For
newly honoured Barrister Festus Keyamo, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria title
bestowed on him, is an opportunity to serve the weak and defenseless. According
to him, “It has been a long and tortuous road, full of thorns and thistles, but
to the glory of Almighty God, I have become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria today.
In other words, I have reached the pinnacle of my career as a lawyer and as an
advocate. But, really, this is the beginning and not the end.
Keyamo said this after the big ceremony. But he observed that, “For too long
the Inner Bar has been perceived as too elitist and deployed only in the
service and defence of the rich and powerful or the upper echelon in society.
That narrative has to change. There cannot be greater injustice than giving
arms to the already powerful to fight the weak and defenseless. For me, the
only honour I can do to the silk robes I adorn is to help the weak, defenseless
and just, against the oppressive might of the powerful and unjust. And on the
flip side, it is also to ensure that the weak do not use the weakness as an
excuse to unjustly blackmail the powerful and manipulate society.
He
stressed further what the entire ceremony means to him.
“For
me, my admission into the Inner Bar is an encouragement to continue to speak
truth to power; to continue to hold Government accountable to the people; to
continue to confront the high and mighty in defence of truth and justice; to
make my modest contributions to the reforms in the judiciary and to continue in
the pro-people path I charted for myself since my call to Bar.
However Keyamo who has been said at other times to be a radical lawyer, insisted that he would not thank all those who wished me well.
“I
would not thank all those who wished me well in this journey. Why? Because, we
succeeded together; it is our collective elevation. It is those who did not
wish me well that I wish to thank specially. Why? Because, they were the ones
who pushed me to my limits in order to succeed.
But Keyamo voiced his thanks to the Almighty God. Hear him: “I want to thank Almighty God who perfects that which concerns us; I thank my aged parents who gave everything to give me the foundation upon which I built; I thank all the distinguished members of the Privileges Committee headed by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, an incorruptible jurist who the judiciary is extremely lucky to have at this time that reforms are urgently needed.
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