Kelechi Obi: A Silk In Gold

By Olanrewaju Onigegewura

For many people across the globe, today Monday 28 November 2022 is just another day. A day to attend to regular business and to return home. Another day in the fleeting year that they would struggle to remember in a couple of years. But to a Select Few in the Legal Profession in Nigeria, today is going to be one of the most memorable days of their life. By the time you are reading this piece, sixty-two senior members of the Nigerian Bar would have been elevated to the Inner Bar. They would have been granted the exclusive privilege to wear Silk, and henceforth they would be respectfully addressed as Learned Silk.

Kelechi Obi, my brother and friend, is among these Select Few, and Onigegewura cannot but celebrate this fine gentleman on this special day of his glory. Kelechi is indeed deserving of adorning the Silk, and he deserves to be celebrated by those of us who know him.

Kelechi is an epitome of professional excellence who is always gracious in and out of the Bar. Anytime I see opposing counsel squaring up against each other in court like a professional pugilist in the mould of the legendary Muhammed Alli, I wonder what Kelechi would have said in such a circumstance. To him, clients would come and go but lawyers would remain at the Bar forever. This is actually what brought us together. We were on the opposite sides of the Bar in the first case we did together. Whilst I was representing the appellant, Kelechi was representing the Attorney General. Notwithstanding our differences, Kelechi was able to bridge the divide and a lasting friendship has since ensued.

The testimonial of everyone who has interacted with Kelechi is that he is a professional who does not do anything by half. I remember when I shared a trial judgment I got in a pro bono case I did with him. Kelechi speed-read the judgment and immediately spotted more than 6 grounds upon which the judgment could be faulted. He was convinced that the convict could be acquitted if we appealed the judgment. That was how Kelechi took it upon himself to represent the gentleman, Yusuf Ibrahim, at no cost.

When the brief of argument filed by Kelechi was served on the Senior State Counsel handling the matter, Mrs. Nape Laima, a very diligent prosecutor, she asked me: “Onigegewura, does your friend have a PhD in Law?” I shook my head and told her that to the best of my knowledge, he has LL.M which he obtained from a United Kingdom university. I then asked why the question in the first place. She told me that what Kelechi prepared was not a brief of argument but a seminal thesis! That’s vintage Kelechi for you. Anything worth doing at all must be done excellently well. That is Kelechi Creed.

I was therefore not surprised when I received a call in June informing me that my Noble Lords of the Court of Appeal agreed with Kelechi’s brilliant submissions and had set aside the trial court’s judgment. In the leading judgment of my Noble Lord, Justice Tobi JCA: “The appellant’s counsel in challenging the confessional statement, stated that the fact that the recorder and the interpreter of the statement is not called to testify makes the statement inadmissible. This in my opinion represents the legal position…I have taken a closer at the Exhibit P1…The statement was taken and interpreted by Sgt. Kutse Nathaniel. He took the statement in English language and translated same in English language for someone who only understands Hausa. I am wondering why a statement taken in English would be translated into English language.”

Our client is free! A couple of months later, I received another call, this time from a gentleman who was speaking Hausa. It was our client. Despite the difficulty in understanding what he was saying, I could not but know that he was praying for ‘lawyer Kelechi’ and my humble self. He was so grateful.

If there is a group for legal practitioners who write lucidly and with passion, Kelechi deserves a front row seat in that group. His writing, whether in or out of court, is always refreshing, clear, and deep. Earlier this year, I came across one of his recent articles, An Examination of the Powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to Restrict Bank Account for Investigation, published in the Gravitas Review of Business and Property Law. It is another brilliant product from the stable of the worthy Silk. I recommend it wholeheartedly. It was one of the materials I consulted when I was preparing my brief of argument in the case of Jaffaru Muhammed v. EFCC which was recently decided by the Court of Appeal.

Outside of law, Kelechi is a gentleman and a fine fellow. He is always committed to the causes of his friends and colleagues. He is someone you can count on when it matters most.

Congratulations, Learned Silk.

Olanrewaju Onigegewura Akinsola is a legal practitioner and historian. He is the Winner of the British Council Professional Achievements Award. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of the United Kingdom and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria. He holds LL.M Degree in International Economic Law of the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Onigegewura is the best-selling author of Echoes Across the Niger, and Once Upon a Tale.