On 11 June 2018, I as Moderator of Legal Practice Discourse (LPD) had added to the LPD, two respected Learned silks, immediately after which the following friendly, but now memorable, exchange ensued:
1️⃣ CHIEF CHARLES EDOSOMWAN, SAN, LB: ”Sylvester, you’ve conscripted me here, ok o! Good to be here with you learned colleagues. Have a great one”.
2️⃣ Prof Amucheazi, SAN:
”Sylvester, you don come again. Lol. Thanks”
3️⃣. UDEMS (Sylvester): ”Chai, o my God! I have just checked again the meaning of conscript: ‘enlist (someone) compulsorily, into an organization’. Who am I to have the audacity to commit this offence of compulsory enlistment, especially against a distinguished learned Silk. Am I not in deep soup sort of trouble now? And to the learned silk-prof , to borrow from Augusten Burroughs, ’I am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions’”.
4️⃣Chief ZIGGY AZIKE, LIFE BENCHER):. ”What a beautiful quote, I will surely use it one day👍🏾”
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Such was the level of Chief Ziggy Azike’s exceptional humility and transparent forthrightness. I had been waiting eagerly for the day he’d use that quote because I knew I would have some more good lessons to learn from him doing so. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, ”single conversation … with a wise man is better than ten years of mere study of books”.
Unfortunately, no thanks to prostrate cancer, he’s no more and I have been deprived of the benefit of the that singular opportunity of tapping more wisdom from the source. Indeed sad. But, may I advise myself ”udems, say not in grief that ‘he is no more’, but live in thankfulness that he was”. His good deeds while he was alive make him not dead but only gone. As long as we live, he too will live with us, he being now a part of us, as we remember him and his good life. The only truly dead are those who have been forgotten. On the other hand, good men must die, sure, but death cannot kill their good names. Omezimba CHIBUZO ZIGGY AZIKE, Life Bencher, adieu, sir.
From your boy, Sylvester Udemezue (udems), Moderator of Legal Practice Discourse (LPD) of which you remained a distinguished member until January 06, 2021 when you slept against your will in the hands of the hands of the inevitable.
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▪️ABOUT US:
LEGAL PRACTICE DISCOURSE (LPD) is a forum/project for articulation and promotion of intellectual discourse and concrete actions on developments in the Legal Profession, Law Practice & Procedures in Nigeria, reform of the Bar and Bench, advancement of Legal Education, and articulation of emerging trends in law, the legal profession, law practice, and education in Nigeria. LPD Members (LPDites) are drawn from across Honourable Life members of the Body of Benchers, Law Professors, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, the Academia, the top echelon of Legal Practice & Human Rights Community in Nigeria.
