AN OPEN LETTER TO AARE AFE BABALOLA, SAN, ON THE DELE FAROTIMI MATTER. | S. O. K. Shillings Esq.

Dear Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, 

I hope this finds you in the right condition because even though God has granted you the grace of wealth and health, you are at 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 Book of Records 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 the 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 calls it. The day happened to be the eve of Ikorodu Oga Day, and I was the chief organiser as Secretary of Ikorodu Oga Development Association then. I still came. After waiting until around 7:30, I was ushered in and reminded 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 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 wristwatch. 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 paires in the Nigerian legal landscape. You are a standard-bearer, a tone-maker and a personification of the legal system in Nigeria. Meaning, noblesse oblige, you take the glory along with the blame. 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 resources, 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 at 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 was 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 or black if he believes so. He is not among the fist-clenchers who make noise all day without purpose and sing aluta songs as a 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 who could cause problems. If you 'kill' it, it will ooze 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 client's 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 inauthenticity 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 didn't want a situation where my emotions 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 comes calling and says that he knew the judge received N1 million in two tranches and the registrar got N50,000.00 and asked: 'What can we do now?' expecting that he could simply pay and the judgment would be reversed?

If those (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 leading light. I should also remind you, sir, that the lawyer who wrote that his boss and chambers have the capacity to make judges do their bidding 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 the Criminally Corrupt 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 a cross-examination where all sorts of questions, including the morality of fees for incorporation and relationship with the President and personal issues of nine-and-a-half decades, will come to the 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 the 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 who 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. 

By your actions on Dele, Emmanuel Chambers has already stained its integrity. 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 the complainant choosing the 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 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!

S. O. K. Shillings Esq.