My Dear Lords,
It is certainly belated, our congratulations from this end to you for your good luck in getting elevated from the Bar to the Bench of the highest Court in the State. But then, as it is said, better late than never.
I hope that we can dare to trust that your Lordships will not feel affronted that the Squib cares to issue missives to judicial potentates such as you.
We too, as roguish as our detractors may like to think of us, are stakeholders in the profession, practice and administration of law. So please bear with our egregiousness.
Apparently it was not easy becoming a member of the Lagos State Bench. Many applied, struggled, jostled, quested and hungered for the job but only a few were chosen.
Your lordships know, as all know that you did not bag the job the European way. It was very much in an African style particularly Nigerian. That is to say you put in merit but added a lot of connection into the contention. Plus prayer. Plus fasting. Plus plus plus and plus. Surely you understand me your lordships.
Ostensibly it was because you were certified fit and proper by the authorities that you all got the nod to become Judges. But it was not all of you that got the support of the bar in your struggle to get appointed.
For those the Bar considered not good enough for the Lagos Bench for reasons of integrity, competence, knowledge etc, it is absolutely compelling that you prove the Bar wrong. Very wrong.
You should not conduct yourself like
“Eni a pe lole
totun gbomo eran jo”
As for those of you supported by the Bar, on your perceived apparent virtues, please do not let us down. Do not rest on your oars, so that the Bar will be able to hold her head high. Do not let the “uncircumcised” as it were ask “Are these not the so called darlings and pearls of the Bar?
Remember that in early 2007, Mr. Babatunde Fashola was an unknown politico. But his principal and sponsor paraded and promenaded him as the “Best Man For The Job”. And, true and truly, we all have seen that that was no empty boast.
I have thought hard and long on which advice one may possibly give you. What is there to say again? After all, one expects your promoters, relatives, friends, spiritual counselors, spouses etc to have sat you down and load you with bushels and sacks of advice.
So what else can a mere gecko, like us offer? If it is corruption they must have told that bribery and mockery are next door neighbors.
If indolence, they must have taken you to the ants. If pride, they must have lectured you that it is a preamble to a fall and drives grace and glory away. If it is anger, they must have told you it brings a Judge easily into the league of maniacs.
If ignorance, they must have recommended knowledge to you
Well, I have scratched my tiny brain very hard and I think I now have a charge that will certainly prove useful to you. The charge is simple-STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE, which is another way of saying “try and be the very best you can be”
Challenge your self always. Always ask “have I put in my best today, my very best? Shun the easy platform of mediocrity, of just being a number, a forgettable judex. Strive relentlessly to be distinguished and distinct, a star judge or better still, a super star judge. Don’t think I have set a tall order for you. What I have asked you to be has been laid down by Jesus the Christ, centuries ago when he admonished believers as follows-
“Let your light so shine before the world
so that they will see and glorify your father which art in Heaven”
So many dear Lords, your appointment should not be appreciated alone from the materialism perspective (the new jeeps, the up-scale social status, the perks of office).
You should also view it from the perspective of service to humanity and a rare opportunity to write your name in gold. Never forget that your first name and your surname is now JUSTICE. Be true to your name from now on to the end of your careers.
Finally, there is this little matter of Squib scooping. The constitutional license to ‘gbeborun’ is not yet withdrawn from us. So if we notice anything untoward in your courts we will surely talk and talk in our squibish manner. It wouldn’t matter then whether you were a friend or foe.
Thank you.
Yours geckostically,
Adesina Ogunlana
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
NBA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2010 - THE WAY THE ELECTION WILL GO
PRESIDENT
There are only two candidates here. the first is Joseph Bodurin Daudu SAN. The second is Joe Kyari-Gadzama SAN. Both are determined to win the race but only one, at the end of the day will get the "crown." What are their chances of success?
Daudu is not new to questing for the presidency of the NBA. His first bid was in 2004 when Chief Bayo Ojo SAN emerged the winner. Daudu came second.
There are only two candidates here. the first is Joseph Bodurin Daudu SAN. The second is Joe Kyari-Gadzama SAN. Both are determined to win the race but only one, at the end of the day will get the "crown." What are their chances of success?
Daudu is not new to questing for the presidency of the NBA. His first bid was in 2004 when Chief Bayo Ojo SAN emerged the winner. Daudu came second.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
BADAGRY BAR BOUNCES BACK TO RECKONING
On 25 June 2010, history was made at the premises of the Badagry High Court as Chief Magistrate Ganiyu Safari, a deputy Chief Registrar and the representative of the honourable Chief Judge of Lagos State, inaugurated the new Executive Committee of the Badagry Bar.
Legally speaking it is incorrect to refer yet to the Badagry Bar as the Badagry Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association since the NBA is yet to duly register Badagry as one of her branches.
However the agitation for the creation of the Badagry branch by lawyers in that jurisdiction has been on for more than a decade.
The hope for the realization of this fond dream appeared very bright when the Chief Tunji Orisalade led Executive Committee was inaugurated in 2005. However five years later, the situation has not changed.
The ‘branch’ could not just muster the strength to get its registration with NBA done and over with. While many Badagry based lawyers accuse the former chairman, Adetunji Orisalade of frustrating the registration of the branch while perpetuating himself in office for six years, in the absence of elections after his normal tenure of office which ended in 2007, Orisalade blamed the situation on the general nonchalance of majority of the members to the issue of registration. According to Orisalade, only very few lawyers in the Badagry judicial Division pay either practicing fees or branch dues, hence the great difficulty in getting the branch registered since a crucial requirement for registration is that a prospective branch must have at least 25 members who have paid their practicing fees for the year in consideration as at when due (on or before 31st March).
Some six years after the emergence of the Adetunji Orisalde administration, a new regime has finally taken over.
The new leader of the Badagry bar is Mr. Bode Oyeyemi who crushed his only opponent Julius Akinlaja at the polls 22-5 votes. It was learnt that Chief Orisalade the former chairman filed nomination papers to re-contest his post but withdrew from the race two days before the election.
Incidentally it was only the post of chairman that was contested. All the other officers virtually strolled into their respective offices, being unopposed candidates.
In a chat with the Squib, the new chairman of the Badagry bar, Bode Oyeyemi, called to the Nigerian Bar in 1993 disclosed a four point agenda.
Said Oyeyemi –“My first priority is to see that the Badagry Bar is registered with the NBA. This task by the grace of God shall be accomplished. We are mobilizing all our members in this regard and we are already liasing with Mr. Adekunle Ojo, the NBA 2nd Vice-President (who is based in Ikeja, Lagos) for guidance and assitance.
The second assignment is to heal all wounds in the Bar and end all polarization and marginalization. Our members must unite and become one big family.
Thirdly I’ll see to the sanitization of the Judiciary in our jurisdiction. Because in the past years, the bar has been in doldrums, some magistrates in particular have grown wings to perpetrate unacceptable conduct. We are poised to put an end to that.
Finally my administration will pay special attention to the welfare and social interests of our members. Here in Badagry all we do as lawyers is work, work and work. There is no time for relaxation. The bar under my watch will strive to make life more comfortable and livelier for members.
Legally speaking it is incorrect to refer yet to the Badagry Bar as the Badagry Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association since the NBA is yet to duly register Badagry as one of her branches.
However the agitation for the creation of the Badagry branch by lawyers in that jurisdiction has been on for more than a decade.
The hope for the realization of this fond dream appeared very bright when the Chief Tunji Orisalade led Executive Committee was inaugurated in 2005. However five years later, the situation has not changed.
The ‘branch’ could not just muster the strength to get its registration with NBA done and over with. While many Badagry based lawyers accuse the former chairman, Adetunji Orisalade of frustrating the registration of the branch while perpetuating himself in office for six years, in the absence of elections after his normal tenure of office which ended in 2007, Orisalade blamed the situation on the general nonchalance of majority of the members to the issue of registration. According to Orisalade, only very few lawyers in the Badagry judicial Division pay either practicing fees or branch dues, hence the great difficulty in getting the branch registered since a crucial requirement for registration is that a prospective branch must have at least 25 members who have paid their practicing fees for the year in consideration as at when due (on or before 31st March).
Some six years after the emergence of the Adetunji Orisalde administration, a new regime has finally taken over.
The new leader of the Badagry bar is Mr. Bode Oyeyemi who crushed his only opponent Julius Akinlaja at the polls 22-5 votes. It was learnt that Chief Orisalade the former chairman filed nomination papers to re-contest his post but withdrew from the race two days before the election.
Incidentally it was only the post of chairman that was contested. All the other officers virtually strolled into their respective offices, being unopposed candidates.
In a chat with the Squib, the new chairman of the Badagry bar, Bode Oyeyemi, called to the Nigerian Bar in 1993 disclosed a four point agenda.
Said Oyeyemi –“My first priority is to see that the Badagry Bar is registered with the NBA. This task by the grace of God shall be accomplished. We are mobilizing all our members in this regard and we are already liasing with Mr. Adekunle Ojo, the NBA 2nd Vice-President (who is based in Ikeja, Lagos) for guidance and assitance.
The second assignment is to heal all wounds in the Bar and end all polarization and marginalization. Our members must unite and become one big family.
Thirdly I’ll see to the sanitization of the Judiciary in our jurisdiction. Because in the past years, the bar has been in doldrums, some magistrates in particular have grown wings to perpetrate unacceptable conduct. We are poised to put an end to that.
Finally my administration will pay special attention to the welfare and social interests of our members. Here in Badagry all we do as lawyers is work, work and work. There is no time for relaxation. The bar under my watch will strive to make life more comfortable and livelier for members.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
OZEKHOME VS ARIBISALA: GUTTER FIGHT IN COURT
“Ko ju ma ri bi
Ese logun e”
In his court, the honourable Justice Kazeem Alogba of the Lagos State Judiciary has a reputation of being firm and in control. Hardly shaken by any-thing the judex not only reign there but also rule.
However about two weeks ago, in the face of an impeding-turbulence coming from unexpected and exalted quarters, the honourable Judge considered it expedient to rise hurriedly and move quickly to the safety and sanity of his chambers.
The hurried exit of the judge could be traced squarely to the wonderful, impressive if not memorable performance and conduct of two of the statutorily recognized leaders of the bar, who were appearing in his court on the 8th of June 2010.
The first was Mr. Ajibola Aribisala a senior Advocate of Nigeria and who grabbed the silk in 2004. The second is Mr. Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate of Nigeria too and who was transported into the inner bar, only a few months ago.
According to our sources, trouble erupted in the hearing of the case of claimant in the case of ID/178/2000 vs Zenon Petrol & Gas Ltd & Ors. The counsel for the claimant was Mr. Ajibola Anthony Aribisala who had earlier on secured a mareva-injunction against the defendants in the matter. However the defendants brought various application to the effect that the claimant had secured the order by misrepresenting material facts to the trial court and that same should be discharge.
On the fateful date we learnt that the claimant’s counsel Aribisala sparked off the ugly scene when he reacted in unsavoury terms to Mr. Mike Ozekhome who was seeking to regularize some part of his processes while Aribisala was making certain submissions to the court.
This effort was considered by Mr. Aribisala as bothersome interjections into his own presentation where upon he snapped at Ozekhome – “Sit down baby SAN!”
The deliberate and calculated slur hit Ozekhome harder than a wasp’s sting. Immensely proud himself, a maddened Ozekhome, forgot all decorun as he shot at Aribisala “You are a gorilla. You dare call me a baby SAN. I am five years your senior at the bar and if not for our system, how can the likes of your become a SAN…
By this time Mr. Justice Alogba had “vamoosed” from the court. With the exit of the judge, the two ‘fighting’ senior advocates tore into each other thoroughly, flinging abuses at each other like fish-mongers’ wives. For example while Aribisala called Ozekhome a goat, Ozekhome shouted that Aribisala was a big buffoon.
It was clear to all that the fighting duo had lost all sense of proportion at that point and so heated had they become that they could easily come to blows and further descreate the bar and the temple of justice.
It was then that some of the other silks in courts like Badejo SAN and Kemi Pinhero SAN intervened by persuading a still fuming Ozekhome to leave the court and so put an end to the show of shame.
The Squib learnt that a little while late, the judge summoned all the counsel in the matter to his chambers and calmed down frayed nerves. The court thereafter sat and hearing in the matter continued.
Ese logun e”
In his court, the honourable Justice Kazeem Alogba of the Lagos State Judiciary has a reputation of being firm and in control. Hardly shaken by any-thing the judex not only reign there but also rule.
However about two weeks ago, in the face of an impeding-turbulence coming from unexpected and exalted quarters, the honourable Judge considered it expedient to rise hurriedly and move quickly to the safety and sanity of his chambers.
The hurried exit of the judge could be traced squarely to the wonderful, impressive if not memorable performance and conduct of two of the statutorily recognized leaders of the bar, who were appearing in his court on the 8th of June 2010.
The first was Mr. Ajibola Aribisala a senior Advocate of Nigeria and who grabbed the silk in 2004. The second is Mr. Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate of Nigeria too and who was transported into the inner bar, only a few months ago.
According to our sources, trouble erupted in the hearing of the case of claimant in the case of ID/178/2000 vs Zenon Petrol & Gas Ltd & Ors. The counsel for the claimant was Mr. Ajibola Anthony Aribisala who had earlier on secured a mareva-injunction against the defendants in the matter. However the defendants brought various application to the effect that the claimant had secured the order by misrepresenting material facts to the trial court and that same should be discharge.
On the fateful date we learnt that the claimant’s counsel Aribisala sparked off the ugly scene when he reacted in unsavoury terms to Mr. Mike Ozekhome who was seeking to regularize some part of his processes while Aribisala was making certain submissions to the court.
This effort was considered by Mr. Aribisala as bothersome interjections into his own presentation where upon he snapped at Ozekhome – “Sit down baby SAN!”
The deliberate and calculated slur hit Ozekhome harder than a wasp’s sting. Immensely proud himself, a maddened Ozekhome, forgot all decorun as he shot at Aribisala “You are a gorilla. You dare call me a baby SAN. I am five years your senior at the bar and if not for our system, how can the likes of your become a SAN…
By this time Mr. Justice Alogba had “vamoosed” from the court. With the exit of the judge, the two ‘fighting’ senior advocates tore into each other thoroughly, flinging abuses at each other like fish-mongers’ wives. For example while Aribisala called Ozekhome a goat, Ozekhome shouted that Aribisala was a big buffoon.
It was clear to all that the fighting duo had lost all sense of proportion at that point and so heated had they become that they could easily come to blows and further descreate the bar and the temple of justice.
It was then that some of the other silks in courts like Badejo SAN and Kemi Pinhero SAN intervened by persuading a still fuming Ozekhome to leave the court and so put an end to the show of shame.
The Squib learnt that a little while late, the judge summoned all the counsel in the matter to his chambers and calmed down frayed nerves. The court thereafter sat and hearing in the matter continued.
Friday, June 18, 2010
"6-PONDO:" TEAM OMOLE WINS, OPPONENTS WEEP
Since 2004 when the power caucus of the Progressive Bar Forum (PBF) of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association came fully to its own, it has dominated the politics of the Tiger like a colossus.In 2004 in its largest and most unified form, it scored a 100% victory at the polls, winning all available positions without partnership or alliance and produced Adekunle Ojo as the chairman of the branch at the expense of Hya Osahon Ihenyen who could only garner 10% of the total votes cast.
In 2006, the PBF, still intact, went to the polls and again captured all seats. The prime victim of their might then was Dele Oloke, who with less than 25% of the valid votes cast, lost woefully to the PBF candidate, Niyi Idowu.
Interestingly the loser was a former member of the PBF but who left the group, feeling frustrated after failing to secure approval in the ‘primaries’ of the group.
In 2008, the power caucus regrettably split into three unequal parts. The smallest part belonged to Niyi Akinmola then 2nd Vice-Chairman of the Ikeja Branch and a senior rank caucus member, who suffused with his own sense of self-importance and popularity, refused all appeasement not to leave the group. He was determined to contest the election for chairman at all cost contrary to the placement tradition of the P.B.F which favoured Dave Ajetomobi then the 1st Vice-Chairman to Niyi Idowu.
The second splinter group belonged to Niyi Idowu and Beckley Abioye. That group wanted Abioye the then General Secretary to run for chairman.
If Niyi Akinmola was unappeasable, the duo of Niyi Idowu and Abioye were simply unapproachable. So great was their animosity for their former group and confidence in their own strength to prevail against the PBF. It was Niyi Idowu’s sneer then that he would only consider reconciliation talks after the election had been determined!
At the end of the day the dreams of both splinter groups came to nought. Niyi Akinmola met his waterloo even before the election as he, just like Dele Oloke was disqualified from the race. As for Abioye his chairmanship ambition went up in smoke on June 30 2008 when Dave Ajetomobi came out tops with 60% of the total votes cast.
In 2010, the build-up to the elections of June 7 was strong and tense. Niyi Akinmola, still rebellious, still unrepentant and even headier, built a crop of members round himself. The group was a mixture of former satellites of his former power caucus - Leye Omitola and Terry Adeniji and and a stranger element Emmanuel Otobo, a completely unsubstantial bar player but then the Akinmola group presented him for the post of General Secretary. The three Akinmola followers were all members of the now defunct Dave Ajetomobi administration where they played opposition politics with differing degrees of intensity and finesse.
For example where Terry Adeniji and Emmanuel Otobo were coarse, confrontational and openly subversive, Omitola used the sly and silent style in aiding the interest of his group. He worked very actively in misusing his office of Financial Secretary to disenfranchise scores of supporters of the Mainstream group whom he wrongly labeled ineligible to vote.
Omitola gunned for the post of Treasurer while Adeniji aspired to become the 1st Vice-Chairman. For the other splinter-group owned and controlled by Niyi idowu and un-ably supported by Beckley Abioye, their curious choice for the chairmanship post was Dele Oloke. Choosing Oloke as their top flag bearer reflected poor thinking and a sense of huge desperation.
To any informed observer of Tiger land politics, Oloke serial polls loser, that he is, could only be the chairmanship choice of any self-defeating group.
To worsen the situation, the Niyi Idowu group fielded another political dwarf for the crucial post of General Secretary in the person of Mrs. Titi Osagie. Osagie had vied for the same post in 2008 and lost by 63 votes to Isa Buhari even with all the powers of incumbency in the favour of her political sponsors Niyi Idowu and Beckley Abioye.
The three other candidates sponsored by the Niyi Idowu group, just like Osagie, were minnows. Biyi Oguntuga presented for 1st Vice-Chairman, blends with anonymity, Abdulhamid Ahmed is equally undistinguished while Maimuna Esegime, for Financial Secretary is a green horn in Tiger land politics.
Interestingly the fact that their candidates were second rate was lost to the directors of “Team Oloke.” Three days to the election, Beckley Abioye, the deputy leader of the group boasted of the invincibility of his group in 2010 and that he himself lost the battle for the top job of chairman in 2008 only because the mainstream used mercenary voters against him.
Then in the morning of June 7, the most amiable of the group, Biyi Oguntuga, in a quiet but confident voice assured this reporter “Squib we will surprise you.”
The second splinter group belonged to Niyi Idowu and Beckley Abioye. That group wanted Abioye the then General Secretary to run for chairman.
If Niyi Akinmola was unappeasable, the duo of Niyi Idowu and Abioye were simply unapproachable. So great was their animosity for their former group and confidence in their own strength to prevail against the PBF. It was Niyi Idowu’s sneer then that he would only consider reconciliation talks after the election had been determined!
At the end of the day the dreams of both splinter groups came to nought. Niyi Akinmola met his waterloo even before the election as he, just like Dele Oloke was disqualified from the race. As for Abioye his chairmanship ambition went up in smoke on June 30 2008 when Dave Ajetomobi came out tops with 60% of the total votes cast.
In 2010, the build-up to the elections of June 7 was strong and tense. Niyi Akinmola, still rebellious, still unrepentant and even headier, built a crop of members round himself. The group was a mixture of former satellites of his former power caucus - Leye Omitola and Terry Adeniji and and a stranger element Emmanuel Otobo, a completely unsubstantial bar player but then the Akinmola group presented him for the post of General Secretary. The three Akinmola followers were all members of the now defunct Dave Ajetomobi administration where they played opposition politics with differing degrees of intensity and finesse.
For example where Terry Adeniji and Emmanuel Otobo were coarse, confrontational and openly subversive, Omitola used the sly and silent style in aiding the interest of his group. He worked very actively in misusing his office of Financial Secretary to disenfranchise scores of supporters of the Mainstream group whom he wrongly labeled ineligible to vote.
Omitola gunned for the post of Treasurer while Adeniji aspired to become the 1st Vice-Chairman. For the other splinter-group owned and controlled by Niyi idowu and un-ably supported by Beckley Abioye, their curious choice for the chairmanship post was Dele Oloke. Choosing Oloke as their top flag bearer reflected poor thinking and a sense of huge desperation.
To any informed observer of Tiger land politics, Oloke serial polls loser, that he is, could only be the chairmanship choice of any self-defeating group.
To worsen the situation, the Niyi Idowu group fielded another political dwarf for the crucial post of General Secretary in the person of Mrs. Titi Osagie. Osagie had vied for the same post in 2008 and lost by 63 votes to Isa Buhari even with all the powers of incumbency in the favour of her political sponsors Niyi Idowu and Beckley Abioye.
The three other candidates sponsored by the Niyi Idowu group, just like Osagie, were minnows. Biyi Oguntuga presented for 1st Vice-Chairman, blends with anonymity, Abdulhamid Ahmed is equally undistinguished while Maimuna Esegime, for Financial Secretary is a green horn in Tiger land politics.
Interestingly the fact that their candidates were second rate was lost to the directors of “Team Oloke.” Three days to the election, Beckley Abioye, the deputy leader of the group boasted of the invincibility of his group in 2010 and that he himself lost the battle for the top job of chairman in 2008 only because the mainstream used mercenary voters against him.
Then in the morning of June 7, the most amiable of the group, Biyi Oguntuga, in a quiet but confident voice assured this reporter “Squib we will surprise you.”
Accreditation of votersThis prediction proved wrong and empty as the mainstream group walloped their rivals blue and black to claim all grounds.
In the Welfare Secretary position Abdullateef Abdulsalam crushed Team Oloke’s Abdulhameed Ahmed 209 to 180, taking about 66% of the 489 votes cast.
In the Financial Secretary position Maimuna Esegime (Team Oloke) succumbed to Adesina Adegbite (a mainstreamer) 219 to 287 votes, garnering only about 42% of the votes.
The third election result announced was that of Treasurer. This was supposed to be a tough battle between Leye Omitola (Mr. disenfrachiser of the Niyi Akinmola group) Carol Ibeh of the mainstream group. Again, the mainstreamers prevailed as Ibeh gained over Omitola, 288 to 208, scoring 58% of the 489 valid votes cast.
Then came the result for the post of General Secretary. It was a three way struggle amongst Adesina Ogunlana (mainstream) Titi Osagie (Team Oloke) and Emmanuel Otobo (Team Akinmola).
Well, since a rat’s nest conforms to its proportion, Emmanuel Otobo the rat in the group deservedly scored the lowest votes of 87 or 16% of the total votes of 515 cast.
Titi Osagie, the “David” who was expected by her minders to kill a Goliath in the person of Adesina Ogunlana, found out too late the truism in Wasiu Alabi’s (Pasuma wonder) Fuji lyrics which went thus :
“emi yin o gbe,
capacity yin o gbe,
confido yin o gbe,
charisma yin o gbe,
engine aeroplane yen te gbe sinu beetle (VW) yen.”
In the middle of the counting of the votes, the lady saw the bold handwriting on the wall truncating her vaunting ambition and betrayed the woman in her. She was led away into the night, sobbing bitterly, as the scorpion of defeat stung her deeply. What made her case poignant was that her vanquisher, Adesina Ogunlana who won with a total of 266 votes (53%) to her 162 (31%) had weeks earlier sent a message to her camp that she should be withdrawn to a lesser post where she would meet no behemoth and therefore survive. The advice, sent through Dele Oloke was scorned.
For the post of 1st Vice-Chairman. Team Akinmola’s candidate, Terry Adeniji, the exponent and leading apostle of “Tenubole politics” (politics of disinformation and rumour mongering) put up a stiff fight, but at the end fell at the feet of his mainstream opponent, Yinka Farounbi who scored 237 votes (47%) to Adeniji’s 209 (41%). The spectator contestant, Biyi Oguntuga of Team Oloke got only 64 votes (12%).
By the time it came to counting and sorting the votes of the contestants in the chairmanship position (at 9.30pm), it was only Leye Omitola of all the “opposition candidates” that could afford to remain on the election ground. Thus it was his unenviable task to relay the sad news of repeated failures of his friends.
Sorting and counting of the chairmanship election votesA total of 512 votes were cast in the chairmanship race. As earlier predicted by this magazine (vol 10, No 27), Dele Oloke with his 118 votes (23%) rested at the bottom of the class. Perched a little way above him, was Niyi Akinmola with his 174 votes (35%). Akinmola, when he saw the way the trend was going was heard repeatedly muttering to himself:
“Ha eniyan, aiye le!”
(Alas! How treacherous man is!).
Akinmola’s palpable agony was understandable. He was the longest campaigning candidate, having put no less than three years into it, only to be bested by Adebamigbe Omole whose candidacy was not more than six months old. Akinmola forgot perhaps that Wasiu Alabi has noted:
Ogun odun oni,
ogbon odun oni,
t’aja ti nsare ije,
irin faaji ni fesin.
Gbogbo press up t’alangba n’se
Ko fi ni muscle lara
(all the grounds covered by the dog in twenty,
thirty years of intense racing are nothing
but a stroll for the horse,
the agama lizard’s numerous press ups are in vain
they give him no muscular biceps).
Adebamigbe Omole, calmly took victory by getting 220 votes (42%) of the total valid votes cast.
Of the three candidates who came in unopposed, Gloria Nweze(2nd Vice-Chairman), Seyi Olawumi (Social Secretary) and Samson Omodara (Publicity Secretary) only the last is not a mainstream candidate.
Insiders know that Omodara a member of the Team Oloke was spared the agony of contest and eventual defeat due to a silent deal brokered on his behalf by a friend of his, with the political lords of Tiger land. Omodara’s calm disposition and good comportment helped matters a great deal in this regard.
The great announcement: The Electoral Committee, Mrs. Akindiji (chairman), Quadri(secretary) and Olumide Fusika(member)announcing the results of the election at about 9:20pm.Insiders also know that the battle for the soul of the Ikeja Bar appeared to take spiritual dimension. About a week to the elections, a pillar of the mainstream group Dave Ajetomobi, the outgoing chairman of the branch got stung in his own bedroom. How the scorpion got there was baffling. The unfortunate scorpion however received the capital punishment for his transgression.
Three days to the election, the trio of Dare Akande, Isa Buhari and Adesina Ogunlana were involved in a ghastly motor accident. On their way to Abuja from Kano, a big cow on the outskirts of Kaduna suddenly ran smack into their vehicle, then moving at about 100km at the time. The cow died on impact and the car was badly damaged but the Tigers disembarked unhurt.
The new chairman, Adebamigbe Omole making his "No winner, no vanquished" speech after being sworn in to office.Remarkably on the day of the election, there was no rain at all that could have disrupted voting and the electricity supply endured to the very end.
Reflecting on all these seemingly disjointed incidents, the new chairman of the branch, Adebamigbe Omole told his colleagues “I am not worried by those things. Remember we fasted and prayed over this election. The Lord will continue to protect us, no matter the evil machinations (if any) of anybody.”
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
ELECTION FEVER GRIPS TIGER BAR: AS ‘PARTIES’ TRADE BLAMES OVER ALLEGED MERCENARY VOTERS.
See Gani's Will by clicking, http://www.ganidelaw.blogspot.comHigh tension, bitter disputes and even protracted crisis not infrequently characterize election periods in many branches of the Nigerian Bar Association. The commonest complaints among contestants are allegations and counter allegations of disqualification of eligible candidates, qualification of ineligible candidates, disenfranchisement of valid voters and enfranchisement of illegal voters.
The situation is not limited or peculiar to branch election of the association. It is the same story at the national level-the infamous 1992 election debate that lay the NBA prostrate for six years is still fresh in the memory.
By the schedule of the Mrs. Akindiji led Electoral Committee of the NBA Ikeja branch, general elections into Executive Committee for 2010-2012 will take place on June 7 2010. However there are palpable fears and doubts over the elections-whether it will take place as scheduled.
The main reason for the apprehension does not pertain to candidates. Unlike in 2008, when the electoral crisis erupted over the attempt of Beckley Abioye then the General Secretary of the branch to qualify many otherwise ineligible candidates, such as Dele Oloke, Biyi Oguntuga, Biola Oketoki, and Niyi Akinmola, the row this year is over the voters’ list drawn up by Leye Omitola Esq, the incumbent Financial Secretary of the branch, but who is also a contestant for the post of treasurer.
Under the Bye Law of the Ikeja, two officers are entrusted with roles that crucially affect the electoral process. The first officer is the General Secretary whose duty is to present a finding on the compliance or otherwise of candidates contesting for positions in the election, with the legal requirements of the contest vis a vis payment of branch dues, practicing fees, possession of branch I.D cards and adequate attendance of branch meetings.
The second officer is the Financial Secretary of the branch. His material duty is to forward to the Electoral Committee, the names of the financial members of the branch and who are the only eligible voters in the election.
The situation this year is that there was no problem in the compilation of the names of candidates eligible to contest. Off all the aspirants only one, Aladekomo (Assistant General Secretary) was found wanting and the Electoral Committee had no problem in upholding the General Secretary’s findings.
Even the pathological petition writer Emmanuel Otobo of the Niyi Akinmola group found his petition against Adesina Ogunlana, Adebamigbe Omole and Titi Osagie, thrown straight into the dust-bin, being lacking in merit. Otobo, had in vain, sought to knock out his rivals for the post of General Secretary, (Adesina Ogunlana and Titi Osagie) from the race via his “pepperless” petition. So well had Isa Mohamed Buhari the out-going general secretary of the Ikeja Bar did his duty!
However the same commendation cannot in all fairness be given to Leye Omitola, the outgoing Financial Secretary but a contestant for the post of Treasurer presently under the platform of the Niyi Akinmola Team.
On Wednesday 2nd June 2010, Omitola put up two lists on the notice board of the Ikeja Bar Center. The first list contained the names of 1576 people recognized by Omitola as legal practitioners, bonafide members of NBA Ikeja branch and who are proper financial members of the association. This is List A.
The second, List B contains a list names of 171 persons who according to Omitola “do not fulfill their financial obligation as stipulated by section 19 (5) (c) of the bye Law” and as such not ordinarily eligible to vote. This list was annexed to a report signed Leye Omitola. (Please see Squib Cover Story Exhibit).
According to Leye Omitola’s Report, List B is drawn from those who paid their branch dues between 18th and 21st May 2010 and also who number “almost 500”. According to Omitola, this number of 500 aroused his suspicion “since most of them paid #1,000-#2,000”. Accordingly Omitola caused an investigation according to him, of these names via the website of the Nigeria Bar Association (www.nigerianbar.org/a/nbadir on the internet.
At the end of the investigation by Omitola who is actually not computer literate, not to talk of being internet savvy, he came to the conclusion that 170 (one hundred and seventy) of the 500 (five hundred) people are not qualified to vote because their payment receipts showed that they gave wrong years of call, while some of the names could not even be found!
This strongly suggested that those are the Nigeria Lawyers Directory 2008 (3rd edition) published by law educational.
However a careful examination via the Nigeria Lawyers Directory 2008 (3rd edition) published by Law and Educational Publishers Limited and edited by SIR TAN ATULEGWU NWAMARA of random samples from List B show the Omitola was very wrong in many instances.
Look at these examples:
(1) AbduRaheem Sayi who is no 1 on List B was called 2001 and properly paid #2,000 as branch dues. But Omitola described him as AbduRaheem Seyi and claimed his name could not be found.
(2) The trio of Okheowa Ohonyon, Folashade Owolabi and Perpetual Okonkwo are lawyers working in the Winners Don’t Quit of Adesina Ogunlana (General Secretary candidate) and called to the bar in 2008 and 2009 respectively but they are listed in List B as those whose names could not be found. Interestingly two of them Okheowa Ohonyon and Folasade Owolabi have their names at the same time on the list of those qualified to vote (List A).
(3) Moses Odu (No 100), Izokwu Matthew Chukwuma (No 76) Yamta Yusuf ( 169) mis-spelt as Yinka Yusuf by Omitola, Richard Oloye (143), Seyi Alade (148) Olarotimi Williams (126) Olalekan Idowu (124), Olalekan Tella (123), Moses Ese Igiede (103), Moji Balogun (99) Kunle Olusanya (86) Doris Okereke (52) Bayo Ogunmoye (34) Ayo Ajifowowe (27) Alaba Oluwaseun (21) Akin Akinrinade (20) Adewale Akande (19) Adele Kehinde (10) Adekunle Adeniran (9) Adedoyin Sobiye (8) on Omitola’s List B are in reality are all qualified lawyers and who paid their correct dues.
All those names appeared in the afore-mentioned book of reference (NIGERIA LAWYERS DIRECTORY 2008) as duly qualified legal practitioners and in the years stated in Omitola’s List B.
It is clear that Omitola’s list B is certainly not credible, being so full of mistakes, which are clearly either deliberate or avoidable. In determining the true status of a legal practitioner and year of call, the best place for search and determination of these cannot be the website of the Nigerian Bar Association which talks only of membership of the association and which is only voluntary and there is no full and up to date record of Nigerian lawyers.
Therefore it is precipitate for any reasonable investigation to rely only on such a single and limited medium and come to any serious conclusion. From Omitola’s report only those who paid between 18th and 21st May 2010 were scrutinized.
According to Omitola, those were the set that excited his curiosity and suspicion. But how really credible is Omitola’s List A?
A single example shows that the list is far from being credible. On page 765 is one JONES KAYODE. This same Jones Kayode is a fake lawyer exposed by the Squib magazine in its Vol 10 Number 14 of 1st February 2010 edition.
Jones came to the Ikeja Bar in December 2009 to pay branch dues, even though not a legal practitioner. When it was detected that he was not a lawyer NBA Ikeja returned his money (#10,000 inclusive of insurance) to him and his name was over-ruled in the records.
Yet, Omitola still presented him to the world as a bona fide member of the Ikeja bar and eligible to vote.
However an even more curious fact is that there are some other lawyers and eligible to vote in the election that none of Omitola’s list featured. A good example is the name of Mr. Adindu Ugwuazor, (called 2001) the deputy head of the Gani Fawehinmi chambers. The lawyer paid his branch dues and was issued receipt for same yet he was not listed as a voter. The same fate befell Mercy Oseghale of the same Gani Fawehinmi Chambers.
From the chambers of Wemimi Ogunde and co, three counsel Miss Abisoye Ogunsipe, Miss Adaeze Nwachukwu and Mrs. Bowale Oshinowo did not feature on Omitola’s Lists. Yet they paid their branch dues and were issued receipts. Another victim is Abbas Similola. Yet another is Arith Essien of Tony Momoh & Co Chambers.
From all the above examples and which is not exhaustive, it is reasonable to contend that Leye Omitola’s list of qualified voters lacks substantial compliance with credibility.
Due to all the palpable errors in his lists those opposed to Leye Omitola and his group, the Niyi Akinmola Team, are accusing him of mischief and abusing his oath of office to give his side unfair electoral advantage by excluding known supporters of his opponents from casting their vote for the candidates of their choice.
However Omitola and his group are shouting that their opponents manly those of TEAM OMOLE, which boasts of mainstream Ikeja Bar men and women including Adebamigbe Omole, Dare Akande, Adesina Ogunlana, Adesina Adegbite, Carol Ibeh, Gloria Nweze, Abdullateef Abdulsalam have inserted names of fake lawyers into the membership of the Ikeja Bar.
At the meeting of the Electoral Committee with contestants which held on Friday 4th of June at the Bar Centre, Ikeja High Court, Omitola and his team aided by the leaders of the struggling-to-keep-awake DELE OLOKE TEAM, vociferously roared their opinions but with no proof that Team Omole or anybody else is involved in electoral list padding.
At the end of the day, the Electoral Committee directed that those on Omitola’s list B would be allowed to vote, if they show valid identification as legal practitioners.
But what of those that Mr. Omitola has refused to list at all as members of the Ikeja Bar or even as lawyers?
Friday, June 4, 2010
THE BATTLE OF TEAMS: WHO WILL WIN?
The administration of the Dave Akinyemi Ajetomobi-led Executive Committee of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, which began 30th June 2008, will all other things being equal, wind up on June 7 2010.
The big question agitating the minds of members of the most dynamic and best known branch of the NBA is: who are those that will replace the out-going executives?
The Executive Committee of the Tiger Bar comprises 14 persons, including 3 ex-officio members. Presently three posts have been filled with qualified and unopposed candidates. These are Mrs. Gloria Nweze (2nd Vice –Chairman), Mr. S. Omodara (Publicity Secretary) and Mr. Oluwaseyi Olawunmi (Social Secretary). Nobody is vying for Auditor, while the sole candidate for the post of Assistant General Secretary Aladekomo Esq. has been disqualified from the race by the Electoral Committee and declared ineligible to contest.
The posts open for contest are Chairman, 1st Vice-Chairman, General Secretary, Welfare Secretary, Financial Secretary and Treasurer.
For the office of chairman, there are three contestants: Dele Oloke, Niyi Akinmola and Adegbamigbe Omole. For the 1st Vice-Chairman post, there are also three contestants: Biyi Oguntuga, Terry Badmus Adeniji and Yinka Farounbi.
The contest for General Secretary involves three persons: Titi Osagie, Emmanuel Otobo and Adesina Ogunlana. For the post of Welfare Secretary, there are two contestants, Abdulhamid Ahmed and Abdullateef Abdulsalam. For Financial Secretary, Adesina Adegbite will slug it out with Maimuna Esegine.
A proper understanding of the contests show that, it is less of individual duels and more of group conflict. It is an open secret that none of the contestants is seeking office on an independent or personal platform, rather they are in three groups.
The first group which is also the oldest has the highest number of eight candidates, to wit Adegbamigbe Omole (Chairman), Yinka Farounbi (1st Vice-Chairman), Gloria Nweze (2nd Vice-Chairman), Adesina Ogunlana (General Secretary), Adesina Adegbite (Financial Secretary), Abdulsalam Abdullateef (Welfare Secretary), Carol Ibeh (Treasurer), Seyi Olawunmi (Social Secretary).
The second group is the youngest and has the lowest number of candidates – Niyi Akinmola (Chairman), Terry Adeniyi (1st Vice-Chairman), Emmanuel Otobo (General Secretary), Leye Omitola (Treasurer).
The third group has the second highest number of candidates, to wit Dele Oloke (Chairman), Biyi Oguntuga (1st Vice-Chairman), Titi Osagie (General Secretary), Maimuna Esegine (Financial Secretary), and Samson Omodara (P.R.O).
Even before the formal opening of the campaign, members of each of the teams have been meeting and spreading the political gospel of their various groups.
TEAM DELE OLOKE
A reading of the political tussle so far shows that the Dele Oloke Team will be lucky to have more than one member in the new government.
The greatest weakness of this group appears to be the adoption of Dele Oloke as its front-runner candidate. The choice of Oloke as its ‘chairmanship’ candidate is ironic and even strange.
This is because Oloke has been a political victim and prey of Niyi Idowu, the actual leader of the group, twice in the past. In 2004, Idowu roundly defeated Oloke to become the 1st Vice-Chairman of the Ikeja Bar and in 2006, again thoroughly humiliated Oloke at the polls to become the Chairman of the branch.
When he was repeatedly flogged by his now new found political ally and by implication godfather, Oloke cried blue murder and alleged that he lost the elections due to rigging. Idowu then was one of those Oloke dismissed as unsuccessful legal practitioners given to infantile radicalism and who survive by feeding off the bar. It would appear that the Niyi Idowu forces turned to Oloke and adopted him as their chairmanship candidate as there was nobody original to the group to present. Pundits had thought that Asade Abioye Beckley whom the group presented in 2008 for the chairmanship post would be re-presented. However this was not to be because of the reasonable apprehension of the group that the Beckley candidature would not fly this year too.
Yet the Niyi Idowu Group did not want to yield the chairmanship race to their rivals without contest because such a surrender would lower the political status of the group.
It is yet to be seen how the adoption of Oloke as the chairmanship candidate by the Niyi Idowu group can be of much help to Oloke.
First the adoption deals a blow to the vaunted claim of Oloke that he is a principled and consistent Bar politician, since he is now in political wedlock with the very people, (Niyi Idowu, Biyi Oguntuga and Beckley Abioye) that he had asserted most strenuously in the past, were part of a gallery of rogues who routinely rig Ikeja Bar elections and “eat” NBA Ikeja funds.
The question now for Oloke to answer is why a self-professed and principled man of integrity like him is in partnership with devils and rogues in the quest for power?
Secondly, the pillar of his new found support, Niyi Idowu and his deputy Beckley Abioye do not appear to have the clout to dislodge the influence of the behemoths of Team Omole or even match the capacity of Team Akinmola. When the duo was in power, they could not win elections for their group, so where have they now found the power to do otherwise?
Equally troubling is that, there is no certain stalwart in Dele Oloke’s subordinate standard bearers.
Take Biyi Oguntuga his 1st Vice-Chairman candidate. He is probably the least known in his category. An amiable, quiet but politically dour fellow, Oguntuga’s fame, if any shivers on the steeds of near anonymity.
As for Oloke’s preferred choice for General Secretary, Titi Osagie, the lady is largely another unknown and her candidacy does not appear to have added any appreciable bounce to Oloke’s chances. Observers believe that Osagie’s case fits that of the proverbial seed sown on a rocky place or cast among thorns. It would appear that her political directors love casting her in the role of a modern David who will take on Goliaths and vanquish them.
In 2008 she a then first timer, was pitted against a pillar of the political establishment of the Ikeja Bar, Isa Buhari for the post of General Secretary and deservedly lost. Now in 2010 she is pitted against an even bigger behemoth, Adesina Ogunlana.
The rest of the Oloke team to wit Maimuna Esegine, Abdulhamid Ahmed and Samson Omodara can only contribute so much to Oloke’s fortune.
In fact for Maimuna Esegine and Ahmed, the strength of opposition to their bids to become Financial Secretary and Welfare Secretary respectively is reflected not only in the quality of their political adversaries, Adesina Adegbite and Abdullateef Abdulsalam respectively, but also in the fact that both are from the formidable Omole team which has the real capacity of ensuring band wagon effect on the voting pattern. Possible help however may come to the duo of Esegine and Ahmed from Team Akinmola which is not fielding candidates for Financial Secretary and Welfare Secretary positions.
Thirdly and probably the most important factor is the Dele Oloke personae itself. In 2002, the personae did not sell in the Ikeja polls when he contested against Osahon Ihenyen for 1st Vice-Chairman and lost by one vote.
In 2004, against Niyi Idowu for 1st Vice-Chairman it did not fly. In 2006, against Niyi Idowu again for Chairman, it sank under water. In 2008, it couldn’t get a spot unlike Archimedes to stand as he was disqualified from the race for chairman. In 2010, can it take muster and catch fire?
Most pundits answer this question largely in the negative because the known Oloke political personae is not attractive and has not changed in any significant way from the past, which is projected to the public as temperamental, proud (boastful of wealth, influence, exposure and alleged malevolent metaphysical powers) and being extremely uncharitable to political opponents whom he haughtily dismisses as “jobless boys,” “unsuccessful legal practitioners,” and “election riggers.”
However Dele Oloke and his co-travellers are hoping for a reversal of fortunes for him this time around. This year he has put in much more mileage in his campaign than ever before and his supporters believe that sympathy votes may give him the crown.
TEAM AKINMOLA
Another team in contention is the Niyi Akinmola group. This group shares some characteristics with the Dele Oloke group. One, it is led by a break-away member of the mainstream progressive-political caucus of the Tiger Bar, in the person of Niyi Akinmola himself.
Just like Niyi Idowu the leader of the Dele Oloke group, he broke away in February 2008, after unresolved disagreement in the mainstream caucus over who should be its chairmanship candidate in the June 2008 elections.
Secondly, just like Team Oloke himself, Team Akinmola sees nothing good in the outgoing Dave Ajetomobi administration which it condemns as corrupt and non-performing.
The major political strategy of the Niyi Akinmola group in seeking power is (a) waging a campaign of calumny against the outgoing Dave Ajetomobi administration, labeling it as corrupt and with no achievement (b) introducing an ethnic agenda and demonizing the political establishment of the Ikeja Bar as anti non-Yoruba people, particularly Igbos and Mid-Westerners.
In prosecuting the first agenda, Niyi Akinmola, Terry Adeniji and Emmanuel Otobo are very active. A vicious and widespread whispering propaganda, high on speculations and abysmally low in substance spearheaded by the trio, has it that fantastic amounts of money (sometimes said to be 20 million naira, sometimes 30 million naira) have accrued to the Ikeja Bar from various sources and have been “chopped” by the incumbent chairman, Dave Ajetomobi and his cronies, all who now allegedly have acquired expensive jeeps and wear bow-ties as a display of their new found wealth.
This incredulous story is a reflection of not only the low political sagacity of the group but a mark of its desperation. If sheer desperation is enough to win political office, this group will come out tops.
Fortunately, this is not the case, more so since the desperation is not matched with effective vote-winning machinery which includes presenting credible and strong candidates and formulating attractive and plausible political programmes.
One huge problem of the Akinmola group is that it is a hastily scrambled up group of strange bed-fellows.
It appears that it was the stark reality that he could not reasonably go it alone, the way he attempted in 2008 to become chairman of the Ikeja Bar that apparently forced Akinmola into his late evening alliance with the trio of Emmanuel Otobo, Terry Adeniji and Leye Omitola; the first two who are particular malcontents in the out-going regime of Dave Ajetomobi and specially blessed with the talent for inventing tales, spreading baseless rumours and marketing poisonous political gossip against opponents.-
The snag is that these practitioners of TENUBOLE (amebo) politics and their leader Niyi Akinmola have no concrete proofs to back their claims of corruption and non-performance against the Dave Ajetomobi administration. This failure has diluted the potency of their smear campaigns and lowered their prestige and appeal considerably since lawyers are swayed by proofs and not by statement of claims.
The second aspect of the political maneuver is to attack the sponsors of the Omole Team as a political caucus that does not care much for members of the Ikeja Bar who are non-Yoruba and and exclude them from leadership participation in the Ikeja Bar.
However the group has no effective proofs to back this. To start with, it was the caucus of the Omole team, that provided the political muscle which ensured that Emmanuel, Otobo (Igbo) himself in 2008 did not have to face Miss Biola Oketoki (Yoruba) at the polls for Social Secretary position by ensuring her proper disqualification from the race.
Two, the Dave Ajetomobi administration sponsored by the same mainstream caucus sponsoring team Omole does not discriminate against any ethnic group or person. It is on record that the incumbent Treasurer Mrs. Gloria Nweze,a n Easterner was appointed into that post by the mainstream caucus, likewise Mr. Monday Ubani (another Easterner) was appointed the chairman of the prestigious Law Week Committee, while Mr. Kingsley Essien, Easterner, became the co-chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. Same goes for Okey Ogbu, Chairman of the Sports Committee.
Even now, it is the Omole Team that has more than one slot for non Yorubas in the Executive Committee. While Team Oloke only has Maimuna Esegine (Mid-Westerner) for Financial Secretary and Team Akinmola has Emmanuel Otobo (Igbo) for General Secretary. Team Omole is fielding the duo of Gloria Nweze (Igbo) (2nd Vice-Chairman and Carol Ibeh (Igbo) (Treasurer).
Another challenge for the Akinmola team is the credibility of their arrow-head. Akinmola professes to be a courageous and progressive bar man, with high level of integrity, but his past as an officer of the branch does not support this claim.
For example in 2005, whilst serving as the Financial Secretary, he was staunchly against the Ikeja Bar stand of boycotting and picketing the court of Magistrate Aje-Afunwa who had subjected Rotimi Komolafe, a legal practitioner, to the indignity of cutting grass because the lawyer’s phone rang out in court. When Akinmola’s secret lobby for “mercy” for his magistrate friend Aje-Afunwa failed, he prophesied loudly and wrongly too that “the Ikeja Bar would be disgraced at the end of the day for insisting on the discipline of this magistrate.”
Two years later when the Ikeja Bar sent a delegation led by Dare Akande to enquire from Chief Magistrate Adedayo why his honour was insisting that scores of ladies charged before her court for all sorts of simple offences should pay N20, 000.00 as bail bond security before the perfection of their bail, a panicky and troubled Niyi Akinmola called Akande aside to advise that “when we see the magistrate don’t let us raise the issue of payment of money o!”
The advice left Akande aghast. “But what were we sent to do then if we do not talk about the money?” was Akande’s query. As 2nd Vice-Chairman in the Niyi Idowu administration (2006 – 2008), Akinmola was given the responsibility of purchasing a functional generator for the branch. The eventual discharge of the task became a scandal since the supposedly brand new generator allegedly bought for the sum of one hundred and sixty thousand naira, started developing faults after barely two weeks of purchase.
At the end of the day, a probe panel was set up on Niyi Akinmola by the Executive Committee. The Committee found among other things from the dealer that Akinmola had insisted on having refurbished and re-assembled parts for the generator even when he was advised against it.
It may interest readers to know that the chairman of the panel that found Akinmola wanting was no other person than Mr. Terry Adeniji who is now running as Akinmola’s 1st Vice-Chairman and is fond of attacking other people’s integrity but who is now dumb and blind to Akinmola’s past transgression.
The generator in question packed up ingloriously and completely barely a year after installation, despite gulping a lot of money for fruitless repairs. This shameful situation earned Akinmola the sobriquet “Generator Officer” or “Mr. Generator.”
Akinmola’s preferred candidate for 1st Vice-Chairman Terry Adeniji may have agood showing but will find it hard to prevail over his rival in the Omole Team, to wit, Yinka Farounbi who is expected to benefit not only from his own influence but also the extensive network of his mainstream group.
As for Akinmola’s preferred choice for General Secretary, his chances of success at the polls appears even slimmer than that of his co-Goebbelist Terry Adeniji, since one of his two rivals is Adesina Ogunlana, whose electoral appeal seems very wide and appears to cut across all the three groups. In contrast, Otobo is so obscure that even Titi Osagie, the most junior of the trio at the Bar, is expected to do better than him.
If the Akinmola group will have any member in the new government, that luck could most probably go to Leye Omitola, the group’s preferred choice for Treasurer. The reason may lie in the fact that his singular opponent, Carol Ibeh is not too prominent, while he personally does not carry the general stain of his group of being mud rackers, bearers of false tales and touters of wild speculations against political opponents.
However the danger to his success at the polls are real. For one, his opponent is not Yoruba and so can benefit from the ethnic card politics, Omitola’s group is pushing.
Secondly Ibeh is a lady lawyer thus the Beijing Conference spirit may come to her aid at the polls – the “we should give women a chance to also lead” syndrome.
Thirdly, she is a proper Lagos girl and so is very much at home with the Yoruba whose language she fluently speaks unaccented and so can rake in votes from that ethnic majority.
Finally she is a member of the mainstream group, whose network influence will certainly provide succor for her.
TEAM OMOLE
From all indications, the team to beat in the 2010 election, is the Omole group, led by Oludare Akande, a.k.a Leader. Comprised of inveterate political thinkers, planners and fighters, the fulcrum of the group has produced in direct succession three administrations for the Ikeja Bar, the last being the outgoing Dave Ajetomobi administration (2008 – 2010).
The striking political sagacity of the group in winning elections is the careful choice and presentation of candidates to the electorate. The easy switch of Adebamigbe Omole as their eventual flag bearer for Chairman in place of the political supremo, Dare Akande their initial choice, while typical of the group’s sophistication and organizational discipline, caught the opposition unawares and left them floundering. The reason: Omole unlike his rivals, Niyi Akinmola and Oloke, is not in bed with any controversy and has a very clean political image. Yet Omole is not a green horn in Ikeja Bar politics. He was in year 2000, the Assistant General Secretary of the Ikeja Bar and between 2004 and 2006, he was the General Secretary in the acclaimed administration of Adekunle Ojo. Even his rivals concede that he is a gentleman and would have preferred to meet Dare Akande, the hardy political strongman in the field of engagement than the gentle, disarming Omole. So perplexed by the emergence of Omole as the chairmanship candidate of the Mainstream Group was the Akinmola’s “we-are-the-only-honest-joes-all-others-are-bad-coins” group that it resorted to claiming that Omole was brought up to do a cover-up job for the Dave Ajetomobi administration’s alleged embezzlement spree!
In deploying Adesina Ogunlana, perhaps its best known member to the influential but subordinate position of General Secretary, the mainstream group again showed class in political strategy. Many had expected Ogunlana to vie for Chairman, the most prime position in Tiger land but by going to the lower league of Secretaryship, his candidacy simply becomes overwhelming. He is there like a bull in a pen of goats and rams. The deployment of the publisher of the famous Squib magazine Secretaryship leaves the mainstream group in the best possible position to retain the crucial post in the family as their wont since 2004.
The big question agitating the minds of members of the most dynamic and best known branch of the NBA is: who are those that will replace the out-going executives?
The Executive Committee of the Tiger Bar comprises 14 persons, including 3 ex-officio members. Presently three posts have been filled with qualified and unopposed candidates. These are Mrs. Gloria Nweze (2nd Vice –Chairman), Mr. S. Omodara (Publicity Secretary) and Mr. Oluwaseyi Olawunmi (Social Secretary). Nobody is vying for Auditor, while the sole candidate for the post of Assistant General Secretary Aladekomo Esq. has been disqualified from the race by the Electoral Committee and declared ineligible to contest.
The posts open for contest are Chairman, 1st Vice-Chairman, General Secretary, Welfare Secretary, Financial Secretary and Treasurer.
For the office of chairman, there are three contestants: Dele Oloke, Niyi Akinmola and Adegbamigbe Omole. For the 1st Vice-Chairman post, there are also three contestants: Biyi Oguntuga, Terry Badmus Adeniji and Yinka Farounbi.
The contest for General Secretary involves three persons: Titi Osagie, Emmanuel Otobo and Adesina Ogunlana. For the post of Welfare Secretary, there are two contestants, Abdulhamid Ahmed and Abdullateef Abdulsalam. For Financial Secretary, Adesina Adegbite will slug it out with Maimuna Esegine.
A proper understanding of the contests show that, it is less of individual duels and more of group conflict. It is an open secret that none of the contestants is seeking office on an independent or personal platform, rather they are in three groups.
The first group which is also the oldest has the highest number of eight candidates, to wit Adegbamigbe Omole (Chairman), Yinka Farounbi (1st Vice-Chairman), Gloria Nweze (2nd Vice-Chairman), Adesina Ogunlana (General Secretary), Adesina Adegbite (Financial Secretary), Abdulsalam Abdullateef (Welfare Secretary), Carol Ibeh (Treasurer), Seyi Olawunmi (Social Secretary).
The second group is the youngest and has the lowest number of candidates – Niyi Akinmola (Chairman), Terry Adeniyi (1st Vice-Chairman), Emmanuel Otobo (General Secretary), Leye Omitola (Treasurer).
The third group has the second highest number of candidates, to wit Dele Oloke (Chairman), Biyi Oguntuga (1st Vice-Chairman), Titi Osagie (General Secretary), Maimuna Esegine (Financial Secretary), and Samson Omodara (P.R.O).
Even before the formal opening of the campaign, members of each of the teams have been meeting and spreading the political gospel of their various groups.
TEAM DELE OLOKE
A reading of the political tussle so far shows that the Dele Oloke Team will be lucky to have more than one member in the new government.
The greatest weakness of this group appears to be the adoption of Dele Oloke as its front-runner candidate. The choice of Oloke as its ‘chairmanship’ candidate is ironic and even strange.
This is because Oloke has been a political victim and prey of Niyi Idowu, the actual leader of the group, twice in the past. In 2004, Idowu roundly defeated Oloke to become the 1st Vice-Chairman of the Ikeja Bar and in 2006, again thoroughly humiliated Oloke at the polls to become the Chairman of the branch.
When he was repeatedly flogged by his now new found political ally and by implication godfather, Oloke cried blue murder and alleged that he lost the elections due to rigging. Idowu then was one of those Oloke dismissed as unsuccessful legal practitioners given to infantile radicalism and who survive by feeding off the bar. It would appear that the Niyi Idowu forces turned to Oloke and adopted him as their chairmanship candidate as there was nobody original to the group to present. Pundits had thought that Asade Abioye Beckley whom the group presented in 2008 for the chairmanship post would be re-presented. However this was not to be because of the reasonable apprehension of the group that the Beckley candidature would not fly this year too.
Yet the Niyi Idowu Group did not want to yield the chairmanship race to their rivals without contest because such a surrender would lower the political status of the group.
It is yet to be seen how the adoption of Oloke as the chairmanship candidate by the Niyi Idowu group can be of much help to Oloke.
First the adoption deals a blow to the vaunted claim of Oloke that he is a principled and consistent Bar politician, since he is now in political wedlock with the very people, (Niyi Idowu, Biyi Oguntuga and Beckley Abioye) that he had asserted most strenuously in the past, were part of a gallery of rogues who routinely rig Ikeja Bar elections and “eat” NBA Ikeja funds.
The question now for Oloke to answer is why a self-professed and principled man of integrity like him is in partnership with devils and rogues in the quest for power?
Secondly, the pillar of his new found support, Niyi Idowu and his deputy Beckley Abioye do not appear to have the clout to dislodge the influence of the behemoths of Team Omole or even match the capacity of Team Akinmola. When the duo was in power, they could not win elections for their group, so where have they now found the power to do otherwise?
Equally troubling is that, there is no certain stalwart in Dele Oloke’s subordinate standard bearers.
Take Biyi Oguntuga his 1st Vice-Chairman candidate. He is probably the least known in his category. An amiable, quiet but politically dour fellow, Oguntuga’s fame, if any shivers on the steeds of near anonymity.
As for Oloke’s preferred choice for General Secretary, Titi Osagie, the lady is largely another unknown and her candidacy does not appear to have added any appreciable bounce to Oloke’s chances. Observers believe that Osagie’s case fits that of the proverbial seed sown on a rocky place or cast among thorns. It would appear that her political directors love casting her in the role of a modern David who will take on Goliaths and vanquish them.
In 2008 she a then first timer, was pitted against a pillar of the political establishment of the Ikeja Bar, Isa Buhari for the post of General Secretary and deservedly lost. Now in 2010 she is pitted against an even bigger behemoth, Adesina Ogunlana.
The rest of the Oloke team to wit Maimuna Esegine, Abdulhamid Ahmed and Samson Omodara can only contribute so much to Oloke’s fortune.
In fact for Maimuna Esegine and Ahmed, the strength of opposition to their bids to become Financial Secretary and Welfare Secretary respectively is reflected not only in the quality of their political adversaries, Adesina Adegbite and Abdullateef Abdulsalam respectively, but also in the fact that both are from the formidable Omole team which has the real capacity of ensuring band wagon effect on the voting pattern. Possible help however may come to the duo of Esegine and Ahmed from Team Akinmola which is not fielding candidates for Financial Secretary and Welfare Secretary positions.
Thirdly and probably the most important factor is the Dele Oloke personae itself. In 2002, the personae did not sell in the Ikeja polls when he contested against Osahon Ihenyen for 1st Vice-Chairman and lost by one vote.
In 2004, against Niyi Idowu for 1st Vice-Chairman it did not fly. In 2006, against Niyi Idowu again for Chairman, it sank under water. In 2008, it couldn’t get a spot unlike Archimedes to stand as he was disqualified from the race for chairman. In 2010, can it take muster and catch fire?
Most pundits answer this question largely in the negative because the known Oloke political personae is not attractive and has not changed in any significant way from the past, which is projected to the public as temperamental, proud (boastful of wealth, influence, exposure and alleged malevolent metaphysical powers) and being extremely uncharitable to political opponents whom he haughtily dismisses as “jobless boys,” “unsuccessful legal practitioners,” and “election riggers.”
However Dele Oloke and his co-travellers are hoping for a reversal of fortunes for him this time around. This year he has put in much more mileage in his campaign than ever before and his supporters believe that sympathy votes may give him the crown.
TEAM AKINMOLA
Another team in contention is the Niyi Akinmola group. This group shares some characteristics with the Dele Oloke group. One, it is led by a break-away member of the mainstream progressive-political caucus of the Tiger Bar, in the person of Niyi Akinmola himself.
Just like Niyi Idowu the leader of the Dele Oloke group, he broke away in February 2008, after unresolved disagreement in the mainstream caucus over who should be its chairmanship candidate in the June 2008 elections.
Secondly, just like Team Oloke himself, Team Akinmola sees nothing good in the outgoing Dave Ajetomobi administration which it condemns as corrupt and non-performing.
The major political strategy of the Niyi Akinmola group in seeking power is (a) waging a campaign of calumny against the outgoing Dave Ajetomobi administration, labeling it as corrupt and with no achievement (b) introducing an ethnic agenda and demonizing the political establishment of the Ikeja Bar as anti non-Yoruba people, particularly Igbos and Mid-Westerners.
In prosecuting the first agenda, Niyi Akinmola, Terry Adeniji and Emmanuel Otobo are very active. A vicious and widespread whispering propaganda, high on speculations and abysmally low in substance spearheaded by the trio, has it that fantastic amounts of money (sometimes said to be 20 million naira, sometimes 30 million naira) have accrued to the Ikeja Bar from various sources and have been “chopped” by the incumbent chairman, Dave Ajetomobi and his cronies, all who now allegedly have acquired expensive jeeps and wear bow-ties as a display of their new found wealth.
This incredulous story is a reflection of not only the low political sagacity of the group but a mark of its desperation. If sheer desperation is enough to win political office, this group will come out tops.
Fortunately, this is not the case, more so since the desperation is not matched with effective vote-winning machinery which includes presenting credible and strong candidates and formulating attractive and plausible political programmes.
One huge problem of the Akinmola group is that it is a hastily scrambled up group of strange bed-fellows.
It appears that it was the stark reality that he could not reasonably go it alone, the way he attempted in 2008 to become chairman of the Ikeja Bar that apparently forced Akinmola into his late evening alliance with the trio of Emmanuel Otobo, Terry Adeniji and Leye Omitola; the first two who are particular malcontents in the out-going regime of Dave Ajetomobi and specially blessed with the talent for inventing tales, spreading baseless rumours and marketing poisonous political gossip against opponents.-
The snag is that these practitioners of TENUBOLE (amebo) politics and their leader Niyi Akinmola have no concrete proofs to back their claims of corruption and non-performance against the Dave Ajetomobi administration. This failure has diluted the potency of their smear campaigns and lowered their prestige and appeal considerably since lawyers are swayed by proofs and not by statement of claims.
The second aspect of the political maneuver is to attack the sponsors of the Omole Team as a political caucus that does not care much for members of the Ikeja Bar who are non-Yoruba and and exclude them from leadership participation in the Ikeja Bar.
However the group has no effective proofs to back this. To start with, it was the caucus of the Omole team, that provided the political muscle which ensured that Emmanuel, Otobo (Igbo) himself in 2008 did not have to face Miss Biola Oketoki (Yoruba) at the polls for Social Secretary position by ensuring her proper disqualification from the race.
Two, the Dave Ajetomobi administration sponsored by the same mainstream caucus sponsoring team Omole does not discriminate against any ethnic group or person. It is on record that the incumbent Treasurer Mrs. Gloria Nweze,a n Easterner was appointed into that post by the mainstream caucus, likewise Mr. Monday Ubani (another Easterner) was appointed the chairman of the prestigious Law Week Committee, while Mr. Kingsley Essien, Easterner, became the co-chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. Same goes for Okey Ogbu, Chairman of the Sports Committee.
Even now, it is the Omole Team that has more than one slot for non Yorubas in the Executive Committee. While Team Oloke only has Maimuna Esegine (Mid-Westerner) for Financial Secretary and Team Akinmola has Emmanuel Otobo (Igbo) for General Secretary. Team Omole is fielding the duo of Gloria Nweze (Igbo) (2nd Vice-Chairman and Carol Ibeh (Igbo) (Treasurer).
Another challenge for the Akinmola team is the credibility of their arrow-head. Akinmola professes to be a courageous and progressive bar man, with high level of integrity, but his past as an officer of the branch does not support this claim.
For example in 2005, whilst serving as the Financial Secretary, he was staunchly against the Ikeja Bar stand of boycotting and picketing the court of Magistrate Aje-Afunwa who had subjected Rotimi Komolafe, a legal practitioner, to the indignity of cutting grass because the lawyer’s phone rang out in court. When Akinmola’s secret lobby for “mercy” for his magistrate friend Aje-Afunwa failed, he prophesied loudly and wrongly too that “the Ikeja Bar would be disgraced at the end of the day for insisting on the discipline of this magistrate.”
Two years later when the Ikeja Bar sent a delegation led by Dare Akande to enquire from Chief Magistrate Adedayo why his honour was insisting that scores of ladies charged before her court for all sorts of simple offences should pay N20, 000.00 as bail bond security before the perfection of their bail, a panicky and troubled Niyi Akinmola called Akande aside to advise that “when we see the magistrate don’t let us raise the issue of payment of money o!”
The advice left Akande aghast. “But what were we sent to do then if we do not talk about the money?” was Akande’s query. As 2nd Vice-Chairman in the Niyi Idowu administration (2006 – 2008), Akinmola was given the responsibility of purchasing a functional generator for the branch. The eventual discharge of the task became a scandal since the supposedly brand new generator allegedly bought for the sum of one hundred and sixty thousand naira, started developing faults after barely two weeks of purchase.
At the end of the day, a probe panel was set up on Niyi Akinmola by the Executive Committee. The Committee found among other things from the dealer that Akinmola had insisted on having refurbished and re-assembled parts for the generator even when he was advised against it.
It may interest readers to know that the chairman of the panel that found Akinmola wanting was no other person than Mr. Terry Adeniji who is now running as Akinmola’s 1st Vice-Chairman and is fond of attacking other people’s integrity but who is now dumb and blind to Akinmola’s past transgression.
The generator in question packed up ingloriously and completely barely a year after installation, despite gulping a lot of money for fruitless repairs. This shameful situation earned Akinmola the sobriquet “Generator Officer” or “Mr. Generator.”
Akinmola’s preferred candidate for 1st Vice-Chairman Terry Adeniji may have agood showing but will find it hard to prevail over his rival in the Omole Team, to wit, Yinka Farounbi who is expected to benefit not only from his own influence but also the extensive network of his mainstream group.
As for Akinmola’s preferred choice for General Secretary, his chances of success at the polls appears even slimmer than that of his co-Goebbelist Terry Adeniji, since one of his two rivals is Adesina Ogunlana, whose electoral appeal seems very wide and appears to cut across all the three groups. In contrast, Otobo is so obscure that even Titi Osagie, the most junior of the trio at the Bar, is expected to do better than him.
If the Akinmola group will have any member in the new government, that luck could most probably go to Leye Omitola, the group’s preferred choice for Treasurer. The reason may lie in the fact that his singular opponent, Carol Ibeh is not too prominent, while he personally does not carry the general stain of his group of being mud rackers, bearers of false tales and touters of wild speculations against political opponents.
However the danger to his success at the polls are real. For one, his opponent is not Yoruba and so can benefit from the ethnic card politics, Omitola’s group is pushing.
Secondly Ibeh is a lady lawyer thus the Beijing Conference spirit may come to her aid at the polls – the “we should give women a chance to also lead” syndrome.
Thirdly, she is a proper Lagos girl and so is very much at home with the Yoruba whose language she fluently speaks unaccented and so can rake in votes from that ethnic majority.
Finally she is a member of the mainstream group, whose network influence will certainly provide succor for her.
TEAM OMOLE
From all indications, the team to beat in the 2010 election, is the Omole group, led by Oludare Akande, a.k.a Leader. Comprised of inveterate political thinkers, planners and fighters, the fulcrum of the group has produced in direct succession three administrations for the Ikeja Bar, the last being the outgoing Dave Ajetomobi administration (2008 – 2010).
The striking political sagacity of the group in winning elections is the careful choice and presentation of candidates to the electorate. The easy switch of Adebamigbe Omole as their eventual flag bearer for Chairman in place of the political supremo, Dare Akande their initial choice, while typical of the group’s sophistication and organizational discipline, caught the opposition unawares and left them floundering. The reason: Omole unlike his rivals, Niyi Akinmola and Oloke, is not in bed with any controversy and has a very clean political image. Yet Omole is not a green horn in Ikeja Bar politics. He was in year 2000, the Assistant General Secretary of the Ikeja Bar and between 2004 and 2006, he was the General Secretary in the acclaimed administration of Adekunle Ojo. Even his rivals concede that he is a gentleman and would have preferred to meet Dare Akande, the hardy political strongman in the field of engagement than the gentle, disarming Omole. So perplexed by the emergence of Omole as the chairmanship candidate of the Mainstream Group was the Akinmola’s “we-are-the-only-honest-joes-all-others-are-bad-coins” group that it resorted to claiming that Omole was brought up to do a cover-up job for the Dave Ajetomobi administration’s alleged embezzlement spree!
In deploying Adesina Ogunlana, perhaps its best known member to the influential but subordinate position of General Secretary, the mainstream group again showed class in political strategy. Many had expected Ogunlana to vie for Chairman, the most prime position in Tiger land but by going to the lower league of Secretaryship, his candidacy simply becomes overwhelming. He is there like a bull in a pen of goats and rams. The deployment of the publisher of the famous Squib magazine Secretaryship leaves the mainstream group in the best possible position to retain the crucial post in the family as their wont since 2004.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
MY TEAM AND I HAVE DONE OUR BEST FOR THE BAR...DAVE AJETOMOBI ESQ.
Until he became the chairman of the most potent branch of the Nigerian Bar Association in 2008, Dave Ajetomobi Esq., a 1990 graduate of the Nigerian Law School, was not a very well known figure in the legal community. And there were doubts in some quarters about his capacity to creditably lead the great Ikeja Bar, that had shone like a million stars four years earlier under the chairmanship of Adekunle Ojo Esq.Now two years later, only few critical observers of theBar would disagree on the point that Ajetomobi has provided such great leadership to the Tiger Bar that her present mark in the horizon had hitherto not been reached.
If the Adekunle Ojo years (2004-2006) in the life of the Ikeja Bar was a golden era, could the times of the Dave Ajetomobi leadership (2008-2010) not be hailed as the ‘diamond years?’
SQUIB: Your branch the NBA Ikeja is popularly known as the ‘Tiger Bar;’ why the appellation ‘Tiger?’ some say it is an unsavoury cognomen, what’s your view?
AJETOMOBI: We are called Tigers because of our forthrightness, dynamism and promptitude in reacting positively to issues. We are not called Tigers because of any unreasonable aggression or any destructive tendency but because you can count on us to be bold, intrepid and principled in our stands.
Our branch from the onset, is a natural habitat for Bar activism and national patriotism. Little wonder it was home to late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the one-man army against military dictatorship and oppression. It is home to the likes of Femi Falana, Bamidele Aturu, etc. and it is only in a branch like Ikeja, that a magazine like yours (the Squib) could have been born.
SQUIB: As the leaderof the bar in Lagos State, kindly appraise the judiciary in Nigeria and Lagos in particular?
AJETOMOBI: Our courts have intervened on some occasions at critical points to save the country from tragic consequences. However by and large the judiciary has performed below expectation. There have been strange judgements, contradictory judgementsw and the situation is now pathetic in the Court of Appeal. The various divisions of the court give conflicting decisions on the same issues of law.
Also none of the cases of corruption against high officials of state like governors, ministers, legislators, have taken off at all after arraignment n the Federal High Courts; except in few cases where charges are struck off like Ibori or where ridiculous plea bargains have been entered.
Cases against ex-governors Fayose, Orji Uzor Kalu and Nnamani have not taken off at all. On the other hand a court has given perpetual injunction against the EFCC not to move against Peter Odili, former governor of Rivers State.
The only possible exception is the Olabode George case, where the defendants received speedy trial and judgement and are currently serving their terms. Another disheartening development is what obtains at the Federal High Court when drug barons and couriers are given light sentences in the name of plea bargain. Everybody would remember the case of the actress caught with cocaine at the airport a few years ago and given a slap-on-the-wrist judgement.
The Lagos State Judiciary comparatively has done well. However there have been several complaints from members of the Bar that in Lagos courts, the phrase ‘definite hearing’ actually means ‘adjournment sine die’ due to the attitude of some of our judges of not diligently tackling cases.
For example there are some cases which have been at the pre-trial stage for 2, 3 even 4 years contrary to the provisions of the 2004 Civil Procedure Rules. One major issue that affects the judiciary in Nigeria is that of appointment. Many times, those appointed are those who ought not to be appointed at all. These are people appointed due to family connection.
How do you explain for example a situation where you file a FHR matter before a high court and at any hearing of the matter, the court treats the applicant like an accused person and orders him into the dock, because according to the judge, her court is of the criminal division and all who appear before her are accused persons!
If high court judges are like this you can imagine the caliber of many magistrates. Many of the magistrates appear to be against the ideas and ideals of freedom, thus giving harsh and virtually impossible conditions of bail to accused persons.
Many departments in the judiciary here in Lagos: Sherriff, Probate, Registries are manned by disgruntled staff prone to bribery and extortion, thus hampering the smooth running of the institution. As a Bar we have reported the situation to the Chief Judge. The Chief Judge has adopted an open door policy with us in Ikeja and we find it much easier than in the past to work with the leadership of the judiciary.
Yet a lot still has to be done. Even there is labour unrest in the judiciary. First it was judiciary workers, the non-lawyer cadres that have been going on strikes. Now the magistrates too are toeing that line. This is not good for the image of the judiciary for it portrays it as an unstable and consequently ineffective sector.
SQUIB: You became the chairman of NBA Ikeja two years ago and your term will end in three weeks time; please describe your experience in power.
AJETOMOBI: It has been a wonderful experience. I want to point out that our tenure is the shortest. We took over in the last week of June 2008 and we shall be relinquishing the position in the first week of June 2010. However, the achievements are not measured by how long but how well. I can say with the help of the almighty God and the support of our members, we have achieved unprecedented success. Firstly, we were able to put in place a group life insurance scheme for our members who are required to contribute only five thousand naira per year as premium. And in the case of death or permanent incapacitation, the insured or the next of kin is entitled to one million naira from the insurance company. In case of accident, the insured will be given one thousand naira for treatment. The scheme has been on since 2006, with less than five members participating. But under this administration we have 200 members, participating in this scheme.
Under my watch the Ikeja branch led other branches to bid for and host the 2009 Annual Bar Conference successfully. The Lagos Conference is the most successful in recent times. The last conference which was held in 2008 in Abuja under President Olisa Agbakoba S.A.N ended with fifty million naira debt. That conference was an unmitigated disaster while the Lagos Conference ended with 75 million naira profit and it was a huge success. The LOC was pioneered and peopled mainly by the Ikeja Branch. On employment of junior lawyers, we were able to create an employment bureau under the office of the Welfare Secretary who donated a page in the Squib magazine for the listing of unemployed junior lawyers thus creating a pool of willing employees for the attention of potential employers. Also the Fawehinmiism programme took a turn for the better under this administration in terms of the quality of personalities invited as guest speakers. In 2009, we had Professor Dora Akunyili as the guest speaker while in 2010 we had the governor of Edo State, the person of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
The quality of law week programmes and membership participation increase greatly in my regime. In the 2009 law week we enjoyed the participation of Governor Babatunde Fashola and Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji the Honourable Speaker Lagos House of Assembly and some slate commissioners. In 2010, the annual law dinner was attended by the governor of Rivers State, the representatives of Lagos and Kwara State governors, two former governors (Donald Duke and Orji Uzor Kalu) among other dignitaries. Also as part of 2010 law week, we introduce the Alao Aka Bashorun lecture series in honour of the late president of the NBA Mr. Alao Aka Bashorun who did so much for the Bar and the country. Another special feature of 2010 law week programme, is the book launch in honour of the governor of Lagos State. I must say that during my tenure, we enjoy excellent relationship with the Lagos State judiciary under the leadership of lion. Justice Inumidun Akande. We also enjoy a very cordial relationship with the executive under the leadership of Governor Fashola and also with the legislature under Honourable Adeyemi Ikuforiji. In the past two years, we have entrenched the NBA Ikeja in the consciousness of Nigerian lawyers as well as the government and people of this country. Thus, during the 2008 national election of the bar, my administration propelled the victory of Adekunle Ojo our former chairman, against all odds, as the 2nd vice president of National NBA, the highest position ever attained by any member of NBA Ikeja branch.
Also, we afforded members opportunity to serve the bar regardless of the part of the country they come from, as long as they have something to offer the Bar. Yet another of our achievements was the fact that the last strike of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria Lagos State chapter was called off in January 2009 as a result of the intervention of the NBA Ikeja branch. When we came to office, our secretariat was still half wood, half block bungalow which we have been using for more than twenty years, we quickly inaugurated the Kemi Pinhero (S.A.N) Building Committee with the mandate to build a befitting secretariat for the branch.
Though, there was some initial delay as a result of some unfulfilled promises from some commercial bank to assist in the project. As at today, work is progressing seriously on the site. And the Lagos State Government has signaled her interest in assisting. We have had meetings with officials of the state government to discuss the modalities. For this, we are grateful the Governor of Lagos State, the honourable Attorney General Mr. Supo Shasore S.A.N. as well as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice Lagos State and Solicitor General Mr. Lawal Pedro S.A.N. In the past two years, we have been very vocal on sensitive national issues. This has made an authoritative voice in national affairs. We have also put in place, laptop acquisition scheme whereby our members will pick a laptop of their choice and pay over a period of twelve months. We have also ensured that we participate in the social functions of our members as much as possible, whether within or outside Lagos. Also, as a result of our cordial relationship with the judiciary, the Honourable Chief Judge obliged us the use of our present temporary secretariat within the Ikeja High Court Complex which has saved us the cost and inconvenience of renting a place for our meetings and other activites.
SQUIB: I must say that the list of the achievements of your administration appears quite intimidating but there are critics who are not impressed at all with your regime. Some of these critics say that your administration is tribalistic, discriminatory and even corrupt. There claims is that your regime has raised more than fifty million, which has been diverted into private pockets of some of your exco members. What is your reaction?
AJETOMOBI: My reaction is that it is natural for small minded people to be envious of great achievements and will say or do anything to rubbish it. Let me address the issue of tribalism. When we were elected, the cabinet was not full so we co opted six members into the executive committee. Out of these six, three were south westerners-Adesina Ogunlana, Tutu Adebayo and Akinjide Bakare. The other three are Mrs. Gloria Nweze, .Mrs Joy Nwadike and Shehu Gado. -Nweze and Nwadike are from the South eastern Nigeria while Gado is from the North.
Of course it is open knowledge that the chairman of the Law Week Committee for our two years, Mr. Monday Ubani is not Yoruba. Also the Co-chairman of the Disciplinary Committee Mr. Kingsley Essien is not Yoruba. What of Mr. Okey Ogbu chairman of the sports committee? Accusing me of tribalism is funny. My wife is a south easterner.
So those who are going about saying we are tribalists arc merely out for mischief. So there is no basis for the allegation of discrimination and tribalism. My administration encourages any of our members irrespective of tribe, sex or religion to serve. On the issue of allegation of corruption, I even heard that members of exco have bought new jeeps and we are now using bowties as a symbol of our new found affluence. What silly talk and blatant lies! The truth is that our funds are intact and nobody has tampered with it. My office in Ikeja got burnt in 2008 while I was on NBA assignment outside Lagos. I could not afford a new office in Ikeja, so I moved to Shomolu where I can afford an office because I have to replace everything that got burnt in the office so if I have been using NBA money for personal needs, I would have been able to secure an office in Ikeja. I am still using my old Mercedes Benz car which one of my co-contestants then in 2008 dismissed contemptuously as a jalopy that was worth nothing more than 150 thousand naira. These funny critics are fond of telling false stories so as to lead members astray.
When Adekunle Ojo finished his term in 2006 this same set of people started the false stories that he used NBA money to vehicles for himself and junior counsel. They are still the ones going about now saying that after the 2009 conference of the NBA that the national body gave Ikeja Bar twenty million naira!
The truth is that what the national body gave was 20% of the 75million naira profit of the 2009 conference to the three branches of the bar in Lagos State which co-hosted the very successful conference. Of course that meant 15 million naira for Ikorodu, Lagos and Ikeja Bars. So we here in Ikeja only got five million naira and this has been announced to the general house.
So where did our friends get their twenty million naira figure from. Even more ridiculous is their new claim that we have sunk thirty million naira into the new Bar center project. What a huge lie! They should please tell the world where this thirty million naira came from.
Happily 1 am not bothered about all the smear campaigns. Our detractors are simply envious of our achievements. However, envy and malice never take away the sweetness of honey. Say whatever they like, our people know that, by the grace of God, my administration has greatly lifted our Bar beyond the mark we met it.
In 2008, during the election their campaign was that we were mere boys suffering from infantile radicalism, if not outright juvenile delinquency. They claimed they were the mature ones, the ones with right ideas and exposure and that we could never lead the Bar well. But how wrong to the glory of God we have proved them.
SQUIB: When General Ibrahim Babangida was military president of Nigeria he said while he did not know who would succeed him, he knew those who would not. Regarding the June 7 2010 election in your branch, are you of the Babangida persuasion?
AJETOMOBI: I am not like that at all. Why should any man play God? Of course I am interested in having a successor who would keep the flag of the Ikeja Bar flying higher still, but it goes no further than that. It is only the electorate that can decide who my successor in office will be.
We have set up an Electoral Committee made-up of three credible members of the branch who arc already at work. Personally I have no concern at all that the election will be anything less than free and fair. I wish all the contestants the very best of luck. The world is a stage, I have done my part, to the best of my abilities and now is the time to go.
TIGERS' GREAT WEEK OF FUN, LAW AND SERVICE
From 23rd April 2010 to 2nd May 2010, the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association involved its members in a welter of stimulating and renewing activities, in the celebration of her Annual Law Week Programme.The hugely successful programme which spanned eight days drew the participation of the heads of all the arms of government of Lagos State and eminent Nigerians.
The great promise of successs manifested from the very first day of the week, being Friday 23rd April 2010. The event of the day was the press conference about the Law Week which took place at the Temporary Bar Centre of the Tigers in the premises of the Ikeja High Court. The Bar Center was over-filled with legal practitioners and journalists at the occasion.
On Monday 26th April 2010, the turn-out of members of the branch for the prison visit was impressive and in actual fact, unprecedented. Those who participated in the visit to the Medium Security Prison Kirikiri, in companyof the Honourable Chief Judge of the state Inumidun Akande J. could not be less than eighty in number.
The Honourable Chief Judge, graciously released nineteen of theinmates, adjudged to be deserving of his lordship’s clemency in the course of the visit.
One of the lucky inmates moved the assembly of lawyers to tears, when upon hearing the pronouncement of his release, he showed his gratitude by an unabashed fulllenght prostration on the floor the honourable Chief Judge. The young man had been in detention for more than a year over a manslaughter case.
During the visit, the women lawyer group. Know as F.I.D.A donated some gift items, to the prison inmates.
On Tuesday 27th April 2010, the Tigers gathered in even greater numbers a the RENAISSANCE HOTEL, ALAUSA IKEJA for the launching of a book commissioned by their branch in honour of the Governor of Lagos State Barrister Babatunde Raji Fashola S.A.N.
The event kicked off about seventy five minutes after schedule, even though government sources disclosed that the honouree, Governor Fashola S.A.N was ready to be at the venue for 10.00 am prompt as scheduled but had to tarry so as not to meet an empty hall.
Also the chairman of the occasion, Mr. Justice George Oguntade until recently of the Supreme Court of Nigeria did not turn up. However a good replacement was found in the person of Chief Omolade Okoya-Thomas, the well known business guru and who holds the important title of the Asoju Oba of Lagos.
Chief Omolade Okoya-Thomas so adroitly presided over the programme wihin minute of being saddled with the responsibility of being the chairman of the occasion that the Master of Ceremony wasted no time in promoting him from ‘Acting Chairman’ to ‘Chairman.’
Other dignitaries who came for the programme included Mrs. Aka-Bashorun, the widow of NBA’s most famous president, Alao Aka-Bashorun, some Lagos State commissioners like Mr. Muiz Banire, Mr. Supo Shasore SAN, honourble Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Lagos State, some chairmen of Local Government in the state and Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey, former Solicitor-General, Lagos State and later Commissioner for Lands.
The review of the book edited by Dave Ajetomobi Esq., containing 40 papers was done by Mr. Arthur-Worrey. The cover price of the book is N10,000 per copy. Mid-way into the programme, His Excellency the Governor arrived and more excitement gripped the hall. His short, stimulating speech in which he described politics as a decent game, was well received.
The book launch was expertly handled by Chief Omolade Thomas and his exertions were not in vain as close to seven million naira in pledges and donations were realized by the Tigers at the occasion.
JUDGE FIGHTS JUDGE OVER CHAMBER USE
The tranquility, if not the peace of a section of the Lagos High Court Igbosere was rattled recently, when two of the titans os the Administration of Justice in Lagos State clashed over space.While the face-off lasted, hot, ,blinding sparks flew and lesser mortals dived for cover. It was a case of Egun k’egun,
Egun pade Igunnu (the clash of two well matched heavyweights).
The dramatis persona, were no less than two of our distinguished judges, M.O. Dada and Oke-Lawal J. Their quarrel was triggered off in the bid to comply with the directive of the Chief Judge of the state, Inumidun Akande J. that all judges must resume ;in their new offices (chambers & courts) latest by 12th April 2010.
As it happened, Honourable Justice Dada formerly of the Ikeja High Court, came on Friday 9th April prepared to occupy the chambers of his lordship’s learned brother, Oke-Lawal J. whom she was replacing.
However Justice Oke-Lawal was not around, but her court registrars were available. Dada J now enquired from the registrars about her brother’s chambers only to find out that the place was under lock and key and the keys were not in the possession of the registrars.
This situation according to our geckos, was not found palatable by Dada J. The honourable judge after wondering rhetorically whether the chamber in question was her brother’s private office, organized the services of offensive carpentary against thedoor of the chambers in question; much to the speechless shock and consternation of Justice Oke-Lawal’s registrars.
However a more gape-inducing event would take place. When the door of Justice Oke-Lawal’s chamber yielded to pressure and surrendered its horizontal integrity and lay humbled on the floor, a fast acting Justice Dada ordered the immediate evacuation of her brother’s office contents to the corridor.
The order was promptly obeyed. About then, Justice Oke-Lawal arrived the scene and with her very judicial eyes saw the assorted heap of her assorted office chattels in the corridor.
Feeling very embarrassed and humiliated, the displaced judge took up her displacer and that was when the guns almost literally started to boom from both sides.
The exchanges were so hot and rancorous that the invisible cover of one of our wall perching geckos was almost blown, as the gecko almost fell down in utter shock ,from seeing two gods slugging it out with the aid of weaponry on their buccal cavities.
We would not care to report the expletives that the two jurists flung at each other beyond observing that those expletives were the type that the ground squirrel heard in the olden days and went deaf.
While the combat lasted, registrars of the two judges formed a protective cordon round the theatre of confrontation to prevent innocent members of the public from stumbling upon the impressive encounter.
SQUIB PROFESSOR OF LAW TACKLES SILKS
Some months ago, the legal community was jolted by the news that a Lagos High Court judge had convicted and sentenced an “old lawyer,” Adebayo Jegede for contempt of court.Further newspaper reports had it that Olusola Williams J., the honourable trial judge invited two Senior Advocates of Nigeria who were present in court to make some comments before the axe fell on Jegede, but that the silks, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan Esq., S.A.N and Chief Bayo Ayorinde Esq.,S.A.N declined any response.
The ‘say nothing’ posture of the silks immediately created ripples in the legal community as opinions differed sharply on whether the silks acted properly in the circumstances.
One of those who felt that the silks acted poorly in the circumstances is Ademola Adewale Esq., veteran columnist with the Squib, idolized in-house as ‘Squib Professor of Law.’ In his February 15 2010 Professor’s Podium column, Adewale criticized the silks in question in the Adebayo Jegede matter.
Only last week, both Professor Osipitan and Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, courtesy of a joint letter responded robustly to Ademola’s attack, and justified their refusal to make any plea for Adebayo Jegede on the ground that the accused/convict was not only properly convicted but that he, even in the dock showed no remorse for his wrong doing.
Interestingly, if only expectedly, the response of the ‘silky duo’ cut no ice with Adewale who, wait for it, this week has sent a ‘fire and pepper’ reaction to the letter of the silks to the Squib Editor-in-Chief, on the matter.
We are persuaded therefore to make the contention between the Squib ‘professor’ Ademola Adewale and the two silks as our cover story. So herein are
(a) “Professor’ Ademola Adewale’s article of 15th February 2010
(b) Professor Taiwo Osipitan S.A.N and Chief Bolaji Ayorinde’s (S.A.N) letter of 24th February 2010 to the Squib Editor.
(c) ‘Professor’ Adewale’s reaction to the response of the silk
We, must confess our doubt whether this is the end of the matter and exchanges!
INFAMY AND DISTINCTION AT THE BAR
Infamy and distinction at the Bar, vice and virtue alike are no exclusive of any group at the Bar, whether silk or non silk, young or old at the Bar. While a silk presumed to have achieved distinction at the Bar can so easily display infamy at an unguarded moment, a non silk can so easily display such remarkable brilliance and candour worthy of commendation.
There is a true life narrative of a court room incident that occurred more than 22 years ago at a court in the defunct Ondo State which included the present Ekiti State. Here is the story as narrated by a now senior lawyer.
On a fateful day before a now retired Judge of former Ondo State, the court room was filled to the brim with counsel, both young and old. As so normally happens, there was an Ibadan based silk in court who in the usual manner of members of the inner Bar coveted for himself the front row, leaving many lawyers young and old to jostle for the remaining few rows at the Bar. An attempt by a very senior lawyer, senior to Chief the silk to sit in the inner Bar was rudely rebuffed, leaving the crestfallen old man to cram himself in with many other lawyers on the limited seats at the Bar.
Soon came in a Lagos based Silk, unusually late for his case, his car having developed some fault whilst driving from his homestead in Ikenne in Ogun State to the court. Lagos Based Silk upon his entry to the Bar, promptly apologized for his unusual lateness to the court then proceeded to seek leave of the court to invite his colleagues many of whom were standing at the even outside the court, to share the inner Bar with him. This was too much for the Ibadan based silk to take; he immediately stood up to register his objection to this demeaning of the inner Bar by this open invitation of non SAN to sit in the inner Bar. After the outburst by his learned brother in the inner Bar, the Lagos based silk stood up and politely and cool as a cucumber replied his colleague ifn the Inner Bar famously: “By the grace of God, I am today, the leader of the Bar in this court having been elevated to the Inner Bar in 1983, a number of years before my learned brother and it is in that privileged position that I seek your Lordship’s leave to be joined in the Inner Bar by my learned friends, many of whom are standing uncomfortably in this court.” The court promptly granted learned silk’s request which saw many lawyers moving to share the Inner Bar with the two silks, much to the discomfiture of te Ibadan based silk who had earlier rebuffed the appeal of the elderly lawyer to share the Inner Bar with him. The Hero of this true life story is Mr. Abayomi Sogbesan SAN of blessed memory. As for the other silk in this story, please ask Mr. Adekunle Oyesanya for his true identity…
On the side of absolute distinction is the commendation of Mr. Johnson Esezobor. The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal complimented Mr. Esezobor for canvassing a fine point of law that the court was sure that most of Mr. Esezobor’s learned friends would have overlooked. This was on a day when the court sat from 9.00 am to 4.00pm with many SANs appearing, both old and young but with none of their learned silk’s receiving any such judicial approval that fateful day. If that does not amount to distinction, I do not know what does.
On a personal note, at the expense of being immodest, I now enjoy a privileged status and complimentary remarks in Justice Tijani Abubakar’s court at the Federal High Court Lagos for merely taking up the offer of the court to take up an indigent accused person’s case in line with the old tradition of the Bar that the most senior counsel in court takes up the defence of a poor accused person.
Ever since, at every of my appearance in his Lordship’s court, I get judicial commendation and recognition. While, this may not itself amount to professional distinction, it at least accords with the best traditions of our noble profession.
Finally, the Editor-in-Chief of the Squib magazine has gradually but steadily become the toast of the legal community not only in his immediate community Lagos State Judiciary but also even at the national level. The fear of the SQUIB and its ubiquitous influence is fast becoming the beginning of wisdom in Lagos State. Judges openly praise Ogunlana (by the same token others rabidly, hate his guts). Judicial technocrats dread him; even middle-level and junior judicial workers notorious for frustrating the wheels of justice where their palms are not greased, restrain themselves where his matters and interests are involved. Everywhere he is sighted, he is out of malice, mischief or genuine affection, hailed: ‘awaiting SAN, SAN-to-be, SAN of the future.’ He has also established a reputation for competence in criminal law trial – an area in which there were few competent hands until the advent of the EFCC cases and high profile accused persons. Yes, not all these praises are heartfelt and sincere. But the fact remains, with the abrasive crusade against corruption and injustice championed in the last 9 years by Mr. Adesina Ogunlana through the medium of the hard hitting and fire spitting SQUIB magazine, Mr. Ogunlana has achieved uncommon distinction at the Bar.
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