An Evening with George Etomi: Breeding the Next Crop of Commercial Lawyers
The event was ‘An Evening with George Etomi’ at the Parkview Chambers of GE&P in Ikoyi, an evening of animated and engaging discourse, fine dining and camaraderie which was graced by young lawyers and senior practitioners, most notably those practicing commercial law. The evening started with the presentations by two early facilitators who took guests through some of the problems faced by electricity consumers in Nigeria compared to what has long obtained in Western countries, as well as South Africa.
As its title implied, the evening was at the instance of Mr. George Etomi, a Director with Eko Electricity Distribution Company – also known as Eko Disco. A pioneer chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Section on Business Law and the Founding Partner of George Etomi & Partners, Etomi took the young lawyers on an intellectual journey through the history and remarkable accomplishments of the first generation of commercial lawyers in Nigeria, how they mentored the second generation, and this legacy of mentoring and positive impact must be transferred to the present generation.
In Etomi’s words, “The first lesson I have learned on this journey is that it is always good for every young lawyer to have a mentor. It might not necessary mean someone with whom you have an intimate relationship with – although that can be highly desirable. It could also be someone whom you may not even have met, but whose lifestyle and achievements have inspired you, even if you only read about him or her.”
Etomi said he was particularly lucky that in Chief Ogunbanjo, he had more of a mentor than a Boss, who called him ‘George’ rather than Mr. Etomi, and did all he could to make him feel at ease, as well as availed the younger man of his wealth of experience.
“For this reason,” Etomi said, ‘I resolved never to deny others who come to me for knowledge, because if I had been denied by the likes of Chief Ogunbanjo, perhaps I wouldn’t be who I am today.”
He listed other ‘alumni’ of Chief Ogunbanjo’s ‘school’ to include prominent lawyers such as Asue Ighodalo, Tokunbo Thomas, Odujinrin (of Odujinrin & Adefulu), and Udoma Udo-Udoma, among others.
Etomi extolled the pioneering role of Chief Ogunbanjo, who blazed the trail for other Nigerians in an area of law that was hitherto the exclusive preserve of Europeans, at a time most of his peers at the time choose litigation which was undeniably the more viable path to success.
The host also recalled that at the time he joined Ogunbanjo’s firm, the Nigerian government had promulgated a series of indigenization decree that mandated the foreign companies to bequeath some of their ownership shares to Nigerians. ‘At that time,” he recalled, ‘ a lot of legal work was generated from these things, but there were no thinkers in term of Nigerian law firms. So finding somebody who was there was for me a particularly inspiring story”.
Chief Ogunbanjo, he said, had so much confidence in his associates that he never hid any of his clients from them – a far cry from what obtains with many seniors today. It was a display of generosity that never detracted from him; he never became any poorer, quite the opposite. Etomi warned senior lawyers against trying to keep their knowledge to themselves, or disregarding the perspective of younger wigs, warning that this was a sure path to professional irrelevance. “The truth,” he said, “is that no matter how young someone is, they all have a story to tell, and you should be patient enough to listen to that story.”
Over the years, Etomi recalled, the Ogunbanjo Alumni and their respective law firms: George Etomi & Partners; Aluko & Oyebode; Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie; Ajumoghobia & Okeke, etc. have become the foundation members of the second generation of commercial law firms, having learned that the only way to succeed was to benchmark its practices with international standards.
Etomi expressed pride in having witnessed in the course of his practice the beginning of Nigeria’s banking revolution, saying it was a giant step away from what he called ‘the tally number era,’ when a day at the bank was like a picnic.
The same revolution, he said, has occurred in the telecommunications industry, recalling a time in Nigeria when it was an onerous task trying to own a telephone box without a line for trunk calls. “The fact that you had access to a phone meant that you were on your way to success. Nigeria had 700,000 installed lines, out of which only 400,000 were actually functioning. And of course the big men monopolized most of those lines. So, out of those 400,000 lines the distribution was among just 5,000 people.”
He also recalled the time when, as adviser to MTN during that company’s planned rollout for Nigeria, which they knew to be a country with only 400,000 lines. ‘They were going to start with 1,000,000 lines for over five year period at 200,000 per year, and they thought it was big news. “I told them that it won’t work because the 1,000,000 lines won’t go beyond Ikeja”. They said, “Come-on George, don’t worry. We know you Nigerians are many, but your earning capacity is low.” I replied that Africans loved to talk. The typical African, especially a Nigerian, would take a phone call to ask when somebody was coming to visit, and for the first 10 minutes they are chatting about everything except the reason for the call in the first place – until after about 10 seconds to the end of the airtime, and then they’d chip in the question about the visit… The South Africans brought the first 200,000 lines, and as I suspected, it didn’t get beyond the airport. So they quickly had to retune. But today what do we have? 140,000,000 lines. That is the penetration. And when Nigeria’s GDP was recently rebased to become the largest economy in Africa, it grew on the back of this telecoms revolution.”
‘How many of you experienced the days of Nigeria Airways?’ Etomi asked as he launched into his reminiscences on Nigeria’s aviation industry then and now. “In those days, owning a boarding pass did not guarantee that you’d get a seat on your plane because there would be about five of you to one seat … And when you finally take your seat, does not guarantee that you’d be taken to your destination. I’ve actually being in a plane which was recalled two hours into the flight. Why? Because the wife of a service chief wanted to go for lesser hajj. A brand new DC10 was on its way to New York, and all of a sudden the pilot told us that the plane’s engine had developed a fault and had to come back. We believed him, our only thought being that it was better to be safe than sorry – only to later discover that the plane was being diverted to Jeddah – six long hours away. Those were the things we saw in Nigeria. But today, even as imperfect as the sector is still, we are seeing tremendous improvements.”
Etomi asked the assembled lawyers to consider themselves immensely fortunate to be at the cusp of a revolution in the power sector, which is set to gather pace once the sector takes off in full force.
“It’s a revolution that must not be rolled back,” he affirmed, adding however that all these transformations took place within specific legal and regulatory frameworks. “And this is where you (commercial lawyers) all come in. Four years ago, none of us knew anything about power. So don’t be put off by the technical terms; you have to learn them, because the power sector revolution is the singular vehicle Nigeria needs to get become a highly developed economy… Had we in the power sector gotten our act together much earlier, power sector reforms would have come even before telecoms and the others, because they all ride on power”.
The inadequacies of the power sector, he said, could be seen in the fact that all the telecoms companies currently spend an estimated 40% of their revenue on alternative power, while individuals use generators. “But the statistics are daunting,” he lamented. “If you use Nigeria as a benchmark, the Millennium Development Goals required that we provide 1,000 megawatts to every 1,000,000 people. That’s what gives you a minimum flow to function effectively as a human being. So, having 180,000,000 people we ought to have 180,000mw. But what do have? 5,000mw. And it cuts across most African countries. Apart from South Africa with about 40,000mw, no other African country can meet up to 10% of their power needs. So for you, the younger generation of lawyers, this power gap is an ocean of opportunities.”
Speaking further about opportunities for lawyers in the energy sector, Etomi disclosed that in India, there are power companies with over 2,000 in-house and probably 2,000 external legal counsel, thanks to volume. “And I am talking about high quality jobs here because of the multiplicity of issues in the sector. Even for us who just started yesterday, in this office we’ve actually had to deploy about 14 -16 lawyers to each of the districts in Eko Disco, and that is just scratching the surface. That number will grow exponentially. And this is just one aspect of what that revolution already has in store.”
Calling for decentralized governance in the power sector, Etomi attributed the corruption in the sector to the centralized role of government, as represented by the regulation on the part of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
“Supplying electricity,” he asserted, “is a complex business. The sector has many aspects, all complex in themselves, such as engineering, accounting, tax, financing, laws and regulations, governance, consumer concerns and safety. If the administration of electricity was brought closer to each area of the country, it would increase efficiency, allow for more innovation and business adventure and of course create competition among the players in the industry and lead to better services. Decentralized governance has helped reposition the energy sectors of several countries. Kenya, the USA, the UK, and many countries in Latin America have benefited from it. When these countries privatised their electricity sectors, they attracted private sector funds which were put into the system to improve supply.
He quoted a World Bank report which put the per capita consumption of electricity in Nigeria at a mere142 kw/h, describing this figure as saddening when compared with the figure for China as far back as the early 1970s (151.98 kwh), which is higher than where Nigeria is 47 years today.
“In 2013, China’s per capita consumption of electricity sat at 3,762.08 kwh, with 2018’s estimate expected to be far higher. No wonder the country sits comfortably at the No. 2 spot with the second highest GDP in the world, as well as being a haven for the facilitation and growth of global trade.”
He noted that a situation in which Nigeria’s average electricity consumption per capita is 142 kwh, with a generation capacity of the national grid is around the region of 12,522 mw (against S/Africa’s 50,000mw), but only an estimated 4,000mw is what is being distributed to an entire nation, amounts to an energy crisis, saying the sector and the nation at large was in desperate need of a saviour – or a generation of saviours – to solve its energy needs for its estimated 190 million people. This, he asserted, was a new area in which young lawyers could make a good living, as well as make a profound difference.
The Continuing Legal Education and Mentorship Committee Chairman, Tobenna Erojikwe, said they have approached the distinguished learned senior, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, to host the next Group Mentorship programme of the NBA Lagos Branch.
See photos below:
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