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I had for years been facinatingly enamoured by the highest professional recognition in Nigeria for lawyers mostly in practice called “the silk”.
This is like the zenith of personal desire, fulfilment and professional accomplishment for lawyers in Nigeria and virtually all lawyers want and desire to see that day when they will be pronounced by the Legal Practitioners and Privileges Committee.
So every year this committee would identify deserving legal practitioners, those who must have not only met the professional qualifications, but also found worthy in character, just like its said during convocation in the university back then, using that phrase “having satisfied this institution in “character and learning ”
So every year not only do the lawyers in practice look forward with bated breath, members of the public also join legal practitioners to await those who will step up to wear the silk, those who will enter the inner recesses of privileges, the holy of holies,the innermost sanctuary of the legal practice.
I do not know why and how this esteemed profession, came about adopting and depicting the highest professional honour with the fabric known as “Silk”.
The unlearned me, had wondered why not cotton? Sanyan? Alaari Baba Aso?Ofi? Etu? Ishiagwu? Apa? Or even Linen?
You know this profession and their preference to want to be seen and taken differently, if not more superior to everyone else,and not even to Medical Practitioners would they allow to share that level of reverence with them.
First, its being learned, they would tell you that you can be “educated but not learned” and now the “silk”.
Well they are the learned men after all!
So My fascination and inquisitiveness brought me to the point where I wanted to unravel this mystery so many years ago, some fifteen years ago, I took on the voyage to put together a compendium book titled “The Silkmen”
So I started by approaching Uncle Wole Olanipekun SAN, for reference to the then President of the Nigeria Bar Association [NBA] i think Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, now Governor of Ondo State, and the Oldest SAN at the time Baba Bankole Oki SAN.
The project was well received by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN and others
However that voyage of mine got aborted somewhat the year that some kind of crisis broke about the nominations for this highest position.
There was uproar about some nominees for this exalted recognition who nominations were mirred in controversy as exclusively the prerogative of the legal practitioners and privileges committee.
The issues then were around some discontent about the “SAN worthiness” of some people for the highest position with rife allegations, Some alleged overt and covert influences, that ensured that some people made the esteemed nominations while others perceived to be more deserving by both the practitioners and members of the public were denied.
Some personalities also not deemed fit for the silk either for the views they held against government or being punished for different reasons or denied simply because they were not favoured of lacking in contact and reach.
Some people even alleged that untoward influences in many ways were being exerted on the committee which almost led to the agitation for ethnic balancing in the nominations, allegations that people of a particular nationality were always more on the list than others, with this came bloated numbers being nominated every year, and people began to see it more like a social title.
And then came the debate as to wether to admit persons in the academia and all that, for a while the highest professional recognition for the learned profession was on trial or so it would seem.
That crisis lingered for sometime and I had to rest the BOOK expedition painfully but that did not stop my fascination for the SILK and the attainment of the SILK by deserving persons, So every year, I am always keen on those who made it.
It is gratifying to observe today that the learned profession had overcome all that drama of those years, leading to the restoration of the public regard and professional respect, class, rating, status and profile of this professional recognition to its pristine place as intended and the status is back. MAYBE I WILL WAKE UP THE PROJECT.. hmmm…
When honour is well deserved and earned, even your enemies will agree..
So when the list of final nominees was announced this year, I quickly scanned through to see those who made it and a name popped up in my face, it was the name of my brother and friend, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, the Akure, Ondo State born legal practitioner.
I was excited and greatly delighted because I believe Kayode had qualified and merited this a long time ago.
This professional recognition had been Long in coming indeed for this very cerebral, Affable, Amiable, Charismatic, Endearingly pleasant young man of variegated hue and nobility.
This is a proven Quintessential, Debonair, Urbane and Humane City and People’s Lawyer .
I had been friends with Kayode Ajulo for over two decades, our paths crossed in our early days as young concerned Nigerians with eyes and heart for the struggle for a better society. We were bonded by our agitated minds.
This was what we espoused and championed via our incisive comments and commentaries in our private and public discourse, in our writings in Newspapers and appearances on National Television stations at several times.
Kayode as a young deeply intelligent personality and legal practitioner,always impeccably dressed with his ubiquitous bow tie to match would make and marshal his viewpoints clearly from a heart that feels the pains of the weak and infirm, desirous of a great nation that we believe is realisable.
Kayode Ajulo believes that one of the most enduring and sustaining pillars of good society is the law and he had over the years deployed this in the pursuit of social justice and as a crusader of sort for an egalitarian society. Many cases of the poor, weak, deprived and denied, he handled pro bono!
After becoming learned, he had gone ahead to become more educated and today he has a place amidst the additionally esteemed class of Senior Advocates of Nigeria with a P.hd, like Dr Olumide Ayeni, Koyinsola Ajayi etc so from Simply Kayode Ajulo ESQ, he is now Dr. Kayode Ajulo SAN!
As i approached the Abuja Continental Hotel post -investiture reception venue, and I beheld the long snarling traffic human and vehicular, many people parking their cars on side walks not able to gain access into the hotel, I said it has to be the vintage Kayode to pull this huge crowd.
I met a friend and brother at the gate, Honourable Supo, who said there must be other newly invested SANs also hosting guests there, i told him, i am sure all these people turned up for Kayode.
Little wonder when Dr Bode Olajumoke , the chairman of the event opened his remarks with the apologies for using that venue that is nowjam packed,saying that this reception should have been at the stadium.
Whoever knows the Ladi Kwali Hall would appreciate the size,and it was filled to capacity with men and women from all walks of life and across a broad Spectrum of the Nigerian landscape! All for this young man, truly a silk of different hue !
Kayode Ajulo’s persona made the venue look like a small room!
No better attestation and affirmation of the consensus that this new SAN is deserving of this esteemed honour than the attendance and the infectious conviviality that pervaded the venue.
This speaks of and to the persona and personality of Dr Kayode Ajulo, a man of different parts to so many people, open minded, liberal progressive.
The common denominator is that he is adored by the young and loved by the old, that is why he is like a son to Baba Edwin Clark till this day, very highly regarded by his Seniors and a pride to his peers and colleagues.
Dr Ajulo has high impressionable personality, from his intellect, and intellectual repository to his capacity to identify with everyone in their situations and positions, you can not forget Kayode Ajulo in a hurry after an encounter with him.
I recall three instances in our relationship that dates back to years, first when my political movement came under assault, and my travails started with incidentally another but this time a different Kayode, he met with me to discuss the matter ostensibly on the strength of his knowledge of my near servitude defined loyalty to Governor Kayode Fayemi.
He said he found the development greatly disturbing and was deeply concerned about how our relationship had gone sour, I explained my side in a very long discussion, and he kept saying ” ha.. ko ye ki Egbon se beyen”i.e “our senior brother should not have done that” he promised to intervene and I thanked him for his concerns but told him not to bother as it would come to nought anyway, just like many people who had done so previously. That’s Dr Kayode Ajulo for you, a lover of peace situated in the bowels of justice and fairness.
The second instance, was when I started the continental NGO, oneunitedAfrica, while we were trying to nominate people on to the board, Bro Femi, Senator Femi Ojudu nominated Dr Kayode Ajulo, he asked me if I knew him , and I said yes, very well too, and that I had no objection. So he asked me to see Dr.Ajulo.
When I got to his Maitama law office, Dr. Ajulo was enthusiastic about the NGO, and our Pan Africanism Rennaisance thrust, triggered by the Xenophobic attacks of the year 2020 in South Africa.
Within minutes of our discussions, sharing his deep insights about the conundrum, he quickly appointed a junior in his Chambers to be the desk officer, mandated her to proceed with the registration of the NGO and offered to pay for the registration and associated costs.
Another moment was when I needed to get an approval for a project that one man sat on, at BPP, under President Jonathan, I discussed with him, Kayode took me to General Arogbofa, the then Chief of Staff to the President to intervene.
This is the vintage Kayode Ajulo, always willing to assist, giving of himself and putting his means at the disposal of anyone, for the well being of others and in pursuit of common goals and noble causes.
This explains the teeming admirers who showed up for him on this great day of acknowledgement of a life devoid of bile and guile but of extension of warmth to all accentuated by professional trackrecord of distinction .
Dr. Kayode Ajulo is one man with rare gift of mediation, such that if you are in the wrong, he will tell you in such a way that you will admit your errors gleefully ,I have seen him intervene in matters and both parties feeling so satisfied with his mediatory roles
Dr Ajulo is a die hard home boy, one of his greatest passions is the love for his people, town and State, he once aspired to represent them at the Senate, a very people centric person, I was his guest at one of the events when he was recognised in Akure, under the late Deji,Oba Adebiyi Adesida, the love of his people for him was so gripping and palpable.
This must have informed the comment of the legendary ace broadcaster Mr Cyril Stober of Nigeria Television Authority who was the compere of the event, that with the crowd of quality audience and people from all walks of life in attendance, the event was not a case of who was there, it was a case of who was not there at the reception.
The following personalities came in, to honour this man of honour on this day when he got admitted into the sanctum reserved for distinguished and esteemed legal luminaries in Nigeria, a place he is fit to be.
Surely it will take a man like Dr. Kayode Ajulo to put this array and impressive rainbow assemblage together under one roof.
We had Deputy Governor of Ondo State, H.E Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the very personable and performing Honourable Minister of Interior, Rt. Hon Bunmi Tunji Ojo, the leading in scores and Poster -Minister of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, a Minister who has effectively transmitted the renewed hope mandate to Nigerians in real terms within one month of his appointment, accomplishing what No Minister in that Ministry had done in four or more years.
He was accompanied by Honourable Minister for Youth Affairs, Ayo Olawande Wisdom.
Other dignitaries includes Retired Justices of the Supreme Court, Justice Rhodes Vivour and other Ministers in the temple of justice, respected leader Chief Bode Olajumoke, Former Attorney General of Nigeria, Prince Tokunbo Kayode, Senators, Jimoh Ibrahim, Babafemi Ojudu, Dayo Adeyeye, Osita Izunaso Adegbonmire, Honourable Members from Ondo State, Honourables Adefarati, Adetimehin, Omogbenigun, AVM Ojuawo Rtd were all there, my dear Egbon, Barrister Babatunde Ogala SAN, my friend, Biodun, the Attorney General of Oyo State also showed up, Mr Kingsely Kuku, Head Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr. Ifedayo Oyedele, Executive Director, Power Holdings, Hon. Cairo Ojuogboh, who also doubled in representative capacity, stood in for Papa Edwin Clark, the APC National Youth leader, [Olori awa odo]Mr. Dayo Israel, Barr. Debo Ologunagba, PDP, National publicity Secretary, Barrister Yemi Ayodele Ayeni[YAA] all were in attendance. So many other dignitaries that my fleeting stay did not allow me to see.
I have no doubts that Dr Kayode Ajulo will continue to use his elevation to this esteemed rank in the legal practice to push for a society that works, as he had done commitedly on his way to this day and as embedded in his DNA.
I join his family and numerous admirers and friends to congratulate this very charming and affable young man as i pray for more years of more accomplishments and fulfilment, personal and professional.
This is a toast to the people’s lawyer, a silk of different hue.. Dr Kayode Ajulo SAN.
Best wishes in the days and years ahead, I am sure you are already looking forward to another height to conquer.
