By Jemi EKUNKUNBOR

Nestled in the serene town of Ado Eki is the Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), a pioneer private university in Ekiti State built by legal Icon, Chief Afe Babbalola. He had insisted that if this interview must hold, it had to be at the University as he wanted this reporter to have a first hand assessment of his education project. But we arrived at Ado Ekiti to a Mecca of some sort. His office was a beehive of activities, scores of people gathered outside his office taking turns to see him. Clad in a checked shirt over a pair of jeans and matching canvas and kangol hat, he presented an image far removed from the Litigator Supreme who has made Emmanuel Chambers a place for the high and low seeking justice. He had just returned from his farm he explained. It was interesting to see how he related with people in his community many of who had come to him for one help or the other. Giving as he later told us has become a way of life for him with over 20 charities benefitting from his deep purse.

His success story in law has become a reference point. From a one man chamber in 1965, he developed Emmanuel Chambers into to one with five offices in the country and one in London. To his credit, his chamber has produced over12 Senior Advocates with a team of Barristers and solicitors noted for masterful conduct of cases.

Away from law, his current passion is with his university already acclaimed as a model of excellence. I began this interview by asking if the university was part of his retirement plan. Then the flood gate opened as he talked about his grass to grace story and his battle with poverty. Enjoy it.

Is education your secret passion or your retirement plan?

It is not a retirement plan at all. All my life, I’ve always been interested in how people in the community in which I was brought live and develop. I’ve had passion for philanthropy. Today, I can confirm that I have over 22 different types of donations I’ve made in the past 35 years to colleges, to universities, Polytechnics, to towns and so on and so forth. You only need to go to Lagos university and see the auditorium which I built when I was a pro chancellor. It was while there that I saw the enormity of the poverty, the destruction, deterioration of infrastructure and what students are going through in these universities. As pro chancellor, I made sure I did not take a single kobo as my allowance nor did I stay in the pro chancellor’s luxurious building throughout. So when I left the place, I thought the job was not finished. I needed to do something. I believe that education is important. I would not have been what I am but for the little education which my parents gave me up to standard six. It was so solid that I was able to build on it and acquired my degrees oversea. Today, I am a beneficiary of that education both in law and in other areas of life. So I believe that what I can best bequeath to people is quality education. I thank God who gave me the strength to start this university less than 18 months ago.

Is it possible to bring back the past glory of education, the type you received such that you could build on after standard six?

I am an optimist. I believe that it is possible to change the world. The title of my autobiography is “Impossibility made possible”. That was the title I chose when I remembered how I grew up in poverty, walked through poverty, over came poverty and got to where I am. If it was possible for me to do so, I believe that it is possible for others to do so too. The standard of education has dwindled so badly that something drastic has to be done. And what has to be done, is reformation of the system. So this institution is set to lead education by reform. We all can do it but somebody has to start. Do you know that many people come here to ask how we did it? The Nigerian universities commission has been good enough to tell others who want to start a university to come here first and see how we did it. So, if I start and others are following, then it is possible. But you must do it to the point that you can be emulated.

You’ve talked about your struggles with poverty. Many Nigerians are at that level looking for a way out. Yet when you got the opportunity to take government appointment you turned it down. Why?

Well, I want to be a good example to the youths. We have youths who can make it in this country, we also have youths who can rule this country but they are in the minority. The youths should not lose hope, instead of embarking on quick rich programmes, they should embark on gradual development and gradual acquisition of property. Those of my age do not know what is called quick-rich- money. They believed in gradual development. My first bicycle was Raleigh and I saved money for 12 months to be able to buy it. When I was teaching, about 12 of us came together and contributed a certain amount which we gave to each one every month until 12 of us had got. That was how I bought my first bicycle. We didn’t look for how to steal money to buy bicycle. We saved money. You postponed the present enjoyment for the future. The future is there for everybody. When you suffer now, you get result in the future. But nothing pays better than going through hardship. Hardship makes you know how to struggle. Struggle made me to have character and character is born in faith and faith never fails.

Yes, I’ve had the opportunity to be the Attorney general of this country five times and I’ve turned it down on every occasion.

Why?

Because if you hold a public post in this country, your brothers and sisters will come to you that this is your opportunity to make money. Those who are not true friends will come to you and deceive you. I’ve made enough money in practice. If for any reason I went into public service, people would say that was where I made my money from. So I turned it down because I believe I have made enough of my own money. In this country, people find faults even when you are doing the best for the country. The only appointment that was near that of a minister was that as pro chancellor of the University of Lagos and I accepted it because I saw it as an academic one. I thank God that the report that came from that appointment was a good one.

You are by every standard a successful, self made man. Did you think you would be this successful?

Well, I knew that I would succeed but the extent to which I would succeed I never knew. When I started the university, I believed that we would be able to do something different from others but I never knew it would be this much. I thank God for it.

For one who has strived for excellence in law practice, what should one expect from the law department?

In respect of law department, we are the first university to start law the very year it got licence. When the Nigerian university commission came here and they saw the building, furniture and equipment for teaching including interactive board with which you can link up with Harvard or Oxford, they said this university is ahead of their own university and others in the country. Most of the things we have here are not even in the law school not to talk of other universities. We have what we call lexis nexis by which you can link up with any law book in the whole world via computers. It is model and modern. So, we are expecting the best and some of the students are already doing so well. I have no doubt that by the time they come out, heaven will sing their praises.

You command a team of brilliant lawyers in your chambers who have remained loyal to you over the years. What is the secret?

The secret simply is that I see myself as a servant not a leader. I recall when I delivered the key note address of the Nigerian bar association annual convention about 10 years ago, I advised senior lawyers to make sure that their lawyers are well remunerated. Every quarter in my chambers, we have a pool to which we pay money and people are paid according to their contributions to the chambers. And some people go back home with millions. Now if they go away, where are they going to get that kind of money? So, no lawyer in my chambers wants to go away because they are comfortable.

Why did you choose to set up your law chambers in Ibadan and not Lagos?

When I came back to Nigeria in 1963, Ibadan was the headquarters of Western Region. It was more populous than Lagos and the who and who were all in Ibadan; Rotimi Williams, Fani Kayode name them. I felt I wanted to be a big lawyer and so settled in Ibadan. But there was the creation of states and Lagos became the centre for everything and gradually, Ibadan became less and less important. I remember when my good friend Gani Fawehinmi asked me to come back and I said no. But fortunately, I remained in Ibadan. I remember when one of the best lawyers in the country today, Mr Gbenga Oyebode was asked in an interview with the Guardian who his mentor is. I was surprised that the man I am not close to said Afe Babalola. He said there is a man who is seated at Ibadan and making waves in Lagos.

Success comes with a lot of issues. How have you been able to manage success?

The management of success is one thing that most of us fail to address properly. I believe that a man who goes through difficulty to achieve success, appreciates what God has done for him more than those who achieve success without really working for it. It is for this reason that I remained the person I was when I had no money. I don’t change my shoe because I became rich. I still wear my shoes at least for 5 years before I change it. I don’t wear big agbada with embroidery. You’d never see one on me. It was when I became the Are that I was forced to wear one, I became another chief and again, I had to wear one. After that, I never wore one again. I don’t go to parties at all. I’m very time conscious and management of time is as important as management of success. Most of us don’t know how to manage time. It was because I was able to manage time that I was able to read on my own to take GCE advance level at home and do LLB. I prefer to give money to whoever invites me than to give both time and money. I remember what the supreme court once said about me that Afe Babalola has an “intimidating humility”. I respect constituted authorities and respect those who are older than me and I don’t look down on those who are junior to me.

I’m very passionate about how those who surround me live. I’ll tell you this, one day, I came to my office in Ibadan at about 9am. I was late because I used to resume much earlier. Four women were waiting for me. One was pregnant, another was carrying a young baby. All of them were looking emaciated. They said they wanted to see me, that they have been coming but they were not allowed to see me. So they came up and I said what is the problem? The first one said , “I have a baby I can’t see the husband again”. The second one said, she lost the husband. They had different stories. So I said to them what do you want me to do for you. Each of them said they wanted money to do business. Then I asked the first one, what type of business do you want to do? She said she wanted to sell boli (roasted plantain), the second said she wanted to sell oranges, the third woman said she wanted to sell elubo (yam flower) and the fourth one said something similar. So I asked the first one, how much do you need? she said N2,500. When she said that, I remembered my own parents, especially my mother who used to carry firewood to sell. I was moved with emotions and about to shed tears. I ran into my toilet. I was there for about 10 minutes until I could compose myself. Then I washed my face and came out. I gave each of them N20,000. If each one of us would remember that your N5 would change the life of somebody, Nigeria would not be what it is today. But those who can afford it won’t even give. But don’t ever think that you need all the world’s money before you can give.

As a financier of female football in Ibadan, what do you think of the outing of the super eagles in the on going World Cup in South Africa?

I am a football fan. I was a good footballer myself. In my days, we played bare footed. But when I developed my education and I became Vice Principal of a secondary school, I was the chief coach. And three of my friends formed the first team of the shooting stars of those days. What happened was a national shame. One of us, Kaita got red card. If you ask me, what he deserves is black card! Because I can never understand how a man who was off the field who had not done anything, you decide to go do boxing with him nor could I understand how deputy captain of a team can see an empty net less than two metres away from him and shoot wild nor could I understand how the coach could leave somebody like Osaze or Utaka and bring somebody who is almost as old as my father to come and play. You need determination, you need to be focused and you need to know that something is at stake. You don’t leave physically strong people and bring people over 5 years of age to come and play with fast pace young men like the Koreans. I think something was wrong with the coach, and something wrong with the mentality of the players because they acted like they had nothing at stake.

When you are not dealing with law or education, what takes your time now?

If I ever come back to this world again, I would like to do what I grew up to know-farming.