Babalola receives life-time award for contribution to legal profession

Legal luminary, Afe Babalola (SAN), has received a Life-time achievement award in recognition of his contributions to the legal profession in Nigeria.

The award, which is an annual event, was organised and presented by a Lagos-Based Media Outfit, Text Philia Media.

In his acceptance speech, Afe Babalola thanked the organisers of the award and promised to continue to use his wealth of experience in the service of humanity.

He said: “I am so flabbergasted receiving this award today. It shows that the little things we have done so far, both in the legal and educational sectors, are being noticed and appreciated. I promise to continue to do more. I promise to continue to offer myself to humanity, to serve and to defend, to build and to impart.”

He dedicate the award to all undergraduate students currently in Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti.

“I dedicate this award to all my undergraduate students here at ABUAD and I encourage them all to work harder and achieve success and attain such height which I also have attained. The future of any country is the youth. That is why we have focused majorly on the youth here, nurturing them into world-class citizens,” he said.

Also, in his closing remarks, the Managing Director of Text Philia Media, Mr. David Olanrewaju, thanked Afe Babalola for receiving the award and also promise to always support every good project or venture he or his school embarks on.

He said: “We are grateful today for honouring one of the giants in the legal profession in Nigeria. We have been following him for over a decade now and the award presentation is a result of over a decade of study and followership. We believe that this award will spur him to render more services to humanity.”

Babalola is one of the living legends of the legal profession in Nigeria. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in 1987, and has handled a lot of top-notch cases, including the June 12, 1993 annulled elections, as a counsel to the Late Bashorun Moshood Abiola.

Babalola was appointed as the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in 2003, and in 2009, he founded his own Private University, the Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

He has received numerous awards and honours, among which is the prestigious Doctor of Law (LLD) (Honoris Caucas), given to him by his Alma Mater, the University of London, in March 2015.

Afe Babalola is the first and only African to receive an Honorary LLD from the University of London.