Guardian Nigeria
The day passed quietly last week: no fun fair; no noise-making. It was not because he is no longer in the flesh. Even if he were, the great day would have been marked modestly. A few speculations, given what I knew about his nature and his values, raced to my mind on how the day would have been marked – a handful of friends and admirers visiting to extend the customary courtesies and best wishes to him, a musical concert, children singing the Hallelujah Chorus. If with a lecture, there would be no clicking of glasses: you go home and reflect on what had been absorbed from the lecture.He departed earthly life, barely two months away to clocking 69 years.
I am referring to Chief Adeyemi Olusola Lawson, the colossus and without comparison, a man of many parts, a leader of leaders, the captain of captains of industries. He would have been 100 years last week Wednesday, were he still to be in the flesh. What I believe a great many must have done on that blessed day was sit quietly in their closets, thanking the Almighty Father,the Creator of all the worlds for the privilege of being permitted to cross his path in this phase of our journey through life.
Chief Lawson was from Abeokuta in Ogun State, born in Lagos on 15 May, 1924, the first of five children of Chief J. O. Lawson, a civil servant and Frances Obinrinade Lawson, a Princess from the Arole O’odua, indeed from the same Aderin Royal Lineage as Oba Okunade Olubuse, the Second. She was a teacher, but later took to trading. As a trader she got her son to hawk in the streets of Lagos Island. This was later to turn as a prelude to his imminent high tasks in his life. No one knew what the high tasks meant to be his lot would be. As was customary at the time, all his parents were told was that they should not interfere in whatever spiritual values he might choose to profess. He hawked “foo-foo”to nourish the body, he later went to the ends of the world spreading the Holy Word of God to nourish human beings with the food of the spirit and to awaken those in slumber through bringing to their awareness the existence of
“In the Light of Truth”, the Grail Message by Abd-ru-shin. The Grail Message is the Teaching of the Lord Christ brought anew from the Highest Heights to mankind much more elaborately in these times. In his own words, “I assisted my mother by hawking wares on the same streets of Lagos over which I now move about in cars. I sold oranges, foo-foo and agidi, hawking them on my head after school hours like children from average families.”
Coming from an enlightened parentage, Adeyemi Lawson began his elementary education at the age of four at a private school known as Caxton House School. He moved from there to Baptist Academy where he finished in Standard Six, was admitted the following yearto CMS Grammar School founded in 1859 at Abeokuta, the first and oldest secondary school in Nigeria to date. The school was moved to Lagos after a few years. Adeyemi Lawson attended the school in Lagos and passed out in flying colours in 1941. Lawson’s performance was such that he was exempted from London Matriculation. Among his classmates were later Nigeria’s leading lights in the civil service, in politics and the judiciary. Jonathan Odebiyi, for example, was principal of Egbado College, Ilaro, later Minister of Finance in the Western Region and in the second Republic the UPN Senate Leader. Folarin Coker was permanent secretary for many years and his role call later was as Head of Service and Justice B.O Kassim was High Court Judge in Lagos. All these confirm the truism that you can tell a person by the company he keeps. Adetunji Adefarasin was anotherof his friends, but he attended Igbobi College. He was Chief Judge of Lagos State from 1974 to 1985. Lawson’s best known bosom friend was Chief Chris Ogunbanjo, another giant in Industry and Law practice with specialization in Commercial Law.
Lawson could not go to the university immediately on leaving school because the Second World War was sweeping through parts of Europe and such higher education could only be obtained in Europe at the time. He took to teaching at St. Saviour’s High School in Lagos as only teachers were free from conscription into the Army to go and fight in the war. He wanted to study Law, not joining the Army. He eventually left for the United Kingdom in 1945 after the war ended. As part of his working career, he had a stint in the Accountant General Office as a clerk.
Always exceptional, he finished his Law studies ahead of time in 1947. He was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. Speaking with Dapo Odebiyi in his publication, Nigerian Enterprise, 1983, relayed in his book, Builders of Modern Nigeria, 1985, Chief Adeyemi Lawson said in glowing appreciation and gratefulness about his father: “It is pertinent to mention here that my father made an enormous sacrifice to get me trained in England. He was then a first-class clerk with a monthly income the equivalent of about thirty seven Naira out of which he sent me about twenty-five Naira every month, leaving him less than twelve Naira to maintain himself, my mother and other children and there can be no doubt that other children went through some privations at that time.”
On returning to Nigeria he set up a law firm, A Lawson & Co—Solicitors.He knew success and fortune. He was Queen’s Counsel (QC) the precursor of SAN, as peak of his professional calling. QC now SAN which is the highest attainment for any lawyer. Some of his outstanding cases are contained in Nigerian Law Reports. His area of concentration was commercial law in which he excelled. That aspect of law practice brought him into regular contact with managers of business. This gave him an insight into features characteristic of business, business management and investment and as is the natural order, first as a minor investor and later a more substantial one. He and friends among them Chief Michael Ibru, Chief Chris Ogunbanjo and Dr. Moses A. Majekodunmi, joined hands to establish a commercial bank known as Bank of Lagos Limited, with some Swiss nationals as foreign partners. They left the running of the bank in the hands of the foreign partners who came with expertise no doubt but did not know enough about Nigerians. “In consequence, a good proportion of our capital was lost in no time”, so said Chief Lawson. “My colleagues and I on the Board of the Bank could afford to lose our money but not our good names and so we decided not to take the risk of losing depositors’ money.” They called in all the depositors and, under the supervision of the Central Bank, refunded all their deposits to them with apologies that they could no longer be of service to them in the banking field. They returned their banking licence, changed the name of the Bank to Finance Company of Lagos Limited, and bowed gracefully out at the time from the banking field—having gained what Chief Lawson described was “a highly invaluable experience.”
Business is a risk, but Adeyemi Lawson was not one to flee from risk taking in business or any endeavour. He went from banking to brewing (West African Breweries, the first indigenous brewery in Nigeria) for which he was renowned, to pharmaceuticals, to glass manufacturing and to services such as insurance and advertising.He was into petroleum marketing.He set up ACORN Petroleum Nigeria Limited to drive it – undergirded as was his accustomed thoughtfulness by the adage “The mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” He set up a trading and marketing company in the UK with world-wide tentacles.
Chief Lawson packed so much into his life that hardly is it realised by the younger generation that he was ever into politics. His foray into politics was unplanned but prepared him for his great tasks. Interestingly, it was his father that was chosen as candidate by his constituency for election into Lagos City Council, but was disqualified on technical ground. “Since the Area Council members had printed many posters in the name of J.O. Lawson, they decided that his lawyer son had better be presented as a candidate as they only needed to change my father’s initial ‘J’ to my own ‘A’ on the various posters.” Chief Lawson won the election on the platform of Awolowo’s Action Group and subsequent ones until he left politics in 1962 following the crisis in the party and the looming crisis in the Western Region as a whole. He was out of the country when the crisis began. All the parties saluted his sagacity and engrossing wisdom and believed that had his intervention come earlier the crisis would not have escalated beyond the point of reconciliation. Chief Lawson hardly spoke about his intervention. All he said in publications was in his own words:
“The two principal actors in the crisis were Chief Awolowo and the Late Chief S.L. Akintola. Both of them had been good to me and in my own way, I had been a good and loyal friend to both of them. As it became impossible for the rift to be resolved, the party split into supporters of one, on the one hand, and the supporters of the other, on the other hand, I decided that since neither of them had wronged me, I would not remain with one in seeming opposition to the other. Therefore, I decided to quit politics and resigned from all political positions.” When the thoughts became crystallised within him and became a pressure, he parked his car by the roadside on the way to Ibadan and wrote his letter of resignation. He indeed heard a voice commanding him to “resign now.” He did not know where the voice came from.
He was in politics from 1950 till 1962. He was chairman of the Lagos City Council for six years, a position that would rank him as post independence governor of Lagos State. He served on the floor of the Council after his party, the Action Group, was defeated by the NCNC in 1960. That was to the chagrin of a great many. To Chief Lawson, it was nothing. It was the standard in Westminster and with which he was familiar. Once a Prime Minister loses as head of his party he becomes an ordinary Member of Parliament. He was barely 30 years old and on looking back years later, he marveled at how his Administration could have achieved what it did. He noted it could not have been due to anything thing other than the unseen hands of Helpers from Above that guided their thoughts and hands. He had his pillar of support in Chief Deyemo (D.M.O) Akinbiyi as Town Clerk and T.M.Aluko, the City Engineer, the same very well known novelist. Lawson’s Administration in collaboration with LEDB of which he was statutorily a member by virtue of his being chairman of Lagos City Council built New Lagos, turning the swamp of Surulere into a new and modern city. They changed the face of Lagos transport system. When he was chairman, T.M. Aluko had pressed in a memo for urban renewal, to decongest Lagos Island. This was the catalyst for creating Surulere—lower and medium scale properties. The memo also triggered the thought in him for what later to manifest as Agbara Estate. This was coupled with the encouragement of the government to industrialists to begin to move to the outskirts of Lagos.
As one controlling about a dozen leading companies, including oil prospecting and exploration in Gabon, and the establishment of Agbara Estate, the first of its kind as an industrial and residential city in West Africa, it could not have come as a surprise that his contemporaries in business and economy found him worthy to invest in him the leadership of their various associations. He was President Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry; President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and agriculture (NACCIMA); President, Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce which through his initiative pressed for the establishment of ECOWAS.General Gowon embraced the initiative and got his brother Heads of State in countries of West Africato buy into it. Lawson was the only African on the 15-member Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce based in Paris.
Much as he appreciated the material endowments that he knew came from the Throne of Grace, what mattered more to Adeyemi Lawson was the Spread of The Grail Message. As Abd-ru-shin says in His Message from the Grail of the class of Adeyemi Lawson: “Through faithful guidance they were equipped in the earthly sense with everything they needed for the fulfillment of their respective tasks.” Just as well, after he left politics, in his own words: “Since then other factors have come into my life to make it impossible for me to politick actively in Nigeria again. I have responsibilities for bringing the Grail Message to the knowledge of every citizen of this country and indeed beyond the boundaries of our country. With such a responsibility, my doors should be and remain readily open to every Nigerian from wherever walk of life or from whatever part of the country he may come from. And in the circumstances of politics in Nigeria, my spiritual responsibilities to all and sundry cannot be compatible with partisan politics. So I have to recognise a much higher duty by staying away from politics and be as far as humanly possible a brother and friend to every Nigerian.”
He worked tirelessly to make the existence of the Grail Message known not only in several parts of Nigeria through public lectures, newspapers and television. In the UK, his lecture was reported by West Africa Magazine. He was in the United States, he was in India; he was in Brazil. Many of his assistants are spread across villages and cities in Nigeria, East Africa and South Africa as well. What is in the Grail Message that he so unremittingly applied himself to making its existence known in so many places, near and far? Lawson answers in the following words:
“The Grail Message does not seek to establish a new religion. It does not demand anything from anyone. It does not even oblige you or ask you to accept it. It is a source of knowledge which reveals to mankind all the Laws of Nature which uphold the Will of the Creator in His Creation. It enables man to recognise his own position as a creature in Creation and recognizing that position enables man to understand the consequences of everything he says and he does in Creation. He is completely free to exercise his will and do what he pleases but would know what the consequences would be. More than that, he will understand in all clarity how this great Creation of the Almighty does work in perfection. When I came to the Grail Message, and examined it, I realised that this was a unique message on the face of the earth, that any man who does not become aware of its existence and grapple with it in his life-time, may be considered as having gone through a completely wasted life on earth. So great was my gratitude for being able to come across it, that I know of no other thing I can do or give in return for that Grace than work with all my strength to help other human beings to know of it. This was the objective which enabled me or rather which made me start off on the establishment of the Grail Movement of Nigeria with a view to working together with people of like minds to make the existence of the Grail Message on earth become known to all my countrymen.”
Lawson was always in his elements whenever he had to speak on The Grail Message and he went on: “The Grail Message as a fountain of Truth itself is not easy for the average human spirit who has become spiritually indolent to grapple with, and the majority of human beings have become spiritually indolent on earth. The average man is no longer concerned with his origins in Creation or the purpose of life. He dreams and goes through a vivid experience in the dream. He wakes up and does not concern himself with what he had dreamt. Where was he when he was seeing and experiencing these things? What he experienced and on what plane did he experience them? Many questions he leaves unanswered. He has become comfortable with indolence and, therefore, the spiritually receptive part of his brain has become atrophied. He finds it consequently difficult to grapple with spiritual facts. One finds, therefore, that only the few who bestir themselves, the few who still have some spark of truth and light within them, make efforts to try to understand the Grail Message. The consequence of that is that only a few of the very many who hear of it get the benefit from it.
But, however few they may be, even for the sake of one who will benefit from it, I will walk to the ends of this earth to be able to help him benefit from it. For there can be nothing too great for me to do in gratitude to the Almighty for the Grace which permitted me to come across it. It has given me a sense of direction in life, a sense of purpose, enabling me to appreciate the true meaning of life and thereby enhanced my ability to find contentment and fulfillment, to enjoy life to its fullest.”
The Message formed the basis for grappling with concepts and to reposition misplaced signposts wherever and in circles he may find himself. It provided the basis for his business and economic philosophy and choices. A strong advocate of free market economy, he recognised early that command economy which is sometimes associated with socialism and communism tends to rob man of his initiative. He considered it unhealthy as it is unnatural. He argued that business affords employment opportunities for many who will in turn maintain themselves and their families. All added together makes great contribution to the economy. His three breweries alone paid N36million yearly as excise duty only, apart from taxes in 1983. He said to Dapo Odebiyi in Business Enterprise, 1983, that there is no command economy that can be said is capable of bringing about an affluent country. Russia was a heavy debtor to the West and Tanzania was collapsing under Nyerere. “If for instance you have a million Nigerians making the endeavours similar to what one makes in industry and commerce, Nigeria will be greater economically. Have a nation of poor people, the nation is poor. Have a nation of people actively generating wealth, the nation will be affluent.”
I was privileged to sit at his feet year in year out to draw from his fountain of wisdom and rich experiences. He came through a family that provided him the necessary environment for his high tasks. His preparation to come across the Message began in 1961; he saw a copy for the first time at Foyles Bookshop in 1963. As chancellor of the Western Diocese of the Anglican Church he had led a delegation of the Anglican Diocese to Canada. On getting to London and preparing to set sail back to Nigeria, he found himself led to the bookshop where copies had only been deposited the previous day. This is why he would say no person led him to the Message but his helper! As everyone is the name he bears, it could not have been an accident and without purpose that he came a Lawson! He was married to Mrs. Ibidunni Olagbende, Lawson, nee Thompson, herself a Princess like his own mother!
So dear is he to our hearts for his love and exemplary exertions to make the gift that is The Grail Message known to all and sundry, that friends were in frenzy to remind us close to him last week that Adeyemi Lawson, indeed, passed this way, a foremost servant of Imanuel at his time in all of Africa except the Democratic Republic of Congo! He was in our midst, our leader and guide, a colossus in the real meaning of the word.
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