Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, the Managing Partner of Legal Forte and former General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, has on Friday, 5th August delivered a lecture to the Young Lawyers Forum of the Nigerian Bar Association—Benin Branch, titled, “Going Beyond The Norm: Empowering Young Legal Minds” which he began by stating categorically that, “this discussion will always be a very topical one because we must all contribute to the conversation on the things we have to do to ensure lawyers (both and old) innovate and take their practice to profitable heights”.
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He mentioned that going beyond the norm or to do something ‘out of the norm’ is simply to do something that might be perceived different or unusual; or ‘outside normal’ or ‘further than’ or ‘away from’ the normal or usual way of doing things. To contextualize the topic, the learned silk stated that, “the empowerment of young legal minds (young lawyers) in the context of my presentation therefore means the process of giving young lawyers power and status to go ‘beyond usual borders or ‘venture beyond usual borders’ or ‘go out of the norm’.” He proceeded further by stating how many of lawyers are content to do the same thing over and over again whether or not we get the desired result. Yet some of us are afraid moving out of our comfort zone, “…If perchance, they fail and become unsuccessful, they blame it on evil persons or malevolent forces” he stated.
Drawing an illustration with Unoka, a Character in Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece—Things Fall Apart—the learned silk has stated that “…from Unoka’s story we can safely surmise that a person who does not go beyond the norm or venture beyond the usual borders may be poor, lazy, and neglectful of his/her duties/responsibilities, and may not plan for the future.”
Mazi Afam listed out certain things that will happen once a person goes beyond the dream like; take a risk for something more; question the acceptable way of thinking or doing things; refuse to accept a situation; be dissatisfied with his/her situation or things on many people are defeated by the everyday problems of life; refuse to permit obstacles to control one’s mind to the point where they are uppermost and thus become the dominating factors in one’s thought pattern; attempt to physically breach a space; desire to form a new way of thinking about the world alongside others.
Providing the statement of the founder of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid, who was once asked about the future of his country “Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men, weak men create difficult times. Many will not understand it, but you have to raise warriors, not parasites.” He further urged the young lawyers to find someone to help push you; to take on a little more than you think you can; imagine reaching your next level; look at how others reached where you want to go; inspire yourself to action; do not stop until exhaustion; work on your weaknesses..
In conclusion, he admonished that some of the best empowerments young legal minds can be given are knowledge, opportunities and mentorship. As the saying goes, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” He acknowledged the place of the young lawyer acting like a business man in his practice of the law, “… a law practice must therefore strive for excellence. A practice may not achieve excellence or run efficiently if it is not run like a business” and ended by adding that, “removing all fears, not being complacent and going after one’s dreams will only result in successes”
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