Up until now, Aare (Baba) Afe Babalola’s name is synonymous with the Law, the Nigerian Judicial ambience and experience, Sageship and enduring legacy of unparalleled philanthropy.
That all of these are being jettisoned for one moment of “mad” retributory disposition, caused by genuine pain, is tarring the sage with the “wrong” brush of infamy and morbid vendetta.
The widely perceived faulty and unlawful process of prosecuting a lawful course and dismissing such suspicious administration of Justice with Legalese by those who argue for and against, has elicited widespread condemnation in the beginning of what seems like a needless possible legal soap opera, possibly orchestrated by unchecked anger from both divide, and unbridled desire to leave an untainted legacy for posterity, after six decades of untiring standing in the bar “against” the bench, on the part of the respected Ekiti high Chief.
Anyone in the pitching shoes of the Aare, will feel something, no doubt. Yet, it is expected that as a Father at this juncture in his life and career, Baba must have mastered his most sensitive emotional string to be able to keep it in check, especially against a vociferously thunderous and “provocative” junior colleague, who might still be making his “mistakes” in the tortuous journey to the top.
I have decided not to dwell on the legalistic and the evidential postulations and probabilities of rightness or otherwise of the actions from both sides that resulted in this unequal slugfest between two illustrious sons of the same progenitor parents. But rather, the humanness of an induced “provocation” that led to a father going for the jugular of a son.
Baba should have ignored the deafening tantruming of the younger lawyer by attempting to call him to a “cultural order” or rein him in by personal gestures, as it were. Now the dirty linens are being washed in the open and there’s no hiding place anymore. Rather, drums of war are being rolled out across “generational” divide to determine who will lose or win.
In a war of supremacy and vendetta, nobody wins totally. While the assumed or eventual winner is being glorified and hailed, and the assumed or eventual loser is being vilified and hated, the hidden and unknown weaknesses or flaws of the actors are being unduly exposed and the strengths, which gave them substance in the public eye, are gradually being downplayed and eroded.
This, eventually, demystify the very persona one has laboured in a lifetime to build and protect. We must learn to let go, when we should let go. After all, there’s always an initial presumption,(that should be a consolation for Baba) that defamatory statement is untrue. Baba must not insist on Farotimi or the courts to discharge this evidential onus against him either in Ekiti or Lagos. There’s simply no need for all of that. Baba, let this thing pass you by.
Forgiveness is predicated on repentance. The antagonist is not in any way showing remorse yet; so forgiveness is out of place.