I met Baba Afe Babalola

The current conflict is caused by Dele Farotimi's opinion that the judiciary in Nigeria is corrupt. I don't think Baba will deny that. We all know that, even the judges also know it.

Chief Afe Babalola and Dele Farotimi

I dare not call him Afe Babalola because he is older than my father who died many years ago. As a Yoruba omoluabi or wellbred, I dare not. Those who describe Baba Afe Babalola as an icon are right but they might need to search for a better word because Baba is more than an icon. Let me suggest that Baba Afe Babalola is an institution. If you know an Ekiti person in the days of yore, in the days before everything in Nigeria collapsed; in the days before the judiciary in Nigeria became an anathema, a corruption that gives off putrefying smell at each turn, in the days before Bola Tinubu and co became presidents and before the likes of Ayodele Fayose became the governor of Ekiti State and before Ademola Adeleke became governor in Osun State entertaining everybody with his dance steps; in those good old days, you will appreciate the deep humility, submission and respect for elders among the Ekiti. That was the era the Ekiti girlfriend of my elder brother would go on her knees to report my brother to me. I have talked about girl friend and not wife. So when some reported that Baba Afe Babalola is a god of sorts in Ekiti, I say perhaps the Ekiti people are regaining their lost character.

I met this great man, this great institution, and that I think qualify me to write this piece. I had read about him in newspapers. He had a very humble beginning, he was self made. If you want to understand that grace does not mean laziness and that grace does not come cheap like many Christians today think, you might have to study Afe Babalola. In those early days of his life he carried only books so much that the mother begged the father to compel the son to get a wife. The father refused insisting that the son should be left to pursue his interest. A mat served as the door of the hut Afe Babalola and the entire family lived in. Despite a life of deprivation, he wrote his B.Sc Economics exams from home and passed. He was the only candidate in Nigeria for that year and he wrote the exam at the British Council in Lagos. He was then in the civil service of the Western Region. At his success the officers wanted to move him to the officers cadre because he was qualified but Afe Babalola turned down the request like he said no to the advice that he should get a wife. He knew the civil servants, that they don't work there but rather gossip and politik for advancement. For him, hard work is the surest way to advancement. He would rather travel abroad to study law. And he did leaving the civil service behind him for good.

He came back as a lawyer and whether his hard work theory is true or not, his life and position as one of the foremost lawyers if not the doyen of the legal profession in Nigeria testify to that. Chief Afe Babalola works almost round the clock and the least time he leaves his law chambers in Ibadan is 10 pm. My interest in him started when he was appointed as the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, from where I graduated. He was Pro-Chancellor many years after I had left the school. But he left footprints that astounds me. In one of my visits to the University, I saw built very near to the Department of Mass Communication where I had studied, a sprawling auditorium that bears his name: Afe Babalola Auditorium. I was amazed that the man not only changed the face of administration in the University he also left an auditorium behind whereas many others had held the same appointment only to be accused of misdemeanours. I had also read his suggestion in the newspaper that parents be made to pay 16,000 Naira per student to shore up the finances of the universities as it was becoming impossible for government to fund them. I thought this was evidence of a man who is thinking. Don't be surprised, many Nigerians who go to government including even at the level of president hardly focus on the numerous challenges bedevilling the nation. Since that day I began to desire to meet him in person.

By divine providence, an opportunity unplanned came. I had planned with a university classmate to seek business opportunities around Lagos. But as I met my friend for that journey he told me he had an impromptu appointment with one of his very old friends. My friend has a knack for making friends and he has them from the youngest to the very old. He does not, he told me take his very old friends lightly. We had to cancel our appointment, he must go to Ibadan to meet this his old friend. Who is this his old friend, I asked him? I asked him with a tone of disappointment and with excitement he answered: Baba Afe Babalola. My countenance changed, I became excited too; my appointment with him for business opportunity may fly to the sky, I had longed to meet his very old friend for a long time and if that is the opportunity, I won't turn it down.

In my friend's cool bus car, we drove to Ibadan, my own home town that I had not visited before then for almost a decade. And in less than two hours, we were in front of Afe Babalola’s Emmanuel Chambers at Ekotedo in Ibadan. It's a three storey building, all the floors filled with books. Law books that had gathered dust and were very old. Along the corridor that led through to Baba Afe Babalola's office lined some people that at first I thought were clients of the great lawyer but later I saw they were the beneficiaries of his philanthropy. One after the other they went into his office which was opened for every one on the corridor to see, sad they went in, but none came out without smiling: wads of naira notes was exchanging hands. My friend perhaps because he had been used to the place or because they were expecting him, did not wait for any protocol, he went in straight ahead and took a seat. I remained at the corridor. My friend later signaled me in but as I entered, Baba Afe Babalola rose from his seat, came out from the very busy table, busy with books and files to greet me at the door. Please note that there was nothing about me that suggested I was a man of importance. I had lost a little weight then because of a certain difficulty I was passing through. So how could such an eminent personality, such an accomplished lawyer rise to greet me like that? I practically had nothing to offer him. He stretched his hand which I took with my heads bowed; I dare not call him by his name Afe Babalola, I'm a Yoruba person.

Because I was captivated by his humility and his philanthropy, I launched straight into a few things I had heard about him at the University of Lagos and a few I had read about him in newspapers and his suggestion to move university education forward in the nation. He was on his feet throughout our discussion and he listened to me attentively. I won't forget his first sentence to me because I didn't expect it and I didn't know why he asked the question neither do I know what he saw. He asked me: “Is it because of your dexterity in the English language that you took pastoring as a profession?” In the Pentscostal Church to which I belong pastoring is not a profession that anybody takes on himself; you are called into it. So I didn't know how to answer him. Here was me who didn't believe in myself so much about writing and speaking. My friend that took me there in my view was the best in our class. Baba Afe Babalola said I picked my words carefully and slowly for effect. I must deny that because if I did it was not intentional, it was probably because of the aura of the institution I was standing before.

Baba's next question was more poignant and true: “Why do you look older than your friend and classmate?” That was caused by two things, one I was going through some difficulties then that cannot be known to Baba and two that look had been with me since I was young. No hard feelings but it shows Baba as a straight shooter. How then is Baba angry with Dele Farotimi, another straight shooter like Baba? Baba's last question was: “Do you read the Nigerian Tribune?” I don't. He then asked me to write my impressions on him and bring it to him for publication in the Tribune. That rattled me a little. With my status in journalism, I should not need anybody to push an article through any newspaper. I later learnt that Baba keeps a weekly column in the Tribune. It also shows another side of Baba which I will come into. Finally, Baba requested my friend and classmate, his friend to take me to Afe Babalola University. I knew I would not go. I couldn't risk the herdsmen kidnappers that ravaged Ekiti state at that time. I simply didn't raise it with my friend at all.

What's the background in Baba's life that inform his response to Dele Farotimi in the current face off with Dele? Baba likes publicity. I think that informed his request to me to write my impressions of him to publish them in Tribune. He may not know it but those who like to hug the klieglight will not take kindly to any brush on their personality. Baba is great but like all great men Baba has his little faults. Baba talks so well about God. His chamber is named after the name of Jesus, Emmanuel Chambers. When he invited people to see his university, he humbly invites them to see what God is using him to do in Ado Ekiti. One of them said in a visit like that both to beg Baba because he had libeled him and to see the university, Baba gave him one million naira gift. That pained me, perhaps if I had risked the herdsmen kidnappers I also might have gotten something like that. But it is better to be alive. Pride is very subtle. It is that last thing that leaves a man and the first thing to come back. Baba will need to watch out for this. Hubris has ruined many great men.

The current conflict is caused by Dele Farotimi's opinion that the judiciary in Nigeria is corrupt. I don't think Baba will deny that. We all know that, even the judges also know it. Are the lawyers also reportedly corrupt. No lawyer can deny it, they can only justify it. The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Chairman of ICPC, Musa Aliyu both said before crime reporters at a lecture recently that the judiciary is very corrupt. Our politicans know it. They are quick to ask their opponents to go court because they know the cash-and-carry nature of our judiciary. Was Dele Farotimi wrong? I don't think so. Was he angry? Yes, he was and you have to be angry in a fraudulent system like we have Nigeria. If you are not sufficiently angry you cannot hope for a change or to change anything. Nigeria needs many angry men and women to dare the laws of libel and defamation to say with boldness what is really going on in that we all know, that we discuss in hush tones behind closed doors in our houses. Dele Farotimi's case has come and will go, only God can determine its outcome but Baba's huge efforts must be left intact. For all I care, the current case is not getting Baba any mileage as one who wants to see a great Nigeria. Journalists also must rise up to cry because they stand to gain if this libel and defamation laws that are used to scuttle freedom of speech and to shield thieves and election riggers who end up stealing our collective patrimony in office and leave all of us citizens hungry and continually angry; are rewritten. When last did the EFCC win a case against any public officer accused of corruption? Somebody told me there at two kinds of lawyers: lawyers who know law and lawyers who know judges. I think we have more of the second category in Nigeria.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos