Dagogo Karibe-Whyte comes from a Law background with father, a Supreme Court justice, lawyer-uncles, cousins, sister and even his wife. The lawyer who has his chambers in Lagos, has been in the practice for 15 years and he is still looking far ahead in his profession. He, recently, speaks with Tunde Ayanda in his office where he reveals his most memorable experience, his dream to become a senior advocate and his take on the political situation in the country. Excerpts.

Why did you choose law above all other professions?
Why did I choose Law? One, I come from a family of lawyers, my father is a lawyer and my  uncle, the late Dr Nabo Graham-Douglas, incidentally, was one of the first Senior Advocates of Nigeria…my cousins are lawyers. I come from a large family of lawyers, so, ideally, the people I interacted with growing up were lawyers, my father’s friends…what have you! So you can understand that I did not choose Law, Law chose me, in the sense that when I left secondary school, I was at a loss as what to study. If you asked me then what I would like to study, I would probably have told you that I would study Theatre Arts, even Journalism because I like to write, but when I was filling my JAMB form, Law just came as the appropriate thing, but no regret, having said that, because Law gives you a new kind of responsibility, a responsibility to yourself, to the people around you…so back to your question, why I studied Law, I think there was nothing else to study (laughs).

How long have you been in the practice?
Let’s say for the past 15 years.

Any memorable experience for the past 15 years?
Yes, the most memorable experience in my profession was the day I went to the EFCC with an order from the Federal High Court and an EFCC operative slapped me. The guy’s name is Magun and that for me, primarily, is the most memorable experience. I never thought it was possible for someone to tear a court order and slap the lawyer, but then, it was in the era of Obasanjo when members of EFCC were law to themselves. It is the most memorable experience in my legal career.  But they later apologised, I went to see the CJ who thought we should not pursue it, it was embarrassing enough and the judge himself, (he is late now), Justice Ejiofor, was not very confident about pursuing the matter against the EFCC, considering that I’m not a trouble maker and Lamorde, who was someone I considered to be my friend and a big brother talked to me and I let it go. It was one of those things that, ordinarily, I should  have pursued to a logical conclusion.  If it was a regular policeman, I would have known what to do, but the EFCC, who in my estimation, was brought in to sanitise the system, it was unfortunate that they have operatives like that who cannot understand the responsibility that was given to them, so I let go.

In a system where some lawyers are pitched on the wrong side, to you, what makes a good lawyer?
First of all, beyond the knowledge of the law is good conscience, it’s good to know the law, but the most important ingredient is good conscience, even in the law, they hammer on good conscience, that you must be fair to your conscience, you must not do things for the wrong reason. The most important thing to a lawyer is “justice” to all manner of people and that is why in the court, we are neither towards right or left, we are friends of the court, officers to the temple of justice and part of our responsibilities is to help the court arrive at  justice, not just come and win the case for our respective clients.

At the start of your career, who were the people you looked up to?
Luckily for me, I worked with a man who is now the Minister for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia. He is a great lawyer, very interesting character who is very knowledgable in his field. Others are people like. Bankole Aluko and George Etomi, strong characters. These people formed my opinion and shaped my attitude about the law.

Let me take you back to the beginning, can you give us an insight into your background?
I come from a monogamous family, my father, mother and five siblings. I started at Staff School of the University of Lagos, later to St Gregory, Lagos and I finished at the Federal Government College, went to the University of Ife, and I went to the Law school like  every other person.

What about your dad?
He is a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, he used to be in the Hague, he was Chairman of the Constitutional Conference in the 1994/95 during Abacha. I’m talking about my Lord Justice Karibe-Whyte.

How close are you to him?
We are best friends, father-son, he is my confidant.

Any other sibling in the profession?
My kid sister is also a lawyer…

What’s her name?
Nooo, she is a no-go area (laughs).

How much has your background influenced the man you are?
I come from a family that has very strict values about decency, honesty and integrity. The family is like a bedrock of any human being that people take you for your word. For me, I’m a strong believer of “do unto others what you want them do to you.” Those are the values I grew up with and that’s why when I look around me and see people from similar background who have been given responsibilities, especially in public office and they behave like one who fell from the trees, I am always very upset and that is why sometimes, lawyers are very critical about what they find around them. It’s not because they just want to be controversial. I will give you an example, about some months ago, the President left the country, no story was told.

Few months later, we heard on BBC that he spoke to them. Later, he came back secretly in an ambulance and yet, the good people of this country, the representatives of the people of this country, could not take a decision on whether we should let the man go and recuperate or allow his deputy act in his stead; you know we needed to formulate a decision because our constitution has enough  provision to take care of the situation but it shows we are a very mischievous, unreasonable set of people and that we do not hold dearly to those values that we grew up with which is honesty, sincerity, integrity.

The constitution has clearly stated what we need to do, it is very clear and not ambiguous. As we speak, Yar’Adua is nowhere to be found and the people of Nigeria do not know whether they have a president or not, it’s really unfortunate and if this happens at the presidential level, what more do you expect from the local level. The kind of abuses from our local government chairmen, their  councillors…nobody is asking questions anymore, if you complain, they will say you are jealous of them and they are depriving the people of what is legitimately theirs and this always annoys me.

Has there been any particular book you have read that has touched your reasoning?
I’ve read many but there is one from Liyaya Coker, Hundred People Who Have Underdeveloped America, it’s a very good book and it listed hundred Americans who have discredited America and on the basis of that, I also want to write a book on Nigerian politicians who have underdeveloped Nigeria and I have a long list of them.

When is that coming?
Very soon and I will tell you that it is continous…

Don’t you think you are set out to step on people’s toes?
Who cares? When they were stepping on the toes of Nigerians, they should have known. A lot of them continously stepped on our toes and now it is quid pro quo. Leadership is an opportunity, people should use it well; that is why I pray for Goodluck Jonathan everyday that the madness, the curse of the presidency should not affect him. In the presidency, no matter how great your intentions are, it manages to derail you in a certain way. It happened to the Yar’Adua presidency, also the Obasanjo presidency, and that is why you see a great guy like Obasanjo talking about a third term instead of him to have concentrated on delivering the dividends of democracy.

You look stylish, what does fashion mean to you?
Fashion is the man, I don’t know I look stylish, I’m a conservative, I try to be neat and you know we are lawyers, so we dress neatly and smart. I try to be a good ambassador to my family and my firm.

Tell us about madam and the children?
My wife is also a lawyer, but she works for an oil and gas firm, her name is Ifueko and we are blessed with twins, Tein and Onari, they will be 15 in May.