By Felix Ogunmade
I have known Alex Muoka since 2003 when he gave me the opportunity for internship in his law Firm before proceeding to the law school. I neither had any prior knowledge of nor relationship with him howsoever. Gracefully, I met him the first day I visited his office and he attended to me very quickly. By the time I was leaving, I had an engagement letter in my hand. I felt so important and was highly impressed by his candor, demonstration of humility and utmost regard.
I got more and more impressed every day I worked in that office. I found in him, not just a very diligent Legal Practitioner but a great teacher, role model and an inspiring mentor.
Alex is very kind and generous. Although I did not tell him that I was an indigent student, he lavishly issued a cheque to me when I resigned (preparatory to law school), such that the sum almost covered my school fees. In the course of my studies, he gave me further cheques twice and he was checking up on me. Of course, I returned to his Firm after I was called to the Nigerian Bar and I had my pupilage there.
Alex loves to show the way and he leads by example. He would not give you a task, without giving you guiding references. When he assigns you to go for a meeting, he would not only give you full information on what to expect but even the description of how to reach the meeting venue. He is incredibly detailed, unassuming, extremely diligent and in all of these, very selfless.
Alex is very passionate about everything he gets involved in. He is driven by quality, integrity and merit and he would neither bend the rules nor spare a culprit in that regard. Anyone who has ever worked with Alex Muoka or had to do anything with him will acknowledge his problem-solving instincts, high level of competence and admirable sense of perfection. His impeccable dress sense, excellent academic record, admirable respect for professional colleagues, oratory skills and dignifying Courtroom practice are a beauty to behold.
At the Lagos Bar where he was Secretary and subsequently Chairman, his footprints are indelible and his leadership standards are still the yardsticks by which the achievement of his successors in office are being measured.
I have no iota of doubt that if we have a service-driven leader in the mould of Alex Muoka as the General Secretary of NBA, we are not just guaranteed an efficient, excellent and dignified Secretariat, but an exhilarating kind of hope, that we are very close to the NBA of our dream.
Felix Ogunmade
Former employee of A. Muoka & Co.