Service to the Bar: Remembering ‘Tola Apata’ – By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim
On 18th March 2018, the Nigerian Bar Association, Lagos Branch will be rolling out drums to celebrate one of its own, Pa. Tunji Gomez who will be 90 years old on the surface of the earth. It is on this very day that it will be exactly four years that Mr. Babatola Apata, a former Secretary General of the Branch left our midst to the great beyond. While we celebrate the living, we must also celebrate and pray for the dead. There is no doubt that Mr. Apata died in the active service to the bar as he was involved in a motor accident which he miraculously survived when he was on his way to the NBA NEC meeting for the first quarter of that year 2014. He was later hospitalized and was recuperating when the angel of death came calling. He was eventually buried on 27th March 2014.
In THE BRIEFCASE, the monthly newsletter I ran during my tenure as the Publicity Secretary of the branch, I wrote in the Series 2 of the April Edition of that year under the caption, HA! APATA IS GONE:
“When our late General Secretary, Mr. Babatola Apata was on Thursday 27th March 2014 eventually lowered into the grave at Victoria Court Cemetery, Lekki, I could no longer resist the cloud of tears that had gathered in me. The tears started dropping and I said ‘So Apata is gone’. The demise of the young man was very painful to us in the sense that we had all expected him back in our midst having miraculously survived the accident in which he was involved.”
Nobody had expected that he would die but our hope was dashed when the sad news came that he had given up the ghost. I got to know him better when we found ourselves in the incumbent Executive Committee of Premier Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. When Apata scanned and emailed to me the copy of the Aso Rock’s letter sacking Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Governor of Central Bank, I wrote to commend him that ‘Mr. Apata you are truly THE ROCK’. When we later met one on one and I repeated the commendation, he began to laugh.
“Apata was a brilliant young lawyer who was very knowledgeable in the knowledge of laws. One of the things I learnt from him is that if you cultivate the habit of buying a law report every week, it would not be difficult for you to stock your law library at ease. Apata used to buy a latest copy of the Nigerian Weekly Law Report (NWLR) every week .We have indeed lost a gem and a promising young lawyer in person of Babatola Sunday Eyitayomi Apata who undoubtedly died in active services to the bar. We have no choice when the Almighty God, the Giver and Taker of lives have taken decision which cannot be appealed against. Our prayers for him to the Good Lord is to put him among the saints and give the Bar , his wife and family the fortitude to bear the great loss.”
The floodgate of tribute that followed the departure of Tola Apata from the world was overwhelming. With the very short life he spent,he touched many lives in one or the other. Many of his colleagues in both University of Ilorin and the Nigerian Law School testified to his brilliance. Apata was on top of his class. A colleague in Abuja said about Apata that whenever he had any problematic issue in the cause of litigation and immediately called him on phone to seek his advice and opinion, Apata would take his time to explain and instantly refereed him to case authorities to further consult. Another classmate of his in University of Ilorin said he once got a particular brief from a client and he was at crossroads. Immediately he went to see Apata the way a sick man goes to see his doctor, Apata lectured him and reminded him of a particular course they did together at the undergraduate level, the said classmate’s problem was solved.
He was an epitome of a good husband who stood by his wife all the times when he was alive. Please listen to the part of the tribute by his lovely wife, Adeola , may the Good Lord continue to console her :
“..You touched every life you met positively, A great lover of children (I wish I bore you one) , A great communicator, you had no barriers in friendship. Brave, Adventurous, Deep, Well cultured , vastly read, Dedicated Barrister, respectable and just so jovial, never bereft of appropriate proverbs for all situations, My backbone, My Guide, My Encyclopaedia, Atoka mi , Ore mi, Babatola Eyitayomi, you came, you saw and you conquered….”
Chief Wale Taiwo, another beneficiary of Apata’s friendship and brotherhood had this to say:
“Dear Tola , I cannot believe you are gone! You were a very good ‘aburo’ to me; always wanting to be around to lend a helping hand, not only on legal issues but on other social matters. You were a brilliant and hardworking; always wanting to share your knowledge of the law. My two daughters who are lawyers can never forget you as you mentored them from their University days through the Law School, making available to them necessary legal materials on topical issues which put them in good stead to excel. You were ever smiling, not wanting to hurt or offend anyone. As opposing counsel with me in a matter, you tenaciously made your points without being abusive or rude and coming out to tell me – ‘ohun ti e ko wa niyen’ (that is what you taught us) or ‘sorry sir. I was only doing my job’. As you rest your case finally, you can never be forgotten .It is not how long one lives but how well. You surely have left your footprints on the sands of time. You have done well. Sleep on, my beloved brother. Adieu! “
Is there any lesson for us all here? Do you want to be remembered for good or evil? In the book JULIUS CEASER written by the great Williams Shakespeare, when Mark Anthony took the corpse of Ceaser to the Romans and was addressing them one of the things he said was that “I am here to bury Ceaser but not to praise him, the evil men doth liveth after them”.
What do we want to be remembered for after we are no more? May the Good Lord continue to bless the soul of BABATOLA SUNDAY EYITAYOMI APATA!
BETWEEN LAWYERS AND THE COLD WAR
This time around the lawyers are involved in the cold war. It is either planning to walk the talk against what is perceived as police’s harassment on lawyers and the public. A cold war has also been declared demanding the Governor to reserve his decision on the increment of the Land Use Charge. The lawyers’ cold war is to only against those in the Executive Arms of Government, the Judiciary is equally facing the cold warfare on the complaint by lawyers that filing fees in court are unnecessarily being increased and access to court and justice by common man is being hindered.
For instance, a lawyer has also declared a cold war by dragging the Lagos State Judiciary to court for introducing new stamp apart from the one introduced by the NBA. Whether the court will rule against itself is a question to be answered by the court itself. It is one thing for a lawyer to institute a court action, it is another thing for such lawyer to have the courage to prosecute the suit to the logical conclusion which is more the reason why many lawyer (litigants) have lost the spirit of GANISM. Late Gani Fawehinmi epitomised GANISM because whenever he instituted an action he fought it to logical conclusion even if the Supreme Court would have the final saying.
There was a time in this country when NBA instituted a legal action alleging wasteful spending against the National Assembly probably for sending its members to a foreign country to watch a particular World Cup Match. There was also a time when a lawyer instituted a legal action in court against the NBA when it wanted to verify its members. The lawyer said the NBA’s decision was an attempt to usurp the power of the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court. I doubt if anything eventually came out of these suits.
It is a good thing to challenge illegality of an act in the court of law regardless of the status of any person involved if the person after being advised to do the right thing and refused to be law compliant. But to institute a suit and abandon it mid way without any just cause is nothing but an act of cowardice.
REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON DUTY OF JUDGE TO LAW
“It is the duty of the judex to expound what the law is and we should loyally follow the doctrine of stare decisis. Our problems as judges should and must not be to consider what social and political problems do today require, that is to confuse the task of a judge with the task of a legislator. More often than not, the law, as passed by the legislators, has produced a result which does not accord with the requirements of today. Let that defective law be put right by legislators but we must not expect the judex, in addition to all his other problems, to act as Lord Mansfield did, and decide what the law ought to be. In my humble view, he (the judex) is far better employed if he puts himself to the much simpler task of deciding what the law is.”
Per ADEREMI ,JSC in Dapianlong Vs. Dariye (2007) 4 SC (Pt. 111) Pgs. 216-217 Paras 35-40, 5
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