Thread by @OrjiUka

One of the most impactful books that I have read is ‘The Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell. The Book is a contradiction of sorts because it talks about those who have talents that mark them apart & make them special, yet a central point of the Book is that there is no self-made man.

In the journey to the top (you and I know that I am on my way) we are often blessed with those who God places on our path to facilitate that journey as well as those whose responsibility in our lives is to provide a stumbling block. It takes a discerning mind to decipher which.

The inspiration to write this tribute came while reading a dazzling tribute about the subject of today’s celebration, the one we call ‘Teacher’, by his self-styled life-student @FlorenceOzor.

My initial feeling while reading the tribute was that of envy that I did not [or have not] had the privilege] of actually being the Teacher’s student in a formal capacity. On proper reflection, I reminded myself of the tremendous impact that Teacher has had on my career...

... in ways some of his students may not even be able to boast of.

I have shared some of these before. Today it is altogether fitting that I share them again.

I gained admission into the Faculty of Law, Abia State University in 2005 with the dream of graduating and joining a law firm in Aba or Umuahia (again please don't misunderstand me) to practice courtroom litigation practice. Because that was all I knew about Law Practice then.

It was in my first year in the University, that I met Teacher without actually meeting him. As part of our induction into the Faculty, we were forced to pay for a journal, ‘In Search of Legal Scholarship: Essays in Support of Ernest Ojukwu.’ It turned out to be money well spent.

I remember reading the biography of Teacher in that Journal and almost feeling depressed. Teacher had begun his career in 1985 when he joined Abia State University as an Assistant Lecturer at the age of 25. I know where I was in 1985, just don’t ask me.

He ultimately rose to become as Associate Professor of Law and was appointed Dean of the Faculty in 1995 at the ripe young age of 35. From there he was tapped to become the Deputy Director General of the Nigerian Law School, at the Augustine Nnamani Campus in Agbani, Enugu.

While Teacher ABSU before I joined, his reputation preceded him. With the high esteem in which my lecturers held him, it was nigh on impossible to have spent a month in the Faculty without knowing about him, 5 years after he left. I had found a mentor. Even if he hadn’t found me.

It was at the subsequent law dinner held at the end of the second semester of my first year in ABSU that I met Teacher in flesh for the first time. Listening to him blew my mind and changed my worldview on many fronts.

It was during his address at the Dinner that I heard for the first time about Teacher called "Law Clinics" which at that time didn't make sense to me, even though we had one in the Faculty.

But it piqued my interest enough for me to long for 400L when I would be qualified to be a member of the ABSU Law Clinic. And I did in 2009 under the leadership of Prof. Sam Erugo as the then Coordinator and Maureen Ify Obi Chinze as Clinic Head.

Law Clinics and clinical legal education were introduced into Nigeria by the Network of Universities’ Legal Aid Institutions with Teacher as President, current DG of the Nigerian Law School Prof. Isa Hayatou Ciroma as Vice President and Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George as Secretary.

They may not have received the accolades that they deserve but the idea that these three wise men pioneered quietly revolutionised legal education in Nigeria. All that is left is for their idea to be mainstreamed. We still cling to the hopes that this is still possible.

The products of the law clinics and CLE include Dr @aminugamawa, Daniel Bwala, @effodu Jake Okechukwu, Amalachukwu Nwazota, Victor Ukagwu, Hezekiah Ivoke, Inyene Robert, Chioma Nwigwe, @Azubuikeseth, @Iykepfs Uzoma, Opeyemi Longe, Faith Aboyeji, yours truly & numerous others.

In January 2010 I competed in the National Client Counselling Competition organised by NULAI Nigeria where Amalachukwu and I represented ABSU and we won the competition (the first winners from ABSU) and...

... thereby earned the right to represent Nigeria and indeed Africa at the 2010 Brown Mosten International Client Counselling Competition in Hong Kong.

There is no shame in admitting that I boarded a plane for the first time in my life through this platform.

These days whenever I am on board (as the frequent flyer that I have become 😃) I always reflect on that first time and that man who God used to make it happen.

I returned for the client counselling competition a few more times as a judge and also a Coach. Teacher through NULAI invited me to Abuja in 2010 (also my first time) as a speaker at an All African Conference and had me lodged me at the palatial Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Abuja.

He also gave me the opportunity to undergo my first and only internship with NULAI Nigeria in 2011. It is an understatement to describe Teacher as a disciplinarian.

You may recall that the year 2011, the year of my internship was around the advent of social media in Nigeria. Those who know me now may find it hard to believe that I was part of those who wrote ‘short-hand’ in email communication until Teacher stopped me in my tracks.

I remember him once replying my email in red colour font because of the errors in my email and email etiquettes that I had failed to observe. I look back almost 10 years now and I remain grateful for that solid foundation.

It was also during my internship that I heard for the first time that there were commercial law firms in Lagos where law practice is at a level comparable to what obtains in other jurisdictions & who take staff welfare issues seriously. The NULAI platform gave me that access.

Lastly, just before I left University, Teacher invited me as a resource person to address Nigerian Law School students at NLS Enugu Campus. The next year when those students had become lawyers and I was undergoing my law office attachment in Abuja...

... I met one of the students that I had addressed the previous year and he couldn’t fathom why I was doing my own law office attachment that year because he genuinely thought I was a law lecturer the previous year when I came to address them.

I know he has forgotten all these but, how can I? It is for these and other reasons that my initial feeling of envy in reading @FlorenceOzor’s tribute passed when I reminded myself that despite not having been Teacher’s student in class, I have certainly been his student in life!

It is also because of the foregoing that Malcolm Gladwell’s view in ‘The Outliers’ that there is no self-made man resonates with me because in my journey so far, I have clearly stood on the shoulders of giants, one of whom is Teacher.

On the occasion of his 60th birthday, it is meet and right that I join his family, friends and most especially his students in celebrating a teacher par excellence, a legal education pioneer, a brilliant and eminent lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Professor @ernestojukwu.