By Abdu Rafiu
Just about two months to hit 100 years, Chief Christopher Oladipo Ogunbanjo departed earthly life in a hail of trumpets in the corporate world and in wider circles around the country for a life of almost matchless triumph and what Dr. Michael Omolayole described as A Life of Grace. Dr. Omolayole said further of him: “I am certainly a beneficiary of Chief CO’s informal university of life, which acts as bridge between the younger generation and the most senior citizens. Like every good lawyer, he enjoys nothing more than a vibrant intellectual disputation with good humour. I always enjoyed his cerebral approach to issues.” Dr. Omolayole would know. He is an orator himself and a bundle of humour.
Chief Chris Ogunbanjo strangely did not know he would live up to 70 years. Chief Michael Subomi Balogun revealed this at the celebration of the Chief’s 80th birthday at Ijebu. He always had malaria and it was thought because of the frequency and severity each time, it was a miracle he would survive the challenge. He not only hit 70, he went on to mark his 80th in 2003 and 90th in 2013. That was more in his early life. On Saturday, 07 October, 2023, he took his exist very close to striking his 100th birthday. Of course, it was not all smooth sailing hence the feeling of triumph and rejoicing in thanksgiving in the family for his long beneficial life, and in several circles he was ever delighted to draw close him. On three occasions, he suffered threats to his life, one during the war in 1967 when soldiers manhandled him at Lawanson when he and his wife, Hilda coming from a ceremony, stopped by to say hello to his sister. Another close shave was at Ijebu-Ode in 1992 on his way to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, when hoodlums accosted him in broad daylight. Pointing a pistol at him, they threatened to shoot him if he did not empty his pocket to settle them as it is said in local parlance. They made away with a paltry sum they found on him and with his Mercedes Benz car. On July 29, 1999, armed robbers broke into his bedroom in Lagos. They shot him in the hand when they could not find money in the house. He was admitted to St. Nicholas Hospital before being flown out to the United Kingdom. The British High Commission hurriedly arranged travel papers for him as the robbers had made away with his passport.
Many who knew how close he was to the doyen of accountancy, Mr. Akintola Williams, and Chief Subomi Balogun the founder of First Monument Bank both of whom passed on in quick succession of each other within two months, had this sense of foreboding that Chief Ogunbanjo might soon lose the will to continue to live. He died peacefully last Saturday, 07 October. He was fond of Chief Subomi Balogun with whom he related as a younger brother. In the words of Chief Balogun: “Many people who do not know the family background of both of us have always assumed that we are blood relations because of the way we have closely related to each other in the over 40 years since our paths crossed….It had been as we had known ourselves from childhood. He adopted me as his younger brother and both of us always felt proud to acknowledge this publicly. Even before my mother passed on at the age of 87, a few years ago, she reminded both of us and handed me over to him that I was his God-given younger brother.” Chief Ogunbanjo and Mr. Akintola Williams were almost inseparable. Their paths crossed in several areas. They had experienced each other so much so that Mr. Akintola Williams described him as resourceful, energetic, tireless, and precise. With this glittering testimonial, it was not surprising that they could flow together unhinderingly. They were, therefore, always together at Metropolitan Club. They became members of the Club the same year. It was even more so after they both lost their wives and found complementarity in each other’s company. His most bosom friend, a leading industrialist, Chief Adeyemi Lawson, had also left the flesh, 30 years back. The third leg in their tripod, a one-time Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Adetunji Adefarasin, also left many years ago.
Who was Chief Chris Ogunbanjo? Born on 14 December 1923, into a modest family by the standard of the time, he was received into the loving care of his parents. He had been much awaited by the parents who had longed ardently for a male child. They waited patiently in prayers for a male child and he eventually came as the fourth of his father’s children, but the first son. He had three elder sisters, two younger sisters, and a younger brother as the last of his siblings. He was a man of a very humble beginning. He was born and he lived in an Anglican Church vicarage in his hometown, Eruwon. As a child, he joined in fetching water from the local brook and firewood and he participated in house chores. He was subjected to strict discipline at home. He was woken up between 6a.m and 6.30a.m for morning prayers. Like any child, he did not find it funny. Why should his sleep be disturbed? He thought to himself. It was whenever he was taken to his grandmother at a nearby village that he heaved a sigh of relief from the life by his father’s side. Life in the village was all about the church, school, and farming to which his father took to augment his income.
At the age of seven, he was sent off to live with a relation who was a headmaster at a nearby village. The thought of his childhood and adolescent days had a humbling effect and great influence on him throughout his life. This was coupled with the societal expectation from the son of a cleric. While with the father, the school was accommodated in the vicarage. After he had lived with the headmaster relation for a few years, he followed his father to Ile-Ife to which he had been transferred by the church. Chris completed his primary education following which he gained admission into Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, the first secondary school in the present day Osun State. In the college, he was fascinated by the uniform, smartness, and discipline of the Boys’ Scout. He joined it and it was to become almost a life-long interest and activity for him. From the 60s until he was 81, he was Assistant Commissioner for Development at the National Scout Headquarters in Lagos.
Chief Ogunbanjo moved from Oduduwa College to Igbobi College in Lagos at the instance of his father. Indeed, Kings College was the father’s preference, but the Principal at Oduduwa College was reluctant to release him. He did not process his form. He did not want Chris Ogunbanjo to leave his school because he was a brilliant student. He eventually let go and Ogunbanjo was enrolled at Igbobi College. As it was the case in all Mission schools, the principal was strict in matters of morning devotion and Bible classes seemingly in recognition of the school motto which translates from Latin to “All one in the Lord.” Prefects too enforced discipline and he would always recall with fond memories that Chief DMO Akinbiyi, a lawyer and one-time Lagos Town Clerk was his prefect.
After Chief Ogunbanjo left Igbobi College he had to look for a job as his parents could not afford, for financial reasons, to send him for further studies in a university which in any case did not exist in Nigeria but overseas at the time. As responses to his applications were long in coming, he decided to learn typing at a training institute at Okesuna, Lagos. This proved to be the magic key to opening doors for him. The responses were being expected mostly from the Nigerian Railways, Treasury, and the Judiciary. He went to the Supreme Court Registrar to enquire why he had not gotten a reply to his application. The registrar, a Whiteman, did not know there was an application from him for a job but admired his boldness. He asked his subordinates to look for the file and bring it before him. When the file arrived, the Registrar asked him if he could type to which he said yes. He was tested in typing and it was found he was proficient in it. The registrar offered him a job immediately as a clerk. After he worked for four months, he was posted to Enugu on relief duty. From Enugu, he was transferred to Port Harcourt also on relief duty.
His stay in Enugu and Port Harcourt widened his horizon and shaped his liberal attitude in his relationship with people from other ethnic groups in the country. He found that the widespread myths about the people of the Eastern part of the country were unfounded. Such was the fear held by his mother flowing from the myths that she accompanied him to Enugu. Convinced that her son was safe she returned to Ile-Ife where the husband had been a Reverend priest. Chief Ogunbanjo was to say himself that the experiences in Enugu and Port Harcourt, meeting and working with people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and religious persuasions “subsequently had a significant influence on my future inter-personal and inter-ethnic relations.”
When he returned to Lagos, the teacher he had lived with as a child and who had become a civil servant in Lagos, and more importantly his guardian, spoke to him of the need for him to further his studies. Chris Ogunbanjo heeded the admonition. He enrolled for a correspondence course in Law at Metropolitan College, London to fetch him what at the time was known as intermediate degree. He passed the examination which granted him the right to attach ‘Inter. LLB’ to his name. Following the achievement, he sought to change job for enhanced income. He succeeded when he landed one as an assistant labour officer in training. With this, he found himself at a crossroads. He found himself having to choose between pursuing a full-time course in Law in the UK and settling down to follow another career. He elected the former, his longing fired by his admiration for some legal practitioners.
Arising from his determination to face challenges of impecuniousness on his path he set sail to pursue a full degree in Law; he set sail to England in 1948. His courage was bolstered by the exemption he had in Part One of the degree course. He reckoned that by going to Part Two, within two years he would have gotten done with his studies also with his Bar examinations, but this was not to be and it stretched his budget. Part of the money came from a relation and his whole paltry savings. He succeeded in securing a loan from the famous lawyer and politician, Chief H.O. Davies. Even then he had just enough to meet his basic needs; consequently, he could not muster any more money to pay the required fee to enroll as a regular student.
He soon had the fortune of meeting Teslim Elias and T. A. B. Oki and two West Indians. What he lost in the lecture room, he gained from help from Elias. They sat at his feet to learn and Elias was generous to share his knowledge of Law with them. He had completed his first degree, he was doing his Masters. He impressed them with his robust knowledge of the Law, particularly the Law of Tort, a course which fascinated Chris Ogunbanjo greatly and which he passed well.
Things were difficult for Chris Ogunbanjo and he could not pay his rent nor feed well. This resulted in his developing ulcer. He had to quit his apartment at the quarters called ‘students’ dig’. He squatted with a fellow Nigerian student for months until he finished his final Bar Examinations and passed in 1950. In the course of his hard struggle and living in the “students dig’ apartment, he resorted to doing holiday jobs and his skill in typing came only too handy. He worked as a typist at a Post Office and some other time in Income Tax Office. He was in the good company with two other Nigerians who were also typists in the Post Office, one of the two being the well-known Charles O. Madarikan who was the first President of the Western Nigerian Court of Appeal. The court was later to give birth to the National Court of Appeal spread across the Zones of the country today after the Federal Military Government took it over from the Western Region. Before then, appeals in other regions went straight from the High Courts to the Supreme Court. Passing his final Bar Examinations and being called to the English Bar gave him exceeding joy. It was a turning point for him: He remarked in undisguised elation: “I felt great and accomplished’. He said: “I was determined that in spite of the harsh conditions of my struggle in the UK, I wouldn’t end up in the streets.”
The attainment in Law became his passport to enter a new world and the golden key to the doors of opportunities in Law practice and the corporate world. He returned to Nigeria in 1950 at the age of 27. Bubbling with energy customarily at the command of youths, he stepped out boldly to change the corporate world at the age of 29. His first breakthrough in litigation which served as his landmark victory was in a case between West Africa Airways and John Akpiri which the Supreme Court decided in his favour. Mr. Akpiri had been forcefully ejected from the company premises given to him for catering services. The punitive action followed disagreements between him and Airways. Chief Ogunbanjo argued that his client was a tenant-at-will and so he could not be ejected without notice. He lost at the High Court but won on appeal. The Supreme Court decision is an Authority lawyers quote till today with relish.
From this accomplishment, there was no stopping Chief Ogunbanjo, especially as he moved to Commercial Law, a field that was later to become his forte. He was in hot demand by corporate organizations and he soon had junior lawyers. When he first set out, following in the footsteps of Thomas, Williams and Kayode (Bode Thomas, Rotimi Williams, and Remi Fani-Kayode) in an enchanting partnership, Ogunbanjo persuaded Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Michael Odesanya that they should do the same. So they also had Samuel, Chris & Michael partnership. Their office was at Balogun Street in a property given to them by the renowned industrialist, Chief S. O. Gbadamosi, the elder brother of Justice Odesanya. When Akintola went into full-blown politics becoming the Premier of Western Region and Odesanya went to National Bank on the endorsement of Chief Ogunbanjo to handle its mortgages, the partnership was dissolved. Odesanya later became a High Court Justice in Lagos State. Chris Ogunbanjo then had to set up his own law firm known as Chris Ogunbanjo & Co.
When he moved into Commercial Law practice, which had now become a new phase of life for him and recognisable forte, Chief Ogunbanjo was in hot demand by corporate organizations. What he had in advantage was his expertise in drafting legal documents. Companies needed his services and so did the government. He headed the team the Federal Government appointed to produce Companies And Allied Matters, an exhaustive corporate document and instrument that was promulgated into a Decree by the Ibrahim Babangida Administration in 1990. Not only did he provide corporate legal instruments for companies, but he himself founded companies. He was chairman and director of many companies, no fewer than 12. He held shares in countless companies. His foray in that direction went back to 1958 when he was appointed to the Board of Directors of an electronics company, Phillips Nigeria Limited. It later became Associated Electronic Products Nigeria Limited. By 1960, Chief Ogunbanjo had become its chairman. As in some other companies where he was chairman, he saw to it that he promoted and nurtured relations between Nigeria and Holland from where Phillips came to invest in Nigeria. He was the brain behind Guinea Glass reputed to be the largest glass factory Africa South of the Sahara. It was rechristened Beta Glass when it merged with Delta Glass of Ughelli. A hardly-to-be-beaten major player in the corporate world, his interests spread far and wide from manufacturing—biscuits, glass, and pharmaceutical products — to banking, insurance, and prints. He was chairman of Turning-Point Newspapers Ltd, publishers of The Comet in succession to Dr. Christopher Kolade when the latter was appointed the Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In automobile, he was there representing France.
He made an imperishable contribution to national economic policy, especially to the National Development Plans of General Gowon.
His lecture at Mainland Hotel, Lagos, was the catalyst for the indigenization of enterprises of 1972 when General Gowon bought his idea of encouraging the participation of Nigerians in the ownership and management of foreign companies in Nigeria. His drive was to get the government to relax restrictive hold on certain sectors of the Nigerian economy and bridge class gaps in the country. As a result, the middle-class Nigerians would get the encouragement to own shares in companies including the ones in which they work. Although he advocated local participation in foreign companies, he emphasized fairness in equity allotment arguing that it would be unjust to strip foreign investors totally of their hard-earned investments. His thoughts also led to the establishment of second-generation banks in Nigeria.
He was chairman of several councils which he founded or to which he was invited to join as a member. He was chairman of the Council of Management Education and of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria. He was President of the Nigerian-American Chambers of Commerce. He led economic and business delegates to many countries. The high point of his being in the saddle as President of the Chambers was the delegation he led to the United States in 1973. His tenure was at a time when the United States ranked next to the United Kingdom in trade partnerships.
He was driven by the principle of Four Absolutes deriving from his membership of the Moral Armament. These he strove to achieve or sometimes almost achieved: They were Absolute honesty; Absolute purity; Absolute love and Absolute unselfishness. It is no surprise that what his acquaintances and business partners are quick to attest to is his honesty. He was involved in community projects and where financial support was required he joyfully obliged such as to the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. He built a Community Centre named after his father at Obafemi Awolowo University. He bought a gigantic generator for his town because national electricity was not extended to the town. It gave him so much distress that electric power supply still remained epileptic close to his departure from the earthly plane. He said the unstable power supply is the major cause of poverty in the country. He argued eloquently that without it, costs would continue to skyrocket and that would encourage the importation of substandard goods which in turn results in undermining local production.
Chief Ogunbanjo was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And he regarded his thorny road to success as a necessary strength-mediating tonic to overcome challenges, believing as in Mrs. Margaret Thatcher’s dictum which Dr. Tai Solarin was also wont to preach: “He who dares, wins!” He built an imposing Epiphany Church in Eruwon, his hometown. My loving and prayerful thoughts go with him that his path be blessed on his continuing journey in the Beyond.
- Credit for much of the materials used in this write-up goes to his biography, A Life of Grace, authored by Dr. Udu Yakubu.
– Telephone Number for SMS only: 08158640055
The Guardian
