Adding value….Muyiwa Adetiba (on conferment of silk on Dr Dapo Olanipekun)

Dr Oladapo Olanipekun, scion of Chief Wole Olanipekun the erudite legal practitioner, was recently named among the latest Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN). At under 35, he became, according to accounts, the youngest SAN. I have had nothing but respect and admiration for his father since the first time I heard him speak in public. It is a respect I am sure he has earned across board. And if Oladapo is half as intelligent as his father, then he has a good thing going for him. I have no doubt also that he would have fulfilled the legal requirements for the conferment.

Or that he had acquitted himself creditably at the Supreme Court and the lower courts. After all, he would have had a fine teacher in his father. But I have had this feeling ever since I heard of the conferment in the news and of the subsequent party held in his honour, that he breasted this coveted tape a bit too early. In the end, it might be a disservice to him and the elite class of the silk.

An honour of this nature is not just for brilliance and professional competence, it should also recognise ‘stature’ and ‘experience’. An induction into the honour’s list of a professional body should be a crowning glory for a life-time achievement. It should not be given early. So having attained silk at a relatively young age, what should brilliant, articulate but young Oladapo be looking forward to now in his chosen profession?

You can also not escape the feeling that he got what he got because of who his father is in the profession. In other words, for all his brilliance, would he have been made a SAN at 34 if he was Mr Nobody? This observation is made more poignant because a close look at the list of young SANs over the years shows that quite a few of them are children of judges and top legal practitioners. This was a precedence set by a very senior advocate who had all his eligible children and indeed those who headed his chambers made SAN.

It seems a precedence that has now gained acceptance perhaps to the disadvantage of other equally brilliant lawyers but from poorer backgrounds. It also seems there is a subtle discrimination against ‘controversial’ lawyers; that is lawyers who are not pro-establishment. My last interview with Chief Rotimi Williams almost ended in a fiasco because I took him up on this issue. I had asked him why the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi was overlooked even when people trained by him had been inducted into the hallowed club. I pointed out the dangers of that to the institution in terms of public perception.

All I got was a deafening silence for an answer. I probably would have been walked out of his chambers but for my prior relationship with him. Yet the fact remains that for an institution to remain relevant and respected, it has to keep adding value to itself. It does that by having a strict moral and ethical code which it must adhere to always, by providing a level playing field and by inducting in some cases, people who have achieved some pre-eminence outside the body and can thus add value. Simply put, there are certain people who will give stature to a body and there are certain people who will take stature from a body.

Let me use my profession as an illustration. For you to become a Fellow of the Guild of Editors, you must have been an Editor for a few years and naturally be a member of the guild. It sounds simple and straightforward except that there are Editors and there are Editors. In my time, we knew ourselves and competed against each other just as I am sure that the younger ones still do today. So a few eyebrows are bound to be raised if a competent and respected Editor is overlooked in favour of a lightweight just because that Editor is ‘qualified’.

The more that kind of thing happens, the less relevant and respected the body becomes. And speaking of bodies, there was a time we had people like Dr Chris Kolade, Dr Michael Omolayole, Chief Henry Fajemirokun, Chief S.L Edu heading organisations like the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Directors, Institute of Personnel Management etc. these were people who had made their marks in their respective occupations and were nationally and internationally known. They brought that ‘weight’ into the various organisations and lifted them up.

They didn’t need ‘President of ……’ as appendages to their names to gain stature. Today, we have many Lilliputians who are lightweight outside the bodies they head and need such bodies for credibility and stature. Instead of adding value, they have taken value. The result is that many of these bodies don’t have the clout they had in the 70s and 80s.

The ‘silk club’ is still a respected club. But I know many astute and successful lawyers who are outside the club and are not losing sleep over it. They believe they are as good, if not better than some of the members inside the club. They also believe the process is riddled with favouritism. I hope the attainment of silk will not become compromised like many of our honours to the extent that deserving people are not angling for it any more. That would be a pity. I mean who really loses sleep over a National Honour these days?

In my humble opinion, honours are given in the Arts, Sciences, and professional bodies to deserving people who have made exemplary contributions over a considerable period of time. Many of them have dedicated a life time to their trade. They are hardly given at the beginning of a career no matter how promising the career looks to be. They should not become a meal ticket.