Those sunglasses and the eyes behind it!!...
''It is remarkable what words can do to a young mind.
In Form 5 (SS2), I read Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The book left an indelible mark on my young mind and shaped two of my earliest professional ambitions: to become a journalist and a lawyer.
Chief Awolowo himself began his working life in journalism before going on to read law. He was also an admirer of Winston Churchill, another extraordinary writer and master of the English language whom I came to admire.
But it was Awolowo's own prose that captured me.
I loved his semicolons; his picturesque cadence; the rhythm and balance of his sentences; and his ability to make an argument with both beauty and force.
The beauty and force of his writing drew me to journalism while the logic and substance of his words drew me towards law.
My journalism journey started with becoming the Editor-In-Chief of the Union Spark, my secondary school Magazine and culminated to interning at The Guardian.
This passage in Awo, describing his nostalgic longing for the Bar, particularly stayed with me. I have broken the original paragraph into shorter sections for ease of reading on this platform, but the words and punctuation are Awolowo's:
"To tell the truth, until some four years ago, I used to have a nostalgic longing for the Bar.
To engage, without bitterness or animosity, in the fiercest contention;
to cultivate the habit of always examining both sides of a problem, and to present the side you espouse with forensic forcefulness and assuredness;
to identify yourself with your client and to enter into his feelings as if you were the plaintiff or defendant or the prisoner at the Bar;
to propound and urge points of law which are sometimes difficult, sometimes not all too tenable, or sometimes so fine and abstruse that it is not at all easy to distinguish one point from another;
to be utterly fearless and unsparing in combat; to acquire an independence of outlook in all things and to enjoy immunity in all you say and do at the Bar so long as it is legitimate and within the bounds of professional etiquette;
to take part in fostering the cause of justice and equity in their total impartiality before the very bulwark of the citizens’ liberty and individual freedom—all these and more are the inherent and distinctive attributes of a noble profession which I very much love and will for ever cherish."
Reading those words again, many years later, I understand better why they affected me.
“To engage, without bitterness or animosity, in the fiercest contention”; to examine both sides of a problem; to argue your position with “forensic forcefulness and assuredness”; to cultivate independence of outlook; to be fearless in combat while remaining within the bounds of professional etiquette.
That was more than a description of legal practice. It was a description of a way of thinking and engaging with the world.
Two aspirations born partly from reading Awolowo have been fulfilled. I became a journalist. I became a lawyer.
One remains very much a work in progress: to own more books than Chief Awolowo. His library of some 11,000 books fascinated me then and remains a life goal today.
Awo's involvement in journalism and his investment in media were part of a larger intellectual and political enterprise.
As I build a knowledge ecosystem today, bringing together research, education, publishing and media, I increasingly recognise something of that influence too.
Perhaps that is the immortality of the written word. Decades after Awolowo put these thoughts on paper, his words are still alive in me, shaping how I think, what I do and even what I am building.
I will keep writing.''
In Form 5 (SS2), I read Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The book left an indelible mark on my young mind and shaped two of my earliest professional ambitions: to become a journalist and a lawyer.
Chief Awolowo himself began his working life in journalism before going on to read law. He was also an admirer of Winston Churchill, another extraordinary writer and master of the English language whom I came to admire.
But it was Awolowo's own prose that captured me.
I loved his semicolons; his picturesque cadence; the rhythm and balance of his sentences; and his ability to make an argument with both beauty and force.
The beauty and force of his writing drew me to journalism while the logic and substance of his words drew me towards law.
My journalism journey started with becoming the Editor-In-Chief of the Union Spark, my secondary school Magazine and culminated to interning at The Guardian.
This passage in Awo, describing his nostalgic longing for the Bar, particularly stayed with me. I have broken the original paragraph into shorter sections for ease of reading on this platform, but the words and punctuation are Awolowo's:
"To tell the truth, until some four years ago, I used to have a nostalgic longing for the Bar.
To engage, without bitterness or animosity, in the fiercest contention;
to cultivate the habit of always examining both sides of a problem, and to present the side you espouse with forensic forcefulness and assuredness;
to identify yourself with your client and to enter into his feelings as if you were the plaintiff or defendant or the prisoner at the Bar;
to propound and urge points of law which are sometimes difficult, sometimes not all too tenable, or sometimes so fine and abstruse that it is not at all easy to distinguish one point from another;
to be utterly fearless and unsparing in combat; to acquire an independence of outlook in all things and to enjoy immunity in all you say and do at the Bar so long as it is legitimate and within the bounds of professional etiquette;
to take part in fostering the cause of justice and equity in their total impartiality before the very bulwark of the citizens’ liberty and individual freedom—all these and more are the inherent and distinctive attributes of a noble profession which I very much love and will for ever cherish."
Reading those words again, many years later, I understand better why they affected me.
“To engage, without bitterness or animosity, in the fiercest contention”; to examine both sides of a problem; to argue your position with “forensic forcefulness and assuredness”; to cultivate independence of outlook; to be fearless in combat while remaining within the bounds of professional etiquette.
That was more than a description of legal practice. It was a description of a way of thinking and engaging with the world.
Two aspirations born partly from reading Awolowo have been fulfilled. I became a journalist. I became a lawyer.
One remains very much a work in progress: to own more books than Chief Awolowo. His library of some 11,000 books fascinated me then and remains a life goal today.
Awo's involvement in journalism and his investment in media were part of a larger intellectual and political enterprise.
As I build a knowledge ecosystem today, bringing together research, education, publishing and media, I increasingly recognise something of that influence too.
Perhaps that is the immortality of the written word. Decades after Awolowo put these thoughts on paper, his words are still alive in me, shaping how I think, what I do and even what I am building.
I will keep writing.''
Wow. Good to know
ReplyDeleteNice one ๐
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ReplyDeleteGood to know
ReplyDeleteThe most beautiful piece is when peeps have something good to say about an individual after they are gone.
ReplyDeleteNice one Sir!
DOZZYBEST.
You can say that again bro
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