WHY I CHOSE TO STUDY LAW.
...
My decision to study law was not
haphazard, but as a result of a number of
factors. These factors are what I plan to
tersely discuss in this article. The decision
is one I’ve made while I was more or less
still an abecedarian: during my primary
school days. At the time, I understood the
significance of choosing ones career at an
early stage to give room for the
development of passion and adequate
preparation. In short, I did not want to be
labelled an NFA, id est., someone with No
Future Ambition.
Whether, my parents coerced me into it,
whether I envisioned it in a dream or
whether making this very fundamental
choice naturally follows from my zodiac
sign being ‘Libra’ – you’ll soon get to know.
The will-soon-be-mentioned points are the
reasons for my choosing to be a lawyer,
but some of them may equally be
considered as reasons anyone should
choose law as a profession. The reasons I
made the decision, stood by it and never
once faltered in my determination to be
learned person, thus include:
...
PROMINENCE OF LAW
No doubt, Law is one of the most
renowned and widely recognised
professions. Whenever and wherever,
good careers are mentioned, law is always
among – and then, perhaps, Medicine,
Engineering and Accounting. Hence, this
was one of the factors that contributed to
my decision, as well as the decisions of
numerous other children.
Again, Lawyers enjoy a great amount of
veneration from others. Anyone tagged as
“D-LAW”, is always seen as a reservoir of
knowledge and an insightful personalty.
Even as a law student, I enjoy this show of
respect from people on sundry occasions.
And it not only endeared me to the
profession, but also re-assures me from
time to time that there’s no other course
I’d rather take.
...
UNIQUENESS OF LAW
Apart from the prominence law enjoys as a
profession, it is also a quite unique career,
most distinct from others. It is mainly
because of this peculiarity that non-
lawyers express envy towards us,
especially in the university environment.
One, law is the most conservative
profession. The up-till-today use of wig,
gown, latin and archaic expressions attest
to this fact.
Secondly, law students are the only set of
university students that use clothes of
uniform colours: id est., black and white
attires. White represents deep wisdom,
purity and innocence, while black
represents power, authority, as well as
blindness i.e fairness and justice.
And lastly, law is the only course in which a
department, prima facie, constitutes a
whole faculty. All other faculties [and
colleges] are split into several
departments.
...
ADVOCACY LAWYERING
A lawyer is either in the profession by
accident/coercion, or for the fame and
fortune he might get. If not, then he is in it
to get and advocate justice, either for
himself or for others who have been
wronged. No law student would tell you
that his own objective for studying law is
to defend the wrong-doer against the
wronged, or to protect the oppressor from
the oppressed. All would-be legal
practitioners desire to be advocates of
justice, paladins of freedom and heralds of
equity. I am no exception.
I have said it before and I will herewith
reiterate it: The greatest problem the
society, the nation and the world at large is
facing is not malaria, neither is it bad
roads. Our greatest problem,
incontrovertibly, is corruption.
The question now is, which professionals
or practitioners are in the best position to
tackle this problem? It is definitely not
doctors; they only treat those who are the
major source of this problem when they’re
ill, and then abandon the victims of the
corrupt circumstance we find ourselves. It
is definitely not journalists; they can only
bark, they possess not the necessary
canines to bite. It is not engineers. Neither
is it accountants. I am of the strong belief
that it is none other than lawyers. It is they
that have the essential weapon to bring
corruptionists to book and prosecute all
who involve themselves in unwholesome
conducts.
So, just as we have advocacy journalists,
there are also advocacy lawyers. These are
lawyers that believe in a cause, and utilise
their profession in the fight for that cause.
Persons like Gani Fawehinmi, who loudly
spoke against bad leadership and Nelson
Mandela, who publicly condemned
apartheid and gave legal aids to blacks who
needed them, are perfect examples.
...
HISTORICAL IMPACT
Law is a profession that has produced
many leaders and influential personages
who have left indelible trails in the sands of
time. They succeeded both in legal practice
and extra-legal practice, most of them
being renowned politicians, activists and
orators.
Paragons of this instance include Abraham
Lincoln, the man who greatly promoted
the abolition of slave trade and prevented
the disintegration of the American union;
Nelson Mandela, the first black President
of South Africa who played a key role in
the struggle against apartheid in South
Africa; Mahatma Gandhi, a non-violent
revolutionary that successfully clamoured
for India’s independence from Britain.
Another good example is John Grisham, a
world best-selling writer of fictions. And in
Nigeria here we have the likes of Patrick
Obahiagbon, a controversial orator,
political-activist and well-recognised
grammarian, and a host of others making
names for themselves in the the
entertainment, most especially, movie
industry.
...
INDISPENSABILITY
It is worth mentioning that law is also a
quite essential and indispensable
profession. Most, if not all, institutions can
do without medical doctors and engineers,
but tell me a company that can live long
without prompt and periodic legal
succour. In fact, most gatherings require
the presence of a lawyer to guide them
through their proceedings, and put them
to order whenever they dabble into
illicitness.
Nations like Russia and France, have in
time past, banned the operation of
lawyers. But later on, despite the antipathy
they harboured against them, they had to
rescind the ban, after realising the
“indispensability” of law, and by extension
lawyers.
...
LUCRATIVENESS, BROAD RANGE OF
OPPORTUNITIES
In time past, Law was a very unrewarding
profession. Orators in ancient Athens,
Greece, who could be referred to as the
first lawyers were required by law not to
request for payments for their rendered
services. It was like helping out a friend in
difficulty. In early ancient Rome too,
precisely 204 BC, there was a law banning
advocates from taking fees [but the law
was widely ignored]. Emperor Claudius
later abolished the ban and legalised the
legal profession, but he also imposed a fee
ceiling of 10,000 sesterces for anyone
willing to work as a lawyer.
Nowadays, the tide has turned. Lawyers,
are today, one of the most paid
professionals. A lawyer who knows his
onions well could get paid in millions for a
single case, with no stress. The best part is
that there abounds a wide range of
opportunities for anyone who has been
called to bar or who has formal knowledge
of legal practice. Such a person could
become an advocate, a solicitor, a legal
adviser to corporate bodies or to the
government, an arbitrator, a lecturer. He
can as well successfully seek jobs in fields
such as politics, journalism,
entrepreneurship and so on, if the
competition in legal practice proves too
fierce for him.
...
NATURAL POLEMIC DEXTERITY
Well, I wouldn’t say I was much of a
debater, even up till this moment.
However, I was a lot better than most of
my mates. I was naturally daring,
audacious and may be stubborn at times.
Recently, perhaps a couple of months
back, I found out from my mom that this
attitude was inherent in me since I was
young, that I even showed it to her
apprentices.
I can recall many occasions that I
challenged my primary school teachers,
secondary school teachers and even
university lecturers – and on those
occasions, I often got penalised. Even my
family, most especially my mom, complain
about my habit challenging their
dispositions. As a result, one of my
brothers always suggested that I train
myself professionally as lawyer.
If there is any activity I had interest in and
loved doing, it is debating. But please, do
not at all confuse debating with public
speaking – that I developed just recently.
About two years back, I was a poor public
speaker, I was very apprehensive of facing
a crowd and if at all I did face a crowd, I
was always trembling. But gradually, I have
been able to improve in that aspect as well.
...

...
MY SIBLINGS
YES! Without doubt, this also contributed
to my choice of career. It is not the case
that all my siblings, or should I say
brothers, were lawyers or would-be
lawyers. Rather, it is quite the opposite.
The three of them chose to go to the
science department while in senior high.
My eldest brother, now a graduate and
bonafide member of the Nigerian labour
force, studied computer science while in
school. The ‘second in command’ is
currently ‘reading’ Estate management in a
federal university of technology. And my
immediate elder brother is studying pure
chemistry at present.
It is a source of pride for me, actually, to
be the only ‘black sheep’, the only art
student, the only historian, the only
literary expert, the only political analyst
and, most importantly, the only learned
child of the four of us.
...
“THE INCORRUPTIBLE JUDGE”
“The incorruptible Judge”. This is a book I
read in my early childhood. It is authored
by Olu D. Olagoke. The theme of this book
centre on a judge who is morally upright,
who is incorruptible. Then a matter got to
his court involving, if I remember corectly,
his friend and a rich personality. He was
presurised and offered a bribe. However,
he would not budge. He stood his ground,
and repeatedly asserted that he will only
judge based on the pieces of evidence
adduced before him in the court. And
eventually, he did convict the accused
person for he was glaringly guilty.
His attitude is analogous to that of Justice
Sowemimo, who told Chief Obafemi
Awolowo in 1963, when the latter
appeared before him for a 3-count charge
of conspiracy and treasonable felony,
that,”Here we have one of the first
premiers of the autonomous region
standing trial. If you were the only one
before me, I would have felt that it was
enough for you to have undergone the
strain of the trial. I would have asked you
to go. But I am sorry. I cannot do so now
because my hands are tied.”
In a nutshell, I desired to be like this judge.
I wanted to be a principled man, who has
clearly defined his values, and then would
stop at nothing to defend those values. A
man who would not compromise his
integrity because of familiarity or mere
gratification.
...
CONCLUSION
...
Well, there you have it. This is the synopsis
of the major factors that culminated into
my choice of law as a career. I might
decide to add some more later on. I did
not see my future in a trance, I’m not a
gifted dreamer. I was not coerced into the
decision, my parents gave me absolute
freedom in the aspect. And neither is it
because my zodiac sign is libra, in actualty,
by bbirthday falls in that of virgo. It is my
eldest brother is a libra, and he is not a
lawyer.
I want to believe you’ve been exposed to
some new facts, as a result of your reading
this article. If my guess is right, then I’m
glad my effort is not wasted.
Now all want to ask you is, after reading
this, if you desire to choose a career for
yourself, or perhaps your advice is sought
regarding career choice, WHY NOT LAW?
...
http://adekunleadebajo./2013/01/12/why-law/

AbdulFattah: ...
MY SIBLINGS
YES! Without doubt, this also contributed
to my choice of career. It is not the case
that all my siblings, or should I say
brothers, were lawyers or would-be
lawyers. Rather, it is quite the opposite.
The three of them chose to go to the
science department while in senior high.
My eldest brother, now a graduate and
bonafide member of the Nigerian labour
force, studied computer science while in
school. The ‘second in command’ is
currently ‘reading’ Estate management in a
federal university of technology. And my
immediate elder brother is studying pure
chemistry at present.
It is a source of pride for me, actually, to
be the only ‘black sheep’, the only art
student, the only historian, the only
literary expert, the only political analyst
and, most importantly, the only learned
child of the four of us.
...
“THE INCORRUPTIBLE JUDGE”
“The incorruptible Judge”. This is a book I
read in my early childhood. It is authored
by Olu D. Olagoke. The theme of this book
centre on a judge who is morally upright,
who is incorruptible. Then a matter got to
his court involving, if I remember corectly,
his friend and a rich personality. He was
presurised and offered a bribe. However,
he would not budge. He stood his ground,
and repeatedly asserted that he will only
judge based on the pieces of evidence
adduced before him in the court. And
eventually, he did convict the accused
person for he was glaringly guilty.
His attitude is analogous to that of Justice
Sowemimo, who told Chief Obafemi
Awolowo in 1963, when the latter
appeared before him for a 3-count charge
of conspiracy and treasonable felony,
that,”Here we have one of the first
premiers of the autonomous region
standing trial. If you were the only one
before me, I would have felt that it was
enough for you to have undergone the
strain of the trial. I would have asked you
to go. But I am sorry. I cannot do so now
because my hands are tied.”
In a nutshell, I desired to be like this judge.
I wanted to be a principled man, who has
clearly defined his values, and then would
stop at nothing to defend those values. A
man who would not compromise his
integrity because of familiarity or mere
gratification.
...
CONCLUSION
...
Well, there you have it. This is the synopsis
of the major factors that culminated into
my choice of law as a career. I might
decide to add some more later on. I did
not see my future in a trance, I’m not a
gifted dreamer. I was not coerced into the
decision, my parents gave me absolute
freedom in the aspect. And neither is it
because my zodiac sign is libra, in actualty,
by bbirthday falls in that of virgo. It is my
eldest brother is a libra, and he is not a
llawyer.
I want to believe you’ve been exposed to
some new facts, as a result of your reading
this article. If my guess is right, then I’m
glad my effort is not wasted.
Now all want to ask you is, after reading
this, if you desire to choose a career for
yourself, or perhaps your advice is sought
regarding career choice, WHY NOT LAW?
...
http://adekunleadebajo./2013/01/12/why-law/

Truth be told your write up is o naive to say the least. It makes me sad that people like u are law aspirants.
Law is prestigious? lol...because students wear white & black and have their own department which doubles as a faculty?
Lawyers are advocates of justice..lol..are u even in Nigeria? Who do u think helps politicians evade the law?
Law is lucrative? Av u not seen ur charge & bail colleagues lavishing? The "lucky" one working in chambers hardly get paid living wages.
Law is noble? I pity u. That profession is now a joke on the lips of all & sundry. Who even goes to court today save for land litigants & unlucky police victims.....and you "synopsis" is justified by a novel written by an idealistic non-lawyer like you? Sorry 4 us. lol

.