively in the various conferences he attended. In addition, he remains a foremost agitator for Nigerian content in the activities of the IBA to justify the huge conference registration fees paid by Nigerian conferees.
As an active Member of the Cross Border Transactions Committee of the American Bar Association, J. G. Taidi received invitation from the Asia Pacific Bar Association (APBA) and was inducted as an Associate Member at the APBA Conference in Hong Kong in May 2015.
J. G. Taidi has attended all the conferences of the Nigerian Bar Association since 2001 and taken active role as a member of the Section of Legal Practice. He has been in the National Executive Committee of the NBA from 2008 till date. He was the Secretary of the North Central Panel of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) from 2014 – 2016, Member of Branches Election Monitoring Committee in 2016 and Prosecutor LPDC from 2017 – 2018.
He was elected General Secretary of the NBA and served from August, 2018 – August, 2020 during which governance structure and other reforms that brought about transparency and accountability in the running of the NBA National Secretariat were established.
He served as Council Member of the International Bar Association in 2019 – 2020.
He was appointed into the Prestigious Body of Benchers as Member in November, 2020.
When J. G. Taidi isn’t busy with NBA or legal issues generally, he’s listening to music, reading or visiting beautiful places.
He is married to Susan and blessed with Mabél, Christabel and Annabel.
