BY ISE-OLUWA IGE 

Chief Adeniyi Akintola, SAN, is a name that usually sparks mixed reactions anywhere, any day.

From being a motor boy, a mechanic and a photographer’s apprentice, he is today widely acknowledged as one of the most brilliant of his generation and one of the most sought-after for the most difficult of election cases, whether pre or post-poll, owing to his tenacity, uncompromising nature, fidelity to purpose in pursuit of his clients’ cases and his passion for justice and the good law can do.

From his record, Chief Akintola (SAN) is no stranger to controversy. He either talks on issues or he keeps quiet. But when he opens his mouth, whether in the legal community, among the political class, in the corridors of power, or even among everyday people, he speaks bluntly, possibly due to his stint in the Nigerian Army. 

He has been quiet for some time now. But on August 27, 2022, the Ibadan-based fiery lawyer and politician, Chief Adeniyi Akintola, sparked a controversy when he described the immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr. Olumide Akpata as a ‘Boy’ and transactional lawyer who has never practised law in his life. 

Akintola was a guest on a broadcast station in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital when he released some missiles against Akpata.

The learned silk was giving his perspective on the violent attitude exhibited by lawyers at the venue of the 2022 Annual General Conference of the NBA.

He spoke barely 24 hours after Akpata formally handed over the baton of leadership of the professional association of Nigerian lawyers to his successor, Mr Yakubu Mikyau, SAN.

Akintola’s Interview and the ‘Boy’ Akpata

In the interview which has now gone viral, Akintola, specifically said: “Well, let me say this, let me take the last question first, I feel very sad about what happened and we saw it coming. Ademola is here.

“When that boy, Akpata, came on board, we, the Yoruba leaders, the Egbe Amofin, took a unified position that we will not dignify that boy with our presence at any Bar gathering. Unfortunately, some of our people who took that decision alongside of us betrayed that trust.

“Coming from the background that I have, being a progressive, when I take a decision, when I say this is what I am going to do, even at the risk of my life, I will stick to that.

“We took that decision in Ibadan here. Chief Olanipekun happens to be the leader of Egbe Amofin in Nigeria, I happen to be his deputy. Chief Olanipekun and I have religiously kept to that position but, unfortunately, some of our boys and girls felt otherwise because they wanted to be in one office or the other.

“Again, everything boils down to poverty, poverty of ideas, poverty of knowledge, poverty of integrity, it is not just material poverty. And that is where people are missing it. When we speak of poverty, people think we are talking about Naira and Kobo, no. When people are suffering from poverty of ideas, they tend to commit this type of self mutilation. That is what is happening to the NBA.

“When I came in as a young lawyer, we held our elders in high esteem, their words were laws. Whatever they say, we follow. But this sorosoke boys and girls came up and set out to ruin the legal profession.

“At the last Body of Benchers” meeting, that guy attended the meeting virtually and because we didn’t buy his idea, he went and issued a release calling CJNs ostrich and he said three former CJNs and the incumbent,  sat down there playing ostrich. He made that release and one of the Supreme Court Justices asked us how he became our president and we said it was these sorosoke boys.

“You will observe that the NBA Conference you are referring to,  no single Supreme Court justice was there, no single Court of Appeal justice was there. Apart from Chief Judge of Lagos State who went there to represent Sanwolu, most of us senior lawyers were not there except those who betrayed the trust, the agreement, we reached.

“That boy has never practised law before in his life, he is a transactional lawyer. He cannot even move a motion, he has never done so before, he said so himself. He doesn’t go to court. He is a businessman, he is a transactional lawyer and you make such a person your president? Somebody who doesn’t even know the psychology of the court? He doesn’t know the geography of the court…”, he added.

The controversy in Akintola’s outburst

The interview, though short, yet heavily loaded with issues, some of which were controversial.

For instance, Chief Akintola, in his commentary, described Akpata, a 49-year-old accomplished lawyer and immediate past President of the NBA as a ‘Boy’; a transactional lawyer who has never practised law in his life; a businessman who does not know either the psychology or geography of the court let alone having the experience to move an ordinary motion in a law court even though he emerged the President of the NBA in 2020 after defeating two SANs and that he (Akpata) does not even go to court.

There were also few other issues raised by Akintola (SAN), though less contentious, in his commentary.

No wonder, more than 10 days after the comments were made, the video clip of the interview is still trending on social media.

For want of space, this report will deliberately focus on just two of the controversial issues raised in Chief Akintola’s acerbic commentary, referring to Ex-NBA President Akpata as a ‘Boy’ at 49 and the weight cum implications of specialization in documentation in legal profession other than advocacy.

Ex-NBA President Akpata as a ‘Boy’

Vanguard Law and Human Rights reports that soon after the video clip found its way to the social media space, few lawyers, including former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and a respected silk, Prince Yusuf Kadiri, SAN, among others, disagreed with Akintola (SAN) over his description of Akpata as a ‘Boy.’

  From the biography of Chief Akintola, SAN, sourced from vergehub.com, the fiery lawyer was born on January 21, 1960. He finished his Law degree programme in 1984, proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was called to the Nigerian Bar thereafter. He was elevated to the prestigious club of Senior Advocates of Nigeria in 2001. He is very versatile and has consistently been the arrow Head of the progressives’ legal battles against the conservatives and reactionary forces in the Fourth Republic.

Akpata, on the other hand, was born on October 7, 1972. He finished his Law degree programme in 1992 and was enrolled as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1993. He started practice at age 23. Until July 30, 2020, when he became the President of the NBA, Akpata was senior partner and Head of the Corporate and Commercial Practice at Templars. He had participated in some of the major ground-breaking transactions that have shaped commercial law practice in Nigeria and indeed, the Nigerian economy. He was a former chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association Section on Business Law.

Notwithstanding the bio and academic records of the duo of Akintola (SAN) and ex-President of NBA which showed both do not belong to the same generation, some lawyers still felt it was inappropriate to have described Akpata as a ‘Boy’.

Prof. Chidi Odinkalu who was among the first set of lawyers to reply Akintola on his interview, threw ‘stones’ at the Ibadan-based silk for calling Akpata a ‘Boy’. 

He said Chief Akintola (SAN) had two failed attempts at the NBA Presidency which Akpata successfully got in just one attempt and therefore lacked the standing to call Akpata a “Boy.” 

Radical Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, also said the description of Olumide Akpata as “that boy” or ‘eleyi’ “smacks of empty arrogance of monumental proportion. It is a jejune statement that ought to be withdrawn by the learned Senior Advocate.” 

Given their records, it is not in doubt that Akintola (SAN) is not only older in age but also a senior to Akpata at the bar. However, the context in which Chief Akintola (SAN) used the word: ‘Boy’ to describe the former NBA President, Akpata, appears to be the reason some of his colleagues disagreed with him and demanded the withdrawal of the language.

Who is a real lawyer?

Similarly, that Akintola (SAN) said Akpata never practised law before in his life and that he is a transactional lawyer who doesn’t even know the psychology and geography of the court let alone have the experience to move an ordinary motion in the law court, triggered another controversy both in the legal firmament and the outside world on who is actually a ‘real’ lawyer.

But legal practitioners of all classes including those in academia, advocacy and documentation practice have cleared the air that all lawyers who are called to the Nigerian Bar and are qualified to practise, automatically become members of the NBA (section 4, NBA Constitution). 

  According to former Director- General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, NIALS, Prof. Adedeji Adekunle (SAN), “generally, every person who has been called to the bar to practise law in Nigeria is referred to as a lawyer or legal practitioner.” 

He further explained that law practice in Nigeria has a fused system. 

“This means that once a person has become a lawyer, he is automatically conferred with the status of a barrister as well as a solicitor of the Supreme Court,” adding that after becoming a lawyer, he can now decide whether he wants to go into advocacy which requires filing and arguing cases in court or whether he wants to go into academia or into documentation practice. 

He added that if at all, there is any difference in the three categories of lawyers as explained above, it is that lawyers in advocacy and academia can be admitted into the prestigious rank of SANs while those in documentation are not considered for such honour. However, the mere fact that a lawyer like Akpata  is not into advocacy does not make him an inferior lawyer because he is, in the first instance, a Barrister (Advocacy) and a Solicitor of the SCN.

A Lagos-based silk, Mr Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, also corroborated Prof. Adekunle (SAN) when he said that a transactional lawyer is just as good as an advocate lawyer and that there is no difference between the two. 

From the narratives, it is clear that Akpata is not only a lawyer called to the bar in 1993, thus a mandatory member of NBA by virtue of section 4 of the NBA Constitution, he also wears the same toga with lawyers who find themselves either in the advocacy practice or academia and thus, qualified to aspire or occupy the prestigious office of the President of NBA.