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Colleagues think this is shaping up to become a high-impact article. Difficult to disagree with this 10-tweet thread on the insights derived from the article by this Crown-commissioned report on UK construction industry and the resilience of its contracts 👇🏾
1. Our partner @dejitoye's article for @unibolawreview continues to extend its influence on the landscape of contract law & economics. It is extensively cited/quoted in this signal report on post-pandemic resilience of UK building sector contracts. @PROTECT_NCS @AshtonInstitute
There's actually a paternalistic satisfaction senior lawyers derive from extending grace to a junior; almost in thesame sense as Reagan's when he said in a debate, "I'm not going to exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience."
I was in Court today for my cases and I witnessed an interesting episode before my cases were called.
A young lawyer was sent to court by her principal for a matter that was slated for trial. The lawyer on the other side is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria with over 50years of experience. When the matter was called, the young lawyer stood up to inform the court that her principal was in his way to court to handle the matter as she was not briefed to proceed with the trial. Immediately, the court told her to start looking at the file as the matter must proceed. The court stood the matter down for like 2hours.
When it was recalled again, the young lawyer’s principal was not still in court and the SAN was prepared to proceed. The SAN put his witness in the box and tendered all the documents. When it was now the turn of the young lawyer to cross examine the witness, she stood up with confidence and said: my Lord, we will like to take a short adjournment to enable us cross-examine the witness. In the interest of justice, I plead to the court to allow us come back. Clearly showing hesitation to adjourn the matter, the court called upon the SAN to respond to the young lady’s application for adjournment. Some of us in court were already thinking the SAN would insist the young lawyer must proceed, so as to gain an unfair advantage in the case, as cross examination is a crucial part of the case.
The learned SAN stood up and said: my Lord, I was in this lady’s position 51years ago. My principal gave me a file for a case for trial and when the matter was called upon, clearly I wasn’t ready to go on, I stood up to ask for an adjournment. Thanks to the senior counsel on the other side, who extended grace to me to concede to an adjournment. So it is my turn to extend the same grace to another younger lawyer, and I hope in the future, when she also finds herself in similar situation, she will extend the same grace to the junior lawyer. So my Lord, I will not be objecting the her application for adjournment.
Everybody in court including the young lawyer immediately wore a wide smile on their faces. It was a sigh of relief for the young lawyer. Then the judge said to the young lawyer: thank your luck that the SAN extended grace to you, and now I don’t have any option but to grant your request for an adjournment. The judge added however that: the tenacity of the lady not to go on was impressive. But admonished her to always be familiar with the facts of the case and be ready to proceed regardless of whether the principal was coming to court or not.
"The seasons passed of peace, winds gathered
To a storm within an egg-cup.
Excavating scrolls in long forgotten archives
They stretched the warp of mind to rigid poles
Of opposition..."
-- Wole Soyinka (Gulliver)
#300YearsOfGulliversTravels
"When shipwrecked on Lilliput, Gulliver discovers diminutive inhabitants who are waging war against a rival kingdom in a dispute over which end of a boiled egg should be cracked – a satire on Europe’s sectarian conflicts"
Gulliver's Travels is 300yrs old
theguardian.com/books/2026/o…
"When shipwrecked on Lilliput, Gulliver discovers diminutive inhabitants who are waging war against a rival kingdom in a dispute over which end of a boiled egg should be cracked – a satire on Europe’s sectarian conflicts"
Gulliver's Travels is 300yrs old
theguardian.com/books/2026/o…
"Chinese are Confucians at work, Daoists at leisure and Buddhist at death."
... and Maoists in national identity, as that young footballer is about to find out.
Considering the only tribalism the average Nigerian can recognise is the one targeting their own group, nothing Brazil can teach here. Will produce no different outcome--certainly no redeeming one--than the well-funded radicalising YouTube channels the past 10-15years.
An NYT review of J.P. and Ebun Ckark's PEC Repertory Theatre in 1985.
PEC, along with Ajo Festival and Chuck Mike's Performance Studio Workshop, held the door open for theatre goers and performers in Lagos from 80s to early 90s. Ajo, funded by Fred Agbeyegbe, is 40 this year.
"The PEC Rep was established by J.P. Clark and wife Ebun to try out the repertory theatre tradition in Nigeria. Using the subscription model, the well-connected Clarks had enlisted a circle of Lagos elite to subscribe to seasons in advance"
#RIP_JPClark
chimurengachronic.co.za/the-…
Nigerian political behaviour is hyper-cyclical. Even intra-party transitions often end in drastic policy reversals (e.g. OBJ/YarAdua, Buhari/Tinubu). So, when you manage to build a broad coalition, you can choose to spend it on, say, 3rd term agenda, or deeper structural reforms.
deji toye retweeted
And I say these as someone who is a student of Movements and believes in the importance of solidarity to movement-building. But honest movements are not built on fads and the aggressive idiosyncrasies of dominant--and the loudest--segments of the population.
Olówó yìí jọ̀wọ́
Òtòṣì ń bẹ̀ ẹ́!
Money na water!
On this @NafdacAgency war on fake drugs, publicity can only be useful to build public coalition for structural changes in our pharm chain. NAFDAC must take leadership here too. 2 proposals to start with: phasing out open market warehousing & unprofessionalised patent med stores.
deji toye retweeted
From Spare Parts to Smart Rides: The GIGM Story
The Big Bus Era
— It's 1997 in Nigeria, and interstate travel means one thing, huge 59-seater "luxurious" buses that people used to move goods, visit their hometowns and make cross-country trips.
— The big names, ABC, Chisco and Young Shall Grow, ran luxury buses for long journeys and medium-sized buses for shorter ones.
A Spare Parts Dealer's Contrarian Bet
— Edwin Ajaere, a spare parts dealer in Benin City. He and his wife Stella founded God is Good Motors in 1998 to run bus services across Nigerian cities.
— His bet went against the crowd, GIGM became the first to use 14-seater buses for every trip. Smaller buses filled faster and left sooner, so people weren't stuck waiting hours at the park.
— The name helped too; one writer noted it struck a chord with Africans because it was simple and its message was hard to argue with.
Tragedy Strikes
— In 2009, Edwin Ajaere was kidnapped and killed. His first son, Chidi, only 21, came home from Canada, where he was studying at Niagara College, to take over the business.
— His mother Stella became President of the board. A 21-year-old inheriting a transport company in that market could easily have been the end of the story.
The Son Who Rebuilt Everything
—Instead, Chidi tore it down and rebuilt it. He moved the company away from its offline, legacy way of operating and led a rebrand.
— GIGM grew into what was called Nigeria's most technologically advanced road transport company, with the country's first top-down transport management system, 600 buses and over 2,000 staff.
Why "Motors" Became "Mobility"
— In 2019, the name changed to GIG Mobility. The COO explained that "Motors" boxed them into road transport, while "mobility" covers every form of movement.
— That same year they launched in Ghana.
The Next Chapter: Beyond the Bus
— This April, under CEO Dr Enahoro Okhae, GIGM hosted its first product conference in Lagos and unveiled Hire X, a ride-hailing and vehicle hire service, and PASS, a travel and tour platform.
— Okhae recalled how the company went from moving passengers between Benin and Lagos to running over 40 terminals across Nigeria. The goal now is a full digital mobility ecosystem, with AI built into everything they do.
The video tells more story 👇👇👇👇👇
Video Credit: Thecommaeffect
deji toye retweeted
ASUU-Govt negotiations almost recall this Lawande cartoon in @daily_trust from 2003, satirising FGN vs. Labour negotiations of the time.
ALT (c) deji toye- cartoon published in Daily Trust newspaper in 2003.
Removing the Mogaji is not even as gangster as the entire ẹbi/agbole being named after you. There are surnames today that came from a matriarch of the family.
Dear Mother,
I wish I could send you money for your arthritis medicine. But you first have to change the government next year. Only then can you expect a resumption of my upkeep support. Until then, you'll have to bear with me, and the pain.
Your son,
Comrade Ajantala
University of Ife--like ABU--was such a crazy Marxist hotbed in the 70s. In 1979, Dele Giwa visited--in suit and Benz. They called him a bourgeois journalist, whereupon he took them to the hovel he grew up in, in town, obviously to let them know he didn't plan to return there!
No true warrior only ever advances without once retreating--Yoruba proverb
Of all the lessons on life I have encountered in fiction, this passage remains my favourite:
“It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, my son, but sometimes it is better to be a coward. We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live. The man who has never submitted to anything will soon submit to the burial mat.”
— Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God, p. 11.
