Gomez: Nigeria's oldest living lawyer, unyielding Octogenarian rights crusaderTHOUGH activismruns in his blood, coming from the Doherty and Gomez families, two prominent families in Lagos, noted for producing the first Nigerian lawyer, Christopher Sapara Williams in the 19th Century, as well as the revered Chief Adebayo Doherty, who became a judge in 1921, Pa Gomez was the least expected to be a radical.It wasin 1948 that Pa Olatunji Gomez exhibited the first spark of activism.That year, Pa Gomez, with his colleagues, staged a protest at Kings' College, Lagos, which turned things around in the elite college.They had earlier witnessed the first ever strikein Nigeria in 1944 in the school,led by some graduating students who protested the poor living condition in the elite college. He had learnt that it was better to fight for the benefit of others than to fight for oneself.The 1948 set of King's College students, he said, were neither deterred by the action of the colonial government, which charged the rioting students set to courtnor frightened by the conscription of eight of them into the Army to fight in the Second World.Pa Gomez and his colleagues staged the second strike that changed the history of thatcollege.He said of the strike: 'So, in 1948, when we were about to leave, we decided to go on strike again, I was to go to England because my parents wanted me to complete my education in England, but since I had committed myself to my friends, that come what may, we were going on strike in that year,'So I pretended that I was sick. Otherwise, I would have gone to England. It would have amounted to a betrayal for what we had been planning for two years. Eventually, we went on strike. That was the second strike in Kings' College and we demanded for a lot of things. Like the colonial government, the school authorities came down with a great hammer and dismissed all of us.'But, a lot of people intervened. We were punished and re-instated though wewere not allowed to come back to the school as we had already written our Cambridge examination. The strike of 1948 turned Kings' College around, and a lot of good things happened. Another European principal, who now turned Kings' College around, was appointed. Because of him, a lot of Nigerians got scholarships to study in Europe and America,' he reminisced.Since 1948, the 83-year-old lawyerhas not stopped. He has continued in human rights crusade, the recent being the agitation for the abrogation of the rank of the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), on the grounds that it is oppressive and discriminative.The case is still pending at the Federal High Court, Lagos.The energetic octogenarian relieved with nostalgia, the incidence of 1944, which he said, changed his live and instilled in him the determination to fight for the rights of other people.He said:' As a student, when you saw our students who had nothing at stake, yet decided to go on a protest because they could not leave the place the same way they met it, and would not want the juniors to suffer, that would inspire you.'The inspiration was so much because, the then colonial government did what they would not do to their own students in their own country, by charging the students to courtand conscripting eight of them into the Army'.He said: 'It was a wicked punishment for students who were demanding for their rights. The food was bad, there were bed-bugs, there were mosquitoes, and you had to walk about two miles from Custom Street to get to Kings' College.'That protest changed my mind and motivated me, especially when I saw the late Alex Taylor, who was the father of the late Justice J.I. C Taylor, defending the students. The way he conducted the case , the way he spoke and defended them, from that day, I made up my mind that I would be a lawyer in order to defendpeople against all manners of injustice,' he added.Pa Gomez was born on March 18, 1928, to the prominent families of Doherty and Gomez in Lagos.He started his kindergarten school in Lagos and left for Abeokuta Grammar School in 1939, for his secondary education. Thereafter, he went to CMS Grammar School in 1940. On completion of Class 2 in 1944, he left for Kings' College, then the highest and best college in Lagos.At Kings' College, he had an European style of education, with most of teachers including the principal Europeans.According to him, it was in Kings' College that he met other Nigerians from the other provinces as they were called then, for the first time like ex warlord, Dim Emeka Ojukwu. He later went to England and studied law at the University of Dublin, Ireland, where he met people, like Justice Kayode Eso, the late Justice Desalo, Justice Olatilade and Justice Araka.After qualifying as a lawyer in 1961, he came back to Nigeria to begin his law practice.With over 50 years in practice, Pa Gomez is today the oldest Nigerian at the Bar.But that had not stopped him from active practice as he still goes to court.The soft-spoken octogenarian, is still full of live, maintaining an office at the last floor of a three 'storey building in Lagos, which he climbs every day without a lift.Pa Gomez said he could do that because he normally took sometime off for some yoga exercise, which he said was capable of freeing people from the dangerous effects of stress and stroke, a major cause of death in Nigeria.With two books on yoga and marriages to his credit, Pa Gomez is full of regrets that that yoga has not taken its root in Nigeria as it has in America and Britain, because of the superstitious nature of Nigerians.According to Pa Gomez, who once had acolumnin an evening paper entitled 'Matter of conscience', where he wrote on issues bordering on human rights. The secret of his longetivity, he said, could be traced to God and the daily yoga exercise.The octogenarian, who came from the only family with female hereditary chieftaincy in Lagos,is never interested in chieftaincy, even though, he had been offered titles from Abeokuta, the same way, he never applied for the rank of the Senior Advocateof Nigeria (SAN).The elder-statesman says he does not want government appointment, because he does not like tobe dictated to.He had undertaken a lot of cases against the government, becoming the first Nigerian to take a military government to court.In that landmark case, which involved the Ajele cemetery, where we now have the Ajele Stadium, Pa Gomez, with his aunt, a daughter to Sapara Williams, took the Lagos State military government to court over the state's attempt to exhume the remains of prominent such as Sapara Williams, and the first African Anglican Bishop in Nigeria, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther. The state government's plan was rejected by the people but the government wasbent on the use the place.He then dragged the Lagos State Military government before the Lagos High Court against the advice of his family, on the fear that he might be killed by the military.The state was defended by Chief Bankole-Oki. the then Attorney- General, who led two others in the case.The trial judge, the late J.I.C. Taylor, who was the Chief Judge, ordered the Attorney -General to stop exhuming the bodies.Pa Gomez, who had two children, both lawyers, from his European wife, he met in England during his university days, had also been in courts with the Lagos State on issue bordering on land acquisition and not giving enough compensations to the land owners.On the choice of European woman, he said, there were shortage of Nigerian women then in England, and five people would be running after one woman, but he decided to settle with a white woman, because he did not want to run after women.Pa Gomez said his fight for the abrogation of the rank of SAN was practical, as he has learnt to fight for people's rights, whether it affects him ornot.Describing the award as an injustice, he said at his age, he did not need to be a SAN.'There is nothing to gain from SANship. The system itself is corrupt and is not based on merit. It is oppressive to the junior ones to the extent that they cannot earn a good living out of the profession.He said: 'The title is so oppressive that even wherea client gives a lawyer a brief and his opponent got a SAN, his client is going to take the case away fromthe lawyer fora SAN. In that case, what do they do' They do not pass any special examination. They took the same examinations and talk about briefs. We all know that anybody can write a brief and present it, so why are they pompous''What is irritating is that they know that what they are doing is wrong, but they are surprised because they do not know how resentful the legal population is of SAN, so they were surprised when we went to the 2009 conference and moved the motion, the whole thing could have ended but the then chairman refused to put it to vote, that is why we are still having it.Tell me what a non-SAN, who has been in practice for 40 years, will learn from a lawyer who is 15 years and got a SAN. Law is not how many briefs you get, law is not how big your office is, law is in your head, your wit, your thinking. They are creating a monster in the profession that will devour us. Why did I say that, recently, a young SAN, in 2010, one of those that violated the rule of law, came out in one of the newspapers and said emphaticallythat a SANknew more that a judge of the High Court and Appeal Court, and that a SAN should be taken straight to the Supreme Court. Where is it done' He has not written one judgment in his life, he has not sat in judgment but should be taken straight to the Supreme Court.If we allow this to happen unchallenged, they are going to lobby until they get itand that will ruin the judiciary, because the people who are at the High Court are looking for promotion, people who had spent years in the Court of Appeal will be disappointed and discouraged, frightened because they can take somebody, who has never sat on the Bench and instead of being promoted to the Supreme Court, will take this SAN to the Supreme Court. He would have wasted all his time. They made money outside, they want to take position here. That is not fair, it is not equitable, it is unwanted and selfish ambition. It is not done in England. There is no where that England will take a QCand put him at the head, except the Attorney 'General. Why must we start it'' he added.
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