Sir Alfred And Lady Amena Eghobamien Leadership Series Event

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SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AS CHAIRMAN OF SIR ALFRED AND LADY AMENA EGHOBAMIEN LEADERSHIP SERIES FOCUSED ON “MAXIMISING FAMILY VALUES: THE FOUNDATION OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP & NATION BUILDING”, EDO STATE, ON THE 31ST OF OCTOBER, 2025

Protocols

I consider it a great honour to be Chair of the 2025 Anniversary Lecture Series in honour of Sir Alfred Eghobamien, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and his dear wife, Lady Amena Eghobamien JP. Lady Eghobamien JP was a woman whose exemplary life of hard work, generosity and faith is an inspiration and a biography of faith by itself.

She earned her own living with her catering business, bringing up three boys, three tough boys, her biological sons, Osaro, Efe and Edosa. And later, two girls, two adopted girls, in whom she poured her life and values for years before she died. Her radical faith in God, quiet strength and warmth and generosity fully complemented Sir Alfred’s successful life and now his enduring legacy.

Sir Alfred was a man I regarded as a role model in legal practice and in life itself. A model of integrity, erudition and modesty that belied his enormous achievement. He took an interest in me while I was serving as advisor to the then Federal Attorney General and later Judge of the World Court, Honourable Judge Bola Ajibola, Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

These were the days of some of the most radical legal reforms, which were undertaken by the then Federal Attorney General, Bola Ajibola. The review of the laws of the Federation of Nigeria, the publication of the Treaties Enforcing Nigeria, and the New Companies and Allied Matters Act. And it was always, even then, very clear that Sir Alfred had thought through several of the problems in our legal and administration of justice system, and he always had several ideas and contributions.

Later, when I served as Attorney General of Lagos, he was on hand to guide and to encourage. He was particularly interested in the judicial reforms that we were then undertaking in Lagos State, and he had several well-thought-out ideas. A major concern for him was how to maintain integrity both at the bar and the bench, and he always said that without integrity, we have no profession.

For the honour of chairing this event, I owe a debt of gratitude to the custodians of Sir Alfred and Lady Amena’s legacy, their illustrious son, Osaro Eghobamien, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Efe and Edosa Eghobamien. I thank you all.

Many erudite and accomplished lawyers have traversed Nigeria’s legal landscape, yet only a rare few have been recognised in their lifetimes as jurisprudential thought leaders in any distinct field of law. Sir Alfred Eghobamien, SAN, was one of that very distinguished few. His courtroom work, spanning customary law, chieftaincy, land and constitutional litigation, left an enduring imprint on Nigerian jurisprudence from the 60s through the 1990s, up until the time of his passing. He was celebrated for his meticulous preparation, his eloquence at the bar and above all, for his singular achievement in elevating Benin’s customary jurisprudence to the national legal stage.

Among his numerous landmark appearances, three Supreme Court cases stand as enduring legacies of his erudition and knowledge. Okeya Ine and Agwebo in 1970, Udeyene and Udeyene in 1991, Udeyene and Udeyene number one and Udeyene and Udeyene number two, and then Agidigbe and Agidigbe in 1996. Each of these cases is foundational in Nigeria’s body of customary and land law, and together they form a bedrock of modern jurisprudence on Benin inheritance and family property.

It was in Okeya Ine and Agwebo in 1970, long before, as a matter of fact, 13 years before he was elevated to the rank of senior advocate, that Sir Alfred first entered national legal consciousness as the foremost interpreter of Benin customary law. His submissions in that case were cited with approval by the Supreme Court, and these laid the doctrinal foundation for the landmark case of Udeyene and Udeyene in 1991, 21 years later. So in Uden and Uden number two, the Supreme Court formally acknowledged his preeminence, Belgore JSC, as he then was, that’s Belgore Justice of the Supreme Court, as he then was, delivering the judgement of the court observed, and I quote, “the principles governing the inheritance of the Igeugbe under Benin customary law are now settled.

They were ably conversed before this court by Sir Alfred Eghobamien, SAN, in the earlier appeal in Udeyene and Udeyene 1991. His submissions then remain of the highest persuasive value on the subject. Indeed, he has since been recognised as one of the most authoritative voices of Benin custom and usage.”.

Belgore JSC concurring added, and I quote, “the court is guided by the established principles of Benin customary law as articulated in the earlier appeal by learned Senior Advocates Sir Alfred Eghobamien, whose depth of knowledge of Benin customary law was recognised by this court.” Leading academic authorities have also cited this acknowledgement in the Supreme Court cases. E.I.  Nwogogo’s Family Law in Nigeria, republished in 2014, and Okpaluba’s Customary Law and Judicial Policy, published in 2007.

All of these academic authorities cited with approval and the acknowledgement of the Supreme Court in all of the cases that I’ve cited, those effectively establishing Sir Alfred’s stature, not merely as a formidable advocate, but as an intellectual authority on Benin customary law. Yet, his influence extended far beyond Benin’s customary law. His advocacy in Idudu and Okumagba in 1976, again well before he became a senior advocate, was a case which remains the locus classicus on the proof of ownership of land in Nigeria.

His advocacy helped to systematise previously scattered judicial dicta on land title. His arguments directly informed the Supreme Court’s celebrated codification of the five ways rule for proving ownership and shaped the enduring doctrine that even in the absence of documentary title, customary ownership, evidence by possession and use, can confer legal title. Sir Alfred was above all a fighter for justice, and few will forget the case of Okeya Ine and the Military Governor of Bendel State in 1981, where he courageously tested the limits of state power in the compulsory acquisition of private land.

He was then representing Chief Okeya Ine. He successfully challenged the purported acquisition of his client’s land for public purpose by the then military government of Bendel State, and the Supreme Court held in that case emphatically after the arguments preferred by Sir Alfred, and I quote, “the exercise of the power of compulsory acquisition is subject to the constitution. There must be both procedural regularity and substantive justification. Any acquisition not shown to be genuinely for public property or carried out without affording the owner a hearing is unconstitutional and void.”

That decision, which was won through Sir Alfred’s tenacious advocacy, remains a landmark on due process in land acquisition and the constitutional protection of property rights in Nigeria. From Okeya Ine and Agwebo to Udeyene and Okeya Ine, and the Military Governor of Bendel State, Sir Alfred Eghobamien ‘s name is indelibly inscribed in Nigeria’s legal annals. A jurist whose intellect, whose courage, whose integrity and eloquence helped shape the very fabric of his prudence. So, with such an illustrious father, one must feel sorry for Sir Eghobamien SAN, who has had to live up to this huge name that his father has left behind.

Indeed, both Efe and Edosa don’t have to worry. They are not lawyers; they can make their own name in their respective professions, and they are doing so very well. It is Osaro who has the burden of living up to the very, very giant footprints of his great father.

But let me say for my friend and brother, Osaro, that he has broadened the scope of the Eghobamien legal legacy and tradition, especially in some groundbreaking work that he has done in oil and gas law and policy and lately in securitisation. So, this matter of legacy, family values and what parents hand down to their children, brings us to the crucial topic of the conversation today: maximising family values, the foundation of transformational leadership and nation building.

The household is the first parliament: how family dynamics shape leadership styles. And this is meant to examine the foundational role of family in cultivating values, responsibility and leadership orientation. I think if there is anything that I know has put guardrails around Osaro’s behaviour and ethics at the bar, it is the palpable fear that he must not desecrate the name his father built on high values in the legal profession and his personal life.

And that is important all by itself. Values must be taught, but perhaps more importantly, they must be imbibed and must be the character of the following generation. The passing on of values, not by precepts, is not by speech, but in action.

In the example set by what is done or not done. And this is the difficult part for those who have the responsibility to build values in others. Can we ourselves embody the values that we preach? I cannot today imagine hitting my wife because I never ever saw my father disrespecting my mother, let alone hitting her.

And a friend told me once that he had a problem with stealing, that he could not steal because once when he brought back catapults from school, a catapult, I don’t think people even know what catapults are anymore. His father had asked him whose catapult that was. He said he didn’t know, and he had picked it up on the football pitch. He remembers that his father not only gave him a good whipping, but he also took him back to school, to his class teacher, to return the catapult and face further punishment from his class teacher.

A nation’s core values are the values of the families that make up the nation.

We have today with us a most accomplished keynote speaker, Dr. Nosakhare Alex Ihama, Executive Director of the Canadian Leadership Institution. Dr. Ihama is an internationally renowned leadership strategist, a best-selling author, and a transformational speaker who has worked with Fortune 500 companies, governments, and institutions across the world. His perspectives on values-driven leadership will bring a global perspective to this discourse, while also connecting deeply with the Nigerian context of family, legacy, and nation-building.

He was mentored by the renowned Dr. Miles Monroe. Growing up in a Yoruba family, the most important aspiration of a Yoruba man was not wealth; it was something described as Omoluabi, a man of modesty, integrity, a man of worth whose word could be relied on.

My father said, and we wrote this on his obituary when he died, he made us repeat it time and time again, that we must be found in the place of truth and integrity, even if it is not the place of wealth and fame. That you must be found in the place of truth and integrity, even if it is not the place of wealth and fame.

I believe that family values are crucial and important, and I think that our country will grow, our country will be the place that we want it to be, if we’re able to resuscitate those family values that form the pillars and foundations of other nations and countries.

I’d like to welcome you all and join Osaro and members of the family in welcoming you to this event.

Thank you very much for coming.

God bless you all.