BY S. O. K. SHILLINGS

Dear Aare Afe Babalola SAN,

I hope this meets you in the right condition because even though God has granted you grace of wealth and health, you are in a delicate level and must be managed.

You are highly blessed to have chosen a profession that made you such a great person. With over 6 decades of practice, 37 of it as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the Guinness Books must create a record for longevity of professional calling with distinction. It is not only long but positively eventful. You have made lawyers and senior advocates, judges and Justices and attorneys-general, including the present Attorney-General of the Federation.

Such is the beauty of your practice that I spent a good part of year 2003 running from Victoria Island to your office at Iddo, Lagos where I got to know Mr. Gboyega Oyewole (now SAN and former Attorney General of Ekiti State by your grace). It was as serious as I was advised to come to Ibadan. When I met you, you were exhausted and you gave me an appointment for another day and ‘T-fare’ as the new generation call it. The day happened to be the eve of Ikorodu Oga Day which I was the chief organiser as Secretary of Ikorodu Oga Development Association then. I still came. And after waiting until around 7:30, I was ushered in and reminding you of the appointment, you simply told me to go to ‘Gboyega’ to start work and I was thankful like a jackpot-winner. But between your office and Adamasingba stadium, something in me told me ‘you don’t need the job; I will bless you on your own lane’. It was a hard knock. I did not go to Oyewole (with all respect to him) although I am still waiting for the promise from the God who has no wrist watch. But He must have His reason(s) for wasting my energy before telling me that.

It will not shade the truth if I regard you as the numero uno and primus inter pares in the Nigerian legal landscape. You are a standard-bearer, a tone-maker and personification of the legal system in Nigeria. Meaning, noblesse oblige, you take the glory; along with the blames. It is your kingdom and fiefdom. Nay, from that vantage point, you are a Nigerian leader on a special seat, like Pastor Adeboye and the like.

In both responsibilities, you have tried. ‘Tried’ as we know is only a pass mark. You have the energy, the intellectual resource, the clout, the space and the temerity to make an excellent mark. Baba, let me tickle you on that other side. If I were ‘Afe Babalola’, I would have called a National Conference with a prepared constitution for it to debate, spending the money and showing the light. But you are only a leading commentator, Sir!

Back to Dele Farotimi. He was my classmate in the university. He became President of the Students Union, LASUSU in an election that I conducted. In those days, he called those who did what he is doing now ‘fist-clenchers’. He hated to be called an activist when he was one. Dele does not keep quiet when he believes in a cause, and does not mind standing alone in his corner or damning the consequences of his actions. He has the gift of oration with the capacity to call white black if he believes so. He is not among fist-clenchers who make noise all day without purpose and sing aluta songs as tonic for actions their forebears embarked on without result. He is not loyal to anything except his cause. That is your nemesis, Baba! Like a David to a Goliath, check the catapult in his hands and ask yourself some important questions if you realize that situation. Dele is a soldier (ant) that could cause problem. If you ‘kill’ it, it will oozes out an unpleasant and nauseating odour.

Back to the law practice profession that you sit atop. The nausea is killing. It is such a bad situation that retiring judges and Justices complain of the rot. Even the incumbent Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Kudirat Kekere-ekun recently came to Lagos and lent credence to it, blaming judges and lawyers for the low level of the integrity of the Court. That is the Aborè of the Temple. Now, Olúawo is being accused. Dele Farotimi is a wake-up call to you, Sir!

Let me show you a short skit of the Temple from my lens. Sometimes ago, I was in a matter where my clients’ house was demolished by a man who claimed to have bought it. He was himself my indirect client. We went to court and he offered to pay. My clients could not agree because it did not meet their valuation and grief. He told me one day that ‘this money you are rejecting will be received by someone else o’! Lo and behold, we lost and my clients did not want to see me again. The fellow saw me later and told me that he warned me. How will I prove that the judge was compromised?

There have been others after that. The one who ignored a letter from the Supreme Court about the lack of authenticity of a judgment and gave judgment for the felons, later threw my town into turmoil, failed to hear a preliminary objection for 3 years, got matters transferred from his court for not hearing them; has been elevated. I just lost another matter yesterday. I could not even go to court because I feared it could happen and I don’t want a situation that my emotion could take over. I will send copies of pleadings and judgments to you, Sir. How does it feel when, after losing a case, your client came calling and says that he knew the judge received N1 million in two tranches and Registrar got #50,000.00 and asked: ‘What can we do now?’ expecting that he could simply pay and the judgment would be reversed?

If those ones (I mean such acts) are far from you, let me remind you that the lawyer who was sending text messages to a judge while proceedings were ongoing and in respect thereof, and was caught so doing, is still in the profession and a leading light. I should also remind you, Sir, that the lawyer who wrote that his boss and chambers have capacity to make judges do their biddings has been sent away but the boss and chambers stand tallest in the pecking order of the profession. Baba, that is the profession you superintend.

Dele Farotimi’s book ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System’ may seem to have maligned you and your chambers. But I am sure that if you handle Dele’s brief and you recall that the Claimant was once damnified with 30 million Naira cost by the Supreme Court with uncharitable statements from the lead Justice of the case, you will not lose the case, especially when the onus of proving that all content are lies and the integrity of the Claimant is intact is on him. Baba, you want to attend cross-examination where all sorts of questions – including the morality of fees for incorporation and relationship with President and personal issues of nine-and-a-half decades – will come to fore. Even Angel Gabriel and Angel Michael will not risk it and suffer the fate of Lucifer. You are immortal and should not wait to be tested whether you are God or a Saint.

Baba, your ‘boys’ are taking Dele to LPDC. He was so disenchanted with the stench that he retired from practice 5 years ago at the tender age of 50. If I have the resources, I will call a press conference and do same. Dele will not attend. And what disrepute has he brought the profession into after the confirmation by no less than the CJN? It is not everybody that has the strength of being tagged as a failure for not knowing how to speak to judges. Clients consult behind their lawyers but you will feel them when they start to advise you on motions and procedures. The clients underpay struggling lawyers because they know that the real job is not theirs. Many take civil cases to the police now. The profession is impoverished especially with máshu-mátò Rules of professional ethics. Those doing it, the judges and lawyers, are few but like the gall bladder of a fat cow, the small bile content is enough to spoil the party.

Baba, you mean you approve of a lawyer coming to court on a charge of a misdemeanour and not being granted bail on self-recognisance immediately? Worse still, to be taken to the court in handcuffs? Then, in all honesty, you want to set the precedence of complainant choosing forum? And also multiplicity of cases and forums using the Court to wear out an opponent? I shudder at the actions of those who want to prove to you that you have good children who will not allow your name to be rubbished. They brag about their knowledge of the letters of the law as if that is all Emmanuel Chambers has taught them. They are doing the opposite.

May I, with utmost respect and reverence, suggest that you call off all the cases. You may simply tell us the truth of the matter that Dele does not know. And, as Olúawo, call private meetings of the Temple and set new rules of engagement and ‘worship’. Dele Farotimi is your prophet. Baba, heed!

• Shillings is a Bar Leader and former Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch

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