Olufon: crusader in ‘learned’ robes

Every profession has icons in diverse moulds. In legal advocacy, people are more familiar with icons as civil / human rights and constitutional lawyers. But there is a reputed practitioner who stands distinguished in the application of the principles of Law to advance the cause of the Christian faith he espouses. Barrister Wole Olufon, who has served the legal profession in different capacities including as officer and member of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Member, Council of Legal Education and Honourable Member, Body of Benchers, holds the ace as one who has used his legal practice to wage crusades against forces ranged against clients that embody his spiritual convictions. He does this most times for the sheer conviction, more than for the legal fees; and he has been quite lucky with getting Heaven’s help for desired results from these crusades.

Early in his career, Olufon waged a highly controversial case to defend clients that included the Challenge Bookshop operated by the Evangelical Churches Winning All (ECWA), formerly Evangelical Churches of West Africa, against a libel suit instituted by the Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosae Crucis (AMORC). The legal battle raged for 10 years up to the Supreme Court and was won by Olufon’s clients – with the apex court affirming in 1994 that the order wasn’t libelled by the terms used in those clients’ publications that AMORC disputed. Olufon gave a gripping account of the dynamics of that case, including the spiritual and other subterranean dimensions, in a book titled ‘Who is With You?’ that he published in 2002.   

Now to mark his 70th birthday due this Thursday, 19th January 2023, the lawyer-crusader will be unveiling another book on a property row between ECWA and the Sokoto State Government over a mission base established in the ancient city in the early 1950s, and where the church holds turf till date. In the 54-page book titled Summon the Sultan, Olufon recounts the dispute involving an approximately 3.442-acre land parcel graciously allotted to the ECWA mission by the old Sokoto State Government, but which the new generation government moved more than 50 years after to retrieve from the mission. This had necessitated ECWA taking a  recourse to the courts to press its entitlement to the property, and the litigation dragged through the trial court to the appeal court where it was pending when there was a change of heart in the state government to not pursue the case further but rather opt for an out-of-court settlement. The truce deal sealed in 2017 ensured that the mission held onto the land parcel though it forfeited certain sums paid in the course of the tussle as ground rents to the state government, while the government came off with a burnished image of religious tolerance.

Olufon typically writes with the thrill and suspense of Perry Mason novels, though without the murder mysteries as you would find in Perry Mason plots. Such thrill and suspense is not in the least lacking in Summon the Sultan as the narrative races through the historical context, facts and sociological circumstances of the tussle over the land parcel. It is a work you would want to read from start to finish in one go. The first chapter of the seven-chapter work gives a detailed historical account of the Sokoto Sultanate, which is presented as a gracious host of the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) – a missionary enterprise with Canadian and American origin that founded ECWA in 1954. The narrative is subsequently tracked on the Biblical account of the experience of Isaac whose herdsmen dug two wells that the natives disputed the ownership and, hence, had to be relinquished; until a third well was dug that the ownership wasn’t disputed (Genesis 26). In Olufon’s narrative, the dispute over the Sokoto land parcel simulated the Biblical story, while the resolution was likewise metaphorical of the Rehoboth of ancient Jewish patriarch, Isaac.

“With Summon the Sultan, Olufon who began his legal practice in 1977 establishes his reputation as a legal thriller.”

  

One hallmark of this work is that it is written with acute sensitivity to friendly inter-religious relationship that allowed for ECWA to be accommodated in Sokoto in the first place. The author makes a point of highlighting the graciousness of the Sultanate and the political administration in Sokoto State, with the property dispute resulting from a momentary misunderstanding over the terms of land occupancy. The title of the work is drawn from the author’s experience in a private prayer session where he felt divinely instructed to invite the authorities in Sokoto to the ‘Courts of Heaven’ for spiritual adjudication. The point he makes is that there are spiritual dimensions to everything that takes place in the physical realm, and resolution in the physical realm only comes after resolution in the spiritual realm. And true to his conviction, dispositions changed in the physical realm soon after that spiritual experience, as the state governor who newly came into office at the time indicated he was not interested in retrieving the land parcel from ECWA like his predecessor was. The author makes a point of highlighting the co-operative disposition of relevant government officials in giving effect to this decision on which amicable terms of settlement were drawn between the state government and ECWA mission.

Besides historical depth, Summon the Sultan is a work of records, with the author using appendices to reproduce the text of the judgment by the trial court, and the detailed terms of  settlement between the Sokoto government and Olufon’s clients that constituted the judgment of the Court of Appeal. In the course of the narrative itself, the author lays out the claims in the dispute and, subsequently, the grounds of appeal with meticulous  detail and clarity as would offer practitioners and students of law a work of reference, and ordinary readers an educative narrative. Amidst these strengths, though, the work will greatly benefit from the services of an editor to cross the ‘t’ and dot the ‘i’ of  letter cases, use of punctuation marks and other minor grammatical items.

With Summon the Sultan, Olufon who began his legal practice in 1977 establishes his reputation as a legal thriller. At 70 years, he has much to look back on in the service of his faith. He was the pioneer National President, Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria (CLASFON). He served for many years as National Legal Adviser, Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI), Nigeria and is presently the Secretary, Board of Trustees and an International Director of the fellowship. He was for 10 years chairman of Radio Bible Class Nigeria, publishers of Our Daily Bread devotional, and is currently Managing Editor of In the Secret Place, a popular devotional that has been in publication for over 20 years. As he looks back at 70, Olufon yet has much more to look forward to in God’s service.

Riots in Brazil

Far-right protesters ran riot in Brazil early last week and vandalised the country’s democratic institutions in a bid to overthrow the government of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. They invaded the Palácio do Planalto which houses the presidential offices, ransacked Congress buildings and vandalised the Supreme Court – citadels of the three government arms located at the Three Powers Plaza in Brasilia, the capital city. 

The protesters were supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who lost election last October to Lula but refused to concede in sportsmanly spirit. He plied unsubstantiated claims of poll fraud and did not formally acknowledge Lula as winner. Although he could not stop Lula from being sworn into office on 1st January, Bolsonaro left his country for the United States ahead of the inauguration to avoid personally handing over the presidential sash to his successor. He thereby left his supporters angry and unwilling to accept the verdict from the last presidential poll, even preferring military intervention to upturn their country’s democracy. Thousands of them pitched camp in front of the army headquarters penultimate week and had to be dislodged by security agents. Following the protest on Sunday, some 1,500 persons were arrested, with Lula vowing to deal justice to the rioters.

Political leaders everywhere have a responsibility to cultivate the discipline of a good sportsman, so to preserve the peace in their country. Bolsonaro is a bad loser, just like former United States President Donald Trump who resisted the verdict of the 2020 presidential poll in his country and induced the 6th January 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington. Nigerian political leaders must behave better.