Wole Olanipekun: The making of a legal brand icon
By John Ajayi
Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and former Chairman of the Body of Benchers, is simply in a class of his own.
He has not only excelled in his chosen legal profession, but Chief Olanipekun, the Asiwaju of Ikere-Ekiti, has also become a trailblazer, a gadfly, and a reference point not only in law but in other areas of human social endeavors. He is an administrator, a mentor, a philanthropist, and a community leader who has given to humanity more than any of his contemporaries in today’s Nigeria.
To put it succinctly, Chief Olanipekun is a respected elder statesman, a renowned national interventionist, a towering intellectual, a prolific writer, and an advocate extraordinaire. In law, Chief Olanipekun is a prodigy of renowned and self-made pedigree. Thus, it’s quite difficult, if not impossible, for future generations to forget the contributions of this legal luminary in mentorship, capacity building, and unraveling seemingly legal entanglements. Like a well-versed and vibrant medical doctor, Chief Olanipekun is a forensic law expert whose knowledge and interpretation of law are second to none. For this, his name has been written in gold in many legal books for upcoming lawyers to learn and grow their capacity and erudition.
By whatever parameters or benchmark one chooses to measure his journey through life, Chief Wole Olanipekun is success personified. Perhaps a peep into his past and background will give one a little understanding of how he became the enigmatic personality in all his involvement. In all, three things stand him out and have consistently worked in his favor: brilliance, hard work, and God’s grace.
Since his first day as a lawyer, Olanipekun has left no one in doubt that excellence is his watchword. In his 47 years post-call to the Bar, the Ikere-Ekiti-born legal icon has consistently stood out. For instance, he led a team of lawyers in the popular case of Inakoju v. Adeleke. For the first time in Nigeria, the court agreed that the impeachment of a governor could be reviewed and overturned if it failed to comply with the law regarding procedure strictly. Former Governor Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja was a beneficiary of that legal breakthrough. He also led a team of lawyers who retrieved the mandates of ex-Governors Adams Oshiomhole and Olusegun Mimiko. He led a legal team for three presidential election petitions and won all.
In 2007, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo unilaterally announced the sacking of ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Olanipekun challenged what he called a coup against the Constitution and got the Supreme Court to nullify Obasanjo’s arbitrary executive fiat. He also saved Atiku, like many others, from the hands of the Code of Conduct Bureau in what appeared to be mere persecution and victimization. Olanipekun has many appellations in court: the Big Masquerade, The Oracle, Cicero of Law, and Legal Wizard. Olanipekun is so unique in style that he listens to younger ones who can offer useful suggestions in the prosecution of any case, and once the idea is good, he tells you, “Don’t worry, you will see what I will do with that point.”
Long before corporate social responsibility became an intrinsic part of corporate philosophy in Nigeria, Olanipekun had been at the forefront of humanitarian services. He has consistently invested in humanity within and outside his Ikere Ekiti country home through interventional projects in education, health, information technology, and law. Besides this, it doesn’t take anyone who encountered him a long time to know that his family, the body of Christ, and the Ekiti project are dear to his heart.
Christianity was at the heart of his late father; the fear of losing Olanipekun to cultism almost made his staunch Anglican father stand against his decision to study law. While in Amoye Grammar School in Ikere Ekiti, young Olanipekun was extremely close to one of his seniors, Prof. Niyi Osundare, an internationally acclaimed poet. Before and during his days at Ilesa Grammar School, where he did his A-Level, Olanipekun’s only ambition was to study English like Osundare. On Osundare’s resumption at Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti, where he had just been posted after bagging his first degree in English from the University of Ibadan, young Olanipekun was one of the first visitors from Ikere to visit him in Ado Ekiti. His mission was clear: to tell the young teacher of his determination to follow his (Osundare’s) career path. Osundare had hardly allowed Olanipekun to finish his rhetoric before telling him frankly that the future belonged to the professionals. The mentor thus advised his mentee to study law.
Reluctantly, Olanipekun agreed. After settling down in Ikere, where his father was already waiting, he relayed the news of his mentor’s preference for law. His father kicked against it. He believed one must belong to a secret society to excel in law. Olanipekun later settled for Mass Communication and attempted to pursue it at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka or Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In his first attempt, he passed the examination, got admission, but providence outsmarted him as he missed the admission letter. The following year, he was offered law at the University of Lagos but quickly approached the school on his decision to change in deference to his father’s wish. In changing the course, he came across a senior management staff of UNILAG who was an old student of Ilesa Grammar School, where Olanipekun did A-Level. The man didn’t only advise him against changing from law to Mass Communication. He sent him to his father in Ikere that Olanipekun had got the best opportunity with law admission. Case closed.
This background is necessary to establish the bond between Olanipekun and the Anglican Communion, which his late father was committed to. Before and after his call to the Bar, Olanipekun hasn’t only kept to his promise to always stand with Christ. He has remained steadfast in his determination to keep up the tempo in the Anglican family like his father. The first seed he sowed in this direction was at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Ikere, in 2012: Olanipekun built, furnished and donated a modern vicarage named after his father, Pa Isaac Olanipekun. In March 2014, in continuation and furtherance of his philanthropic initiatives and gestures, he built and donated to the NBA, Ikere Branch, a 350-capacity Bar Centre. Last year, he was back in the same church when he led the incumbent Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the then Primate and Archbishop Metropolitan of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Revd. (Dr.) Nicholas Okoh and six governors to the inauguration and handover of an ultramodern church auditorium, with world-class facilities that can accommodate at least 1,700 worshipers, to complement the existing structure in the church.
Earlier, in 2015, this legal luminary had built, equipped, and donated to the State Specialist Hospital, Ikere, an ultra-modern and state-of-the-art Amenity Ward (the Iya Aafin Bosede Olanipekun Amenity Ward), in memory of his beloved late mother, Bosede Olanipekun. He also procured for the Amenity Ward, a modern and fully-equipped ambulance. Beyond the church, Olanipekun has, in the last 13 years, intervened and contributed to Ikere Ekiti development through various other legacy projects, including New Cruise 92.7 FM, an ICT centre within the premises of Amoye Grammar School, built to mark the school’s 50th anniversary in 2009.
In 1996, he instituted the Wole Olanipekun Scholarship Scheme to award scholarships to brilliant but indigent students. The scheme has produced talented beneficiaries in doctors, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists, accountants, educationists and professionals in other fields. As pro-chancellor and chairman of the council of the University of Ibadan, he initiated and established another scholarship scheme to assist five students per session from each of the faculties of Law, Technology (Computer) and the College of Medicine.
As part of his contributions to providing an enabling environment for learning, he built, equipped, furnished, and donated a 420-seater auditorium to the Faculty of Law of the University of Ibadan. In July 2011, he initiated an endowment fund for junior lawyers, particularly in the Lagos and Ilorin branches of the NBA. Seven junior lawyers from the NBA, Ilorin branch, were beneficiaries of cars given to them from the endowment proceeds. At the same time, over 100 young lawyers from the Lagos branch were beneficiaries of laptops and flash drives.
In Oyo, Olanipekun and his wife, Princess Omolara, built, furnished and donated an ultra-modern Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge at Ajayi Crowther University. Also, on August 20, 2019, he donated a 16-seater brand new Nissan bus to the Ikere branch of the NBA. As the pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Council of Ajayi Crowther University, he paid in September 2019 the full tuition/fees of 15 seminarians from affiliate seminaries of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) to pursue postgraduate studies.
Olanipekun, through his foundation (Wole Olanipekun Foundation), at the occasion of its maiden award ceremony on April 24, 2021, financially empowered 100 widows/aged persons (Widows and Aged Empowerment Programme) and 100 youths (SMEs/Youth Empowerment Programme) in his hometown, Ikere. At the second edition of the Wole Olanipekun Foundation Award Ceremony, on October 9, 2021, Olanipekun again financially empowered 100 widows/aged persons and 100 youths in his hometown, Ikere. Four hundred beneficiaries have so far benefited from the foundation.
He was the pro-chancellor and chairman of the council at UI between 2009 and 2013, during which time he also doubled as the chairman of the Court of Governors of the College of Medicine, UI. He made funds available to provide scholarships to students. In November 2014, the proprietor of Ajayi Crowther University, comprising all the bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) in the Supra Diocesan Board West, unanimously called upon Olanipekun to “come to the Anglican Church’s Macedonia.” He was invited to assume the office of pro-chancellor and chairman of the council of the 16-year-old Anglican university, with a charge to replicate the milestones previously achieved at UI. In February 2021, Olanipekun was appointed as the pioneer chancellor of the newly established Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere, in recognition of his noteworthy contributions to the advancement of education in Nigeria.
Olanipekun was called to the Nigerian Bar in July 1976. He became a notary public in 1987 and attained the rank of SAN in July 1991 in recognition of his forensic contributions to the advancement of law in Nigeria. Between 1992 and 1993, he served as the attorney general and commissioner for justice in the old Ondo State. He was elected the 20th president of the NBA in August 2002. His tenure as the NBA president was associated with remarkable success and adjudged one of the best in the annals of the NBA. In March 2021, he was elected as the vice-chairman of the Body of Benchers. At different times, he has served as a member of the National Judicial Council (NJC), Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), Council of Legal Education, Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, General Council of the Bar, and the Ondo State Judicial Service Commission. He was also the acting chairman of the Council of Legal Education. He became a life member of the Body of Benchers in 2004 and the National Executive Committee of the NBA. While still an active member of the International Bar Association (IBA), Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association (CLA), Pan African Lawyers’ Union (PALU), and West African Bar Association (WABA), he was, between 2002 and 2005, a member of the council of each of the international law bodies.
On October 28, 2016, Olanipekun was appointed the chairman of the visitation panel of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, to look into the university’s affairs and recommend solutions to the problems which engulfed the university and crippled its academic activities. The panel’s all-encompassing report and recommendations led to the immediate reopening of the university after its closure for more than a session.
And just recently, this icon was again appointed by the Federal Government of Nigeria as Chairman, Governing Council of the University of Lagos. It’s expected that he will also make Nigeria proud and achieve even more than he has at UI, Ajayi Crowther University, and other institutions where he has made significant contributions.
Olanipekun is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (FICMC), the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (FNIALS), and the College of Education, Ikere (FCEI). He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa (LL.D), by UI in November 2014. On November 4, 2021, he was conferred with Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) by Redeemers University, Ede, Osun. He holds the National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR).
However, all these are not going unnoticed as institutions and communities have continued to confer on him awards, recognitions, and chieftaincy titles. As of the last count, he has attracted scores of awards and honorary titles in many communities and universities. Just last week, Babcock University, Ilisan Remo, Ogun State, announced that Chief Olanipekun will be conferred with another honorary doctorate degree in Law.
He has, at different times, been conferred with the distinguished alumnus award of Amoye Grammar School, Ikere; Ilesa Grammar School, Ilesa; and the University of Lagos. When the federal government, under President Goodluck Jonathan, attempted to change the name of UNILAG in 2012, he not only led a team of SANs and other lawyers to challenge the action but also provided substantial funds to prosecute the cases filed by both the alumni association and students of the institution. The legal team obtained an injunction against the Federal Government, restraining it from implementing the name change.
A stickler for excellence, Olanipekun is the Principal Partner of the Law Firm of Wole Olanipekun & Co., with offices in Lagos and Abuja, covering diverse areas and fields, both nationally and internationally, including but not limited to land, criminal, constitutional, labour, maritime, admiralty, banking, insurance, electoral, aviation, telecommunications, chieftaincy, and intellectual property laws, as well as arbitration and dispute resolution.
Olanipekun, within and outside Nigeria, has mentored hundreds of lawyers who see him as a teacher, counsellor, role model, father, and shepherd. Several lawyers have also passed through his chambers, starting from 1982 to date, and a good number of them are at the Bar, Bench, in politics, and in the corporate world. Ten distinguished learned colleagues who cut their legal teeth under him, including his two sons, Dr. Dapo Olanipekun and Bode Olanipekun, have attained the prestigious rank of SAN.
For this legal potentate and respected Nigerian, the first 47 years at the bar have come and gone with their own story of ups and downs. The next decades can only be better.
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