Lateef fagbemi biography of donald

MR. LATEEF FAGBEMI, SAN (LAWYER)

Interviewed by Funke Olaode

What attracted you to the law profession?
I have never dreamt of studying any discipline outside law. From my childhood even before I got into secondary school my dream was to be a lawyer. The propelling force was my passion for argument. The urge was further strengthened because of availability of a magistrate court within the vicinity. As a student at Offa Grammar School in Offa, Kwara State, we used to sneak out to watch proceedings at the Magistrate Court.

At the time of your birth, what kind of work were your parents doing?
They didn’t have western education but their native intelligence was equal to none. They appreciated the value of education. It was their aim that all the children should be educated.

What factor shaped your life while growing up?
My parents, particularly my mother shaped my life to become the man I am today. We feared her more than we feared my father though both were working to achieve the same goals using different approach. My mother was like a military man while my father believed in persuasion. And because of my mother’s high handedness we thought she was not our biological mother. It was later in life that we appreciated her.

How did you feel the day you become a lawyer?
It was a wonderful accomplishment that began at the University of Jos where I acquired my first degree in law and later did my masters at the then University of Ife. I did my tutelage under the renowned lawyer and legal titan, Chief Afe Babalola SAN. He so much trusted me and left me to handle responsibilities. I thank God that he groomed me and I also responded to training.

As I always say that if you want to make success in any training you must be prepared to study under law icons, big chambers and big offices where you get opportunity to be exposed to what you are not likely to get under a smaller lawyer. I became a Senior Advocate

By Premium Times

From all indications, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, an accomplished Nigerian lawyer who became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, at record time of 10 years at the Bar, will soon become Nigeria’s 24th Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice.

The office, the only ministerial position directly created in the Nigerian constitution to perform some specialised duties, is reserved for lawyers; so it makes it easy to guess that the next AGF will come from among the lawyers on the ministerial nominees list just submitted to the Senate for screening.

The first batch of President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominees sent to the Senate on Thursday has three lawyers, with Fagbemi the only senior advocate, SAN, among them. This contrasts remarkably with the SAN-studded cabinet of the immediate-past president, Muhammadu Buhari. That had made it hard to tell who the former president would deploy to the Ministry of Justice after he belatedly presented his first ministerial nominees list to the Senate in 2015.

This time, even though the president is still expected to add at least 11 more nominees, the guess is much easier, apart from the fact that it is a settled matter based on the humming of those with knowledge of the considerations that brought each nominee to the ministerial nominees list.

With a legal career that has flourished with professional achievements for close to four decades, Fagbemi, the longest-serving lawyer and the only SAN on the list of nominees, stands tall as not just one of the most distinguished professionals, but also as the most likely AGF candidate among the others.

Born 16 July 1959, the 64-year-old, who hails from Ijagbo in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State, graduated from the University of Jos, Plateau State, with a Second Class Upper degree in Law in 1984. He bagged a master’s degr

It is said that hard work and success go hand in hand. Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) realised this early and imbibed the spirit of hardwork as the tonic needed to achieve whatever he wants to in life. Though the son of a king, Prince Fagbemi still considers himself as coming from a humble background. This classification must have set the tone for his determination to succeed and become a role model in the society.

Born to His Royal Highness, the late Oba Salawudeen Olagunju Adeyeye Fagbemi(Obembe II), the Onijagbo of Ijagbo, near Offa, Kwara State on July 16, 1959, Prince Fagbemi attended University of Jos before being called to Bar.  He thereafter joined Emmanuel Chambers of Aare Afe Babalola SAN in 1985 where he worked for 15 years. He was the Deputy Head of Chambers in 1996 when he attained the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN) at the age of 37, the youngest Nigeria to attain the rank at the time.

To achieve his ambition of success,  Fagbemi very early in his career decided to learn the ropes from the masters in the profession. He pitched his tent with the likes of Chief Afe Babalola and seized on the opportunity provided by the legal icon to cut his teeth. “From day one, where I cut my teeth is very important. I mean, I have been at a very important place; I was with Chief Afe Babalola SAN. He was so trusting and he always encouraged the junior ones. I seized the opportunity which was available then. For instance, he won’t restrict you from having any access to any of the files, so it is left for you to make use of the available opportunity. I saw it and I seized it. “I came from a very poor background so it was going to be a tragedy if, as a poor man or a man from a poor background I did not improve myself or did not seize the opportunity to better my lot through hard work, dedication and research. Then it was whatever argument you presented that would determine your success or otherwise in court”.

So he began to study

By Murtala Abdul-Rasheed ,SAN

By the time you are reading this piece, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN, will probably have been or about to be sworn-in as the 24 Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice of Nigeria. To somebody like me and certainly all those who are well-acquainted with his pedigree, the emergence of this iconic prince from Ijagbo town in Kwara State is a palpable demonstration of the mantra of putting a round peg in a round hole.

Like many other people in the current ministerial list, Lateef Fagbemi,SAN is somebody whose appointment as a minister of the Federal Republic cannot be faulted, both in terms of superlative qualifications he wields and the enviable personal attributes he possesses.

Born on June 22, 1956 in Ijagbo, Kwara State, Prince Fagbemi has made  significant and indelible contributions to the development of  legal profession  through the  expansion of frontiers of jurisprudence in Nigeria. The singular trajectory of his career as a lawyer from the early years attests to the fact that he is a person destined for greatness. He was one time the youngest Senior Advocate of Nigeria, having attained  the enviable rank of silk at a youthful age of 37!

This means he got that enviable rank of distinction before  his 11 year at the bar, having been called to the Bar in August 1985.  This is a rare feat in  the legal profession in a country like Nigeria, which boasts of countless number of brilliant minds still dreaming of that rank even in their 50s and 60s.

Prince Fagbemi acquired his initial tutelage, grilling and professional maturation in the hallowed chamber of the legal guru, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN of  Afe Babalola SAN and co, within a timeline of eleven years. He then went ahead to establish his own chamber, Lateef Fagbemi & Co, aka, Temitope Chambers, and has not looked back since then. The chamber has since grown in leaps and bounds, with branches now in  Ibadan Lagos, Kwara,  and