Adam Adedimeji is a lawyer by training and media professional by calling. He is also a scholar in Islamic jurisprudence. Today, he communicates effortlessly in Arabic language and can read, write and interpret. Adedimeji believes a lawyer must guard his personal and professional integrity jealously. Excerpts:
Please give a brief introduction of yourself.
Through God’s benevolence, I have in the course of my life so far been able to have a fair touch of more than one walk of life. I am a lawyer by training and media professional by calling. I am also a scholar in Islamic jurisprudence as my early adult years was spent learning as well as teaching Arabic cum Islamic Studies.
I studied combined law, that is Common and Islamic Laws and that gave me the opportunity to have requisite knowledge in both laws. And for my Islamic scholarship, i was privileged to attend training both in Nigeria and outside the country. Today, i communicate effortlessly in Arabic language and can write, read and interpret in it. So far, I have had over 16 years experience in media and legal practice, during which I have been a Senior Legislative Aide and Senior Special Assistant on Media and Legal Matters with the National Assembly Service Commission in Abuja working directly with Senators of the Federal Republic. I had edited Law Pages of a national daily, the Independent newspapers, where I also had the privilege of serving on its Editorial Board for six years. I have also been specifically dealing with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), legal research and development, parliamentary practice and Company incorporation, as well as property management and matters bordering on debt recovery. At the risk of sounding immodest, I am on cutting-edge innovative ways of achieving client/readers’ satisfaction. In a nutshell, that is who Adam Adedimeji is.
Have you had any challenges in your career as a lawyer and if so what were the main challenges?
There must be challenges, not only for lawyers but in whatever career one finds oneself. The problem is not in facing a challenge when it comes but in finding a way to overcome it. I must say God has always been kind to me in assisting me to overcome any challenge whenever there is one.
What was your worst day as a lawyer?
My worst day as a lawyer has not been any specific day. My worst day as a lawyer is an everyday experience. It is when the rule of law is abused in our society and the people, including those in the legal profession, become helpless owing to an entrenched anomalous system in the society which, by extension, has been the bane of the Nigerian nation and a clog in the wheel of progress in almost all fronts of our national life. So, my worst day as a lawyer has less to do with my personal engagement but has more to do with the general situation of things particularly as it concerns individual human rights, adherence to the rule of law and constitutionalism at all strata of the society.
What was your most memorable experience?
What i considered a memorable experience came when as a Law student in Bayero University (BUK), my group won a moot court session. That was about two years before i got admitted into the Nigerian Law School. The celebration and jubilation that followed that achievement was equal to the one i had on the day of my call to the Nigerian bar.
Who has been most influential in your life?
I cannot think of anyone else as the most influential person in my life than my father. He was more than just a father to me, he was my first teacher, my benefactor and role model, all rolled into one. His teachings and mentoring are part of me till today and those teachings are more than what I garnered in the course of my attending schools and universities.
Why did you become a lawyer?
My opting to become a lawyer was driven more by a burning desire to adequately equip myself intellectually in order to confront the challenges of injustice, human rights violations and general abuse of the rule of law prevalent in the Nigerian nation. In other words, I chose law in order to enhance my personal esteem with a view to making meaningful contributions to the development of my country and the human race.
What would your advice be to anyone wanting a career in law?
Taking a cue from myself, I would advise anyone intending to have a career in law to be guided by the dictates of his or her heart; that is having love for the career you intend to go into as the first driving force. Those acquainted with me often identify me with “I love this job” which incidentally is my email account. In the course of my legal/media practice, loving the job I do has been a major propeller sustaining my progress and consistency even when discouragement tends to set in because of certain systemic shortcomings. Loving what you do keeps you going even in the midst of adversity, which is one of the realities of life at any calling. Secondly, jealously guarding one’s professional and personal integrity has over the years proved to be the secret of success for many accomplished lawyers. Those would form the basis of my advice to those aspiring to have a career in law.
If you had not become a lawyer, what would you have chosen?
As can be seen in what I do for a living and as earlier mentioned, if I had not become a lawyer, I would have been a journalist, which, of course, is what I am even as a lawyer. Perhaps, in addition I would have been an Islamic scholar, which I also have expertise in and I have been voluntarily doing in addition to my main job.
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
As a Muslim, I am of a strong belief that the destiny of everybody is in God’s hands. While I am striving to make additional value to my private and public lives with the passage of time, I totally submit my place in the next ten years to the will of God. In addition to that, I am trusting that I will continue to make steady progress in my career and extensively leapfrog the frontiers of human development in Nigeria and the larger human community.
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