Testimony Series Making of a San By Ebun Adegboruwa san

THE MAKING OF A SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA: HOW GOD QUALIFIED ME (3)

To aspire to be elevated to the prestigious Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, an applicant must furnish at least four final judgments of the Supreme Court. As of January 2017 when I started, I had only one judgment of the Supreme Court, but God moved things so fast that all my pending cases were being heard without delay.

I got another judgment in June, 2017, and thereafter argued another appeal in September, 2017, wherein judgment was reserved for December, 2017, making three final judgments. I just needed one more judgment to qualify and I had two appeals fixed for November 6 and 8 2017, respectively. Now the practice is that once an appeal is heard, judgment will be delivered within three months. The application for SAN opened in November 2017, to close in January, 2018. The expectation then was that if the two pending appeals are heard, judgment will be delivered in January, 2018 and I’ll add the two judgments to the ones I already had. But that was not to be.

On November 6, 2017 when the first appeal came up, we argued the case on the merits and I was thanking God, until the Court Registrar opened her diary and approached the Presiding Justice for a date for judgment. To my surprise, the suggestion of the Registrar for a January 2018 date was openly turned down by the Presiding Justice, who lamented that the Supreme Court had become congested with too many cases and the justices were working overtime to meet up with their judgments. What? I pleaded to no avail and I could not openly tell My Lords that I needed the judgment to complete my application for SAN. The case was adjourned to February, 2018, for judgment, by which time the deadline for submission of SAN application would have closed. So I left the court crestfallen and sad. All my efforts since January now seem to pale into thin air.

Thank God for God, who alone rules in the affairs of men. When I got into my hotel, I called my wife and narrated the events of the day to her and she said we should pray, since there is still another case for November 8. I became emboldened in faith and declared a night of praise and worship in the hotel. In the course of the night, I heard a voice in my spirit saying “I will reverse the irreversible”.

So I got to court on November 8, 2017, to argue my last appeal. Now I was swimming against the tide and I knew it, but I had prayed and I was fasting and was praying even inside the courtroom. If I was here on November 6 and I could only get a February 2018 date, it would certainly take a miracle to come back to the same court two days after, to get a January date. So at that point my mind flashed to the experience of Joshua in the Bible, where it was recorded that God reversed the order of nature and got the sun to stand still for Joshua to finish his battle.

The case was called and we argued the appeal. This time it was a different panel of justices. As usual, the Registrar opened her dairy and suggested a January 2018 date for judgment and the Presiding Justice nodded in affirmation and judgment was fixed for January 25, 2018. At that point, I just buried my head on the table in Court because I was already crying and I didn’t want to cause any public embarrassment. The opposing counsel in the case, Chief Richard Omo Ahonaruogho, who was also applying for SAN, was rejoicing and thanking God, but he didn’t know the underlying story of the miracle that had just taken place.

So I quickly left the court and ran into one of the offices and lay flat on the floor, rejoicing and rolling on the floor in appreciation to God Almighty. As far as I’m concerned, that was actually the day I got my elevation, through God, who qualified me by reversing the irreversible.

For a judgment that will be delivered on January 25, to be used for SAN application that will close on January 31, it will then take God to move on my behalf to be able to get the certified true copy of the judgment and then start collation and binding the volumes for final submission. But indeed that was exactly what my God did, as the judgment was delivered as scheduled and I got the CTC, but I had to relocate to Abuja. I was inside my hotel room collating and arranging the papers that I didn’t remember to check my phone at all for a whole day and had put my wife and family in great distress. Food was out of the question as the fasting still continued.

I was able to submit my final volumes at the SAN Department of the Supreme Court on the last day on January 31, 2018 and I was screened and shortlisted for the award.

In Daniel 4:34-35, it is stated that God has everlasting dominion, His kingdom is from generation to generation, He reigns in the affairs of men, He does as He will and when He decides to do anything, no one can stop Him or ask Him why.

If you have faith in God, He makes all things beautiful, in His own time.

Ebun-olu Adegboruwa, SAN
Abuja, Nigeria.
21/11/2019.

Pictures show the volume of papers submitted in support of application for SAN.