As a Branch, we received the news of our dear leader with sadness and we are yet to grapple with the reality that Ogunlana is no more. Death has taken away a genuinely warm individual, more importantly a loving husband and father and deprived so many others, including us all, of a good friend.
While we mourn the loss of a colleague and leader, we pay tribute and celebrate a life that was well lived. A life committed to the cause of freedom in his own country; He lived a legacy of profound impact as he touched many lives within our legal community. and he dedicated his life in building harmony and peace around the world. Not many leave behind a legacy of such dedication and accomplishment.Late Adesina Ademola Ogunlana served our branch meritoriously in many capacities.
Chiefly, he was the Chairman between 2016-2018 and an active member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch. He lived an exemplary life worthy of emulation by all.
His contribution to our Branch in particular and the legal profession in general will forever remain indelible. He was indeed a very humble and distinguished personality of the Bar.
He had a unique ability to unite people and inspire collaboration, leaving an indelible mark on our legal community. He showed so much compassion and displayed a lot of humility worthy of emulation by all. Though His passing left a void that is difficult to fill, we are consoled with the fact that he has left a lasting impression in our hearts.
His dedication to the pursuit of justice was unwavering, and his legal expertise was unmatched. He approached each matter with passion and a commitment to upholding the principles of fairness and equity.
We pray Almighty God to endow the family with the fortitude to bear the irreparable passing of this great man.
Adieu Ogunlana!!!!!!!
©️NBA IKEJA BRANCH
BIOGRAPHY OF ADESINA OGUNLANA ESQ.
A veritable Omo Ibadan, Adesina Ademola was on July 27, 1964, born into the Ogunlana family of lle-Kure, Oja-Oba, Ibadan.
His father, Daniel Oyewole’s intense passion for education and the late Deborah Adesanmi, his strict disciplinarian mother, influenced the early trajectory of his life.
In 1981, he completed his secondary school education at llora Baptist Grammar School, Oyo State and went on to read English between 1981 & 1985 at University of Ife (now OAU). At Ife, he wrote a popular column, ‘Junior on Sunday!’ Between 1985 and 1986 Adesina Ogunlana did his NYSC at Kazaure, Kano (now Jigawa) State and remained afterwards there as a secondary school teacher. He gained admission to read law at the Lagos State University in 1989.
Actively involved in the Students’ Union of LASU, he was elected Legal Secretary of the Union between 1992 & 1994. For his leading role in anti-military and pro-students’ protests, he was expelled from LASU. He was however reinstated after challenging this expulsion in court. He thereafter proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1996.
He had his pupillage at the law firm of Lawal Pedro & Associates under his Principal, Mr. Lawal Pedro SAN.
He started his law firm, Winners Don’t Quit Chambers in the year 2000 and commenced publication of the SQUIB, an anti-corruption magazine, in the year 2001. Many were the toes it bruised in the course of its over 15 unbroken years of publication.
To stop its sale, SQUIB staff were beaten, dragged to various police stations, detained numerous times and charged to court but ultimately, the ‘Heavens did not Fall,’ neither did this hounding spell curtains for Mr. Ogunlana’s legal career, thanks hugely to the selfless efforts of Chief G.O.K Ajayi SAN.
A Barman to the core, he was appointed Welfare Secretary of the Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, by virtue of which he was also member of the National Executive Committee between 2008 & 2010. He was General Secretary of the Ikeja Branch and NEC Member between 2010 & 2012.
He served as Vice-Chairman of the Branch between 2014 & 2016 & Chairman of the Ikeja Branch of the NBA between 2016 & 2018.
At the National level, he was Assistant Secretary of the Local Organising Committee of the Annual General Conference of the NBA in 2009. He was also the Secretary of the LOC of the Annual General Conference held in 2017 in Lagos and NEC Co-opted Member of the NBA in 2018.
In year 2000, he published ‘Understanding the Secrets of Successful Lawyers, ‘FR.A. Williams: The Life and Times of Nigeria’s Greatest Lawyer (2005), Why Lawyers are Angels But Other People Say No’ (2010) and ‘G.O.K. Ajayi: The Life and Times of Nigeria’s Sweetest Lawyer (2014).
As Chairman, Ikeja Bar, he also caused to be published ‘This Temple Must Not Fall.’
An out and out radical activist, the apex of the struggles led by the Branch under his Chairmanship was the struggle against the toxic Land Use Charge imposed by former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. Protests on 13th, 22nd and 29th March, 2018 led to its defeat.
In 2019, as Chairman, Citizens Rally against Oppression, he was the lone voice that took out a legal action against the Chief Judge of Lagos State over the obnoxious provisions of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019 which imposed arbitrary costs on counsel for absence at trial.
He was Lead Counsel to EndSARS petitioners at the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS. Very shortly before his death, he was also an active participant in the nation wide #EndBadGovernance rallies.
He was an extremely sacrificial son, a caring dad, principled professional, dependable comrade, fiercely loyal friend and courageous, supportive husband who in 1993 braved all the odds to marry despite being an expelled student.
Adesina Ogunlana aka ‘Serubawon’; ‘Mr. Squib’ was a diamond indeed. The years tried and polished him and in death, he stands glowing and tall.
