By Ikeazor Ajovi Akaraiwe, SAN
- INTRODUCTION
Warning. I may not be able to write about Aketi in the past tense. I had the good fortune of being First Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), when Aketi was NBA President (2008-2010). Our tenure commenced on my 46th birthday, August 29, 2008. I call it a good fortune because I was exposed, like never before, to forthright, courageous and multidimensional leadership.
I studied, understudied and drank from his wealth of conviction, leadership and intrepidity.
- AKETI – MAN OF COURAGE AND VISION
Aketi understood the possibilities inherent in the NBA Presidency and used it. Under him, NBA traversed the national landscape like a colossus. Some NBA Presidents are made by that office. But not Aketi. He enlarged the office, and in doing so enlarged the NBA. To mention but a few, he took on the Federal Government for refusing to prosecute the Halliburton corruption, challenged the court of appeal over their contradictory judgments, and used the NBA brand to fight the government to a standstill over their embarrassing refusal to transmit executive authority to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan when President Yar Adua was too ill to continue.
When as governor, Akeredolu became too ill to continue and power was not transmitted to his deputy, many of us recognised the failure of his handlers to stay true to his convictions. We recognised that this was not him; and that truly if Aketi baba was more in control, he would have handed over. And why am I so sure of this? I remember how he called me to the NBA secretariat at Lagos on December 2nd 2009 (my wedding anniversary), to notify me of his intention to resign on December 11, 2009 at the National Executive Committee meeting slated for Enugu that day if he was indicted by the committee of past presidents investigating the crisis in the NBA exco which he led, a crisis predicated upon his unbending principles and scarce righteousness. As it turned out, he was not indicted.
- AKETI – MAN OF PRINCIPLE
Aketi is a man of contradiction (I couldn’t bear to say ‘was’). A compassionate man, yet principled almost to a fault. At the International Bar Association (IBA) annual conference in 2009 at Madrid, Spain, I told him of some NBA national officers who were at Madrid and had run into financial difficulty. I requested him to release to them (myself excluded) a small amount out of the $20,000 (twenty thousand US dollars) we went along with to organise a dinner for potential investors in Nigeria, and lawyers of other jurisdictions to mingle with Nigerian lawyers for business purposes. His point blank response to me was that he could not, for any reason, use NBA funds for any purpose other than what they were earmarked for! And stuck to his guns. Try as he may, Aketi could not wrap his mind around the idea of NBA officers paying the humongous IBA registration fees, paying the flight ticket from Lagos to Madrid and paying for hotel accommodation but expecting the bar to provide for their upkeep in Spain when they were not there as official representatives of the bar but conference participants. He was that jealous for the funds of the association.
Yet whenever Aketi saw evidence of poverty among his officers in particular, and lawyers in general, he was deeply moved to sorrow and often extended a helping hand.
While not permitting corruption he was highly empathic. On his first day as NBA President, at the inaugural meeting of his officers, he outlawed the title ‘sir,’ requesting his officers to call him “Aketi” or “Mr. President.”
- MAN OF MANY PARTS
Quick but short tempered. Childlike innocence yet witty and astute, he once asked me at an Abuja Sheraton event how my day had been. “Hectic,” came my unhesitating reply. He took one look at a rather thickset lady standing by me, nodded his head sagely and with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes said “Yes, it has been hectic for you.” Boy, he could sing and dance. One moment he was singing Fela’s music and the next singing Christian hymns. He was at home with Roman Catholic Church liturgy as he was with Anglican or Pentecostal settings. And to some extent could pray Muslim prayers when occasion called for it. On the last day of the annual general conference of the NBA which held at Lagos 2009, as he made his speech to the conference, he made a public declaration of his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal Saviour. - CONCLUSION
Totally without airs; at home with both the noble and the rabble, man of deep compassion for the downtrodden, and scant patience for the excesses of the bourgeoise, man of nobility, dignity and humanity, a sterling leader of preternatural proportions. A transformational leader, a once-in-a-generation kind of leader. Aketi’s reputation is neither dimmed by the shenanigans of Nigerian politicians nor dented by the scandalous and salacious tales of those who ply in character assassination. Aketi was not a politician. He transcended politics. He was a statesman. A leader.
Ikeazor Akaraiwe, Esq. SAN.
NBA 1st Vice-President
(Under Aketi’s Presidency).
Twitter @kizor
“…quit you like men, be strong…”
1 Corinthians 16/13
