ADEMOLA OLONILUA
Martins Ogunleye
Martins Ogunleye is the Lagos State Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association. He tells Ademola Olonilua about his career
You recently emerged as the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Lagos State chapter. What do you have to offer your colleagues?
In my inaugural speech, I mentioned a number of programmes that we would embark on that would benefit our members. Most of the programmes are geared towards ensuring the welfare of our members. One of the programmes is to establish a cooperative society which would assist young lawyers and those that don’t have money to secure loans. Most of us are sole entrepreneurs and banks are not likely to give us loans. With this cooperative system, our members would be able to get loans for sundry reasons. The cooperative would stand as a guarantor. For instance if a young lawyer wants to get a car and he cannot secure a loan simply because he is not in a regulated paid employment, as a member of the cooperative, we would help him out. He would be able to buy his car and pay in instalments through the cooperative society.
The Lagos State chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association is the largest branch in Nigeria. We have the largest number of lawyers but unfortunately, we do not have a secretariat. Initially, we were operating in an office given to us by the Court of Appeal but in 2010, we were ejected because the court said it needed space. We had to go to the High Court in Lagos Island and it gave us a small space. The space we have can be compared to a cubicle and for an organisation that caters for over 5,000 members, the space is not enough. We cannot operate effectively from that office and as we speak, I do not have a chair there. It is mostly occupied by our clerks. I intend to buy a land and begin the construction of our own secretariat.
Did you opt to study law or your parents cajoled you into doing so?
My case is quite an interesting one because I was a very brilliant science student in school but somewhere along the line, I decided to become a lawyer. In this part of the world, when a child aspires to become a lawyer, he becomes the pride of the family. In the history of my extended family, we had only one lawyer and he was my uncle, the late Dr. Wilberforce Odubayo. He died at a very young age in 1973. He was just 42 when he passed on and I was in primary school at the time. As I grew up, I realised that his death was a painful loss to the family. That was what influenced my choice to study law. After the death of my uncle, I became the second lawyer of my family.
Is it right to say that your uncle’s death influenced your choice of career?
That is very correct. Another reason is that my father also wanted to study law but he did not have enough money to do so. To study law in those days, one had to travel abroad. When my father travelled, he already had a wife and children, so he had to be prudent. As an indigent student, upon his arrival in England, he realised that it was too expensive to study law, so he opted for accounting which was within his reach but his desire was to become a lawyer.
When you told your parents that you wanted to become a lawyer, what was their reaction?
My mother must have been over the moon while my father felt very fulfilled. The sad part is that he died when I was still in Law School. He did not live long enough to see me get called to bar. He died of old age.
How did you feel when you learnt of his death?
It is one of the regrets I have till date. Apart from the fact that he would have died as a fulfilled man if he had seen me get called to bar, he would have been there to guide me in the profession. In this profession, it is always easier if you have a mentor. In my case, I had to wander about for about ten years before I was able to find my footing in the profession because I did not have a mentor. If my father had not died, he would have been my mentor.
How would you describe your childhood?
I was a very quiet and observant child. I am still a very quiet and reserved person. When I say I read law because my father could not and my uncle died very young as a lawyer, it shows that I was observant as a child because no one told me to study law. It was something I deduced myself listening to stories my parents told. I also saw their body language when they spoke on the issue. I noticed that they really missed my uncle. I gathered that on my own through my interactions with them and that is why I made the decision to become a lawyer. None of my parents spoke to me about it.
My father was a disciplinarian and he never pampered any of us. Our parents passed messages to us orally and via gestures as we were growing up. My father could have a visitor and if you were not supposed to be present, a mere glance from him was enough for you that you should leave the vicinity at once. My father was a very strict disciplinarian and I did not have the luxury of being pampered even though I am the last child. I spent most of my time in boarding school. I went to Federal Government College, Odogbolu and later proceeded to Ogun State University, now Olabisi Onabanjo University.
You said you are a reserved person but many people believe that lawyers are very loquacious…
I think people make a mistake when they say lawyers are loquacious. As a lawyer, you need to be vocal but you don’t have to be a loud person. You are trained to understand the law, your rights and what the solutions should be if the law is breached. Those solutions should come in an organised manner. Of course if you are in court, you cannot shout at the judge; your voice must be moderated. It does not help you if you shout in court and you can make your argument in a quiet and dignifying manner. In court, two lawyers cannot talk at the same time, one would be seated while the other has the floor and vice versa.
It really does not matter if you are a quiet person. Several quiet people have made very wonderful law practitioners but in our society, people get carried away and believe that lawyers must be loud people. In fact, based on our ethics, lawyers should be less seen on the pages of newspapers and on the television. They should be known based on their works. Our past governor, Babatunde Fashola, is not a loud person but he is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and he achieved many great things as a governor despite the fact that he is not a very loud person. Most of the best SANs are people who are quiet.
What are some of the challenges you faced when you started out in the profession?
The challenges are many and that is one of the reasons I aspired to become the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the NBA. We are in a profession that the society demands a lot from. An average lawyer just wants to leave law school and the moment he achieves that, the society’s expectation becomes very high. They expect such person to become a big man overnight. When a lawyer who was called to bar about a year ago puts on his suit and jumps on a motorcycle simply because he doesn’t have a car yet, people begin to look at him somehow.
But the society has not sat down to reason how to help lawyers make money. The truth is that Nigerians don’t pay professionals and lawyers bear the brunt a lot. That is why we are trying to organise ourselves in such a manner that no lawyer goes hungry again.
Was there ever a time you considered opting out of the profession?
At some point in time, the thought crossed my mind and it was because I was not earning enough money. As a young lawyer, I remember that I changed my employment about four times because I was searching for a place that paid well. When I started out, I was earning about N1,000 monthly in the late 80s. From there, I moved to where I was being paid about N2,500.
I was also looking for a better working environment. I believe that part of the problems with our profession is that we have little clusters of lawyers scattered around the country. On a street, you can see about four small law firms. The future of the profession requires that lawyers come together and form partnerships. A lawyer who solely runs his firm is limited in areas of expertise and resources. That is what the big law firms enjoy. Because we have mainly small individual law firms, we can find it difficult to compete internationally. I doubt that we have any law firm that can boast of 100 lawyers in Nigeria. Setting up a law firm requires millions of naira. The books alone cost a lot and it is difficult for a young lawyer to set up his business. That is a major challenge we face.
Is it true that you started your law firm from your garage?
Yes I did. After putting about seven years into practice by being employed by various law firms, I discovered that I was not fulfilled. There is a limit to what you can become if you work with a sole entrepreneur in this profession. You work there for several years but your status does not rise and you do not become a partner because the person considers it as his business. To make your career move, you have to leave and start your own practice.
The only way to become a part owner in such venture mostly is when the owner dies and he doesn’t have a child to carry on his legacy. That is what informed me to start my own firm. I had reached a level that I could not rise again. I had to start from my garage. I reconstructed it and I was there for about five years before I moved to my current office.
How do you relax?
Interestingly, I hardly go on vacation but that does not mean I do not relax. I am a party lover. I attend parties and I still go to clubs once in a while. I enjoy travelling a lot especially when the court is on a break.
How long have you been married?
I have been married for over 23 years. I have four children and my first born, a girl, is in law school. I met my wife in school, we forged a bond and got married soon after.
source:PUNCH
No comments:
Post a Comment