The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Afe Babalola

  • Afe Babalola tasks medical practitioners on disease control

    Afe Babalola tasks medical practitioners on disease control

    •ABUAD hosts veterinary council conference

    Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), has advocated a sustainable synergy between animal and human medical practitioners to minimise the spread of diseases in the country.

    He spoke during a two-day seminar for veterinary doctors and laboratory technologists held at ABUAD which drew participants from all over the country.

    Babalola advised those dealing in the raring of live animals across the country to always patronise veterinary doctors in the course of their business.

    The ABUAD founder noted that neglect of veterinary services could lead to bankruptcy and immense loss, especially for those in the practice of animal husbandry on a large scale.

    At the meeting, the Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN) urged governments at all levels to prioritise animal health in their policies in order to ensure a holistic health programme for the country.

    Speaking through its National President,Prof Garba Sharubutu, the council said the neglect or lukewarm attitude towards animal health could spell doom for the nation’s health sector noting that a well driven animals health service is  required to ensure drastic reduction of diseases and sicknesses in the Nigeria  society.

    Sharubutu said the seminar was intended to broaden and update the knowledge of veterinary practitioners drawn from across the country on contemporary issues in veterinary practice.

    He expressed hope that the seminar would boost animals health services delivery in the country if its imports are put to use by government and practitioners

  • Afe Babalola, Falana for UI’s forum

    Afe Babalola, Falana for UI’s forum

    Legal luminary Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) will today chair an interactive session, where 13 vice chancellorship aspirants will speak with the University of Ibadan’s (UI) community.

    The programme is being organised by the staff unions on the campus – Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) – under the chairmanship of Prof. Nelson Fashina.

    Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) will moderate at the interactive forum.

    As at the close of nominations, 13 professors have indicated interest in the position as the incumbent Prof. Isaac Adewole ends his tenure this year.

    The forum, which is scheduled for Trenchard Hall of the premier university at 10am, will be attended by former vice chancellors of the university.

  • Thank Obasanjo for Nigeria’s democracy – Afe Babalola

    Thank Obasanjo for Nigeria’s democracy – Afe Babalola

    Aare Afe Babalola needs no introduction. The tapestry of his entire life is what legends are made of. And the success that has made him a colossus in Nigeria’s socio-economic and political landscapes derived its origin from his audacity to dare. Now in his 80s but still works 18 hours a day, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria divides his time between his expansive farmland and Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD). In this interview with Femi Odere, Babalola talks about his university, the nation, his hopes and fears, among other issues. Excerpts:

    All human beings dream but not all bring their dreams into manifestation. Your university is relatively very young, about five years old. But it has recorded remarkable recognition and received awards in Nigeria and the international community, including UNESCO. Did you ever envisage this progress in just few years of its existence?

    I have always been a dreamer. I dream of great things. I dream of the best, even as a youth when life was very, very difficult. My dream was that I would make it and I would make it in a great way. So, when I conceived the idea of starting a university, my dream was that it would metamorphose into the best university at a rate unknown to the whole world, similar to how I made it in all other fields of endeavour. I knew that the university, within a short span, would rank among the best universities in Nigeria. So, I am not surprised that as at today, web metrics ranks us as the third best private university out of over sixty-five universities within five years. Not only that, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination last year ranked us as the second best choice of all candidates going into the country’s universities. I am not surprised.

     

    But how did the international awards and recognitions come about?

    How they came about is a matter for those who decided to honour and acknowledge us. I think some objective tests were applied to universities all over the world. For instance, I never expected the University of London to honour me with the highest degree of that university. The letter inviting me to accept the offer came like a bolt from the blues. I think the news of what we’re doing in an extraordinary way is spreading like wildfire not only throughout the country but the entire world. You see, people take notice of good things. Nigeria is noted for negative reports. So, when they see positive events coming out of the country, it looks large almost immediately. I think that’s one of the reasons for these great events coming to us from different parts of the world, including Oxford and Cambridge. Last year for instance, we got a letter from Oxford again without any earlier information that they chose our university to represent Nigeria at a symposium on how to solve the challenges facing education in the world. Apparently they noticed that we’re an emerging university trying to solve numerous problems facing education in our country.

     

    It is said that ABUAD was not set up to make profit. How would you continue to provide the quality education you believe in so much when the university is not set up to make profit?

    The whole idea is this. I want to leave a legacy, having been a successful lawyer by any standard, thank God. I had represented numerous international organisations in the course of my legal career and I made so much money despite my very poor family background. If education made me to be the best that I am now, the least I can do is to leave a legacy of quality education for others and affect their lives positively. The fact remains that all private universities, that is non-government universities, whether founded by individuals, corporate or religious bodies are all non-profit organisations. ABUAD has a United States license as a non-profit organisation. Now, what do we mean by non-profit? It means that we have no shares unlike profit oriented companies which at the end of the year declares profit to be shared among the owners. Here, there are no shareholders. Every profit made at the end of the year would be ploughed back into the university to build up the capital base of the university. And that’s exactly what Harvard did and still does. Today, Harvard has roughly about $5 billion that they plow into endowment. So, they’re able to give scholarships to outstanding students. They’re able to assist those who are brilliant but cannot afford the cost of education. That’s what we’re doing here. We gave out N87.5 million scholarships to outstanding students here last year alone to indigent students. We gave to those students whose parents died after they came here and those whose parents lost their businesses when they started their education with us. We also gave scholarships and allowances to teachers who’re doing well in order to encourage them. That’s what we mean when we talk about non-profit institution.

     

    Are you worried that this university, in spite of your toil and vision, may not be handled the way you would have wanted it to be handled after you’re no longer around?

    I must say that I am worried about the future of the university. King Solomon said everything he did and achieved was vanity. He said he had worked day and night and had sleepless nights, acquiring all that could be acquired, but would leave them for somebody who never worked for them. He said all was vanity. He said that the person who never worked for all these things but would inherit them would either make good use of them or he may not. And yet he would own everything. In my own case, I am not making a will. My experience shows that those you will properties to may not use them properly because they never worked for it. And that’s the main reason why my university is registered as a non-profit making organisation under the guaranteed law of the Corporate Affairs office in Abuja. What this means is that the university has a corporate soul. It’s not a limited liability company. There’s no question of profit-sharing. Everybody knows that every kobo that comes in is for the institution. So, that area where people fight for money has been totally eliminated. More importantly is that since the factional interests of relatives or children have been taken out, it is now left to the legal personalities appointed by the university or appointable at all times by the university to manage it in accordance with the laws of the land. We have the university law. We have the Nigerian University Commission Law and also the constitution of the country which regulate the appointments of Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Provosts of Colleges, the Registrar, and the Bursar for the management of the institution. If it is managed the way the law says it should be managed, then what applies in places like Harvard and Cambridge will also apply here. Therefore, my fear of what may happen to it, to a great extent, is reduced.

     

    You’ve witnessed the country’s several aborted democratic experience. Did you ever envisage that you would witness the presence of democracy in the polity for this long?

    When Nigeria became independent in 1960, I was a very young man. The whole of the south at that time was virtually behind Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. I was an avid reader of the “Weekend Catechism” by Mbonu Ojike and the write-ups of Abdulahi from the North. Nigeria was virtually one country then and all the youths were virtually “Zikists.” It was a time when we hoped, when we believed, when we prayed that Nigeria would be one of the greatest countries in the world having regard to the human and natural resources. I had at that time a British passport. I could have retained it if I wanted, but I decided to change it to the Nigerian passport because to me, Nigeria was going to be better than Britain. All my friends who retained theirs are happy today because they’re British citizens. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that Nigeria is now a terribly bad place. The point I am making is that this is not the Nigeria we expected at that time. We expected a Nigeria where tribalism, nepotism, religious bias would not have any place. After 60 years, we have had less than 20 years of democracy. The longest is this one as you’ve rightly said. We thank God for General Olusegun Obasanjo who superintended democracy when it came. I can tell you that if not for Obasanjo, democracy would not have lasted for more than four years because there were several coup attempts in the first two years of this republic. Let me give you an example, there was a strike known as the “mother of all strikes” when the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) asked all Nigerians to store food at home because this mother of all strikes was going to be indefinite. The NLC said then that no ships or airplanes would be allowed into Nigeria for the duration of the strike. This was because of the increase in the price of petrol by N1.5k. The goal was to completely paralyze the country. Part of the plan was to burn down the NNPC and the army would take over. I flew back from London to stop the strike. But the question we must ask ourselves is what type of democracy do we have? In other democracies, people are not chosen solely on party basis, but on the basis of performance and contributions to their communities. The choice of our leaders is not based on that principle. In fact, there’s no ideological basis for the election of our leaders in this country. Ideology simply has no place. In fact, I am ashamed when someone who was elected on the platform of X party crossed to a Y party. When he didn’t get what he wanted in the Y party, crossed over again to X party. They change parties like they change their clothes. It’s shameful. If you look at elections based on this sort of things, there’s really no democracy as envisaged by the founders of democracy based on ideology. The voting pattern of the last election was very much based on ethnicity and religion. I want a situation where Odere who has been working all these years in Kano State, although a Yoruba man, is voted as the governor of Kano State. I also want a situation where Mohammed from Jos who has lived all these years in Port Harcourt is voted as the governor of Rivers State.

    Corruption has always been singled out as the bane of our development. Let’s pretend there’s no corruption, are there other things that are responsible for our sorry state of development?

    Our problems are multifarious. It started with the marriage in 1914 between the South and the North. We’re a country of more than 300 languages. We’re a country of very many nations, three of which are very big. Unfortunately, the constitution we have does not help us to evolve and properly assimilate. The constitution ought to have recognised our diversity in culture, language, tradition and so on. We should have fashioned out a constitution which would have allowed the component parts to practice what it knows and develop what it wants, but at the same time allow us to remain as one nation. The constitution should allow each component part to develop at its own pace. In that case, we would have seen a different Nigeria. There’re so many things wrong with our constitution. The way out as I have always said is to revisit our constitution so that we can eventually have a truly One Nigeria.

    There’s this paradox about Aare Afe Babalola; the person and his politics. You’re a progressive but you’re always in the political camp of the conservatives. I have always been wondering about this contradiction until I read your book. You said in that book that the Western Region Government of the Action Group (AG) had announced that a scholarship would be given. You said you had no doubt that the scholarship would be yours because you were the most qualified, academically, at the time. But to your surprise, the scholarship was given to a far less qualified son of a leader of Action Group. Could this have explained why you’re always on the opposite side of Awolowo and those political parties that best represented his progressive ideology?

    Well, I was certainly disappointed by the fact that I was denied the scholarship. I had four advanced level subjects. I had six subjects at Ordinary Level. I had the Cambridge Certificate and so on. I was the only one in the Western Region with that kind of academic qualification. The other two chaps were Igbos. I don’t think Awolowo did it. But I believed it was done by his party. To that extent, I wasn’t too happy with his party. But that’s not the main reason why I disagreed with his policy and politics. I believe in one Nigeria. I saw Chief Awolowo as someone opposed to Zik (Azikiwe) who was preaching nationalism and the oneness of the country while Awolowo’s party was preaching Yoruba Empire. It would interest you that Chief Awolowo sent an emissary to me to join him when the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was being formed. But I went to him and respectfully declined his offer because I believed that his party was too tribalistic for my liking. That’s probably the only reason; otherwise he was a man I deeply respect.

  • Afe Babalola to legal panel: appoint all that qualify as Senior Advocates

    Afe Babalola to legal panel: appoint all that qualify as Senior Advocates

    EMINENT lawyer Chief Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) has called on the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) to reverse the practice of short-listing legal practitioners for the status of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

    Aare Babalola said henceforth, the LPPC should appoint all legal practitioners to SAN status once they are qualified.

    He urged LPPC to copy the practice in England where the status is awarded to all that are qualified year-in-year-out.

    The Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) spoke at the start of the 48th Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) held in the institution yesterday.

    In a statement by ABUAD Head, Public Relations Tunde Olofintula,  the legal luminary noted that the title of SAN, the equivalent of Queens Counsel (QC), was imported from England, where the idea of the silk equally emanated.

    According to the frontline lawyer, England has for years, maintained the tradition of bestowing QC stratus on qualified practitioners regardless of the numbers that apply each year.

    He wondered why Nigeria could not take a cue from that age-long practice.

    He noted that some practitioners have been calling for the abrogation of SAN because those who qualify in a particular year eventually end up not being appointed.

    He said: “But what do we have here?  In the last few years, many lawyers have been asking for the abrogation of the SAN title.  Their grievance is that they apply year after year and those who are qualified could be as many as 70. But at the end of the day, the law limits the number appointable to only 15, leaving a backlog of those who are qualified”.

    This development, Babalola regretted, has led to nepotism in the appointment of SAN, alleging that those who appoint qualify colleagues to SAN status now do so more on personal affiliation than merit.

    “The question then arises: If a person is qualified, when does he become unqualified again? Perhaps one may ask those who are charged with the duty of appointing 15 out of 70, what criteria they use to jettison those who are qualified? This practice of appointing 15 out of the several that are qualified has led to ‘selection’, which may not be free from extraneous considerations,” he said.

    The Chief Justice, Justice Mahmud Muhammad, has called for concerted efforts of all to flush out bad eggs to restore the dignity and honour that had been the hallmark of the legal profession.

    Muhammad said lawyers, judges and some in the academia are culpable.

    According to him, the theme of this year’s conference: “Mainstreaming Interdisciplinary Approach to Legal Education: Imperative for Nigeria Development”, is not only apt, but properly fits into ABUAD philosophy.

    The CJN who was represented by the Hon. Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad said: “Universities and other tertiary institutions, are a meeting place for great minds of people who are passionate about knowledge, of scholarly people, a place of critical and rational inquiry, an intimate community where the molding of minds and character is a priority, a human-centred institution without any bias for race or creed, a centre that is universal in outlook without neglecting its immediate society’s aspirations, a centre for free thinking and free pursuit of research and thinking, an atmosphere that is conducive for learning”.

     

  • Between Obafemi Awolowo and Afe Babalola

    Just like the Bible, in the Book of 1 Corinthians 15:45, referred to Jesus Christ as the second Adam, a Nigerian Academic, Prof. Raimi A. Olaoye, has described the Elder Statesman and Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Are Afe Babalola, SAN as the second and modern day Obafemi Awolowo on account of his (Babalola’s) exploits in the realm of education through which he is putting the smiles on the faces of many and receiving accolades nationally and internationally.

    The setting was the personality lecture in honour of late sage and first Premier of the Western Region, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, SAN and Aare Emmanuel Afe Babalola, SAN, titled “Connecting the past with the present for a rewarding future of Nigeria education system”, organized by the University of Ilorin Chapter the Nigerian University Education Students Association (NUESA)

    Even though Olaoye, Professor of History and International Relations at the University of Ilorin, laboured assiduously to convince his audience that it was an Herculean task to deliver a personality lecture in honour of the duo of Awolowo and Babalola whom he described as fathers, role models, foremost educationists, courageous nationalists and great Nigerians, he held them in rapt attention for the duration of the lecture.

    His words: “To write in honour of these great Nigerians is a task uphill. These are great men whose shoes are too big for (an) ordinary person like me to unlace. I got to know our guests many years ago through their intellectual works and nationalist dispositions. The only time I physically came into contact with Chief Obafemi Awolowo was in the early ‘80s, during the political campaign of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).

    “My physical contact with Aare Afe Babalola in the ‘70s was through my uncle, Chief J. A. Aderibigbe, who was his contemporary in a College at Ibadan. But more importantly is the fact that I have the knowledge of these great personalities through their positions in the society, meritorious services to the humanity and invaluable contributions to national development”.

    After taking a cursory look at the past, Olaoye affirmed without any fear of contradiction, that every individual on planet earth is educated bearing in mind that all human beings, at one point or the other, must have benefitted from one or more of the three broad categories of education: Traditional Education, Oriental (Islamic/ Arabic) Education and Occidental/ Western Education.

    According to him, in Nigeria, before the advent of colonialism, the precursor of other types of education was traditional education which was largely built on local customs and traditions as a result of which it emphasized the culture, value, norms and mores of the Nigerian communities. And because moral value was the epicentre of the traditional education then, the prevalence of anti-social vices such as larceny, armed robbery, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, drug abuse, gay marriage, sexual abuse and other horrendous vices of today was minimal. This enabled the Nigerian communities to be relatively peaceful and stable, while the issues of economy and socio-political growth and development taking their course.

    This was the situation, when the British colonialists came to impose their values on the Nigerian societies.

    At some point later, the Missionaries of different denominations such as the Church Missionary Society, the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and the Roman Catholic as well as the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) among others took over to provide Western education with emphasis on three ‘Rs’, that is, Reading, (W)Riting and ‘Rithmetic which emphasized the inculcation of moral value with the overriding philosophy of the missionary education based on European culture, value, orientation, customs and traditions.

    This was the system of education inherited by the Nigerian nation at independence. But because Awolowo and Babalola, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) and Alumni of the famous University of London and others in their mould who had been bitten by the bug of seeing their people beyond mere interpreters, cleaners, messengers and catechists among others in their mould rose up to the challenge to break the barrier in western education which was beyond the reach of the poor.

    Of particular importance in this respect was the introduction of Free Primary Education in the old Western Region by Awolowo way back in 1955 and the deployment of as much as 52% of the Region’s resources on education to make total men and women out of the indigenes of the Region then. This paid off with the monumental development of the region ahead of others, even till today.

    He commended the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation for its cardinal philosophy of preserving and nurturing the legacy of education of the late sage to fruition, a development which gives verve and vigour to the hope of a rewarding education system in future.

    Governments at all levels must be awake to their responsibility as far as education is concerned. They must appreciate that sound education constitute a potent weapon to fight ignorance, lack, poverty and disease and so, they must accord education a prime of place in the scheme of things.

    It is a notorious fact that Awolowo has played his part and has gone to join the saints triumphant, but his re-incarnate, Babalola, has stepped into his shoes by virtue of the gigantic strides he took by establishing ABUAD which commenced academic works on January 4, 2010 to change the face of education in Nigeria and bring back its lost glory in education and for which he had been commended nationally and internationally by education stakeholders including UNESCO.

    According to Olaoye, “Aare Afe Babalola’s efforts are an indication that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Although, I have not been to the University, but what I have been seeing on the television and reading from the newspapers are symptomatic of “Renaissance” that promises a re-birth of glorious period of education in Nigeria.

    Based on Awolowo’s and Babalola’s vision for education and general development of Nigeria, they, in concert with a few others like them, have always been seen in the mould of Nationalists and Pan-Africalists such as Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikwe, Kwame Nkrumah, Leopold Cedar Senghor, Houphouet Boign, Dauda Jawara, Nassingbe Eyadema, Marcus Garvey, E.W. Blyden and W.B. Dubois.

    “In point of truth, Aare Afe Babalola, just like the late sage, is strongly passionate about how to reform our education system in Nigeria.  His popular column on Thursdays in the Nigerian Tribune has always addressed variety of issues on education such as the need for quality education, good remuneration for teachers, review of school curriculum and education which is responsive to the needs of the country. His strong passion for the future of education in Nigeria is not misguided, knowing him as foremost educationist, erudite lawyer (SAN) and someone who hails from home of Professors, Ekiti-Kete”.

    The world is now a global village and new trends in education and other facets of life keep on emerging by the day.  In the world of today, the emphasis is on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The world is also in the direction of knowledge-based economy. In all of these, the use of computer and other ICT facilities would rule the future world of education not only in Nigeria but elsewhere in the world. And so,  Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind.

    Nigeria should therefore go back to the roots, pick up the pieces and review the policy for a rewarding system of education in Nigeria for the labour of our heroes, past and living, to endure and stand the test of times.

     

    • Olofintila, a public commentator sent this piece from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

  • My firm didn’t collect money from Ajudua, says Afe Babalola

    My firm didn’t collect money from Ajudua, says Afe Babalola

    Legal luminary Chief Afe Babalola yesterday said his firm, Afe Babalola Chambers, did not receive any payment from Lagos socialite Fred Ajudua to represent a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi.

    Chief Babalola spoke through a  Managing Partner, Adebayo Adenipekun, while testifying at the trial of a court registrar, Oluronke Rosolu, before a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja.

    Led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) counsel, Seidu Atteh, Adenipekun told the court, presided over by Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, that as the head of administration of the chamber when the said transaction took place, he would know if any payment was made and from whom.

    He contended that the law firm also had no dealing either with Bamaiyi or Ajudua.

    “Ajudua did not brief our firm to represent Bamaiyi at any time. That is not correct. We did not receive any legal fee from Ajudua in respect of the general.

    “We were never briefed to represent Bamaiyi and we did not receive any money from Ajudua,” Adenipekun maintained.

    After Adenipekun made the disclosure, the court adjourned the matter till today for continuation of trial.

    Lt.-Gen Bamaiyi had alleged that Rosulu, a former registrar to Justice Joseph Oyewole, collected $330,000 from him on behalf of Ajudua on November 20, 2004.

    He claimed the money was given to her as part-payment of the legal fees requested by Afe Babalola Chambers to represent him in his murder charge before Justice Oyewole.

    According to Bamaiyi, the alleged fraud took place between November 2004 and June 2005 while he was on remand alongside Ajudua in Kirikiri Maximum Prison.

  • Afe Babalola congratulates President-elect

    Afe Babalola congratulates President-elect

    RENOWNED lawyer Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) has congratulated the President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, on his victory, urging him to priortise how to restructure the country’s constitution once he assumes power.

    Babalola also said the President-elect should consider his (Babalola) agitation for a six-year single term for the president.

    The lawyer spoke in a congratulatory letter to the President-elect, a copy of which was also made available to The Nation yesterday.

    He said: “I suggest that there is urgent need to restructure the country’s constitution and reform it to ensure that Nigeria emerges a united nation where a leader will emerge through votes cast during elections and not based on religious or ethnic affiliations. These problems, in my humble opinion, are what you should quickly address when you assume power on May 29, 2015.

    Babalola continued: “And this brings me to the age-long advocacy of a six-year term for the country’s president, which would have allowed him (President) to work harder and achieve more instead of the present four-year term, which allows him only two years of serious work as he will spend the first year to settle down and use the last of the four to campaign for a second term.”

    Aare Babalola described President-elect Buhari as a statesman, who is courteous, caring and a dogged fighter.

    He expressed happiness that in the run up to the March 28 election, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the APC, as manifested in their various campaigns, agreed on problems afflicting Nigeria such as education, insecurity, unemployment, and poverty, among others.

    Going down memory lane, Babalola recalled that he and Buhari crossed paths during cases involving his former party, All Nigeria Progressives Party (ANPP), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in which he (Babalola) represented the latter.

    He said: “You were not only timely at every court sitting, you would sit down patiently throughout, sometimes till about 8 pm. Above all, you would find time to greet me after each sitting, even when I was the lawyer representing your opponent. That is really unparalleled.

    “Again, when one of my lawyers, who was appearing with me in the matter, passed on, you wrote to condole with me, thus showing that you are caring, compassionate and sympathetic.”

    The lawyer hoped that  Buhari would consolidate on President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    “As a statesman, you should be ready to build on the foundation laid by Dr. (Goodluck) Jonathan’s administration to the advantage of Nigerians. This is more so in a country as Nigeria where people find it difficult to distinguish between politics and governance, a development which often makes a successor to abandon the projects of his predecessor once he assumes office, particularly when the successor is not in the same party with the new helmsman.”

    As a statesman, Babalola promised his support to Buhari, saying he would always be on hand anytime his service is required.

    Also yesterday, Aare Babalola described President Goodluck Jonathan as a “hero” for congratulating the winner of the March 28 presidential election, even before he was officially declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Such gesture, he noted, already portrayed the President as a “man of honour”, who is not desperate to hold tight to power.

    This was contained in another letter written to President Jonathan.

    It reads: “I want to specially salute you for not allowing the nation to be turned into another theatre of war similar to the events of 1983 after the governorship election in the then bigger Ondo State.

    “Your Excellency, without any iota of doubt, you are indeed ‘the hero of this presidential election’. Apart from Alhaji Ibrahim Kwankwaso of Kano State 12 years ago and the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, I do not know of any other loser in Nigeria, who congratulated the winner. Your name will go down in history as a lover of peace and a lover of people whom you have toiled to serve most assiduously in your entire political career. With your unique action, a new dawn has begun indeed.

    “I salute you for your achievements as President in spite of the obvious difficulties and challenging circumstances and terrain within which you have had to operate.”

    While praising President Jonathan for his achievements, Babalola said he should see the defeat of the PDP, which he represents, as an avenue for him to appraise those factors that led to the party’s loss and, therefore, arm himself with the necessary tools to march into the future with renewed confidence.

    He advised President  Jonathan to be ready to lend his support to the incoming president in the quest to attain nationhood.

  • Reflection on Afe Babalola’s attainments

    He was a farmer’s boy. The first 10 years of his life was spent on a cocoa plantation. He had several encounters with tigers and escaped narrowly. He was given a chase by angry and fast moving snakes during some of his hunting expeditions but survived. His childhood days had death strewn all over his paths, but some great benevolence, God’s grace and destiny, ensured that he survived. The bare floor of the farmhouse made of mud was his bed and banana leaves were his duvets. While on the farm, he neither wore clothes nor shoes. To him, “Life on the farm was the best”, more because there was plenty of food to eat.

    Young Afe was enjoying his life on the farm but his father, Babalola, had other plans. Even though he was his only son at the time and needed his support on the farm, he decided to send him to school. He never liked it at first. He ran away from school several times because of corporal punishments but his father would insist that he must go back. While in the Primary school, Afe was a very serious student having imbibed the culture of hard work on the farm where he would never sacrifice his farm work for any pastime.

    Afe was not flippant with his studies. Little wonder that he was one of the best in his graduating class in 1945 when he completed his primary school education in Emmanuel school, Ado Ekiti. He came second in the final examination. That was the end of his classroom education. Despite gaining admission to Christ School, Ado Ekiti, his father could not afford to pay his tuition fees. He sat at home and studied for School certificate examination. Something that was rare at the time, He passed his GCE ordinary level examination of University of London in 1952 and GCE advanced level in 1954, each at one seating. Babalola worked hard to break the yoke of poverty. He was a chip off the old bloc. His father worked from morning till evening for seven days a week. His father taught him that his palms were his best friends because they would never desert him.

    That was the very humble beginning of the “farmer’s boy”, Aare Afe Babalola who by dint of hard work and God’s favour has become the first African to be awarded the LLD honours of the University of London in the University’s 179-year history. The award has put the legal virtuoso in the league of former South African President, Nelson Mandela who received the honorary doctorate degree in Economics from the University in 1996 and Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was honoured seven years ago with the honorary doctorate degree in Divinity.

    The University of London honorary degrees is usually conferred on people of conspicuous merit, who are outstanding in their field, who command international recognition, and have given exceptional service to the community among others. Afe is no doubt a legal icon. After bagging the University of London degree in Economics through private studies in 1959, Afe enrolled as an external student of London University in 1960 for his law program where he was acclaimed as “the wonder man who specialises in private study” by the Secretary to the Senate of the University upon his arrival. He graduated in 1963, and has been in the legal profession ever since.

    In his over 50 years in the legal profession, Aare Afe Babalola was known as brilliant and very hardworking; a lover of legal analysis who usually saw through fine points which others did not see. Even though he started his private practice from a windowless garage, his desire to succeed was his driving force. He was a criminal law specialist who hardly lost any of the criminal cases he handled.  He handled over 200 criminal cases and about 150 divorce cases. He also handled many celebrated cases like the missing $2.8million NNPC money in 1982; the Alaafin vs. Ooni superiority battles in the 80s and 90s; the Ashipa vs. Alaafin case over M.K.O. Abiola’s Aare Ona Kakanfo chieftaincy title; Falae vs. Obasanjo and Buhari vs Obasanjo’s election petitions, among many others.

    Former president Obasanjo reposed so much confidence in his legal sagaciousness that he once said “I know when a person gives you (Afe Babalola) a case (to handle), he need not worry. I know you would handle it well”. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he is the only lawyer in Nigeria, dead or alive, who has produced over 15 senior advocates, the highest recognition that can be accorded a Nigerian lawyer.  On four occasions, he was offered the position of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, but he turned down all the offers because according to him, “I cannot cope with the slow pace of work in the civil service”.

    His contributions to the legal profession went beyond litigations. He has distinguished himself as a teacher and author. He taught law at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Centre for African Law Research and Development, Lagos as well as the Postgraduate School of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ibadan. He was also a newspaper columnist on legal issues. His column in the Nigerian tribune titled “You and the Law” is a must read for law practitioners and a reference material for law students in Nigeria and beyond. He has also authored many books including Injunctions and Enforcement of Orders, Law and Practice of Evidence in Nigeria, Electoral Law and Practice (Vols. 1 & 2), University Administration in Nigeria and over 500 lectures.

    The legal genius has exerted his astuteness in the educational sector as well.  Having worked tirelessly to build a polytechnic for his community in Ado-Ekiti in 1982, he served as the Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos between 2000 and 2007. At the University of Lagos where he worked pro bono, he was transparency personified. He was named the Pro-Chancellor-of-the-year on two occasions by the National Universities Commission and the university became the “University of First Choice” for many Nigerian students.

    He founded Afe Babalola University six years ago and the University is now reputed as the fastest growing University in Africa and “a miracle model reference point and benchmark for other Universities” according to the National Universities Commission. A family man to the core, his children went to the best schools in the world and all of them hold at least a second degree. Just like him, three of his children studied law at the University of London. It would not be a waste to say a well-deserved kudos to this legal icon on his well-deserved LLD degree from the University of London. This is indeed another “impossibility made possible.”  Like the biblical Caleb, Aare Afe Babalola is still conquering mountains at 85.

    •Adeolu Durotoye PhD, FCIPM is a veteran journalist and political scientist. Email: adeolud@yahoo.com

  • FUTA is 11th institution to honour Afe Babalola

    The selfless effort of Aare Afe Babalola, (SAN) towards the establishment of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) in the 1980s was rewarded at the university’s convocation last Saturday where he was conferred with the honorary Doctor of Management degree.

    The Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) shone like a million stars at the colourful ceremony as his citation was read amid reverberating applause in an event that featured the crème-de-la-crème of the society.

    FUTA is the 11th institution in Nigeria to honour the legal icon, farmer, and educationist.

    Others include: Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti (Fellow,1997), College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti (Fellow,1998), University of  Ado-Ekiti (Doctor of Law, 2000), Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies (FNIALS) (Fellow, 2002), Kogi State University (Doctor of Letters, 2012), University of Lagos (Doctor of Law, 2013), University of Jos (Doctor of Law, 2013).

    A November 17, 2014 letter with Reference Number FUTA/REG/CAD/HDC/71 signed the Registrar and Secretary of Council of FUTA Dr. M.O. Ajayi, predicated the award on Babalola’s “significant contributions to the growth and development of this university (FUTA) and the nation”.

    Babalola had, in 1982, waived a N5 million legal in exchange for a federal institution to be established in the then Ondo State. The Alhaji Shehu Shagari-led Federal Government acceded to Babalola’s request by citing the Federal Polytechnic in Ado-Ekiti. But when the (Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) government under the leadership of Governor Michael Adekunle Ajasin heard of the move, the late Ajasin quickly announced the establishment of the Obafemi Awolowo University (now Ekiti State University) also in Ado-Ekiti. The Federal Government then moved the polytechnic to Akure. But soon afterwards when FUTA was sighted Akure, the polytechnic, which Afe single-handedly fought for, was moved to Ado-Ekiti, Babalola’s homestead.

    Aare Babalola, who was the first Chairman of the Governing Council of the polytechnic, invested his resources to ensure the effective take-off of the institution.

    After his seven-year tenure as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) – during which he was voted the best Pro-Chancellor twice – Babalola founded ABUAD to entrench functional and reformatory education in quality all areas.

  • FUTA degree for Afe Babalola

    The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, will present an honorary Doctor of Management degree to the founder, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, on Saturday.

    A November 17 letter signed by the Registrar and Secretary of Council, Dr M.O. Ajayi, predicated the award on Babalola’s “significant contributions to the growth and development of this university (FUTA) and the nation”.

    “The history of FUTA can be traced to Babalola, a selfless and altruistic man who has built and donated towering edifices to many tertiary institutions in Nigeria.”

    Babalola has received the following awards–Fellow, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Fellow, College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti,                 Doctor of Law (LL.D) University of  Ado-Ekiti, Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies, Doctor of Letters  (D.Litt) Kogi State University , Doctor of Law University of Lagos, Doctor of Law University of Jos.