Opinions

Tribute to Adebisi Ajayi, legal luminary

“BUT whon is this Ajay-ee”? This was the question that rang out from one of those checking the result on the notice board way back in 1952 at the Law Faculty of the University College, London,. The person in question was no other than Dr. Festus Adebisi Ajayi. From his autobiography: “For that year, I happened to have been the only African among the entire First Year law student at the University College, London and since I was an evening student and was in Class “F” for the Tutorials Comprising only about ten students, very many of my fellow students had not known me or ever come across me on any occasion, much less know my name. However, the results published on the Notice Board showed that I was not only awarded First Class Honours but was also placed first in order of merit in every one of the four subjects — English legal system, Roman Law, Constitutional Law and the Law of contract, I was standing at the back of those checking on the Notice Board, and one fairly tall English girl, after reading through all the results then exclaimed.

“Butwho is this. Ajay-ee”? to whichquestion I almost Casually responded. “Ws me”, when upon all the others crowding around the notice board looked back in amazement as they were sure that the voice which they had just heard was not that of an European Student. Everybody around, upon seeing me, looked dazed but I then just quietly walked away.”

That briefly sums up the euphoria and surprise that greeted the great performance of Dr. F. A. Ajayi when the result of the LLB Examination came out in 1952 and he was the only one placed in First Class Honours. It was indeed a rare feat which acclamation reverberated throughout the Commonwealth countries and the Caribbean! The echoes of the young man’s performance reached the late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Head of Government Business in Western Region who gave directives to the then Head of Service, Chief Simeon Adebo, one of the greatest Africans who ever lived, to recruit Dr. Festus Adebisi Ajayi into the Western Nigeria Ministry of Justice.

But Festus Adebisi Ajayi the scholar was not yet done as he could not come home immediately to take up the appointment, he had decided to continue his legal studies as a post-graduate student and University Scholar which lasted till 1957 when he bagged the PhD in Law and was retained in the university as a lecturer. Notable among his students in the university were Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Otunba Michael Subomi Balogun, the late Justice Yekini 0. Adio, JSC, late Justice Kolawole all of who attained positions of pre eminence in their chosen career and endeavor. He returned to Nigeria in 1958 and was employed as Deputy Commissioner for Law Revision in the Ministry of Justice of Western Nigeria where he rose to become Permanent Secretary and Solicitor General in 1963, after five years of service. And in 1967 he was appointed Attorney General.

Dr. Ajayi proved himself a genius in law reforms and legal draughtmanship, and it is on record that his distinguished career as an attorney at law spanned a period of fourteen years, having worked for eleven different successive governments and administrations, from Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s government (1958) to Brig. – Gen. Oluwole Rotimi (1 971/72).

Dr. Ajayi was indeed an epitome of humility in all its ramifications. He never allowed his achievements as a scholar and legal luminary to make him a megalomaniac. This fact was alluded to, by the late Justice Timothy Akinola Aguda’s reference to him as “a great legal scholar, who had decided on a life of utter seclusion from public view…” in the preface at page x of his book, Flashback). In fact, according to Dr. F. A. Ajayi, The honourable Dr. Karibi – White JSC, remarked in one of his meetings with him in 2004, some 52 years after the LLB Final examination of 1952 that when he entered Kings College London about a decade after 1952, Dr. F. A. Ajayi’s result was still ‘unprecedented”. When in 1977 he was invited alongside Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Richard Akinjide and others for conferment as Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he declined on the excuse that the whole thing would soon be debased like the rank of Queens Counsel. It took a decade later before he was persuaded to join the rank by his bossom friend, the late Hon. Justice Kayode Eso, whose ermine robes remained untainted. Nevertheless despite his initial refusal to join the rank of Senior Advocates, Dr. Ajayi’s reputation and status as a legal colossus was not diminished as he was accorded his due recognition and respect in judicial precedence as a Bencher for Life.

Dr. Ajayi was a legendary legal luminary who was first among equals and a fantastic legal scholar of unparalleled accomplishment, a beacon of excellence. He lived a life worthy of emulation till he breathed his last breath on 14th July, 2017, he would have clocked the age of 92 years on September 28. His remains were committed to mother earth at Ibokun his home town on Saturday, 25 August, 2017.