Prof has never hidden his passion for the class room. First he refused to attend the Law School to qualify to practice law in Nigeria. Then he borrowed his younger sister’s wig for his call to bar and 26 years after his call to bar, he has appeared just once in court. Although he has been a regular as expert witness.
I pay my practicing fee regularly but I can only go to court as an Expert Witness. The only time I ever appeared in court as a lawyer was when ASUU had a case against the Federal Government. It had to do with the enforcement of a Collective Agreement that we concluded. I appeared before the late Justice Kayode Eso who was the Pro Chancellor of University of Benin. Professor Nwabueze the Education Minister had said Trade Union Agreement is at best a gentleman agreement which is an imperfect obligation and we were to respond. We prepared a 37 page brief and when we argued our case, Eso was convinced and upheld our submission. In anger, 2 hours later Prof Nwabueze fired him as Pro Chancellor of UNIBEN. That was the only time I went to court.
I am not against practice but what I say is; chose one and do it with devotion. Some argue that practice helps in teaching. Well, I say that is a self-fulfilling argument being canvassed to legitimize their quest for extra income. Although I agree that if you are teaching courses like the Law of Evidence and Criminal Law, you would want to be abreast of developments in court but that is about it. The two quotas or thereabout allocated to academics for the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I have not tried to take the benefits and I would never try to. My children are angry about it. They say we need it and I said no I am not interested. My younger sibling who has the largest law firm in Nigeria also says he is not interested in SAN. He said if they have Senior Solicitors of Nigeria he may be interested. And really, litigation is tedious and not as highly rewarding except you are a SAN.
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