VALEDICTORY SPEECH BY ERASMUS BADERINWA

VALEDICTORY SPEECH PRESENTED BY ERASMUS BOLA BADERINWA, CHAIRMAN NBA LAGOS BRANCH, TODAY 9TH OF JUNE, 2008 IN HONOUR OF LATE PROFESSOR JADESOLA AKANDE.

Today is a different day. We are making History as we hold a day of Tribute to one of our own, Professor Jadesola Akande.

This event is novel in this branch because it is a different kind of valedictory from what we are used to. It is not a Court session valedictory for it takes a judge sitting to have a court session but it is a tribute by Lawyers for one of their own. WE NOW KNOW THAT IT IS ONLY A LAWYER THAT CAN KNOW A WORTHY LAWYER

WE ARE HERE TO HONOUR OUR SUBJECT not because she was the daughter of a Lawyer, Late Chief Esan of Ibadan. We are not here to celebrate her as the daughter of Mrs. Wuraola Esan, the first woman Senator in Nigeria. If it were to be for her pedigree, we would have been here because of her late spouse Chief Debo Akande SAN, who was our former National General Secretary and Chairman of the Body of Benchers, a body made up of Lawyers of the highest distinction.

Not even the fact that our subject was the mother of one of our Judges, Justice Adenike Coker. However, all the above add up in unveiling the PERSONALITY OF TODAY. If you want to know the secret of a root, find out the soil on which it grew. Professor Jadesola Akande in her about 68 years of earthly life had made. indelible mark on the sand of time.

Born in 1940, she took a degree in Law in 1963 from the prestigious University of London, got called to bar and later capped her career with an Academic Doctorate Degree. She taught at the University of Lagos, for years where she churned out a good percentage of Lawyers in the 70's and 80's, she became the pioneer dean of Law at the Lagos State University, later Vice Chancellor of the University.

She made History as the first Nigerian woman to take a PhD in Law, became the first Nigerian Women Professor in Law, the first Lawyer vice chancellor of a University.

After leaving the Academics she served as Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure. She was also the Chairman for Legal Education of the Nigerian Bar Association for several years.

As lofty as these heights are, it is not the main reason why we are here. We are here because of the common touch of Professor Jadesola Akande with the down trodden Nigerian. Her actions came to the fore after the SOSOLISO air crash that terminated the lives of school children of the Jesuit College in the year 2004 (Interestingly none of these children was Profs distant relation).

In company of other women, she marched on the streets of Lagos, protesting that the Government should make the Nigerian Air Space safer. In spite other age, some government security operatives pumped tear gas on her, she bore all that for the down trodden Nigerian.

Here in our branch, Professor Akande will not only attend our meeting but will regularly phone the Chairman to apologize if there is a likelihood that she will be absent from any of our meetings, in fact just days before her death, she attended our meeting where she contributed to our discussions. She was also tile Chairperson of the ELDERS FORUM of the branch. She would have presented a report of her committee at the May meeting if death had spared her life.

Mrs. Akande ran a Non-Government Organisation which is focused on women's issues. She was a good model of her catholic faith that lays emphasis on charity as a weapon of salvation.

Weep not for Professor Akande because we believe she is resting at the bosom other God in heaven. That is the ultimate prize for doing his will here on earth. However, we pray that her life will be a model for others.

We expect that our humble appreciation of her will encourage the living to emulate her. The greatest legacy a man/woman can live behind after death is to be appreciated by ones peers,

I cannot end this speech without calling for a more cordial relationship between the Bar and the Bench, both arms are the two strong pillars of the judiciary. It is from the Bar that the Bench is recruited; it is also the Bar that pleads before the Bench for the robust development of our case Law.

This becomes necessary because of the peculiar decision of the Lagos State Judiciary that it will only hold valedictory court sessions for Senior Advocates of Nigeria and not other Lawyers however eminent. That may have explained why one of the greatest Presidents of the Nigerian Bar Association Alao Aka Bashorun was buried in November 2005 without a court session

Now, we have a renowned jurist who taught several sets of Senior Advocates being derived same honour. This calls for concern. It is not so in other jurisdiction. Our colleagues outside Lagos State find it difficult to believe when we told them.

We pray our amiable Chief Judge of Lagos State and his brother Judges to have a rethink on this together. The Bar and the Bench will work together for the development of our judicial system.

But for us in the Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, we have decided, come what may, that we will celebrate our members from the date of their call to the bar to the date of their death and that is what we are doing today.

I thank all of you who found time to grace this occasion, especially those of you who traveled long distances from the South East, South-South, and from the Northern part of the country.

I equally thank most especially my brother Chairmen from the Ikeja branch and Ikorodu branch.

Once again thank you.