Follow Us on Google
By Oyeyinka Fabowale
His is a personality that does not get lost in a crowd. Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Professor of Law Practice, Yusuf Ali, has always been known for exceptionalism and excellence from his days as a student all through his sterling career at the Nigerian bar where he occupies the topmost echelon among other frontline legal luminaries in the country.
The brilliant albeit suave lawyer is not known to be loud, save in courtrooms where his groomed baritone forcefully and persuasively reverberates to convince judges on strong arguments of law, and on the pages of books, having contributed 20 chapters to several published ones and written at least three volumes of his own, in addition to having more than 50 articles in local and international academic journals!
Though his prolific literary and intellectual activism were merely for personal fulfilment, they have been recognised and acclaimed across the world and by no less than the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti. The university Senate in 2023 approved and announced his appointment as a Professor of Law Practice after a seminal law lecture he gave, the first in the university.
Apart from his interest in the expressive literary form, Ali has a big appetite for books, for reading. That is, perhaps, understandable for a lawyer who, by the demand of his profession, is compelled to pore over law reports, books and research materials to build and win cases. But the Senior Advocate’s passion for reading goes beyond the compulsion of earning a meal ticket. He is a voracious reader who forages on all kinds of decent literature for knowledge and pleasure. It is a lifelong habit cultivated in his youth and nurtured over decades and that has become an integral part of him. No surprise that his law library in Ghalib House, Ilorin alone holds 13,000 volumes, besides collections at the Abuja branch of his law firm and other places.
In this conversation, he speaks on his love for books, knowledge and pertinent issues.
Why your passion for books, reading and literary activities?
Now, I’ve always been a lover of books, and knowledge resources. Right from when I was in primary school, when I went to Secondary Modern School, and when I got to Ibadan Boys High School. As a matter of fact, maybe because I entered Ibadan Boys High School as a mature student, when I was over 18, I started debating for the School in Class 3 and doing quiz. I had that advantage of age and academic maturity because I had gone to Secondary Modern School for three years before.
So, I love books. You actually should see our library in this office; we have over 13,000 volumes of books here. We have two librarians: One has a Master’s in Library Science, the other one has a BSc. We also have another library in Abuja. Of course, not as big as the one here. I read a lot of stuff. It may interest you that I went to Enugu for (the recent BA) conference and found some books, all the books of Chinua Achebe I’ve read before, I bought all of them again. The other day, I was in Abeokuta, I bought books on Lisabi, the Adubi War which I have even read. Apart from study-reading, I read for pleasure, to acquire life lessons and for personal development. I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies. I have read Mandela, Obasanjo, Wole Soyinka. I try to read as wide as I can. Virtually everything published about Trump, I’ve read.
Other News
How do you then feel about Nigerians’ attitude to reading?
It’s appalling, unfortunately! The younger people, especially, they are so sold out on TikTok and all these social media that for them to take a book to read… It’s just about checking their phone screens, scrolling and scrolling mostly for entertainment and frivolous stuff. Whereas, books have their own lives. When you hold them, it has a way of connecting. And that’s why up till now, anything that is more than a page, I don’t read on telephone, I’ll get it printed so I can read. I connect with the written word. There’s nothing I enjoy more than to sit with a copy of a book in my hands and read the pages.
So, how can the situation be remedied?
I respect and commend the effort of ANA. For me, that’s the way to go, because, the level of ignorance is so high, so we must get something that will encourage people. So, we should do more promotion and sensitisation of people and encourage those who have the talents, who are writers, to write more, and get people who are publishers who can push these works out. Not only just push them out, but also provide sensitisation for the books. It is desirable that we produce more of ANA’s initiatives.
How did you get involved as a patron and sponsor of ANA’s yearly national literacy campaign project?
Here’s the background story. Dr. Wale Okediran, the association’s former national president, contested for Senate in 2011 or so, he lost to Hosea Agboola. Wale Okediran challenged his election and Agboola engaged me to represent him. Late Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, represented Wale Okediran. It was at that point I had close interaction with Okediran. Before them I only knew him from afar. Maybe the same way he also knew me from a distance. I also knew about ANA. So, one day after we finished one of the proceedings in his matter, I asked him, “this your organisation, is there anything I can do to promote some of the things you guys are doing?” You see, by the way I practise, I don’t take the other party as an enemy. I don’t quarrel with the other side. So, we got talking and became friends from there. Of course, to the glory of God, we won the case against him. But, that didn’t stop my promised intervention to assist ANA to promote literacy awareness in secondary school and so on and so forth. And so, I pledged a particular sum annually.
Your appointment as a Professor of (Law) Practice came to some of us as a shock as we have only been aware of your advocacy prowess for decades and never ever thought you had any tie with the academic world?
As a matter of fact, when I graduated from the university, I had two options before me: either to go back to teaching, or to pursue what I’m doing now. But God would always choose for you. So, he chose for me that I should be in practice. However, I know that I have talent for the academia. So, from the very beginning, as early as the middle 80s, I started to write articles for publication in legal journals. Not only that, I also took interest in delivering lectures and papers on diverse topics— some religious, some social, but many legal.
Then in 1988, I got encouraged, I became an adjunct lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin. I’d go in there, take one or two topics of the different courses, teach, and go. This I was doing, but like you are surprised too, I was not expecting that I would become a professor, I was just doing my own thing. I didn’t know that others were watching. There we were, one day, in 2023, I got invited to deliver the first law lecture in FUOYE (Federal University of Oye-Ekiti). It was one of my colleagues, Professor Abifarin, younger friend, younger colleague, who came in here with Dr Mrs. Kehinde, who is now the new Dean of the faculty, she was then my HOD and Associate Professor. They said, they wanted me to give the first lecture. We agreed on a topic, and I went to Oye, and delivered the lecture on the set date. When we finished and the Vice Chancellor was to make his remarks, he said that unknown to me, he had been following my career path. You recall I was Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of Osun State University for about seven years. That he used to come to attend events at Osogbo at that time, and that he had seen my CV, that he couldn’t believe it, that he discovered that I had almost 50 publications in journals, both within and outside of Nigeria, and that I have contributed more than 20 chapters in books, and as at that time, It think, I had authored three books. He said all this scholarly activism, achievements and contributions had been reviewed and tabled before their Senate, and that the Senate had approved that they should appoint me as a Professor of the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti. I was surprised. Right there and then, he called the registrar and asked, ‘where is egbon’s letter?’ They gave me the letter of appointment and that was it for me.
