By Owei Lakemfa
As an aspirant in 2022, the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, made a pilgrimage to Keffi, Nasarawa State. He needed the blessings of one of the most consummate and influential law professors the country has ever produced: Onje Gye-Wado. The latter from 1999, was for four years, Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State. He was also former Law Dean of the Nasarawa State University, and Dean, Faculty of Law, Birmingham University.
He agreed to support Maikyau provided he
agrees to use his NBA Presidency to fight for a better country because he
believes that lawyers should be the engine of change in society. This was no
mere rhetoric because Gye-Wado not only passionately believes it, but lives it.
He was one of the enthusiasts of the legendary former NBA President, Alao
Aka-Bashorun who built the pro-people foundations of the association and made
the NBA a body even military dictators had to contend with.
