6/17/2016 11:16:00 am
By Abdulrazaq Magaji
< 234-805-138-0793>
From the quantum of high and not-so-high endorsements
he has received so far, it is almost certain that Chief Joe-Kyari
Gadzama is only waiting to be crowned the next president of the Nigerian
Bar Association, NBA, next month. Within the learned circle of lawyers,
the reasoning is that if he could affect the legal profession so
positively in his private capacity, Chief J-K Gadzama could be trusted
to use the structures of the NBA to do more. The optimism is
well-placed.
Arewa Lawyers Forum, ALF. When it took the decision
last March, ALF said it was swayed Chief J-K Gadzama’s First to come was
a critical endorsement from his base, the antecedents as a lawyer who
has worked assiduously to push the frontier of the NBA and his efforts
in improving the lot of NBA members. On June 14, the ALF sent a formal
letter to that effect to regional NBA fora to notify them of the
decision. Insiders say the endorsement flowed from the belief that, with
NBA structure, Chief J-K Gadzama could do more for many more for an
even greater number of young and not-so-young lawyers.
Similar reasons were cited in endorsing Chief J-K
Gadzama by individuals and regional law bodies. Hear Aare Afe Babalola,
SAN, eminent jurist, statesman, and founder/chancellor of Afe Babalola
University, Ado Ekiti: “ Of all the SAN’s around, none is better
qualified to lead the NBA especially at this critical point in time than
Chief J-K Gadzama. He has displayed the capacity and commitment to
lead. Law is all he knows; he lives it and dreams it. Chief J-K Gadzama
is committed to the profession and we trust his presidency will be the
beginning of greater things within the NBA family.’’ Aare Babalola’s
endorsement came hot in the heels of similar ones by individuals and
regional lawyers fora.
Take Adegboyega Solomon Awomolo and Bandele Aiku, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria and like Aare Babalola, prominent members of Egbe Amofin Oodua,
a major affiliate of the South West Lawyers Forum. Both legal
luminaries were emphatic in their endorsement which they hinged on the
belief that the NBA will provide Chief J-K Gadzama with necessary
structures to do even more to advance the course of the profession.
At its recent meeting in Abeokuta, Ogun state, and
the one preceding it in Ile Ife, Osun state, the South West Lawyers
Forum literally rose in unison to pledge their support for the
presidential bid of J-K Gadzama. The endorsement by the SWLF, though
informal, was predicated on several innovations by the law firm of Chief
J-K Gadzama to help lawyers, especially young ones, to hone their
skills which several members from the zone say they have benefited from.
It is not for fun that the Otu Oka-Iwu of the
South East Lawyers Forum, SELF, refers to J-K Gadzama as ‘friend and
ally of Ndigbo’. He is so recognised for the opportunity he gave to
numerous young lawyers of Igbo extraction who cut their teeth under his
tutelage. Indeed, it takes a detribalized Nigerian in the mould of Chief
J-K Gadzama to name an important mentorship programme after Justice
Chukwudifu Oputa! Long before he was so recognised by Otu Oka-Owu, Ndigbo had, in 2003, honoured him as Okwulora of Ukpo for being ‘’an authentic and reliable mouthpiece of the people.’’
For the best part of the thirty years he has spent on
the bar, Chief J-K Gadzama has carved a niche for himself as a lawyer
who has committed himself to the development of the legal profession.
With state-of-the-art facilities and a purpose-built moot court for lawyers to practice before they attend court sessions, his ultramodern head office in Abuja has some of the best
infrastructure for law practice in Nigeria and compares favourably with
some of the best law firms around the world. Little wonder Chief J-K
Gadzama was last year listed among the top five hundred lawyers in the
world.
J-K Gadzama LLP has one of the largest pool of lawyers in
its employment: at present, there are fifty out of which forty are
juniors. The firm regularly takes in dozens of youth corps members and,
on an annual basis accepts a sizeable number of students from the
Nigerian Law School on law office attachment. J-K Gadzama Annual
Lectures, already in its ninth year is one big informal training ground
for lawyers considering the wealth of ideas exchanged at the sessions.
Equally important is the prestigious J-K Gadzama Award for best
graduating student which he instituted at his alma mater, University of
Maiduguri and the Nigerian law School.
Other innovations that endeared Chief J-K
Gadzama to the heart of people within and outside the legal profession
is the Honourable Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Mentorship Scheme, a
quarterly training and mentorship programme coordinated by Dr. Tahir
Mamman, immediate past director general of the Nigerian Law School and
senior partner at J-K Gadzama LLP. The Justice Oputa mentorship training
session, a quarterly training session aimed at honing the skills of
young lawyers debuted last April. It is hardly surprising that these and
more formed the basis for the endorsements that keep coming the way of
Chief J-K Gadzama.
.Growing
up in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama followed the
mind of his friends and wanted to pursue a career in the military. In
fact, teachers and classmates from that era grew up believing it was a
done deal that young Gadzama would one day end up as a General in the
Nigerian Army. To friends from that that era, gaining admission into the
Nigerian Military School, Zaria, in 1975 was like a dream come true.
But this was five years after a better-forgotten
civil war. It was also the year of Nigeria’s third military coup, this
time a bloodless one that brought late General Murtala Ramat Muhammad to
power. But young Gadzama’s mother, like all loving mothers, would have
none of this as she was not going to sign away another family member.
The elder Gadzama was at the time a high-ranking police officer. His
mother had her way
Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama has turned full circle.
Today, he is a General of sort, being the deserving recipient of the
prestigious Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, at age 37, one of the
youngest to be so honoured in 1998. And like any battle-tested General,
he is in full control of an equally battle-tested battalion of lawyers
at his command post, the octopoid J-K Gadzama LLP in Garki11
district of Abuja. He holds two national awards: Officer of the Order
of the Federal Republic, OFR, and Member of the order of the Federal
Republic, MFR. He is the Sardauna of Uba in Borno state.
Born Tuesday, November 28, 1961 in Mubi,
in present day Adamawa state, Chief J-K Gadzama hails from Lassa in
Borno state. He was educated in Kaduna, Song and Maiduguri where he took
a Second Class Upper division degree in law at the University of
Maiduguri in 1985 emerging, in the process, as the best graduating
student in Common Law. Chief J-K Gadzama was the first of the nearly
1700 lawyers in the 1986 class of the Nigerian Law School to become a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, in addition to being the pioneer
Chairman of the class.
In 2006, Chief Gadzama took a post graduate diploma
in International Commercial Arbitration from the Keble College of the
Oxford University in the United Kingdom after which he was admitted into
Lincoln’s Inn. In 2013 and, in recognition of his arbitration and
dispute resolution skills, Chief J-K Gadzama was named as a member of a
high-powered committee set up by the Federal Government to investigate
and proffer solutions to the insurgency in north eastern Nigeria. Today,
the Sardaunan Uba maintains law chambers in the United States of America and the United Kingdom where he practices law.
Outside his native Lassa, J-K Gadzama’s is a big
voice in north eastern Nigeria where he regularly executes
people-friendly projects. And the gesture is not lost on appreciating
members of the communities who, in appreciation, have continued to
recognise him. In December 2007, he was the sole recipient of the
Southern Borno Community Merit Award for meritorious service to
community and the fatherland.
J-K Gadzama has every reason to expect a positive
outing next month. Over the years, he has proved to be one Nigerian who
is passionate about the Nigerian project and continues to do his bit in
its actualisation. And some of his suggestions to drive the Nigerian
project, just as his antidote to the high cost of governance, are as
revolutionary as they are realistic. First, he believes Nigeria must get
it right through enthroning the ideals of free, fair and transparent
elections.
Again, Chief J-K Gadzama believes the nation has no
business with the needless religious and ethnic strife. Thirdly,
corruption should have no place in the land as it shades competence.
What is more, Chief J-K Gadzama believes the nation will achieve quality
legislation at low cost if legislative duties and remunerations are on
part-time basis or, as is the practice in some emerging democracies, for
legislative seats to be reserved for professionals. This, Chief J-K
Gadzama believes, will enrich the legislative process and deepen the
nation’s democracy.
These and more are possible but it will take a
proactive national leadership of the NBA to push them through. The
success story of J-K Gadzama LLP attests to the fact that this,
precisely, is the kind of leadership that J-K Gadzama will provide when
he executes the presidency of the NBA. Besides, the NBA presidency will
be a welcome feather to a colourful cap! The individuals and groups that
endorsed J-K Gadzama cannot be wrong.
Nigerian lawyers cannot be wrong!
Magaji < magaji777@yahoo.com.> is based in Abuja, Nigeri
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