By Kolawole Igandan
There are individuals whose influence goes far beyond their
considerable achievements and competencies. What unites these
masters of conscience is the fact that they enlarge the reach and
range of our social imagination by making a greater proportion of
their life and times available to shape their society and so form
the basis for a moral order.
This is so true of Wole Olanipekun, a man whose true
significance may not be well appreciated except you are close to
him by reasons of association. He is not a complex human being. He,
in fact, is a thorough bred who has a unique capacity to keep the
lid on the pressure cooker of Nigeria’s aspirations to achieve
greatness.
Indeed, he is a man with views firmly formed on several matters,
but you cannot also take away the fact that he is a man of strong
character who can only join any organization to affect its policies
and not be affected by it.
Wole Olanipekun’s name reverberates in legal quarters as a
lawyer of first choice and an uncommon philanthropist, but a deeper
and cursory look at his finest moments also reveals a man of
charming and conciliatory mien but, if required, could move on to a
prolonged vituperation against imperial hubris and power chauvinism
and then switch over to an erudite philosophical and legalistic
discourse.
As a change and reformative agent, Olanipekun breathed life into
the activities of the NBA. It would remain in the annals of the
association that Olanipekun made ground breaking reforms that have
placed the association in enviable stead and made it gain respect
at the International Bar Association (IBA)
His words: “I laid the foundation for the new NBA building in
Lagos. We initiated so many things you are seeing in the NBA today.
We started the Lawyers’ Insurance Scheme, we paid premium for
lawyers. We established the Business Law Section and the Section on
Legal Practice.
“We initiated and launched the NBA stamp and seal projects. The
idea of NBA commenting on the state of the nation was my brain
child which I introduced for the first time at our NEC meeting in
Makurdi”.
He once described the many battles he had to fight as the
President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to insulate the bar
from politics.
“I didn’t submit in to any government. Despite the fact that my
friends, Kanu Agabi and Akin Olujinmi, were at different times the
Attorneys – General of the Federation, I didn’t step into their
offices privately except for official functions”, Olanipekun
said.
“I didn’t collect any money from the Federal Government or any
government throughout my two years in office. I wrote all my
speeches myself and also prepared the communiqués of the NBA
myself.
“My cabinet was inaugurated on a Friday. The Chairman of Onitsha
branch, Barnabas Igwe, and his wife, Abigail, who were my
supporters, just returned to Onitsha and were murdered; his wife
carrying a six months old pregnancy.
“I was in Ilorin when I heard the news on radio. I quickly
summoned a meeting of NBA officers and addressed a world press
conference before immediately setting up a preliminary committee to
investigate the circumstances surrounding the dastardly act.
“The Committee came up with an unequivocal report that they were
murdered by then-powers and principalities, and, as the President
of the NBA, there was no hiding place for me.
“We did our internal investigation which also pointed at the
same people. I went to then-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and
handed our report over to him and I mentioned the names of the
alleged perpetrators, who were then in the corridors of power.
“Chief Obasanjo pleaded and assured us that government would
hand over the report to the appropriate agency.
“I led a team of no fewer than 2,000 lawyers to Onitsha to give
the couple a befitting burial. People confessed that they had never
seen such a large contingent of lawyers before and we warned that
nobody in government in Anambra State then should come near the
place”
Olanipekun noted that he had had several brushes with government
over his principled stand in matters of nation-building.
His words: “At some point, I became a persona non grata even at
the Presidency. It was my executive that sold the idea of six years
presidency to President Obasanjo but he rejected it. I was so
surprised that, at the twilight of his second tenure in office, he
started canvassing the idea without even acknowledging the
NBA”.
Lean and intense, Olanipekun is endowed with remarkable
presence. He is always resplendent in a modest but decent suit
Olanipekun is endowed with rural righteousness and once
disclosed during an interview: “I don’t hide my nativity. I don’t
pretend about where I come from and I don’t eclipse my origin. I am
proud of what God has made out of me and why, in His infinite
mercy, chose to locate me within a particular enclave and through a
set of parents that I had.
“I began from my cradle in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State with a
loving and humble father, Pa Isaac Olanipekun, and my dear mother,
Bosede Olanipekun, both of them of blessed memory. They were both
loving and caring”.
An orator of extra ordinary brilliance and writer of
considerable merit, Olanipekun has graced several academic
functions as keynote speaker or guest lecturer. He has delivered
lectures in several universities in the country and only recently
was invited as guest lecturer at University of Oxford in United
Kingdom.
No doubt, Olanipekun’s writings usually combine erudition with
patriotism and have often created a stir among the intelligentsia
and youths.
In the sphere of philanthropy, Olanipekun looms very large with
his unquantifiable contributions to his community of Ikere Ekiti
and Ekiti State where he doles out millions of naira in scholarship
and grant to students in tertiary and post tertiary
institutions.
An emotional Olanipekun once disclosed how some of his legatees
and beneficiaries of his goodwill once walked up to him to tell
him, “But for you, we won’t be where we are today. You sowed a seed
into our lives and it has germinated today. We are managing our own
businesses and we are also giving back to the society. This is what
you taught us”.
His magnanimity knows no bound as many institutions in the
country have been gifted with gigantic edifices solely built by him
and his amiable wife, Princess Omolara Olanipekun, for the benefit
of mankind.
Olanipekun has made a success of every venture he has ventured
into but his greatest pride is his family. He is a successful
father and husband who has left a exemplary path for his children
to tread. His children are all lawyers with the first two donning
the prestigious silk of Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
Subscribe ToNairalaw News!
Read more wole-olanipekuns-stature-looms-large-at-68/