27/08/2026
*BEYOND TENURE: THE ENDURING LEGACY WE LEAVE BEHIND: MENTORSHIP, STEWARDSHIP AND THE FUTURE OF THE NIGERIAN BAR*
"What we do now echoes in eternity." - Marcus Aurelius
As the Nigerian Bar Association ushers in Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya, SAN, as its new President, and the tenure of Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, draws to its constitutional conclusion, I find myself pausing, not merely to mark the end of an administration, but to reflect on the beginning of an idea whose significance, I believe, will outlive the individuals who gave it form. For me, and for the other pioneer members of the NBA Mentorship Committee, this moment carries a particular significance. We were not simply appointed to another NBA committee; we were entrusted with an idea: that the Nigerian legal profession must never become one in which generations merely succeed one another, but one in which each generation deliberately shapes, teaches, inspires and prepares the next.
When Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, thoughtfully selected my humble self to pioneer this initiative, he did something considerably more important than filling committee positions. He gave institutional expression to a truth that generations of great lawyers have understood intuitively: that the strength of the Bar is not measured only by the brilliance of its leading advocates, but also by the quality of those whom it prepares to take their place. I remain deeply grateful to him for that confidence, because leadership is ultimately tested not only by what is accomplished during a tenure, but by what continues to matter after the tenure has ended.
The establishment of the NBA Mentorship Committee therefore represented, in my view, an important philosophical departure. For too long, mentorship within our profession had depended largely on personal relationships, informal apprenticeships and the fortunate circumstance of a young lawyer finding the right senior at the right time. There is nothing inherently wrong with personal mentorship; indeed, many of the finest lawyers in our profession were shaped by relationships of that nature. The difficulty, however, arises when something as important as the transmission of professional knowledge, values and institutional memory is left almost entirely to chance. We therefore sought to make mentorship deliberate rather than accidental, structured rather than incidental, inclusive rather than exclusive, and institutional rather than dependent upon personalities.
As pioneer Chairman, I approached the assignment with one fundamental conviction: if the Bar must have a future worthy of its past, we must deliberately build the people who will inherit that future. That conviction informed the work of the Committee. We engaged young lawyers, created opportunities for interaction with experienced practitioners, encouraged professional development and knowledge-sharing, and sought to bridge the often intimidating distance between the young lawyer and the experienced practitioner. We did not pretend that mentorship could resolve every challenge confronting the profession, nor did we imagine that one committee could repair every structural difficulty facing young lawyers. What we sought to demonstrate was something more fundamental: that the NBA could take institutional responsibility for creating a culture in which young lawyers are not merely told to survive, but are deliberately helped to understand how to grow, how to serve, how to lead and, ultimately, how to give back.
The greatest achievement of the Committee may therefore not be found in any single programme, meeting, publication or intervention. Its more enduring contribution may lie in the culture it has helped to advance. The conversation must move beyond the question, "Who is mentoring me?" to the larger question, "How do we build a profession in which every generation prepares the next?" That is a profound difference, because mentorship is not charity, patronage or the occasional benevolence of a senior lawyer dispensing advice to an inexperienced junior. It is professional succession. It is the deliberate transmission of knowledge, values, judgment, ethics, experience and institutional memory from one generation to another.
A profession that fails to transmit these things eventually loses more than knowledge; it loses its character. The law is not sustained merely by statutes, precedents, courtrooms and chambers. It is sustained by professional values, ethical judgment, intellectual discipline and an understanding of the responsibilities that accompany the privilege of being a lawyer. These are things that cannot be acquired entirely from textbooks. They are learned through observation, conversation, correction, encouragement and experience. In that sense, mentorship is not an optional addition to professional development. It is one of the mechanisms through which a profession preserves its institutional memory and reproduces its highest standards.
Our journey, naturally, was not without difficulties. We confronted many of the challenges that accompany attempts to build something new: the competing demands upon practitioners, the geographical spread of the Bar, differing expectations between generations, limited institutional resources and the difficulty of sustaining engagement over time. Perhaps most significantly, there was the challenge of changing a culture in which mentorship had historically been regarded primarily as an informal and personal undertaking. But these challenges were not reasons to abandon the project; they were evidence of why the project was necessary. Every worthwhile institution begins as an idea that someone is courageous enough to institutionalise, and institutions are rarely built in the absence of difficulties. They are built by people who refuse to allow those difficulties to determine their destiny.
That lesson extends beyond the Mentorship Committee. It speaks to the broader question of what we mean when we talk about leadership within the Nigerian Bar. An administration is necessarily temporary; an institution is not. Every President eventually becomes a former President, every committee eventually gives way to another, and every generation eventually becomes the generation that must hand over. The real test of stewardship, therefore, is whether those who occupy positions of responsibility use their tenure merely to administer what they inherited or whether they also create something capable of serving those who come after them.
This is why I must place on record my sincere appreciation to Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN. Thank you, Mr President, for the confidence you reposed in me and in the pioneer Executive of the Mentorship Committee. Thank you for recognising that mentorship was not merely another administrative responsibility, but a strategic investment in the future of the Bar. Leadership is sometimes measured by the things a leader accomplishes personally, but there is another, perhaps more enduring, measure: the institutions, ideas and people a leader leaves behind that continue to work after his tenure has ended. By that measure, the decision to establish and support the NBA Mentorship Committee will, in my view, remain one of the important legacies of the Osigwe administration. I am grateful that you gave us the opportunity to serve, and equally grateful that you gave us the freedom to believe that the Nigerian Bar could do something different and better.
There is, however, an important distinction between acknowledging the role of an administration in creating an initiative and allowing the initiative itself to become identified permanently with that administration. The two should not be confused. The NBA Mentorship Committee may have been established under one administration, but mentorship must transcend the administration that gave it institutional expression. Its true success will not be measured by how long the original structure remains unchanged, but by whether the underlying philosophy survives changes in leadership, personnel and institutional configuration.
It is in that spirit that I congratulate Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya, SAN, on her election as President of the Nigerian Bar Association and wish her every success as she assumes the responsibility of leading our great Association. Her emergence represents another chapter in the continuing story of the Bar, and leadership at that level carries with it not only the authority of office but the responsibility of stewardship. The office one occupies today belongs to history tomorrow. It is therefore my sincere hope that the work of mentorship will not only continue under the incoming administration, but deepen, expand and acquire an even stronger institutional foundation.
Mentorship should never belong to an administration. It belongs to the profession. It belongs to the young lawyer searching for direction, to the experienced practitioner whose accumulated knowledge should not disappear with retirement, and to the Bar itself, which must continually renew its intellectual and professional strength. If circumstances lead to a different configuration of the Committee or its leadership, the idea must nevertheless survive. People may change, committees may change and administrations may change, but the obligation of one generation of lawyers to prepare the next must remain constant.
This is particularly important because the young lawyer of today is not simply the junior member of the profession. That lawyer is tomorrow's advocate, solicitor, judge, law teacher, Bar leader, policymaker and institution builder. What we give that lawyer today will, in one form or another, determine the quality of the profession tomorrow. A young lawyer who receives sound guidance may eventually become the senior who provides guidance to another. In that way, mentorship creates a chain of professional continuity in which knowledge and values are not merely accumulated but transmitted.
As the saying goes, "We rise by lifting others." The principle is particularly relevant to a profession such as ours. The seniority of a lawyer should not be reflected only in years of practice, titles or professional accomplishments, but also in the number of people whose professional lives have been positively influenced by that lawyer. The strongest chambers, institutions and professional associations are not those in which one generation holds tightly to knowledge and opportunity; they are those in which experience is deliberately transferred and new capacity is continuously created.
I therefore leave this chapter with no sense of finality. Rather, I leave it with the satisfaction that we planted something. Seeds are not judged by the shadow they cast on the day they are planted; they are judged by the forest they eventually become. My 21-gun salute goes to the pioneer members of the NBA Mentorship Committee. May you all, one day, be remembered simply as those who were there at the beginning. That will be enough.
History does not always remember the names of those who laid the foundations of institutions, but every generation that walks upon those foundations benefits from their labour. Indeed, I would consider it a greater achievement if, years from now, a young Nigerian lawyer participates in an NBA mentorship programme without knowing, or needing to know, the names of those who started it. If that happens, we will have succeeded, because the highest form of institutional success is when the institution becomes greater than its founders.
"Society is indeed a contract," Edmund Burke famously observed, describing it as a partnership extending across generations. The same principle applies, in its own way, to a profession such as the law. We inherit institutions, values, knowledge and traditions from those who came before us, and with that inheritance comes a responsibility to preserve, improve and transmit them to those who will follow. Mentorship is one of the ways by which that responsibility is discharged. It is how experience becomes institutional memory, how knowledge becomes professional wisdom, and how one generation prepares another to carry the profession forward. A mentor does not merely tell a younger lawyer where to go; a mentor makes the journey more intelligible by sharing experience, correcting mistakes, opening doors, offering perspective and, sometimes, simply providing the confidence that comes from knowing that someone who has gone before believes in one's capacity to succeed.
Mentorship in the Nigerian legal profession has therefore come to stay, but its permanence should not depend upon the continued existence of a particular committee or the enthusiasm of particular individuals. It must become part of the DNA of the Nigerian Bar. We must build a profession where experience is not hoarded but transferred; where knowledge is not guarded as a privilege but shared as a responsibility; where seniority is measured not merely by how long one has practised, but by how many people one has helped to become better lawyers; and where the success of a lawyer is reflected not only in personal accomplishments but also in the accomplishments of those whom that lawyer has helped to raise.
In the final analysis, a lawyer's greatest legacy may not be the cases won, the titles acquired, the chambers established or the offices occupied. It may be the lawyers who became better because that lawyer took the time to guide them. The advocate who wins an important case may be remembered for the judgment; the lawyer who builds a great chambers may be remembered for the institution; but the lawyer who shapes another lawyer's mind, character and professional judgment leaves something that can multiply across generations.
That is the philosophy I leave behind, and it is the legacy I hope the NBA Mentorship Committee will continue to advance. Tomorrow, one administration gives way to another. That is the nature of the Bar and, indeed, of every institution that hopes to endure. But the work of building the next generation must never end.
We inherit the profession from those before us. We improve it for those beside us. And we preserve it for those who will come after us. That is mentorship. It is stewardship. It is legacy. The administration may end. The Committee may evolve. Leadership will change. But the mission must endure.
The Nigerian Bar does not merely need lawyers who can inherit its history. It needs lawyers prepared to inherit its future. And that future must be mentored.
-Dr. Olukayide Ajulo, SAN, OON, FCIArb (UK)
_Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ondo State, and Pioneer Chairman, NBA Mentorship Committee_
