Bound by Love and Law - Towun & Yemi Candide Johnson

She is from a family of lawyers and was solely educated in the UK until she returned to Nigeria to attend the Nigerian Law School. His father was a Lagos State judge and he graduated with an LLM from the University of London. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984 and she a year later, they both worked for the law firm of Majiyagbe (he in Kano and she in Lagos) and there the similarities end. The ultimate power couple in the legal world, Towun and Yemi Candide-Johnson are anything but easy to pigeon hole.

Towun’s light, insightful answers revealed a playful personality which compliments the heavy responsibilities borne as former General Counsel of a major oil producing company while Yemi’s responses were sober and thought provoking, exposing an earnest pre-occupation with matters of grave importance and how he can make a difference in the world. As he juggles responsibilities as a senior partner in Strachan Partners, a commercial law firm in Lagos, she’s just moved to Total’s HQ in Paris as Negotiator in the New Business (Affairs Nouvelles) Division. Her role has been described by the Total Group Personnel as the proverbial ‘stairway to heaven’ and has helped in delivering on Yemi’s dream of happiness which is ‘a small house in rural France, the blessed company of my wife and children, and ready access to simple but evolved cuisine and excellent wine’. Their revealing interview with Ayisha Osori unveils a balanced study in complementary contrasts.

Yemi
A student of history, Yoruba, oenology and international cuisine, Yemi is an arbitration enthusiast. In his own words, ‘arbitration has been shrouded with unnecessary mystery. It has a deep resonance with traditional and cultural African attitude i.e., dispute resolution by the mutual choice of a respected adjudicator. In the 19th century there was a “Kings Court” at IgaIduganran in Lagos and amongst many indigenous communities disputes are still happily resolved by such mutual and voluntary reference. Arbitration law sets standards and institutionalises and validates this cultural practice and relieves the constitutional courts from some of its burden’.
As Chairman of the Lagos State Arbitration Law Reform Committee, he was involved in the reform of the arbitration laws currently before the State House of Assembly. Once passed this will result in a quasi court of arbitration to promote alternative dispute resolution and provide resources of international standards. It will operate like the International Court of Commercial Arbitration (ICC) in Paris and allow Nigeria to compete effectively for arbitration business originating from her own territory.
Yemi’s passions are easy to track and his high social conscience makes him a veritable target for ‘political office’. Whether he is discussing the challenges of legal practice, the state of education in Nigeria or describing his heroes – there is a distinguishable theme: public interest and challenging the status quo. For him, the challenge to legal practice is dealing with the avoidable delay in litigation and the frustrated expectation of litigants who have placed their trust in a civilised means to resolve disputes. Judges who, entrusted with power and responsibility, exacerbate the problem by all too often cooperating with incompetent or dishonest lawyers to nullify the proper operation of the system. Ironically, he found a greater confidence in the sacredness and impartiality of judicial institutions in Kano, maybe because Kano is socially less advanced than Lagos. In Lagos, the high social access to judges has largely demystified the institution and exposed over familiar judges to real or perceived compromise of their status and public confidence in their impartiality.

Yemi in 4 takes:
What is your interest in Public Policy litigation?
Public policy is the primary focus of judicial attention in the procedure of judicial review. In challenging a succession of administrative actions the underlying objective is to affect policy positively for practical business purposes. A series of challenges against the Nigerian Communications Commission under the 2003 Act (with varying results) has been critical to modifying its approach to regulation. “Our challenge of the Department of Petroleum Resources in another high profile case changed forever the response of the petroleum industry to the power of an over bearing and politically compromised regulator.” The increase in the number of legal challenges that have since followed our own cases will gradually raise the standards of legality to be met by Nigerian regulators.

What is the one law you think we absolutely have to change?
The immunity of public officers conferred by the colonial Public Officers Protection Law which has become a haven for incompetence and a license for irresponsible administration.

If there was one thing you could change about legal practice in Nigeria what would that be?
I would make discovery automatic and comprehensive and exclude evidence concealed; reduce the burden of giving evidence before a judge at trial by allowing written depositions to be tested outside the court before trial and totally abolish adjournments after a case is set down for trial.

Who are your heroes in real life?
The ‘economy class passenger’ who is a metaphor for a group that has been disappointed by government and Nigerian political leadership as a whole. They work from dawn till dusk; in darkness and in an insecure environment; fighting through traffic and obstructions set by unhelpful government bureaucracy. They press on, creating jobs and the very wealth of this nation; all the while so restrained they cannot start a revolution when the idle fat cats take first class seats paid for with the blood of heroes!!!

Towun
She’s living one of the most interesting times in her life right now, practically sitting at the edge of her seat with excitement at the boundless opportunities before her. Her new role as Negotiator, New Business Division in Total, Paris has been described as the stairway to heaven because of the immense possibility for personal development and achievement and is a big career step for her. But first she needs to master French and take a crash course on Petroleum Economics. For someone who claims she studied law to get away from numbers, she’s doing a good job of managing figures.
Towun was drawn to law by the intellectual rigour and the impact of law on important matters and working with a multinational has given her a generous amount of exposure, training and development; and this has not been limited to oil and gas law or even law. Her role as General Counsel for Total Upstream Nigeria, presented many legal problems which helped her build competencies in tort, commercial, labour, criminal law and business strategy. For instance in her old role, she had to deal with contempt issues when the Managing Director was served with notices of contempt and committal for continuing with a billion Dollar project because a consultant to another party claimed that they had not been paid for work done. This was particularly interesting because Total had previously been struck out as a party in the matter by the same court and the mystery of the sudden interest in imprisoning a non party for contempt made the issues urgent.

Towun in 4 takes
Where do you see the legal profession in Nigeria within the next 5 years considering globalization?
The “threat” of globalization of the profession in Nigeria is scary! Scary because most of the law firms in Nigeria do not have access to the financial resources necessary to openly compete with firms in the developed world even though some lawyers certainly have equal skills. If foreign law firms are able to do in Nigeria more than they are already doing, it could be a disaster for the legal profession.

Share something you find interesting about your area of specialty.
There are many interesting but controversial aspects of our oil and gas law which after many years of remaining static has suddenly been forced to change in view of the evolving world economy and energy politics. While some changes have been put in place, and others are ongoing, the bulk of these changes are captured in the Petroleum Industry Bill. I find the Petroleum (Drilling and Production) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 which seeks to amend the royalty rates for oil blocks including deepwater blocks intriguing because it is contrary to the Deep Water Deep Offshore & Inland Basin (Production Sharing Contracts) Act 1999 (the PSC Act) .
The PSC Act was enacted to give legal backing for the fiscal incentives granted in the 1993 PSCs and regulates all deepwater blocks. “What is interesting is that Regulations as subsidiary legislation cannot amend an Act. These Regulations are therefore invalid with respect to deepwater blocks and should not ordinarily apply to them.”

How do you spend your time when you are not practicing law?
Unless I am on holiday, I rarely have much time. However, whatever time I do have I spend with my family, a good book or just ‘vegging out’, not necessarily in that order. I also try to exercise: tennis and swimming are favourites.

She Says He Says
What is the major difference (if any) between in house counsel and counsel in law firms?

Towun: I am often bewildered by the impression in some quarters that in-house lawyers are somehow doing less critical work than external counsel. Nothing could be further from the truth. A dedicated and engaged in-house lawyer is the frontline of business and carries the immediate burden of protecting the activity of his client over a range of events and transactions. It is a huge endeavour and a huge responsibility. The main difference probably is that in house counsel cannot represent their clients in court!
He says: The main difference is a potential reduction of objectivity. A well run law department should be at least as effective a legal adviser as any well run law firm. In most cases it should be more effective because of better understanding of the business and will call upon external counsel for balance and not necessarily for better skills. However, an awful lot of legal departments are quite poorly motivated and incompetent.
What do you think about legal education in Nigeria? What should we be doing differently?

Yemi: There is a fundamental problem with the philosophy of education in Nigeria which infects legal education. Students are encouraged to remember, not think. There is minimal value in recitation and recollection. To be valuable and productive, legal education must be deductive and therefore create capacity for reasoning out solutions to a changing variety of factual situations. From the university and through law school students should be challenged to discover the formula for good and bad legal results and not take solace in repetition. Law students ought in particular to discover how the law is employed empirically to achieve practical results.
She says: Standards are far too low. We need to go back to the drawing board. We need dedicated teachers, and we need to ‘train the trainers’ and pay them a decent wage. Lawyers and their clients will benefit from a properly organized and effective continuing legal education body which ensures that lawyers are regularly trained. There are many things we can do e.g., law firms should consider having training officers whose primary responsibility is to chart a course of training for the lawyers in the firm depending on their needs and career aspirations and make sure that they follow through with such training.

Yemi’s Proust Answers
Your most marked characteristic?
Candour !
The quality you most like in a man?
Intellectual courage and sincerity.
The quality you most like in a woman?
Confidence, elegance and honesty.
What do you most value in your friends?
Sincerity, reliability.
What is your principle defect?
I am unsociable, especially for a “Lagos boy”!!
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes for Nigeria?
A government that lacks vision, vigor and basic honesty.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Sherlock Holmes
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Madeline!
What is it you most dislike?
Bad manners.
What global or local reform do you most admire?
Electoral reform.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Humility.
What is your present state of mind?
Angry.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Social clumsiness and Excessive zeal.
What is your motto?
Diligence, Excellence and Integrity

Towun’s Proust Answers

Your most marked characteristic?
Workaholic
What is your principle defect?
Always trying to achieve perfection
The quality you most like in a man?
Strength, courage, integrity
The quality you most like in a woman?
Individuality
What do you most value in your friends?
Individuality, Sincerity & frankness
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes for Nigeria?
If our system of democracy – bad as it may be - ceases
In what country would you like to live?
Lagos, Nigeria!! But if I had to live somewhere else….. it would probably be New York City or Paris!
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Horatio Kane of CSI Miami
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Little Orphan Annie
Who are your heroes in real life?
My mother. Great men of vision like Martin Luther King, Obafemi Awolowo, Ghandi
What is it you most dislike?
Injustice, Corruption, Avarice, Insincerity etc
What global or local reform do you most admire?
The move against SLAVERY in any form
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
A great singing VOICE.
What is your present state of mind?
Happily content!
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Ignorance as a result of a lack of opportunity
What is your motto?
Do unto others as you expect others to do unto you!