Human Rights Lawyer and Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER), Frank Tietie has been invited as one of the speakers at this year’s  Bar Week of the Calabar Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). 

The event is scheduled to hold between 4th April and 10th April 2022 at the Transcorp Hotels, Calabar, Cross River State with the theme, “We the People: Agenda for National Consensus”.

Tietie is a Solicitor & Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria with over 18 years of practical experience in human rights law. He attended the University of Benin and Nasarawa State University, Keffi, where he holds degrees in Law and International Humanitarian Law, respectively. He has defined his professional path in international human rights law, human development law and social advocacy with many successful pro bono cases to his credit.

He owns, Forthright (Law) Chambers- Abuja and is the founder & Executive Director, of Citizens’ Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER). He is also the publisher of Law Times, a Nigerian online newspaper with a legal suave.

He is the convener of the Citizens Political Action Committee (C-PAC) and Food Avail- Where Technology Guarantees Food Security. He was recently elected as a member of the  Civil Society Steering Committee, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)

Tietie is a media aficionado and currently an official Arise News Legal Analyst. He is actively engaged in radio & television productions of public law enlightenment programmes for private media outlets in Nigeria.

In 2013, Tietie secured a landmark judgment delivered by Justice Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, in the case between Frank Tietie V. Attorney General of the Federation and the Inspector General of Police wherein, from available records since 2003, established for the first time in Nigeria, that in any matter, whether criminal or civil, involving a child- anybody under the age of 18 years, the Child Rights Act, 2003 must be applied, especially for the protection of Nigerian Girl-Children against sexual exploitation and rape by adult males. 

Following the landmark Child Rights case, Tietie founded the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) in 2012, of which he is the Executive Director to date. Under his leadership, CASER has made much significant impact on Nigeria’s social space. 

In 2016, CASER secured the partial approval of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to allow Live Media Broadcast of Court Proceedings in Nigeria. Also, CASER has held the Annual Human Rights Fiesta, every 10th of December, for the last 5 years to mark the United Nations International Human Rights Day

In 2017, Tietie co-created and presented the Omnibus Human Rights Show (in pidgin) on Radio, on Love 104.5 FM, Abuja and subsequently created Legal Matters, Nigeria (In Standard English) – A Public Law Enlightenment Show on Radio & Online. 

Tietie served on the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the Federal Government of Nigeria, on the United Nations Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights in Nigeria, from 2017 to 2021.  

Tietie’s social and legal essays are often published in the Nigerian press, and he remains one of the most interviewed personalities in the Nigerian media with over 1500 Radio & Television appearances as invited guest commentator on law and human rights-related issues. He is presently enjoying his new media role as an official Arise News Legal Analyst. 

Tietie combines social advocacy and highly demanding media engagements with his private law practice as the owner of Forthright Chambers- A law firm in Abuja, strictly devoted to human rights and human development law. 

On the issue of Resource Control, True Federalism in Nigeria, and Restructuring of the Nigeria Federation, Tietie’s position as recently published widely and, in many media interviews, is that unless there is the restructuring of the Nigerian federation to prevent the oppression and deprivation of the people of the Niger Delta, Nigeria will not achieve any meaningful progress and peaceful development, politically and economically.

Tietie has been a guest speaker and contributor at major international and national events, including United Nations human rights forums, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conferences and Nigerian Civil Society meetings. 

Tietie has begun to develop his interest in the extractive sector with his recent election as a member of the Civil Society Steering Committee, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

In a WhatsApp broadcast, his usually preferred means of messaging, Tietie expresses gratitude to the organizers of the NBA Calabar Bar Week for inviting him and he is particularly thankful to Andem-Ewa Rabana, SAN and Anne Agi, a colleague whom he describes as an exceptionally brilliant lawyer, prolific researcher and author.