It is unusual of me to write this. Justice Phillips MCI Arb. on reading this may smile or frown at this piece, but if it is coming from me, she can possibly smile. I guess! At the same time, I think, it is ripe to say this in public while she is alive doing good with her potentials and her emulating human relationship.
The ten reasons why I cannot forget about her:
1. I met her in a medium I could say it was divinely arranged after she retired as a Chief Judge of Lagos State in 2015.
2. She gave me unexpected audience for my first, unpublished law book on book presentation. She further encouraged me and made salient suggestion. Her words inspired me after Hon. Justice Ishola Olorunnimbe’s comment on the book.
3. She gave me best advice when I had a challenge on my application for Notary Public and I never heard anything for months when the application was posted to Chief Registrar of Supreme Court. Later, encouraged me that I could meet all the conditions with time.
4. She congratulated me on my second award in August, 2015 even a young lawyer then.
5. She read my mind and made a comment on my first, unpublished book as research book with voluminous cases.
6. On meeting her, she still wears her smiling face though she is principle, loves law-abiding people and hate lobbying for position with people who are parasites in nature.
7. She encouraged me when I wanted to settle down with my wife and after low-key wedding, I remembered she advised me to take care of her with much viable advice.
8. She wrote foreword of my second, unpublished book and funnily became a first writer to make her do that despite her busy schedule in 2017.
9. Her voice remains like that of a dove. Hmm, if not that I have been carrying my wife along, she would have thought we were talking to a very young lady on phone after our honeymoon. Smile!
10. Lastly, she gave me a reason that there is time for everything despite challenges, even need for resources for managing law firm, book writing and legal research.
This piece is not to blow her trumpet but saying reality about her life, our encounter and her relationship with other humans. As a young lawyer though above seven years practice, I count it as a privilege to write this because of her humility, motherly care, equality irrespective of class and benefits. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Hon. Justice Ayotunde Phillips MCI Arb. Immediate CJ, LASIEC Chairman …
From Olumide Akindiya, Lawyer, Poet, Legal Writer, Speaker & Principal, Olumide Akindiya & Co.