Seventy-six-year-old retired soldier and former Chairman of the Nigerian Legion in Oyo State, Alhaji Adetunji Lasisi, who was recently called to the bar, speaks to AJIBADE OMAPE on his life in the military service and new life as a lawyer
What motivated you to join the military, and can you describe your experience while in service?
My name is Alhaji Adetunji Lasisi, I was born in 1948, and I am from a village called Ilori Alaja in Arulogun, under the Akinyele Local Government in Oyo State. I started my education at St John’s Anglican Primary School in Igbo Oluwe around 1954 and finished my primary school there before the family moved to the town and I became a city boy at that time. I then started modern school at ICC Secondary Modern School, Aperin; after a year I moved down to Methodist Commercial Secondary School Elekuro, where I finished my commercial four in 1964, and immediately I finished because I was a village boy and my father had passed away that time in 1961, I started looking for jobs at different places.
I moved to the defunct Mid-Western State in Sapele, and did a small job at the African Timber and Plywood in Sapele when I went to live with my uncle, and that time I was eager to join the military force because I loved the force and not just the Army;, I struggled to join the police back then, and at that time we were having local government police at Amokoko here in Yemetu, Ibadan, but I could not get in so I travelled back as I was asked to return home. When I came back, there was nothing again and I started working as a typist with an importer and exporter, where I was getting paid seven shillings and six pens, and it was alright.
I then decided to go for the military force; a recruitment came up on February 6, 1966, and luckily we were moved to Zaria; I later was posted to the third battalion here in Ibadan and we were moved to the warfront immediately, and I was in the warfront from the beginning to the end, and I thank God that nothing happened to me. It was during that period that I developed myself; the Army gave room for everything needed for someone to develop himself and at that time we usually had extramural classes that were run by the University of Ibadan; we had free tuition, free forms and all we needed; so I was attending the extramural classes with some of my friends and referred to ourselves as ‘ABU’, which stood for ‘Army brought up boys’.
I sat the GCE in 1977 and I took six papers and I cleared them all by the grace of God, and that result enabled me to attend Wesley College for Grade Two; I was in Wesley College when the Oyo State Government established the NCE campus at the Wesley College; I took the exams and passed. We were the very first set of students at the Wesley College campus; while doing the morning devotion, the vice-principal of the school made a statement that one lucky student had been admitted into the NCE, mentioned my name, and asked me to step out. I was surprised that I had become a senior to my seniors, so the three years that the Army gave me for grade two was what I used for my NCE, so I didn’t take the grade two certificate as I went straight to the NCE.
What followed after the NCE?
I tried to go to the University of Ibadan but a lot of things went wrong with the system and it did not work out. Thereafter, I got the opportunity to travel to Paris (France) for a diploma in French in 1979 during the (former President Shehu) Shagari election time; after my diploma, I came back to Nigeria and wanted to further my education. I eventually left the (military) service in 1991 as a warrant officer; when I left the Army I joined the Nigerian Legion and that was the time that there were five local governments created out of the Ibadan, so I became the chairman of the legion in Ibadan south-east first, then I contested in a 25-local-government poll, and I managed to secure 20 votes out of the 25, and the rest votes were shared and that was how I became the chairman of the Nigerian Legion in Ibadan in 1993.
It was at that period that I decided to do my diploma in Law at the University of Ado-Ekiti (now Ekiti State University) in the year 2000; after I passed it, I felt there was still more to do, so immediately I finished with the legion because I was a full-time chairman until 2004 when I left the legion; in 2005, Lead City University started offering Law courses so I joined the very first set, although I struggled to go there I thank God for the success. We finished the degree programme in 2008/2009 but because of accreditation issues, we could not go to Law School until 2019 when the first batch left.
I was told that I could not attend because one of my children offered me an Umrah or lesser Hajj slot and I preferred that because I knew that if God spared my life, I could always go to the Law School. So, I forfeited the Law School and went to spend the last 10 days of Ramadan there. By 2022, I went back to Lead City University to enrol and I got my papers to go to the Law School; that was how I got called to the bar and became a lawyer on March 6, 2024.
How did your military background and experiences influence your leadership style and approach to serving the Nigerian Legion and its members?
It was while in the military that I noticed that I would be able to serve the people and make an impact on many lives; there was a good and standard institution but there was nobody to pilot it properly. I made a positive change because I knew what I was there for; I made sure to make use of the decree created for us in 1988 and I used it to make sure that everything was okay. I will say they all enjoyed my tenure, even the disabled were beneficiaries. I had to go the extra mile with the principal of the rehabilitation centre to change a lot of things in their facilities; I changed wheelchairs and other necessary items for people, I cannot be able to say much but the institution is there to check and I thank God that I was able to make an impact on lives.
What inspired you to pursue a career in Law, particularly at this stage in your life and after retiring from the military?
Honestly, I love it because it is a noble job; there are two noble jobs in the world, the first is the military and I served in the Army to protect the integrity of this country; the second noble job is Law. I wanted another noble job that would enable me to serve humanity, not politics or any other job, so Law was what I chose. I want to be able to help the oppressed and the underprivileged; there are so many people in prison yards today who are first-time offenders who do not have anybody to fight for them, and they do not have the means to pay fines; so these are the type of people I want to help, and besides, I have been blessed by God so I feel that is one of the only ways I can also make an impact in society; you know nobody is going to contest with me unlike when one engages in politics.
Immediately I was called to the bar on March 6, I reported on the 11th to learn the nitty-gritty of the job. To be an ex-serviceman, you will be recognised, and I’m not just talking about Nigeria; I remember when I was in London with my military ID card, I enjoyed a lot of benefits and because we are members of the League of the Ex-servicemen of Britain because we are tied to them; but for Law, it is to help humanity and that is why I love it.
How do you envision your role and contributions to the legal profession given your unique background and experiences?
I can bring a lot; I know the way things were done back when I was in the service so I understand the basics; there are many things to be done and I can go from point A to point B to see if my contribution is felt and defend the people there because there are many who have cases but do not have money to engage legal practitioners.
Will your service to people be free?
Well, just like I said, there are so many people in correctional centres who don’t have legal representatives, so I am free now to do a pro-bono job for them. I told God I wanted a 90/10 ratio for all cases, however, the filing of papers may attract some fees, but for appearance and charges, I will not be taking fees.
Were there any specific challenges or obstacles you encountered while studying Law, and how did you overcome them?
Well, there is nothing that is simple and there is nothing too tough but the thing that is peculiar about studying Law is that when you fail in one subject, you fail in all, and not only that but there is a particular subject called ethics that can affect all papers, so one should face ethics right from the beginning. The grading system in the Law School is different, so one should be up and doing in that one year for Law School.
What kind of support did you receive from your family throughout your journey to becoming a lawyer?
Well, I lost my father in 1961; my father was a rich farmer and circumcision expert, as our lineage’s profession is circumcision (Oloola descendants); he took ill and the sickness lasted a week and that was what led to his death on November 8, 1961, after which my brother supported me to finish my commercial four in 1964. As for my Law School, it was my eldest daughter who sponsored me, and that is why I thank God for her; she fell sick a while back, but I thank God that she is back in sound health.
I was so happy when I was called to bar because she is alive; other members of my family have also supported me; my first wife as well, whom I met in Sapele during my service in the Army is an Itsekiri lady whom I married back then; she made sure that she did all that was expected of her and stayed behind to look after the home; she made sure to look after the children, which made them succeed; she died of natural causes at the age of 50 on March 29, 2001, and bore six children, (three boys and three girls). My second wife, whom I married in 2009, has one child for me.
What areas of Law are you most interested in practicing, and do you have any particular goals or aspirations for your legal career?
I want to be able to represent people who are not able to hire legal practitioners to handle their cases, and just like I said earlier, there are people in prisons and correctional centres who do not have any legal representatives.
What advice do you have for individuals who may be considering a career change or pursuing new opportunities later in life as you did with Law?
What I will say is that there is no limit to what we can learn; education is continuous, and there is no limitation until we leave the earth; many people questioned my decision to go to Law School asking what I wanted to gain, but I think we should not waste time when it comes to learning so everyone and anyone who has the chance should be encouraged and not waste their opportunities.
How has the transition from military to civilian life and legal pursuits impacted you personally and professionally?
Well, I will not say that I am a civilian now even though I have retired from the military, but all I have learned in the military has helped me to perform well as a civilian because, in the military, we are rigid, we keep to time and pay attention to details; anyone who sees the way I behave will be able to tell that I have a military background.
How do you hope to contribute to the broader legal community and society as a whole with your unique background and perspective?
I discovered that some people are in prison because they do not have people to cater to them not because they want to be there; some of them do not even have parents and others need help too, so those are the people I feel that I need to assist, and the government does not plan well for these people as well; imagine someone who is just going to prison for the first time, such a person should not be put in the same place with the older inmates; this and some other things are what I feel that should be done for people.
What other plans do you have for the future?
I want to see that I try to settle people, and I have planned for it; for instance, I have good land for farming, so if I can bring people out of prisons, maybe in hundreds, I won’t mind settling them because if I do, they will live freely and if I pass away, I will be remembered. I have the Yusuf Adetunji Memorial Education Foundation which was established in 2019. I have plans to help as many people as I can so that people will read about me the same way I read about people in society as well. Even the school in my village, Ilori Alaja, I have been organising inter-house sports for them for the past 20 years, so things like that are what I will be doing to contribute to society.
