Besides the law practice, Babalola is a commercial farmer and an educationist, with his private university, Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), widely acclaimed to be one of the best equipped in the country Growing up was not fun for legal luminary, Afe Babalola, Founder/ Principal Partner of Afe Babalola & Co Legal Practitioners and Afe Babalola University, Ado- Ekiti (ABUAD). The Ekiti-born legal luminary, philanthropist and fi rst class brain suffered deprivation and hardship while growing up; yet, he was not deterred, as he achieved greatness by dint of hard work and self development. His only formal education was at the elementary school, Emmanuel Primary School, Okesha, Ado-Ekiti (the oldest and best primary school in the state) between 1938 and 1945, where he obtained the primary six school leaving certificate. Without the privilege secondary education but determined to achieve academic greatness by all means possible, Afe Babalola enrolled at the University of London, as an external candidate and in 1959, he was awarded a BSc. Degree in Economics. After breaking what looked like initial barrier, coupled with his strong desire to be a lawyer, he also enrolled for law, still an external candidate in the same University of London and in 1963, he was awarded an LLb honours at the completion of his examinations at the Lincoln Inn to become a registered member of the Bar of England and Wales. But, in spite of his brilliance, his application for federal government scholarship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Economics after BSc. Economics was impliedly refused because, instead of an award for MSc. Economics, he was awarded a downgraded scholarship to pursue a diploma in Estate Management in Nigerian college of Technology. The reason for this, as business courage gleaned from those close to him, was not for lack of brilliance, but because he was lowly placed background, who who had no person in the high places to plead his cause. However, upon his return to Nigeria, he joined the law firm of Ayoola & Ayoola & Co where he was arjourned for two years to gather practical experience. The Two-year experience for Afe Babalola was very eventful and rewarding, as they were enough for him to take decision to showcase his entrepreneural skills as a legal uminary. Hence, Afe Babalola Chambers was established in Ibadan, Oyo state (capital of the formal western region) in 1965. Those familiar with Afe Babalola’s story said his determination to achieve success in life was not inspired by hid parents but more by two of his uncles who openly mocked him and his father choosing the path of education rather than pursuing the traditional family business of me farming wherein most of them lowed in poverty. During his elementary school days, Afe Babalola, even had go to school in the rain for fea corporal punishment, but e time he did, his two uncles, rather than empathise with him for going to school in the rain, would rather made jest of him. In recent account, Babalola recounted the common mocking conversation about him by his uncle thus: ‘ look at this boy, he is shaking and shivering and yet he wants gto go to school in the rain to Oke-sha two and half miles away.’ his second uncle responded thus: don’t mind him and his father. The father only has one son. Instead of making use of him to carry his hoe and cutlass, he decided to send him to school.’ Babalola said the first uncle will rhetorically, ‘what is he going to do with his education? Nothing, he will come back to farm, retorted the other.’ As a boy, Babalola said he never uttered a word but had never forgotten all that transpired and that, to a large extent fired his passion in him as he vowed himself to be successful in his studies and never return to the farm as predicted by his uncles. His toil not only paid off, he is today, one of the respected legal heads in the country. since incorporation 1965, his law firm has undergonr tansformation more than once. It recently has its name changed from Chief Afe Babalola & Co to Afe Babalola & Co Legal Practitioners. As a result of the most recent transformation, Afe Babalola has his title changed to Founder/ Principal Partner while the two Senior Advocates in the chamber were elevated to the status of Managing Partners. Adebayo Adenipekun (SAN), who was formerly Head Chambers, was lifted to the position of Managing Partner. Olu Daramola, the second SAN in the Chamber was equally promoted to the position of Deputy Managing Partner. The recent transformation in the Chamber which led to the appointment of two managing partners, sources close to the firm, said may not be unconnected with the desire of Afe Babalola to give the business a wider acceptability while decentralising the focus on himself. They (sources) also noted that the move was a strategic plan to ascertain that the business outlives the owner, who certainly would not want the business go down after he had left the stage. Babalola, an indigene of Ado- Ekiti, patiently built his business from the scratch in 1965 from a rented apartment until 21 years, when he finally designed and built a befitting four story building edifice meant purposely for the law business in 1986. The office located on 80, Fajuyi Road, Ekotedo, Ibadan; presently hosts the fi rm’s head offi ce. No doubt, Afe Babalola & Co Legal Practitioners has come of age as its business empire now extends beyond the shores of Oyo state where the business was launched as it has branches in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt as well as correspondence offices in Ado- Ekiti, Nigeria and London in the United Kingdom. The brilliance and integrity of Afe Babalola in the law business has attracted to him and his employees, good fortunes, as almost every first grade company in Nigeria continue to jostle for his services. Besides corporate organisations, eminent Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is said to be a bossom friend of the legal icon, enjoy the services of the Chamber. But topmost of Afe Babalola’s clients is the Federal Government of Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Pan Ocean Oil Corporation and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (N.A.F.D.A.C). Some other corporate organisations who pay the bills of Afe Babalola and his employees include The Obat Group, O’dua Group, Stallion Group, Union Bank Plc, GTBank Plc, Lee Group, Chams Plc, United Cement Nigeria Company Limited, Rosula Group among others. Afe Babalola & Co Legal Practitioners are versatile in almost all areas of legal practice but has its principal area of focus in litigation. The firm’s area of practice under litigation however include Company and Commercial Law, which is one of the areas of business that has brought good fortunes to the firm. Afe Babalola through the company’s website disclosed that company and commercial law is a major department in the law firm, noting that the unit boasts of seven lawyers whose postgraduate work was in this area. The areas of practice for Afe Babalola in this segment of the business include General Practice, Corporate Finance, Joint Ventures, Partnership, Public Issues, Mergers and Acquisitions, Privatisation, Investment, Stock Brokerage, Taxation, Debt Recovery, Arbitration Matters, Receivership and other Insolvency Procedures, Intellectual property and other related matters. Apart from company and commercial law, other areas of practice where Afe Babalola wields considerable influence include, Admiralty Maritime, where he renders consultancy services and undertakes litigation in admiralty or maritime matters. Afe Babalola offers advice to owners, chatters, shippers, consignees, insurers, towage companies, sailors, suppliers of goods to ship and all related maritime issues. The other areas of practice the chamber has flourished are Oil and Gas Law, Civil Law, Family and Matrimonial Law, Civil Liberties/Public Law and Trade Unionism, Constitutional Law, Property Law ( where it specialises in all types of industrial, commercial and real estate transactions) among others. The Afe Babalola law firm, apart from sending its lawyers to appear on behalf of its clients in the law court is entrepreneurial in its business approach. Its advisory and consultancy services cuts across real estate acquisition, banking and estates, debt recovery and collection by due process of law, advice on government regulations as it affects business in Nigeria, accompanying clients as solicitors to business meetings, consultants in insolvency, mergers and acquisition and so on. Though as a young boy, Babalola did not wish to join other members of his extended family to engage in small scale farming, fate has drawn him into the business of his fore fathers as he proudly runs a huge farm ceded to his University in Ado Ekiti. The Afe Babalola agriculture project established on 1,000 hectares of land in Ekiti is dedicated to cultivation of grains which are harvested four times in a year. This is made possible by the use of effective irrigation system which is far different from the rain fed agriculture practised by his ancestors. Speaking on the farm project, he said: “We are doing this in ABUAD by being the highest private employer of labour in Ekiti State. We are also impacting the larger community through various programmes including our vast and extensive agricultural programmes such as the 1,000 hectares of land dedicated to cultivation of grains which are harvested four times in a year; 10,000 mango trees which will ensure export of mango fruits all year round; over 75, 000 fishes in the fi sh ponds; over 10, 000 timber trees in the cultivated teak forest among many others. All these are also being presently expanded,” he explained. As a farmer, Afe Babalola emerged the winner of the 2011 Foresters Association of Nigeria Award. Afe Babalola University of Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) is probably the most recent and most expensive project the legal luminary has ever embarked upon. Estimation by sources close to ABUAD puts the cost of the projection at billions of naira. The University which started operation in January 2010 was founded with the main objective of reforming education in Nigeria in line with Babalola’s personal belief and conviction that private individuals should stand up to the challenge of providing qualitative and affordable tertiary institutions as it is done in other nations of the developed world where the quality and performances of graduates produced will be at par with the competitive world field. A university where there are established code of conduct, rules and regulation and disciplinary measures which are pursued rigorously and religiously. ABUAD’s goals was to be a world class educational centre of excellence in academics, character, sports and vocational development and be a result-oriented institution for producing highly skilled and socially relevant graduates capable of applying scientific knowledge for the resolution of social problems. These goals are guided by the need to produce professionals who are sound and agile and who will emerge as people with professional skills and become leaders, achievers, self reliant, kind, generous, considerate and sportsman like. Students shall be made to believe in the Babalola’s golden rule that no matter one’s background, nothing is impossible; and with hard work, one can make it to the top. Babalola being a stickler for standard and discipline is a selfmade man who believes strongly that nothing is impossible. Indeed, his autobiography is aptly titled “Impossibility Made Possible”. For several years, he was the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos and the Chairman, Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities. In those capacities, he observed first-hand, the myriad of problems troubling the University system in Nigeria such as cultism, poor infrastructure, poor work ethics, corruption, and legendary brain-drain. Afe Babalola University is therefore his model of what a University ideally should be, as it is set up as a practical example of how problems militating against the growth of Nigerian Universities can be solved. The philosophy of the proprietor which is also sought to serve as a guiding principle and beacon to the University itself is to “lead by example”. In recognition of this, all efforts were directed at ensuring that the University began operations from its permanent site with permanent structures as opposed to the practice whereby Universities existed in name alone and operated from rented apartments or buildings with no infrastructure of their own. Afe Babalola personally prepared and authored an ABUAD anthem which is premised on his belief in industry and doggedness as the road-map to success. The university anthem reads as follows: “ABUAD we come, oh oh oh ABUAD we come; Founded by Afe Babalola; A believer in industry and determination. A unique environment; with aesthetic structure; A beacon university; Delivery unequalled; Designed for high quality education; To mould character and infuse knowledge Out to lead others. Proud of ABUAD; The launching pad to excellence, with determination; Faith in ABUAD’s philosophy of industry, service and character, our future for greatness and excellence is assured”. ABUAD ensures that every student sings the anthem daily. Both teachers and students observe and practise the ideals contained in the anthem. Entrepreneurship being one of the major cardinal points why ABUAD was established, the management of the University is making conscious efforts to make every student of the school imbibe the entrepreneurial spirit and be self reliant after graduating from the university. To prepare the students for the challenge of life after the completion of their programmes, the Vice Chancellor of ABUAD, Prof. Sidi Osho, explained that the university had developed entrepreneurship and language centres to equip them with life and vocational skills required to become job creators rather than job seekers. “All students are required to pass through these centres during their period of study. The Entrepreneurship Centre is for the training of students in the development of high quality entrepreneurial skills to enable them to be self-reliant apart from their course of study in the university” he said. “The language centre is for the training of students in at least one local and one foreign language apart from English language. This is in response to the increasing globalisation of various areas of our national life including labour and employment,” Afe Babalola added. Beyond creating a very conducive learning and working environment for both students and teachers, Afe Babalola, a giver par excellence, who believes that money must not be kept in banks just for the purpose of banking but be spent to better the lots of fellow human beings, has established an endowment fund which is expected to provide sponsorship for about 500 brilliant and indigent students of the university in perpetuity. He said the endowment programme should be regularly reviewed and re-launched annually to sustain awareness and take care of the regularly increasing inflation. Although, the university is not a profit making project, the university has established the ventures arm which is self sustaining and profit oriented. “It is important that the ventures outfi t be managed by qualified, competent and experienced professionals for effectiveness. Controls must be installed within the outfit to make it mandatory for all its activities to be guided by planned and approved annual budgets, quarterly financial reports and annual audited accounts” , he said. Afe Babalola was called to the Bar in England in 1963. He is a member of the Lincoln’s Inn, London, a registered member of the Bar of England and Wales and a distinguished member of the Nigerian Bar. He was admitted into the Nigerian Inner Bar as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1987. Afe Babalola has been in practice for over 40 years and is an active uninterrupted member of the Nigeria Bar Association and International Bar Association (IBA). He is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Nigeria, fellow of the Leadership Institute of Nigeria, member of the Body of Benchers, the highest legal body in Nigeria. He was the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos from 2001-2007. An advocate par excellence, Afe Babalola has made outstanding contributions to the development of Nigerian Law and Jurisprudence through advocacy in court. This is evident from the celebrated cases which he has handled and the notable personalities and corporate bodies who constitute his clientele. He has to his credit, several legal books, namely: Injunctions and Enforcement of Order; Law and Practice of Evidence in Nigeria; Enforcement of Judgment and Election Law and Practice to mention but a few. All of his publications have contributed immensely to the promotion of legal education and practice in Nigeria. He has also authored over 200 legal and non-legal articles contained in law books and journals some of which works he had delivered as lectures at various events. He is a lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, visiting lecturer at the Post Graduate Schools of the University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan, as well as the Centre of African Law and Development studies. He is also the author of “YOU AND THE LAW”, a column published by the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper on Mondays. A Patron of several law student societies, legal institution and corporate bodies, Afe Babalola has trained over 300 lawyers and produced 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (The largest number from any chambers in the country), several judges and Attorneys-General. His experience and number of years in uninterrupted legal practice have equipped him with versatility in many areas of law. He is a consultant to several conglomerates, the Federal Government of Nigeria, companies and the World Bank. Babalola is an administrator of repute and is actively involved in both domestic and international arbitration. He owns a huge law library and is strongly devoted to the advancement of law and the legal profession in Nigeria. He has recently been elected as the Vice President of the Club of Rectors of Europe by European Business Assembly with headquarters in Oxford, UK]]>