Segun Onakoya: Crusader for law and service

“Not every person can be famous. But every person can be great, because greatness is determined by service” –Martin Luther King Jnr.

UNTIL his death on Wednesday, August 26, 2015, Oluwasegunfunmi Onakoya, Life Bencher and former General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), was a quintessential lawyer who spent practically his 75 years on earth (he was born on July 31, 1940) to the service of humanity. He did this through the legal services he rendered to his clients, many of who were indigent and could not really match his service with adequate financial reward; he also used the platform of the NBA, at both branch and national levels, to use the instrumentality of the law to correct the ills of society.

He impacted strongly and positively on all those – including his family, friends and associates – who were opportune to come across him, and finally, as a devoted Christian, he employed religion, particularly through the Anglican Church, to touch people, preaching Godliness in all human endeavours. It was not difficult for the Church to make him an Elder of the Ijebu-Diocese (Anglican) Communion; member, Diocese Board and the Legal Adviser of Cathedral Church of our Saviour, Ijebu-Ode.

Segun Onakoya gave service from his youth till his last breath. He was a member of the Olu-Iwa Secondary School (which was later renamed Adeola Odutola College), Ijebu-Ode choir, adjudged good enough to be invited to sing on Sundays on the network service of the then WNBS/WNTV– the first television station in Africa. His father, Pa Samuel Onanuga Onakoya, was a well-known glass merchant while his mother, Mama Felicia Abosede Onakoya was a princess from Ilishan in Ijebu-Remo. Onakoya embraced Christianity with an uncommon fervour. His passion for Christ prompted him to conduct research into the Qu’ran; and he ended up publishing what the Holy Qu’ran says about Jesus Christ.  The Book is in four series and titled Jesus Christ through the Qu’ran.

After secondary school, working at the Customs Department, Segun Onakoya taught himself how to type efficiently. He soon assumed the duty of typing all the confidential documents of his boss. It was not surprising, therefore, that he was offered full scholarship to read Secretarial Studies at the prestigious Pitman’s College, London. But he declined the offer. This young man knew exactly what he wanted: his sights were already unwaveringly fixed on a dream goal to read law.

Whenever he was on his two-week yearly vacation, he would go, every day, to the Lagos High Court premises and spend hours, studying and admiring the lawyers in their wigs and gowns, as they came out of the courtrooms. The scene burned into his psyche for him, it’s Law; nothing else. In 1963, he left for the UK to study his dream course, Law, at the prestigious Holborn College, London.

While at Holborn, he was an active student unionist and was elected into the British National Union Representative Committee of the College, a position, which earned him a place in the British National Union Executive.

Back home, and called to the Bar in 1972, Segun Onakoya went full blast into the profession he loved, with the determination and doggedness of the perfectionist, and with a major objective of impacting on the society. He easily carried his activism to the Bar, and soon became the secretary, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Lagos Branch 1983 – 85, general secretary, NBA 1987 – 88, member, General Council of the Bar, member, Council of Legal Education, member, Legal Aid Council, member, Continuing Legal Education Association of Nigeria, chairman, Planning Committee, Workshop on Companies and Allied Matters Decree 1990, NBA Lagos Branch 1991, member, International Bar Association, life member, National Executive Committee, NBA, life bencher, Body of Benchers.

His stature bestrode national boundaries like a colossus. He was vice chairman, Committee Eleven, International Bar Association (IBA), vice-chair of Discrimination and Gender Committee of the IBA, Nigerian Representative/Member of African Forum, IBA.

In October 2002, he was appointed the secretary of the African Regional Forum of the IBA, of which he was a co-founder in 1998 in Vancouver and served as an executive member of the Forum from 1998 to 2002. At the IBA Conference in Auckland, New Zealand 2004, he became the chairman of the African Regional Forum.

He was also member, Commonwealth Law Society, member, London Court of International Arbitrator, past chairman Professional Practice Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

Simultaneously as he performed the functions of these offices, he continued relentlessly to advance the standards of law practice in Nigeria as the principal partner, in his law firm, Messrs Segun & Segun Legal Practitioners.

As the branch secretary, NBA Lagos from 1983 – 1985, he worked hard to see that the branch adopted the Branch Bye – Law for the first time and which Bye–Law has been a model for many branches. As a member of the NBA National Executive Committee (NEC) in 1984 – 1985, he wrote a position paper on the deplorable situation of the Commercial Registries in federal ministries. The paper was adopted and a committee set up, headed by Mrs. Priscilla Kuye, who later became President of NBA.

Segun Onakoya was made the secretary.  The committee’s recommendation was accepted by the NEC under the leadership of Prince Bola Ajibola SAN, who on becoming the attorney-general of the federation, set up a body to fashion out, from the report, what is now known as The Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

Onakoya became the national secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association under the Alao Aka-Bashorun NBA presidency in 1987-1988, a period widely acknowledged to be the most outstanding, most active and most honourable in the history of the NBA.

His activism increased during the NBA crisis of the Sani Abacha era, as he teamed up with others to bring NBA back on track.  In Ibadan 2002, he contested for the Bar Presidency, a contest eventually won by his friend Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN.  The following morning, when Chief Olanipekun was to be sworn into office, Segun Onakoya turned up at the ceremony, congratulated the new president and implored him to study his (Onakoya’s) programmes with a view to implementing them along with his (president’s) programme- a sterling lesson in political maturity.

In 1999, he was appointed member of the Body of Benchers – the Body comprising eminent lawyers and judges of the highest distinction in the legal profession in Nigeria, and in 2007, he was elevated to the position of a Life Bencher

He never stopped giving service – in speeches, informed articles in national newspapers and in published books. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his call to the Bar, he said in his epic book The Man; The Law And The State, (2013): “Even now, as I am no longer in active service on the field, the passion still runs thickly in my veins. The profession cannot be extricated from my blood. I won’t be at peace until perfection is attained in my world – the legal profession.”

Onakoya lives on in the heart of the nation, having made an indelible mark in the history of the advancement, practice and reform of Law in Nigeria. His legacy lives on for all present and upcoming lawyers, in his books and papers.

• Sanyaolu is Editorial Page Editor/acting legal adviser of The Guardian.
Faniyan, a Communication Consultant, was Head of Judicial Desk of the Daily Times of old.