In the words of the English poet and playwright, Williams Shakespeare, the world is a stage and each person plays his part and leave. Many played their parts and made marks, but lot of others don’t.
The late Chief Richard Akinjide played his part and left the stage with indelible marks on the sand of time. Since his demise recently, at the ripe age of 88 years, a lot of tributes had been written about him. He lived a principled life and he was a non-conformist. He was a taciturn with an unbelievably characteristic reticence; he was a deep thinker, polished and unusually polite and without cant.
As one of the founding leaders of the Yoruba Council of Elders, I was endeared to his formalised life and abiding faith in rules, even when he had divergent views and which he would make known later.
Since his exit, many comments had been made about his role in the 12-two-thirds of 19 states imbroglio between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Shehu Shagari during the 1983 presidential election.
The point most commentators ironically tried to gloss over is the understanding that both Chief Akinjide and Chief Awolowo belonged to opposing political parties throughout life. Politics is about permanent interest and not tantamount to permanent relationship, family or ethnic ties. The 12 two-thirds legal joker propounded by Akinjide to defeat Awolowo in 1983 was not borne out of malice, but professional excellence.
The late Akinjide was a lawyer who saw an opportunity in the interpretation of the correctness of 12 two-thirds of 19 states and grasped it to prove his professional mettle.
Politics is about defeating an opponent and any weapon can be used, Akinjide used his legal ingenuities to earn himself a place in the legal history of Nigeria.
I don’t think anybody should vilify the late legal icon for using his rich legal intellect to carve a niche for himself.
Sunday Olagunju,
former General Manager,
Sketch Newspapers, Ibadan,
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