₦airaland Forum

emkz:
Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System was written by Dele Farotimi over the course of ten years and published in 2024 by Dele Farotimi Publishers, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos State.

I spent this morning to go through the book chapter by chapter. Here, I present a summary and review of the main body of the book.

Before diving into it, the author must be commended for the audacity in writing such a book. The substance of the book is mostly accusatory, self-idolizing and somewhat petulant but the author does an incredible job in mentioning names and also hiding names in order not to implicate himself. There were some editorial lapses as the author brought in unrelated stories as if to embellish his narration to buff-up pages or to draw needless parallels with unrelated matters.

Let's now begin the summary. It is a long read, but I had to squeeze a book of 95 pages into about 4 pages:

The book "Nigerian Criminal Justice System" by Dele Farotimi is split into 9 chapters covering 94 pages, and an Annexure of additional 10 pages.

The author mentions that his motivation is to chronicle his experiences in navigating the Nigerian Justice System, with particular reference to a case he had with Aare Afe Babalola.

In the Forward, Preface and Introduction to the book, he made mention that the justice system mirrors the society it operates in, and elevates values the society elevates. He also mentioned that his motivation was not to write for "us", but to exonerate himself to the future generation as not being part of the mess that was made out of the country for which everyone would be paying a hefty price.

In the first two chapters, the author traces his early years, especially his growing up in a polygamous setting, and being privy to settlement of squabbles by his grandmother, who was the most senior wife of his grandfather. He also mentioned an inspiration from his mother's half brother who was a lawyer and how he vacillated between being a theater arts teacher, journalist, political scientist and lawyer. He spoke about his foray into studying law at the Lagos State University, including his scholarly inspirations therein, and how they shaped aspects of his career. He also wrote about his Nigerianess in "shaking body" for a policeman over his expired license (an euphemism for paying bribes).

After the forward where he had mentioned Aare Afe Babalola, the first time the name of Aare Afe Babalola was mentioned in the body of the book was in Chapter 2, on page 10 where the author made a claim that judicial brigandage was unleashed on citizens, corporate entities and individuals by the Nigerian Supreme Court under the direction of Aare Afe Babalola.

In chapter 3, he spoke about how his benefactors peddled influence to get him into the Nigerian Law School in Abuja due to relocation of the law school from Lagos and the backlog of students. He got admitted into law school. He said after his graduation from law school, he wanted to be independent of his mother's financial support, having supported him for 20 years, and he having spent 12 years to graduate from school. He wrote that his benefactors again peddled influence to help him secure employment with Wale Babalakin's law firm, which ultimately failed as Babalakin said he had no space, but instead gave the author a job in one of his other companies as company secretary, a job the author ultimately rejected, as he did not envisage himself as a corporate lawyer. It is curious that the author was drawn to Wale Babalakin due to Babalakin's sartorial styles and his shrewd business practice. One of his benefactors eventually found him his first job in a litigation firm. It was in his first job that his exposure to the case that eventually caused a fallout with Aare Afe Babalola was first established: the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family land issues. The author said he lasted only three months in that law firm. He admitted that one of the three lawyers in the law firm was his future wife. The author tried to explain his reason for leaving the firm so early, due to a disagreement with one of the clerical support staff, who had attempted to correct his English. On page 18 of Chapter 3, the author went on a needless voyage of his consumption of literary work in his school and how much time he devoted to studying the English Language and Linguistics as well as reading the Bible 4 times out of boredom before he got out of his teenage years only to justify why he could not accept he was wrong in a document he needed the clerical support staff to type out. The author established here that he was either beyond reproach, felt the company typist was too small or considered himself not infallible, therefore proud and probably arrogant. The author did not state in his book the words he used on the support staff but the case was ultimately referred to the immediate boss. The author said the boss agreed that the support staff was wrong. The author felt the boss did not punish the support staff enough, and as the support staff was not told of the pecking order, he felt he had no place in the law firm, and resigned. How could a newbie feel he wanted to teach his boss how to manage a law firm he had barely spent three months? Was the author trying to impress his future wife to show he "could take control"? The author demonstrated brashness and lack of the temperament needed for functioning in a team environment. He wrote that the immediate boss and ultimate owner (who was a judge and a central character in his story) prevailed on him to withdraw his resignation but he refused to bend.

In Chapter 4, the author narrated how he got and lost a drafting job by happenstance. A lady had met him in the apartment he was squatting in and had offered him a drafting job which he accepted on a self-discounted rate. The client reasoned she couldn't pay an unemployed and broke lawyer 4 times what he earned monthly in his previous job, and offered him his last monthly salary. The author reported he rejected the job as he didn't think he could price himself less than his value. The author already underpriced himself by offering a discount that was not demanded, which probably showed desperation. This singular act led the client to even price him further down. The crux of this chapter is that the author attempted to present himself as a principled lawyer. This fact is what he tried to establish in Chapter 3. This makes Chapter 4 a completely needless chapter in the book.

In Chapter 5, the author wrote that he joined the law practice of an older friend for a reduced salary of three thousand naira with more workload and longer working hours. He revealed that his working with the law firm of his senior opened his eyes to the initial rot in the justice system as he claimed, especially seeing real criminals walking free, sitting in judgements, being chauffeured-driven in limousines, and so on. He admitted that he left the firm of his senior colleague a little over a year after joining as he (the author) was allured to money and associated charms which were not the motivations of the senior colleague. He joined another law firm and vilified the owner as being incompetent in the practice of law. Despite being given a free hand to take his own briefs, he felt he needed to strike out on his own, but providence was to delay his foray into self-employment. Recall that the law firm that first employed the author was on retainership for the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family. The author admitted that despite the fallout in his first place of employment, he had kept an amicable relationship with them. He also had a friend from his undergraduate days who was a prince in the Ojomu family. His network of relationships with his old firm and younger elements of the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family helped him get briefs to help them sell land. He leveraged on his relationship with his future wife whom was in charge of the real estate section in his first place of employment. The author dilly-dallied on how he did land sales with his future wife that bonded them as close friends and how he was pitching her to his friend who then asked her why he couldn't get involved with her if she was so good, which changed his (the author’s) perspective of her. He admitted his wife was his ultimate blessing. The chapter concludes with the author's interview in yet another law firm where he got questioned over his inability to keep a job for long and why he could be trusted with the job he was interviewing for. He explained he'd not stay for less that six months as his ultimate ambition was to have how own law practice. He was employed on a salary of twelve thousand naira. The managing partner of the law firm in question was in the interview panel and a future governor of Lagos state: Babatunde Raji Fashola.

swiz123:
Most people close their gate by 10pm.
Those who live in a rented apartment can relate

kiwi992:
Terryboob,


You are most welcome.  It's all in the name of Nairaland.



kiwi992.


NB:

Just to say that you could, instead of connecting the three routers directly to the first router (as described above), also connect the:

a.  second router to the switch which is connected to the first router
b.  third router to the switch which is connected to the second router
c.  fourth router to the switch which is connected to the third router.

The rest instructions are exactly the same.

Goovo:
Ikotun, NEPA bus stop

Goovo:
Ikotun, NEPA bus stop

martineverest:
bloggers

after all, we all saw the former German pope, ,benedict IX drinking bear during a bear festival in Germany 3months ago

akankemi1:
Abeg, is it now a sin to drink alcohol? hmmmm

delugajackson:
At least they were not caught with human heads. Mmanya must dey.

Even Jesus too drank palm wine.

emmie14:
Islam teach and encourage violence secretly. Christianity has no secret teachings. Transparency is there hallmark and condemns violence in totality.
Reverend fathers and sisters are human beings. And can chill. Bible never condemn drinking but drunk ens is considered sin. Drinking and getting drunk are different state and feelings. So judge your selves.

MaestroID:
Its No crime neither a Sin to drink...

Entom:
Unkempt appearance now has become source of respect now.

WORLDPEACE:
So which path should I follow, the Jesus or cult leader path?

LuckyLadolce:
hello autosbay, Pls I need info about Nagro Alimosho. I don't know if I've been posted or not. Pls who do I contact or where do I go to know where am posted to. Thanks .

Benz4pimp:
....

Benz4pimp:
GTH

Benz4pimp:
KMT

Benz4pimp:
NFA

Benz4pimp:
This is the only sensible comment I have read since the story came up...most Nigerians think with their anus..keyboard warriors,your leaders are milking you dry,you only come on social media to flex muscles...wasted generation

Vindyk:

is dat hw yours take start?
is dat hw yours take start?