The Late Kenny Rogers sang a song entitled: “Gambler”, some of the lyrics are:
“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run”
In both legal practice or legal academics, a good lawyer must recognise when the time is ripe to “walk away” or even “run” away by way of taking a sabbatical leave.
A sabbatical leave is a period of paid leave, usually one year when any lawyer or staff of an institution takes time away from their own institution and goes to another different institution to learn and cross-fertilise knowledge.
It is also a period to rejuvenate, recharge one’s batteries as it were by getting away from the “hectic” and often “toxic” working environment.
When I think about the recent death of Dr. Daniel T. Adem, Esq. it is a cautionary tale about avoiding the trap and dangers that most workaholics and THOROUGH-BRED PROFESSIONALS in Nigeria face.
Dr. Daniel T. Adem is one of the most outstanding legislative drafting lawyers ever produced by Nigeria.
He obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) in legislative drafting degree from the University of The West Indies. And thereafter, his PhD degree from the University of Abuja.
He was a part-time lecturer on the LLM in Legislative Drafting programme of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS).
It was my privilege to be taught be him during my LLM in Legislative Drafting programme at NIALS.
After I left the employment of the Faculty of Law, University of Port Harcourt to join the services of the National Assembly’s Institute for Legislative Studies, my line of work brought me in greater proximity with on a monthly basis with the late Dr. Daniel T. Adem.
He was a THOROUGH-BRED PROFESSIONAL, he pays immaculate attention to details when it come to legislative drafting and production of Bills and other legislative documents.
An online search of his name, reveals that he is on record as the only African whose books on legislative drafting are published by Lexis Nexis, South Africa.
His books on legislative drafting are about the best for Nigerian and African users both legal academics and legal practitioners in the field of legislative drafting.
However, his exceptional brilliance and insistence on high quality Bills attracted a lot of professional rivalry and enemies at the National Assembly where he worked and retired from the year 1991 or thereabouts.
The opposition to him grow so strong that he needed to file a lawsuit at a court of law before he could obtain his overdue promotion to the rank of Director and eventually Permanent Secretary of the Directorate of Legal Services, at the National Assembly.
All these legal courtroom battles took a huge toll on both his physical and psychological health.
During the period of the pendency of the said lawsuit(s) because he could not even pinpoint whom the real enemies were, he was suspicious of every lawyer in the field of legislative drafting as having ulterior motives or being behind the relentless attacks on his career.
Less than one year after his retirement, we were informed that he died while attending a wedding ceremony at his hometown of Benue State.
It was very recently that one of the staff of Lexis Nexis, South Africa asked me to help them make contact with the family of the late Dr. Daniel T. Adem to discuss royalties and other matters.
When I conducted an online search using his name, I could not find any glowing tributes about his funeral by the National Assembly or the professional Association of lawyers to which he belonged such as the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (CALC).
It then dawned on me that each man is responsible for taking care his own health and legacy because no one else would do that for you!!!
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja is a lawyer and the Executive Director, Nigerian Law Society (NLS).