Felix Agbor Balla: legal icon with intimidating profile

His beginnings were utterly humble. But thanks to his goal-getting tendencies and zest to forge ahead even where obstacles abound, he is now a high-flying and overly mammoth personality
By Douglas A. Achingale in Yaounde

Barrister Agbor Balla and Joseph Bell

Humility, self-discipline and ambition (not unbridled ambition) are three qualities that can propel a man to unimaginable heights. They are attributes which can make the sky not a man’s limit but rather his springboard. It is these attributes that animate the character of Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla to the extent of him rising amazingly from his humble beginnings in Great Soppo – Buea to the legal and intellectual orbit in which he now flies.

Humble beginnings
    After attending CBC Great Soppo, St. Joseph’s College Sasse and CCAS Kumba, the young Felix whose diroco baroco dressing style earned him the soubriquet “Balla” (after the famous Congolese fashion aficionado, Joe Balla) proceeded to the then University of Yaounde where he took an LLB in English private law in 1992.

Impressive higher education abroad
    His passion for the legal profession took him to the Nigerian Law School in Lagos in 1995. Upon graduation the following year, he was called to the Nigerian Bar. His dream of becoming a lawyer had finally come true!
    Balla did not delay to return to Cameroon with the aim of starting a career in Law. However, because there were delays in him (and others) being admitted into the Cameroon Bar Association, he flew to Belgium for further studies and enrolled in Efra University, Brussels where he earned an LLM in International and European Comparative Law.

    This legal luminary is one of those Cameroonians who have proved to the international world that he who successfully navigates the Ngoa Ekelle waters cannot be daunted by any ocean abroad, however deep it may be! His performance in this university was so incredulously outstanding and astounding that he was granted a scholarship to do the PhD, which he accepted and actually began doing.
    Nonetheless, he was later to postpone the project when another enticing offer came beckoning. He had to move over to Uncle Sam’s country. Out in the US, he enrolled in Notre Dame University in Indiana where he obtained another LLM in 2006, this time in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.   
   
Uncommon professional experience
    “When I received an offer to work for the International Criminal Tribunal (Special Court) for Sierra Leone, I told myself that the PhD could wait,” Balla informed The Median. Here, he worked in the Defence Office as a Legal Taxing Officer and later in Trial Chamber One as Legal Officer.
    If there is anything that upsets the urbane and genial gentlemen, it is the appalling human rights condition of people, no matter where they may find themselves. That is what obliged him, after three years of service in Sierra Leone, to join the UN Mission in Afghanistan where he served as Human Rights Officer for two years. He also had the same category of people in Cameroon in mind, reason why he set up the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa in Buea some nine years ago.
    As a commentator once kidded, blood and law compete in flowing in Balla’s veins. This was certainly a joke. But the fact that Balla later left Afghanistan for DR Congo to work as Legal Adviser to the UN Police for more than two years, and subsequently returned to Afghanistan to serve as Legal Officer to the UN Mission there for another two years or so, is a glaring indication that he breathes law, eats law, thinks law, drinks law, squirms in law, and what have you?
    It was from Afghanistan that Balla finally returned to Cameroon in 2014. He did not come back home because he was fired, tired or retired. Far from it! For, this deferential and affable man is only in his mid-40s. After spending a full decade of his work life in the Diaspora, he thought it expedient to return to the land of his birth and ancestors to serve his people. And he is doing so in grand style.
    Balla set up the Agbor Nkongho Law Firm in Buea which he now runs simultaneously with the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. Admired and respected by his peers in Fako division, he was voted President of the Fako Lawyers’ Association (FAKLA) where he and his team are making marvels.
    Last year he was recruited in the University of Buea as a lecturer of Human rights Law, Legal Procedure and Legal Research Methodology. He made it known to us that one of his ultimate goals is to resume his doctoral research and defend the PhD someday.

Passion for soccer
    His love for football, which he practised with passion in his youth, has caused him to take over the running of Buea United FC, a club in the elite 2 league. It is this love for the game that made him run for the election of South West FECAFOOT president, with the sole aim of reforming football in the region which, to say the least, is ailing. But luck was not on his side as he was narrowly defeated by the indefatiguable Senator Mbella Moki Charles.
    Asked whether he plans to take part in the next FECAFOOT election, the eloquent speaker intimated: “Well, the next FECAFOOT election, all things being equal, is four years from now. And four years is a very long time and could also be a very short time. When we get to the bridge we’ll cross it. God has plans for us. Perhaps God never wanted me to win because he has other plans for me…I always think that a prayer not answered may itself be an answer…I’m a very positive person; let’s wait and see. There are other things that may happen between now and four years’ time. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait for the challenges. When the time comes, we’ll react accordingly.” 

Honest confession
    Asked to comment on such an intimidating profile that he carries along with him, the legal icon quipped: “To be honest I‘m very ambitious. But, mark you; I don’t have the kind of vaulting ambition of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. I always think that the sky is my springboard and not my limit. I grew up in a very challenging setting (Great Soppo) where we always tried to be the best. And I’ve always told myself that I can be the best. God gave all of us potentials which some use well and others don’t. I use mine to the best of my ability to achieve what I can achieve in life and in such a way as to touch the lives of others and be a role model…Immediately I get something, I start looking for the next challenge…
    “FAKLA members will attest that since my team took over power we’ve been carrying out one project after the other. That’s the way I like to work. I don’t rest on my laurels. I’m not complacent. I’m humble enough to know that there is always something I can do to improve on what I’ve already done and serve humanity.”