"Nigeria won't know peace until... By Akintunde Olanrenwaju Alao

On a hot afternoon in the early 70s, a boy of about ten was at the railway station in Offa, Kwara State, hawking before a limited train when an Express train emerged like a bolt from the blue. He was too preoccupied by his desire to sell his wares to notice another train coming behind him.  But by the time the oncoming train had passed, he found himself panting for breath following a close shave with death. He had been relocated from Lagos to Kwara by his father with a plan to attend a boarding school after his parents got separated. However, a promise by a relative to take good care of him made his father to change his decision. The young lad was left in the care of the relative. No sooner had his father returned to Lagos, where he worked as the General Sales Manager with RT Briscoe, than his new guardian got him a tray and sent him to the streets to hawk.  As fate would have it, he returned to Lagos few years later and continued with his education. But his result at the final stage of his secondary school education left him with a faint prospect for higher education.  "I only passed I.R.K and failed every other subject," he recalls. But with dint of hard work and the determination to excel in life, he was able to pull through. Today, he superintends over one of the most flourishing law chambers in Nigeria. "I saw the experience as one of the challenges of life, if I had not gone through it probably I would have been at zero level now." In this interview, he shares the story of his winding path to success. Background Growing up was challenging because my father married five wives and my mother was so sensitive about the welfare of her children. Initially, I lived with my mum alongside my other siblings. But at a stage my father felt I shouldn't be a waste in life. So, he cleverly talked to my mum promising to take me to a boarding school.  I was meant to go to a boarding school but unfortunately I ended up in Kwara State where I had to hawk sponge and other materials to survive. In the process, I almost got crushed by a train at Offa railway station. It was just the grace of God that saved me. I would have been dead long ago. My father was not aware of what I was going through. He was okay and buoyant because he was the General Sales Manager, RT Briscoe. But my mother felt I was so important to her so she had to just quarrel with my father in order to bring me back to Lagos. It looked more of an adventurous trip to me because as a young man I learnt so much. I see the whole experience as one of the challenges of life. If I had not gone through that experience, probably I would have been at zero level now. Then, after my education I joined politics.  I schooled at the University of Lagos, then Olabisi Onabanjo University and University of Huddersfield, where I bagged my LLB, BL and LLM. I went to University of Lagos for a course in education and later on went to Olabisi Onabanjo for a Law degree. I went to the University of Huddersfield, UK , where I did my LLM in International Business Law. Last year, October 23 to be precise, I was made a UN Ambassador for Peace. What would you say qualified you to be made a UN Ambassador for Peace? Should I say a landmark achievement in peace making? I have been able to mediate and solve quite a number of differences, apart from the pro bono that I do. (Pro bono in legal practice means free legal services). Apart from those ones, I have been able to mend and reconcile broken homes, settle rifts within communities and even chieftaincy matters out of litigations. And I am still at it. To what extent would you say being a UN ambassador has impacted on your profession? It is a booster. It has really boosted my profession. It has afforded me the opportunity to attend a couple of conferences. It broadens my knowledge to really see the importance of peace in our society. There is no achievement one can record in life without having peace. Without peace in your home or in your business, you are not an achiever. Talking about peace, where would you say Nigeria actually got it wrong going by the situation in some northern states in the country? I don't want to answer this question from a spiritual point of view because I may be sentimental about some issues. But let me attack it practically; it is as a result of greed, the winner takes it all attitude, a situation where a political party will dominate a particular setting.  I am so sorry that I am not a politician and I don't have anything to do with them, though I deal with election matters. I had once joined politics but having sized myself up, I just felt that I don't really fit into it because it is an act of legalising illegality going by the way it is being practised in Nigeria. You cannot build something on nothing and expects it to stand. Let me just digress a bit. There are allocations given to local governments from federal purse to improve on certain amenities. But by the time you go to the different local governments, you see that the third tier of government is virtually doing nothing. So, what are they doing with their monthly allocations? They are not doing anything with it.  But while aspiring to get to political office, they give a lot of promises but as soon as they get there, they evade visits deliberately. That is when they attend different conferences, travel out of the country, their children attend the most expensive schools but they are not able to improve on our infrastructural facilities. What have they done with the money? The roads are bad, even minor potholes, they are not able to fix. Yet, they fight for their allocations every month. But without any sentiment, it is not because Raji Fasola is a professional colleague, he is one governor that has done tremendously well. There has been tremendous transformation since Fashola came to power unlike what obtained before. Take a look around you will see that Lagos is gradually turning to a mega city. Take a look at Oshodi, you can see how it has been transformed. You have not addressed the question on why peace remains elusive in some parts of the country. You can only achieve peace through understanding and sincere dialogue. The essence of peace is inculcated in our legal system. There is what we call pre-trial conference. Pre-trial conference is a way of achieving peace between litigants. You don't have to come for litigations; there are ways you can resolve your differences. You are trying to put a case against your neighbour, your brother; you should be able to resolve it amicably. This goes to pre-trial conference where we discuss issues, they should be able to shift ground. That is an attempt to make sure peace is restored. So, I want to tell you that the major stumbling block is greed. Let's go to the issue of Boko Haram. I want to tell you that Book Haram is more of a pressure group. They have a cause they are fighting but they have gone beyond a normal cause. Look at Niger Delta, they were being marginalised.  You are getting certain resources from certain localities yet they were deprived of certain amenities. Those involved in the negotiation want to milk out something from it. I have seen a situation where certain amount of money was earmarked for certain projects, but of course, the so called committee sat on it. At the end of the day the people are still suffering. How do you expect peace to be achieved in this situation? But all attempts by Federal Government to dialogue with the sect (Boko Haram) were rebuffed by the group. So, where is the opportunity for sincere dialogue you are advocating? Like I said earlier on, you don't expect something to be built on nothing. Of course, you can use the media to claim you have been trying but we are awaiting the manifestation of this. Have they actually done what they claimed they have done? In most cases, they tell you they have disbursed certain amount of money to certain group but does the money get to those it is intended for?  Although we have been reading it on the pages of newspapers but did it get to those it was intended? Have they appointed sincere hands to handle it? Peace could be best achieved by appointing sincere people to champion the cause. Another stumbling block Federal Government has identified in Boko Haram's problem is the claim that these people are faceless. The issue of godfatherism comes in at this point. If they know that this is the way to get money from the government, some of them will try to recruit some hoodlums. Who do you think they want to negotiate with when they know they have a clever way of getting money from the government? One disturbing issue in the legal profession is the claim that some judges give preferential treatment to Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN. What is your position on this? The issue of SANship in Nigeria can be likened to a baby given birth to, the child starts to sit and later crawls; from crawling the child starts walking till he becomes a man. We derive our law from the English legal system, the SAN is a replica of the Queen's Counsel and it will remain distinct in legal practice. You can't be stagnant, you have to move up; and you have to give respect to them (SAN). They have actually worked for it and they deserve it. Recently, I became worried when I read an article advocating the scrapping of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. It doesn't make any sense. The marginalization is not too alarming. Usually, the front row is meant for that office. If they are not around you may sit there but when they are around, of course you excuse them. Apart from that, they call their cases ahead of others when they are in the court. I don't see any marginalization in this regard and I don't see any need for the call to scrap the position. Why did you dump teaching for law? Education is important but you cannot compare it with Law or any other profession, be it engineering, medicine or any other profession. That is why it is called a noble profession, because you see the hand of a lawyer in every profession and every human endeavour. But I think there's more of education in every other profession. Education in the area of academics has a limitation but education in practical approach is not limited. I attended a seminar last week; that forms part of education.  Education is when you pass on knowledge; it is not until when you hold a chalk. What I have achieved as a lawyer, I don't think I would have been able to achieve if I had remained in education. Education is good, there's no doubt, but you cannot compare it to law. What is you view about the issue of child marriage as implied by the position of the senate? I have to take you back to the issue of peace. There are so many moves one makes that are capable of causing problem within the society. Our society does not permit that, it is an illegal act. The fact that a child does her first menstruation does not make her a mature person.  You can see how fast children grow these days. At the age of nine or ten, they start menstruating. What do you want to achieve in that? They want to use that law to cover their atrocities. How do you expect a baby to be married and be called a mother? It is for their selfish interest. Since the move to have same sex marriage failed to scale through because it is repugnant to our law and custom, they resorted to child marriage. I would have said child marriage is repugnant to our culture but the northerners do it. Once a child is born, they book it.  They call it booking, and they start taking care of the child. But from my own point of view, I certainly believe that something is wrong with that practice. Anybody who says a child, upon her first menstruation, is due for marriage should be taken for psychiatric test. The sponsor of that bill should be examined. What would you say is the greatest challenge the legal profession has? I think the major challenge in the legal practice is the problem of quackery. There are many impostors who have attempted bar finals four times as required by the law and once they are unable to make it they will be bid farewell. But most of them still want to remain relevant so they go and get a wig and gown and they will start practising.  In addition to this, I think there is need to further expose new wigs to practical experience so that they can well acquainted to the Nitty-gritty of legal profession. Law is a noble and dynamic profession that requires a lot of experience like some other professions. One way of doing this is for young law graduates to avail themselves of opportunity of learning more from senior practitioners. By doing this, I believe they will be able to get the needed exposure before setting up their own chambers. The issue of half-baked graduates is a major problem in Nigeria. What do you think is responsible for this? It is insincerity. When you know that somebody does not qualify for certain marks you don't have to pass him or her. But a lot of people whose children are not doing well academically will try to cut corners, by approaching lecturers and negotiating on what it takes for their children to be given good grades. You can see the level of corruption in the system. What would you say is the way out? Surveillance has to be put in place just as the West Africa Examination Council, WAEC is doing now. They have some inspectors who move round centres and try to curb examination malpractices. That is why you find some schools claiming they have 80 per cent, 90 per cent success in an examination, meanwhile they are the perpetrators of this illegality.  They get answers written for their candidates. So, the way out is surveillance, sincere surveillance from time to time. NUC and the governing body of polytechnics in Nigeria need to rise to this challenge. What options do you think are available to Nigeria on the issue of visas bond slammed on the country by the UK government? There are ways you can go under international law. It is a discriminatory step taken by the British. It has a negative mark on Nigeria. There are ways Nigeria can protest. For instance, we have the Nigeria -British Chamber of Commerce, which is a platform where we trade. We can cut certain relationships with them that could make them make a u-turn on the bond.