Lagos lawyer Benjamin Waive on Saturday faulted claims that Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, never finished from the Nigerian Law School (NLS).
Waive said he and Obasa were close course mates during the one year Bar Part II Course at the Lagos Campus of the NLS.
He said they were called to Bar on the same day.
Some online reports had recently quoted the Supreme Court of Nigeria as saying that Obasa’s name was not found on the rolls of legal practitioners kept with it.
“This is to inform you that we have checked our records and cannot find the name: MUDASHIRU AJAYI OBASA on the numerous Rolls of Legal Practitioners kept in this honourable court,” the court’s registrar was quoted to have said.
But Waive told newsmen that the claim could not be correct and that Obasa is probably the victim of an administrative oversight.
He said: “The recent claim that the speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly Mr. Mudashiru A. Obasa is a fake lawyer almost got on my nerves because here was an outright falsehood gaining momentum before my very eyes.
“The gentleman Obasa attended the Lagos Campus of the Nigerian Law School with me, wrote the bar finals with me and was called together with me.
“I would have been carried by the strong waves of falsehood sweeping through the internet about the honorable gentleman if it wasn’t that I am in a position to know and be a close witness.”
He lay the blame for the controversy at the feet of non-vigilant administrative personnel.
“Having read this confirmation, you may want to quickly dispel the whole false story about the honourable gentleman as being activities of traducers, but it is beyond that.”
“The real problem is the traditional lackadaisical, lazy and corrupt attitude of the average Nigerian public office worker,” Waive said.
The lawyer noted that cases such as Obasa’s were not uncommon in the Nigerian legal system.
Waive added: “As lawyers, many times we are confronted with missing files et alia in the court, registries, CAC et alia.
“You will better understand what is playing out if you have had any cause to recourse to your alma mater. There are countless cases of persons pursuing postgraduate education overseas denied admission because their alma mater could not transmit their transcript for same lack of records or plain refusal to work by administrative officers for lack of bribe. What a disgrace of a system! “The bad thing with the system is that we seem not to be willing to improve from experiences and events don’t trigger the necessary positive changes. We are all too comfortable with our old ways.”