“The 2025 Federation of African Law Students (FALAS) Annual Conference has now ended. Let’s now all head to the buses and to the hotel for the general elections” the MC announced inside the Nelson Mandela hall at the enormous African Union Headquarters. 

It was fulfilling! A successful conference, and a great time connecting with friends, colleagues and esteemed seniors from across the continent. We launched the maiden FALAS International Journal of Law, which was my highlight of the Conference. As Editor-in-chief, I had the singular honour of introducing the journal and its contents to the gathering at the AU Hall.

The cultural display was another peak moment. The rich display of Africa’s diversity gave much warmth and was a beauty to behold. There’s not much more to say without diminishing the glamour of the experience.

You just had to be there!

The presentations, panel discussions and speeches still ring in my head. 

Two of them stand out. 

And though it smells like bias, I assure you it isn’t. Justice Sedinam Awo Kwadam’s (Justice of the High Court of Ghana) presentation on judicial independence in Africa brought back memories of my engagement with Malawian judge Justice Tujilane R. Chizumila of the African Court of Human and People’s Rights. I had engaged her in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at my first FALAS Conference in 2024.

Justice Chizumila encouraged adjudicators to write independent opinions on decisions, especially for high-stake cases and to make such opinions “airtight” which would make it difficult for academics and critics to tear such decisions apart in critical reviews.

On her part, Justice Sedinam urged judges to avoid the temptation of loyalty to their appointing authority and only be faithful to their judicial oath. On whether public election of judges, a concept popular in jurisdictions like the USA, would help to enforce public trust in the judiciary, Justice Sedinam advised against such a step, arguing that the fragile nature of public elections in Africa should not be brought to the judiciary, at least not now.

Away from that, Ghana’s beauty Queen, Nihad, 2024 Ghana’s Most Beautiful, presented on a tray of topics but what piqued my interest was climate change. As a climate and environmental advocate, I was thrilled about her invitation to collaborate and intend cashing in on that soon.

It was a successful conference, frankly.

 But something felt missing. 

The pioneer President of the Federation was absent. The spokesperson to the president was absent too. More delegates who wished to be present were all absent. The common denominator is that they were all from the Giant of Africa, Nigeria.

They all failed in their attempts to obtain visa to enter Ethiopia, “the heartbeat of Pan-Africanism.”

Africans were denied the opportunity to attend a Pan-African Conference at the Headquarters of the African Union; not because they could not pay for their flight tickets or meet financial requirements for visa processing but because they were simply denied. 

“No reason at all” was given, Nwobodo, Esq. Founding President of FALAS tells me.  “It is the new administration’s policy” is the closest our Nigerian brothers came to getting an answer.

All official attempts to obtain the visa failed. Backchannelling failed. And Ethiopia failed Pan-Africanism. 

The global notoriety for which holders of the Nigerian passport have been labelled is not lost on me. However, one would expect, or I expected that a fellow African power would cut some slack to lawyers and law students seeking to partake in a conference designed to enforce the very principles for which Ethiopia prides itself.

The absence of Nigeria at the 2025 FALAS Conference, hosted by the African Union is a blot not only on Ethiopia but the pretentious Pan-Africanism trumpeted by 21st Century leaders on the continent.

What would Nkrumah say? Gaddafi? Selassie? Sankara? Lumumba? Oh dear! 

To think that Nigeria is not the only country that suffered same. Egyptian delegates who wished to be present were equally absent due to same visa troubles.

As a short-term measure, the headquarters of Pan-Africanism should probably be moved to a destination which would not deny entry to Africans and in the long-term, “Africa Must Unite” – Kwame Nkrumah.