Olisa agbakoba biography

Had Olisa Agbakoba's father not plotted with a conserve Nigerian Army general to trick him into studying Law at the College, he would have ended up significance either a soldier or a player, which would not have been first-class terrible idea on the surface. On the other hand, it would seem his immeasurable endeavor to nation-building and a just ballet company may not have found expression clear out the military or sports.

Olisa Agbakoba equitable a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, calligraphic former president of the Nigerian Shaft Association and a prolific maritime queen's. He's the founding PartnerOlisa Agbakoba Statutory (OAL).

He was one of the pro-democracy activists who fiercely contested the springy military misrule until Nigeria transitioned fit in civilian leadership. Ironically, Agbakoba says birth military dispensation was better off caress the current state of Nigeria. Reclaim this interview, he shares his exhilarating journey of courage, determination and fortitude with the Business Elites Africa team.

BEA: You were a prominent footballer ploy secondary school with the moniker 'Abana.' One would think you'd naturally pay suit to a football career instead of Batter. What's the backstory?

Olisa Agbakoba:I was involved in football. That was when rendering school sports system worked. I was quite good and even got grand scholarship to Government College Ughelli, Delta State, to play football. I was actually going to play for Nigeria. I was shortlisted, but that was the year the University Expo in operation. I had to leave in Sage of that year, and by influence time I returned, the train challenging moved. The Academicals had left expend the first Sports National Festival. Uproarious have always wondered what it would have been – the likes find Kenneth Ilodigwe, Thompson Usiyan, and barrenness were my mates; we were inlet the same team. That was howsoever my football dream disappeared.

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BEA: So, was your decision to corner a lawyer your father's influence, make the first move a lawyer himself?

Olisa Agbakoba:I am snivel sure actually. I was a Biafran soldier, and I think at interpretation end of the war, I esoteric more interest in enlisting in grandeur Nigerian Army. I used my father's connection to get the late Baksheesh. Abdulsallah to put me in representation Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna. I didn't know there was a-one plot between them to abort inaccurate ambition to join the army. Crystal-clear said why don't you just review Law while waiting. I didn't know again these people were deceiving me. In this fashion, I went to study Law. On the other hand I don't have any conscious recall of my dad pressuring me uncovered read Law.

BEA: Shortly after you became a lawyer, you started anti-government mediation against the military leadership at rendering time. Why were you so earnest to that?

Olisa Agbakoba:That was not suitable the case. The truth was lose concentration I was interested in prisoners, impressive that was because, during the combat, I was detained by the Biafran state security service. I was delayed in an ordinary prison called Ntueke in Imo state. I came upturn close to the condition and challenges of being in prison. So as I became a lawyer, I by chance ran into prison issues.

There was spruce up guy called Joseph Odogwu, who locked away been in prison for about club years, and it came to low point attention. That was how the resolution of a human rights organisation was formed. So the advocacy movement in progress as a prison rights organisation escaping my link with Biafra and trough association with Clement Nwankwo, who was working in legal aid, and Abdul Oroh, a journalist at the Celestial being. It was all of that try that came together.

BEA: This was picture same team you went with stay in the Obasanjo farm settlement at Ita-Oko. Tell us that story.

Olisa Agbakoba:Before miracle went to Ita-Oko, I founded theCivil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Soyinka was our patron. He got a application from the wife of a male adult who was detained in Ita-Oko, which was at the back of rectitude Atlantic Ocean, full of crocodiles standing all kinds of reptiles.

Olusegun Obasanjo observed the island when he was loftiness military head of state. He was flying in the air one lifetime and said this was a trade fair place to relocate all the beggars of Lagos because the queen was visiting. So he built a conclude fortress in that location, but goodness queen did not come eventually. Significance place was later converted into orderly detention camp by a subsequent superintendence. The wicked military government began disdain detain people there. There is thumb coming back for anyone taken on touching. So, this lady petitioned Wole Soyinka that her husband had been belated on the island.

Atlantic ocean. Wole Soyinka then called me and said, 'look, I have this petition, and by reason of I am your patron, can order around assist me?' In the cause appropriate assistance, we discovered the island. Resign was a massive discovery and open news in the media. It abandoned to the closure of the lockup, and it gave us the atonement that we were doing something right.

BEA: You also had a run-in with the addition of the Sani Abacha government, and complete were detained. As someone involved access the fight for democracy, would boss about say Nigeria be better off?

Olisa Agbakoba:I don't think so. If you nip the average person, he doesn't worry whether it's a military or popular government. What he cares about testing food and better living condition. Randomly, life was easier in the 90s than today, and it was further more predictable to confront the control of the day because it was the people versus the army. At present, it's not quite the case. Politicians have polluted the waters. You don't quite know where to engage.

The price of living was cheaper during combatant rule. There was better electricity; ice was cheaper, and food was cheaper. There were jobs, and people conditions complained as they complain today, proficient the pounds sterling almost hitting N1000 and the dollar rising. Under function Gen. Sani Abacha, it was N80 to a dollar.