Seal67

Armistice day and the words of Harry Patch

2011-11-17T15:43:00.002Z

Harry Patch was the last Tommy. Basically, the last British Soldier who fought in the trenches of World War 1, one of the most brutal wars in modern history.

On remembrance day, we remember the dead and at the same, praise their bravery but at the same time question the rationale of their deaths, in wars started by politicians. These are not my words solely but those of one of the bravest and most honourable Britons that ever lived.

Patch's philosophy -based on his experience- was to hate war and all it stood for, whilst maintaining great respect for the soldiers who give their lives on all sides of the divide in wars, but with some measure of disdain for the politicians who start the wars in the first place.

I recently watched a documentary- "The last voices of the great war" and to say the least, his account was tear-inducing, really moving.

I have below a number of quotes from Harry Patch's autobiography the Last Fighting Tommy

On surviving war- whilst at the cemetary at Flanders, overlooking the graves of dead soldiers:

1. “ Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.

Harry Patch On War:

2. "Too many died. War isn’t worth one life”

3. “ Its the calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings".

4. "We came across a lad from A company. He was ripped open from his shoulder to his waist by shrapnel and lying in a pool of blood. When we got to him, he said: 'Shoot me'. He was beyond human help and, before we could draw a revolver, he was dead. And the final word he uttered was 'Mother.' I remember that lad in particular. It's an image that has haunted me all my life, seared into my mind."

5. "...if any man tells you he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar."

6. "All those young lives lost in a war which ended across a table. Where's the sense in that?"

7. "War is organised murder and nothing else....politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder"

He's said it all.

May their brave souls rest in peace

The Afro Funk Bass Hall of Fame Pts 1 and 2

2011-11-17T15:21:00.002Z

Part 1

I've spent the month of august 2010, listening to, running/cycling with, lifting weights to and generally worshipping a compilation album titled "The World's End- Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 70's Nigeria" comprising tracks from Nigerian-based Afro Funk bands of the 60's and 70's.

Noteworthy beings tracks forgotten in the embers of time- like the awesome "Blacky Joe" by PRO, which I last saw being performed live on NTA( in 1975 or 1976 not quite sure now) by the inimitable Gloria Rhodes, as part of the equally sublime Steve Rhodes Voices; "Akwa Kayi Ji Bia"- by the hugely talented Identicals led by the twin - Okonma brothers; "All night long" – an incredibly tight track by Bongos Ikwue, from the 1973 album release "You can't hurry the sunrise" - this album being particularly important to me in that my mother bought it on her way back from work in August 1973 and I promptly seized it and refused to let anyone else near it- or indeed anything else on our old Denon Turntable. Playing and re-playing all the tracks especially "Help Help" and "Lagos" and pausing only to remove the accumulated dust on the stylus ("pin) of the long-suffering turntable.

Particular mention must also be made of the title track "The World's end" by the Black Mirrors. The story behind this, being that there was never a band called the Black Mirrors, the track being the work of my big brother Micro Mike Appoh, which he had composed and recorded in 1973, agreeing a distribution contract with Decca records- the details of how this track appeared on this album are not a matter for this piece.

To be honest this article is not so much an album review of what is clearly an excellent album, inspite of the issue that has clearly vexed Big Mike and my goodself, but an often ignored phenomenon- the Afro-Funk Bassist. Whilst the Guitarists, Keyboardist, vocalists and in one instance the drummers (Tony Allen) have had their day in the spotlight there has been little said or written about the Bassists of Afro funk . The fact is that the real power of Afro Funk has lain in the fretwork of those quiet supermen who alongside the drummers and conga players- have formed the rhythm section engine room that drove the mother ship of Afro Funk. This article will not redress the injustice of their lack of exposure, but it will hopefully start the conversation. Can I ask that if there are any inaccuracies- please let me know and I will promptly correct them. Big thanks to Combandrazor and Mike Appoh for some helpful corrections and pics.

The Hall of Fame

The great Tony Allen- The facilitator of the Afro-Funk rhythm

Ojo Okeji- I guess its fitting that the first time anything akin to a unique Afro-Funk Bassline was first heard, was in the recordings of a certain Fela Ransome-Kuti with his band the Koola Lobitos from 1964 onwards- with the singles "Laise Lairo" , "Omuti tide" , "Wayo"and "Ololufe coming to mind and featuring one Ojo Okeji on Bass Guitar. The tracks being more Jazz and Soul- albeit with native lyrics. Ojo Okeji, was however more than a bit player in the Koola Lobitos ensemble, having written at least one song for which he was duly credited- "I know your feeling" -a Soul oriented track. Ojo Okeji was in the second phase of the Koola Lobitos, with the first Bassist being the late Camerounian Bassist Emmanuel Ngomalio - whom I last saw before his death at Eko Hotel in Lagos, doing a regular one man keyboard gig, which he alternated with Tony Benson.

Fela on stage with Maurice Ekpo on the extreme left

Maurice Ekpo- A more authentic representation of things to come was Fela's London Scene album of 1968- especially the track "Fight to finish" – which was pure, hard, unadulterated Funk. The architect of the Bass lines on this album being a certain- Maurice Ekpo an excellent professional and competent in both Electric and Upright Bass, who also featured on the following tracks in what may be described as Fela's most fertile period- "Jeun Koku (Chop and quench)" "Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)" "Gbagada Gbogodo", "Eko Ile", "Alu Jon Jonki Jon", "Swegbe and Pako", "Open and Close" and many more including all the Tracks on the Fela- Ginger Baker album of 1971. Seminal tracks which established Fela 's reputation as a musical innovator- effectively fusing Highlife with Jazz and Funk in a unique model. A lot has been said about the genius of the great Tony Allen; however Maurice Ekpo's powerful and intricate fretwork coupled with the pyrotechnics of Tony Allen on drums and the Africa 70 Percussionists- was an indivisible part of this revolution, which has only been overshadowed by the fact that Fela had several Bassists, who replaced Ekpo- for whatever reason. Ekpo feaured in a number of other Afro-Funk bands including the incredibly hip and tight Mebusas, which featured my big brother Raimi on Trombone, the great Jerri Jhetto and of which that same Micro Mike Appoh often guested as a vocalist.

Spartacus R- Yes.. you heard right, Spartacus R alongside Maurice Ekpo and Olu Pedro Santos (below) may be described as the first true pioneers of the Afro-Funk Bass. If you've never heard of him, he was the Bass Guitarist behind the groove of Osibisia's eponymous first album Osibisa (featuring the monster track Ayiko Bia and Music for Gong Gong) and album which changed the face of World Music and created a shockwave of creativity that several bands after them have been propelled by over the years. His driving and innovative fretwork on this album and the follow-up album Woyaya- alongside the incredibly talented Roy Bedeau (who went to play alongside Sunny Akpan of the Funkees with Eddy Grant) y tore the script to shreds and alongside Teddy Osei on drums and Kofi Ayivor on Percussions, gave the world the revolution that was Osibisa's Afro funk legacy. He died a month ago sadly unheralded.

Olu Pedro Santos- This little known chap was one of the most influential Bassists in the history of Afro-Funk, which combined elements of Spartacus R's languid lines with the power of Maurice Ekpo, using a running 6/8 progression pattern of minor and major chords in to a complex hybrid. Pedro was a founding member of the 60's/70's combos-Helmstones (alongside Mike Appoh and Jimmy Lee) , The "Black Mirrors" led by Mike Appoh and The Thermometers (featuring the inimitable Arakatula on Hammond Organ). Pedro sadly abandoned his musical career under pressure from his father to run the family business and died recently – as we are told a millionaire businessman, music was however the loss- since his musical career was entirely in his late teens and early twenties- with his real potential neither realised nor nurtured. His true legacy however being his musical bequeath, whilst neither acknowledged nor claimed remains today in musical annals.

Jake Sollo- The Hykkers were formed in 1963 and led by the debonair Pat Finn Okonjo on vocals, Juwe on Bass and Tony Benson on Drums, after the civil war however, the band took on two new members who completely changed their sound and direction- namely Ify Jerry Jiagbogu- a truly talented Guitarist who was plucked from his base in Nsukka to join them and a certain Bass Guitarist- Nkem Okonkwo (aka Jake Sollo). Sollo was later to become one of the greatest Rock Guitarists to come out ofAfrica- with a career as Lead Guitarist with the Funkees and Osibisa, still ahead of him. However his Bass work with the Hykkers can only be described as some of the most powerful and innovative ever to be recorded, but as noted in the liner notes of the World's End album, he always saw himself as a Guitarist and duly took his place as a same with the Funkees, Osibisa and a solo career. I recommend the tracks "Deiyo Deiyo" and "I need a breakthrough" by the Hykkers to fully appreciate the talent of this man. Sadly he also died- in 1985.

Kenneth Okulolo 2nd from right with Monomono

Baba Ken Okulolo

Kenneth Okulolo- Better known nowadays as Baba Ken, Okulolo was the Bassist of the ground-breaking Steve Rhodes voices- a nurturing ground for some of Nigeria's greatest musical talents (under the tutelage of the Heidelberg musical Scholar, Producer and Impresario- the late great Steve Rhodes). This was however after he had came to the fore as the Bassist- firstly as part of Dr Victor Olaiya's band and the in one of the most important Afro-Funk albums ever recorded- "The Dawn of awareness" the product of a Band called Monomono- led by Joni Haastrup. Needless to say Okulolo's execution of his brief in two tracks in particular- "Give the beggar chance" and "Ipade Aladun" are better experienced than described, as well his execution in the track – "Kenimania" in the follow up album. Okulolo was plainly a student of the great Olu Pedro Santos and simply carried on the stylistic journey Pedro had started. This style was to be the fare of many a schoolboy Bassist in several Afro funk Bands that were to mushroom all over Nigeria. He didn't start it, but he certainly took it higher. Okulolo, later trabnsfered his skills to King Sunny Ade's African Beat's, touring Europe/North America- with him between 1983-1985. Now based in the USA, he continues to perform as leader of his own hugely successful combo.

Mike Odumosu- from the cover of Osibisa's Ojah Awake!

Mike Odumosu- The son of the enigmatic Jesu Oyingbo. Mike Odumosu stakes his claim to a place in the hall of fame, based on his work with the seminal Afro-Rock bands- The Clusters, SALT (with Ginger Baker) , Osibisa and BLO. His work on BLO's albums- especially Phase 1 (featuring the tracks "Preacher Man"; "Beware"; Phase II- "Don't take her away from me"; "Native Doctor"; "Atide"; "A good day" and on Osibisa's 1976 album "Ojah Awake" featuring the massive hits "The Coffee song" , "Ojah awake" and "Dance the body music" earn him is place as one of the true great Bassists of not just Afrobeat, but global popular music.

One World- Sam McKnight extreme right

Sam McKnight (Thanks CombandRazor!)- He was the Bass Guitarist of The Strangers and subsequently One World, for the reason of his contributions to the tracks "Love Rock"; "Onye Ije". "Nobody called me" and One World's – "Look at the world"; "Truth is the way"; "Mind searcher" etc positions him as one of Afro-Funks finest Bassists. McKnight's style embodied the eastern style which was a counter balance to Pedro (and Okulolo's) western 6/8 genius. The eastern style was a syncopated style which imitated the phonetic nuances of the Igbo language combined with the native Calabash Bass (Udu), this style was a counterpart of the drum style which emerged from Aba in the early 70's - which the old boys described as "Ariaria". In short Bassists were told to "speak Igbo with de Bass".

Paul Alade and Ofege

Paul Alade- Credited as the Bass Guitarist of the seminal Afro-funk boy band- Ofege, whose album "Try and love" featuring Berkely Jones and Laolu Akins, is in the annals of Afro-funk history as one of the best selling albums.

Peter Fisher- This guy in my view and the view of many, had to be one of the most talented Slap Bassists born under African skies, I first saw him as part of Remi Kabaka's combo in 1980 and for that and his sheer mastery of the instrument, he earns his place in the hall of fame.

Femi Elias

Femi Elias- Yes I had to get my man into the frame. Femi in my view is one of the most talented Jazz Bassists alive, however his work in Afro-Funk- starting from the halcyon days at Jazz 38 in Lagos and his present catalogue of performances with Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra, earns the dude his place in the hall of fame.

PART 2

Subsequent to the previous write-up, I considered it sensible to stretch the field of coverage somewhat since it appeared that the last one seemed to focus on Nigeria, so we're covering a wider field this time. I can't pretend that I'll be able to recall all the great Bassists who have contributed to the growth of the genre, my limitations being fairly obvious, but this is a resource that's meant to educate- so that for many of the guys, they are not forgotten and for those still in the public eye that their worth is re-acknowledged.

Many of us have been privileged as a generation to benefit from the talent, work and legacy of these gentlemen- (sadly there are no women, perhaps CombandRazor or Jean Christophe and I should do something on the great African female instrumentalists- another time) and in my small way, this is a way of saying thanks. Anyway, enough talk, enjoy..

Manfred Long (Cameroun)

The track Soul Makossa, is a staple of modern music having been copied by many a popular musician- you know who they are, no need to mention – Michael Jackson, Jay-Z. De La Soul, Rihanna etc, etc. Not that many of the captive audience of these tracks, have heard of Manu Dibango, who composed and first released this track in 1972. Fewer if any outside of Cameroun know who the Bass Guitarist on this iconic track was- well I give you Manfred Long, a native of Cameroun, who was part of Manu Dibango's ensemble from 1970 and who recorded Soul Makossa and a number of other massive tracks like the incredibly Funky- "African Battle" and "New Bell" which are now House music mix staples and collectors items. Manfred Long today lives quietly in Paris, having been replaced by a number of other Bassists, including the talented Vicky Edimo (below) in 1978.

Bapius Muaka Mbeka

Bapius Muaka Mbeka (Congo)-

The schoolboy band- Zaiko Langa Langa was formed in 1969, by the quartet of Papa Wemba, Sam Mangwana, Felix Waku, Nyoka Longo, Meridjo and a certain Bassist by the name of Bapius Muaka Mbeka. Congo had been in the grip of Rhumba from the 40's through the 60's, till the advent of a group of upstart youths- Zaiko Langa Langa, who turned the establishment on its head with their joyful, youthful rebellious fare or wild (standards raucous music) Zaiko Langa Langa (which was derived from Orchestre Zaire- and the words Langa Langa- which is Lingala for a drunk or drunken movement) introduced the animation (a-nee-mah- si-on) – basically the raucous call and response chant of Soukous music of today. This was built on the introduction by the great Franco of the Sebene – up tempo Guitar and vocal solo- meant to get the audience on the dancefloor. Zaiko took things to a different level after James Brown's visit to Zaire for the rumble in the jungle, by adopting some of his dance styles- as did many Zairean musicians. They didn't stop there however; they adopted Funk, playing a hybrid of Soukous and Funk, which was driven by the drums of Meridjo and the Bass of the great Bapius Mbeka. Bapius had a simple but muscular and tonally perfect style which belied the complexity of the rhythms they produced. The tracks "Liwayo Moyibi", "Petrole" and "Zaiko Wawa" are exhibitions of Bapius' quiet and powerful mastery and foray into a blend of "Congolese Funk", never before seen or heard on the continent.

Danny Ibe

Danny Ibe- (Nigeria)-

The Funkees were formed in 1970, with a core of Harry Mosco (Guitar), Jake Sollo (Guitar), Sonny Akpan (Congas), Chike Madu (*Drum), Bill Ike (Organ) Mohammed Ahidjo (Vocals) and Danny Ibe (Bass). As Danny told me- the Funkees recorded their first single "Akula" featuring the genius of Ahidjo on vocals (Ahidjo and Akpan had guested with Dan Satch and the Atomic 8 of Aba, year earlier, hence Akpan had introduced him to the group), the track had been recorded in a crude 4 track studio in Enugu (with the band's female groupies as backing vocalists). Marcel the band's Manager had hustled a tape of the track to the ENBS (Radio station) and passed it on to popular DJ, who had was so fascinated with the track, he played and replayed it for almost the whole morning and thus the legend of the Funkees began.

Danny Ibe's powerful, assertive Bass line was the bedrock of the bans's hits, no doubt and this fact was brought home to me when I guested with the Funkees as lead vocalist on their reunion tour of 2003. The Funkees went on to a hugely successful career, moving to the UK in 1973 and performing in some of Europe's biggest venues, opening for the Chi-Lites and Earth Wind and Fire, as well as recording a number of critically acclaimed albums- with tracks such as Ole, Breakthrough, Abraka and many more.Ibe's greatest skill being his timing and tonality, his contributions to the hits of the Funkees- one of the greatest Afrofunk bands earns him his place in the hall of fame. Danny Ibe currently works as an Immigration Lawyer in London.

Bhakithi Khumalo

Bakithi Kumalo (South Africa)-

Kumalo was born in Soweto, South Africa to a modest but musical background. His legendary first performance being at the age of 7, when he had to fill in for the Bassist in the resident band in his uncle's bar, who was too drunk to play. He continued his career into his teens, playing in a variety of local bands, whilst supplementing his income by working as a mechanic. His focus being the Marabi genre, of which he became a master instrumentalist over time and developed a huge following around Soweto.

Whilst pursuing his trade as a mechanic and part-time musician, he was invited by Paul Simon to record his Graceland album and his memorable fretwork in "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes", "Graceland", "You can call me Al" cemented his reputation as a global star. He cemented his reputation further by recording with Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Gloria Estefan and many other. Khumalo is revered for his broad style, encompassing Jazz, Funk,Latin and more but withan underlying allegiance to his South African township roots. On his solo albums however, Khumalo has displayed a strong innovative streak combining his native style with Funk in a seamless hybrid, for which I salute this great musician.

Kotto Bass

Kotto Bass (Cameroun)

Cameroun's greatest musical export is Makossa music (not to be confused with Soukous), an up-tempo, funky groove, combining elements of the native vocal styles and western instrumentation. A constant staple of modern makossa styles being the funky hard driving Bass line, with a solid native interpretation .From that reservoir of Bass Guitar talent comes the great Kotto Bass (Kotto Nyamsi Auger) paralysed from the waist down, he learnt his art in his native Bamenda, playing with local Makossa bands, propped up with his ever present wooden pole. His reputation grew slowly till he came to be regarded as one of Cameroun's greatest ever Bassists- no mean feat in a country where the Bass Guitar is a revered instrument. Kotto Bass played on the albums of some of Cameroun's greatest Makossa artistes- Guy Lobe, Charlotte Mbango, Sam Fan Thomas and many more. Koto Bass was famed for his funky, driving, fast, fretwork. He died in 1997 and for his contributions to combining Makossa with Funk and his prevailing over his disability to become one of Africa's greatest Instrumentalists, he is on this list.

The Aktions

Rennie Pearl- Nigeria-

Rennie started his career in his teens as Bassist of the Figures, subsequent to which he formed the Aktions with Lemmy Faith, Essien Akpabio, Lemmy Faith and Emeka Aseme. The Aktions released a number of hard driving Afro-Funk albums, driven by the raw vocals of Essien Akpabio and Lemmy Faith as well as the raw, powerful Bass of Rennie Pearl on tracks like Active Aktions, Kpokposikposi, Sugar Daddy and Masquerade to name a few. Rennie's contributions to this band and session work he continued to do after the Aktions especially out of Harry Mosco's studio in the 80's and 90's earns him his place as one of Afro-Funk's Bass guitar heroes.

Sipho Gumede

Sipho Gumede-South Africa

Sipho Gumede is justly regarded as one of the most technically gifted Bassists to come out of Africa. Gumede was brought up playing the traditional Penny whistle music of the townships, but took up the Bass Guitar in his teens. Gumede is described as " the genius behind the music of Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela" as well Letta Mbulu (whose 1976 album destroyed the airwaves in Nigeria and Africa), Jonas Gwangwa and Caiphus Semenya and the role model for younger players like Bhakiti Khumalo. He toured North America with Harry Belafonte, Masekela, Mbulu, Gwangwa and Semenya. I saw him perform with Makeba at Festac 77 in Lagos and even as a child was blown away by his and the band's musical mastery. My particular favourite recordings by Gumede being Miriam Makeba's 1977 album "Promise" produced by Semenya, recorded in Guinea and featuring a cover of the great Wolloff track - "Samba Yeba. Sipho and "Dyambo" by Masekela in 1970. The two characterised by Gumede's funky virtuoso Bass, combining elements of Stanley Clarke oriented skill and Native South African nuances. He died of cancer in July 2004.

Charles Makokova

Charles Makokova (Zimbabwe)

Makokova gained fame as part of Thomas Mapfumo's band, which he joined in the 1970's. Makokova earns his place on the hall of fame for his work in translating the music of the Mbira (Zimbabwean Thumb Piano) into the Bass Guitar (similar to what the Eastern-based Bass Guitarists did with the Udu in the early 70's). Thomas Mapfumo's music being a combination of his native Shona music and Western styles including Funk. He died in 1994.

Sweet Breeze

Vincent Ikeotuonye-(Nigeria)

The Sweet Breeze was a young Afro-Funk band based in Aba Eastern Nigeria, whose mega-album "Across the desert" recorded in 1973. was one of the most popular recordings of the time. Featuring tracks like- "Palmwine Tapper", "Right to do wrong", "Across the desert" and more – with a lot of its push being due to the help of the enigmatic "Ndaa" Pal Akalonu, a popular TV and Music producer of the time, who happened to be the older brother of the band's drummer- Bazy Cole Akalaonu, other members being Dallas Anyanwu on lead vocals, Jackie Moore Anyaorah on Guitar and Vincent Ikeotuonye on Bass.

Vin Ike- as he was called, provided the powerful and memorable Basslines that characterised this band's hard-driving Afro Funk suffused albums. Ikeotuonye was a firm disciple of the Ariaria Igbo speaking Basslines, which characterised the tracks named earlier and in later hits- "She's my choice". Igbaraka belum" and others. Its not clear if he ws part of the Essbee Family, the 1979 offshoot of Sweet Breeze, which produced such brilliant hits as "Chicks and Chicken", "Peace of mind" and "My man understands" amongst others. Comb has the album, I'm sure he'll oblige. For his contributions to a truly awesome body of music by Sweet Breeze, Ikeotuonye has a right to be regarded as one of Afro Funk's finest Bassists.

Aladji Toure

Aladji Toure: (Cameroun)

I have written a fair bit about the Camerounian Bass Guitar tradition, however one has to trace the roots of this trend, well look no further. Aladji Toure is one of Cameroun's greatest Bass Guitarists and who alongside Vicky Edimo and Jean Dikoto-Mandengue spearheaded the Camerounian Bass revolution infusing the traditional lines with modern Funk derivatives, with his contributions to the album's of Dina Bell, Guy Lobé, Ben Decca, Moni Bile and many more. To describe his style under one pigeon hole would be criminal but he alongside the two guys named above- put the Funk into Makossa, moreso after he settled in Paris in 1978. The difficulty with a guy like Toure is not having enough material but knowing where to stop. Suffice it to say that his contribution to the modernisation of Camerounian music by elevating the Bass Guitar to the level of the Guitar, wherein the Bassist is regarded almost as the lead instrumental soloist as well his effortless introduction of Funk lines into Makossa Bass earns him his place as one of the best.

Vicky Edimo

Vicky Edimo: (Cameroun).

Alongside Toure, Edimo is one of Africa's finest Bassists. Trained at the Berklee College of Music. Edimo's formidable cv includes recordings with names like- Manu Dibango, The Gibson Brothers (the album Cuba), Sacha Distel, and many more, as well touring with James Brown, Bob Marley, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and many more. My first recollection of Edimo being his 1981 hit- "Thank you Mama", which was recorded in Nigeria. Edimo, as said above was part of the Camerounian Bas revolution, bringing his native Makossa and Makassi rhythms into the forefront of their fretwork. Lets just say very few deserve an accolade in the Afro Funk genre than this guy.

Sunda Bass- (Congo).

I have heard a lot of Congolese Bassists in my time, both old and young, however one of the most technically gifted performers has to be this gentleman. Sunda Bass (not sure of his real name). His work can be heard on the recordings of the great Congolese band- Wenge Musica. Sunda went on to record and perform with JB Mpiana and his Wenge BCBG. The album Toujours humble is a master class in Afro-Funk Bass. Sunda took over the mantle left by Bapius of Zaiko Langa Langa and abandoned by others apart from Ngouma Lokito- who recorded with Pepe Kalle, Loketo, Choc Stars and Soukous Stars etc. The track- "Mohammed Kaniansy" in particular being one of the most incredible exhibitions of Afro-Funk Bass combined with Congolese Soukous. He also recorded with the ex-Wenge vocalist Ferre Gola on his solo album. For his virtuosity and technicality, he earns his place here.

The late Spud NathanThe Wings-Kissing you so hard album cover (including Odenigbo, Single Boy etc)

Arinze Okpala- (Nigeria).

The Wings was formed in Eastern Nigeria by a group of young men- Spud Nathan Udensi, Arinze Okpala, Manford Best etc. This band's biggest asset being the sweet high-pitched vocals of Nathan, which spurred a raft of hits like"I've been loving you", "Single Boy" , "Odenigbo", "I've been loving you" and more. However one other factor that drove this legendary band was the "Igbo" Bass of the great Arinze Okpala- particular examples of his mastery of the Ariaria style being the tracks "Single boy" and "I've been loving you". The band sadly split on the death of Spud Nathan and inspite of two offshoots after the fact, the band never regained its starry heights. Arinze Okpala in particular was affected by the death of Nathan, being his very close friend and the two were indeed the founders of the band, often rehearsing and performing together on daily basis, before finally hitting the big time. The Wings was one of the greatest Afro Funk band's to emerge from Nigeria and Okpala's instrumentation was a fundamental part of this success and for this he sits on our hall of fame.

Dieudonne Falna King (r) Funso Ogundipe (l)

Dieudonne Falna King – Cameroun.

I can bet that hardly any of you (apart from maybe Funso and Ayo) would have heard of this guy. Well Dieudonne Falna King, is arguably one of the greatest and sadly unsung African Bassists. Why do I say so? Well, a young man aged 41 this year who has packed in a career playing the following: Zaiko Langa Langa (as an understudy of Bapius and Matima Mpioso), Stephen Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, Lagbaja, Ben Okafor, L'Orchestre Banco Musica, Ayetoro, Diva Musica, Koffi Olomide, I could go on forever, needless to say this guy is one of the most versatile Bassists anywhere, I'll give you an example. I organised a farewell concert for sister Joanna Moffatt in 1999 in Lagos, which featured some of the best musical talents existing in Nigeria at the time. King as he is popularly known backed the following diverse groups on Bass Guitar Dede Mabiaku (Afrobeat); Lucien (Makossa); L'Orchestre Banco Musica/Diva Musica- (Soukous); Duchess- R+B/Gospel; Manouk Hatchadourian/Sotiris Papadopoulous/Nick Bates (Bebop Traditional Jazz- these guys were serious International Jazz musicians by the way), Ikenga (Afro-Funk); Kayode Olajide (Jazz), Demola Olukotun (Highlife) and a thoroughly exhausting host of others- all in succession -on the same night. This guy didn't just play along, he displayed a virtuosity and ease of appreciation of the different styles that needed to be witnessed to be be appreciated.

King's Afrofunk catalogue, being mostly alongside Lagbaja (the Coolu Temper album), Ikenga (my band) and presently with Funso Ogundipe's Ayetoro (alongside Reverend Mindblowin Ayo Ordia). The standing joke between Funso and I at the time being that whilst I had first option on King's services, he had the first right of refusal. King is currently based in Ghana, touring with Ayetoro, an association going back almost 15 years. King in my view is one of the best and most versatile Bassist's to come out of Africa and whose talent has not had the exposure it has merited. This write-up may not change this, but I hope it's a start.

Michael Olatuja

Michael Olatuja- (Nigeria/Britain)

I first saw Mike on stage with Roachford sometime in 2006- alongside another Nigerian brother- Femi Temowo on Guitar. I was enthralled by his muscular, yet technically impeccable, intricate fretwork. A bit more digging showed him to be a Nigerian with a solid pedigree and breadth of skill both on the Electric and Upright Bass. Mike has performed with the following – Stevie Wonder, Lisa Stansfield, Chaka Khan the late Lynden David Hall, Terence Blanchard, Roachford, Terri Walker to name a few. Mike has recently launched a solo project with his wife Alicia and is actively promoting his Afro-Jazz project- The Michael Olatuja project, which is a fusion of Western styles of which he is master and music from Mike's Nigerian roots- . Currently promoting his new album "Speak"(watch out for the track -"Mama Ola") Olatuja is certainly one of the most talented Bassists around today and for his sheer mastery of his art including the Funk Bass and his attempts to reconnect with his roots, he is certainly in our hall of fame. On a lighter note, the last time I saw Mike was less salubrious in fact, I was jamming with Mike Appoh at Obalende Suya in Hackney, when Mike "branched" in with Femo Temowo and an English drummer friend to "collect" their Pounded Yam and Egusi on their way home after a gig- yep- that's a home boy and an incredible talent.

Tunde KuboyeUncle TK in the heyday

Tunde Kuboye- (Nigeria) –

Tunde Kuboye is an Engineer and best known as co-owner of Jazz 38- a Jazz Club in Lagos, which he founded with his late Dentist wife- the great Frances Kuboye (who also happened to be Fela's niece). TK as he was popularly known, is an excellent Jazz Bassist, however what was not generally known was his excellent pedigree as part of Ginger Bakers Afro-Funk/Rock ensemble – SALT, which was strategic in developing the fledg;ing Afro Funk sound. Footage of his work with SALT was unearthed in the Ginger Baker video, featured s part of the Konkombe Afrobeat video release, which a certain Oronbaba alias Combandrazor (you know yaself), very helpfully unearthed. For his contributions to the development of the genre both via SALT and the breeding ground that was Jazz 38, Uncle TK deserves his place in our Hall of Fame. Today he continues to work on his Conservation centre and is a committed Christian.

Last but certainly not the least:

Keziah Jones and Bradley Cooper on the rightRugged International!

Keziah Jones- Nigeria-

This gentleman is more popularly known as a vocalist/Guitarist but consider the following-a. If your Guitar-playing style is critically acclaimed as being more akin to Bass and b. if your Guitar playing is mean, funky, vicious hard, out of this world and surreal, then God help us when you pick up the Bass. I happen to have heard this gentleman on the Bass and suffice it to say that Mr Jones, remains one of the most talented instrumentalists to come out of Nigeria/Britain. It equally doesn't hurt that the brother can write a lyric or two and is equally an acclaimed Poet and Painter. Please don't take my word for it, several mega-hit albums speak for themselves and more importantly a solid, dedicated, burgeoning followership stretching across the Atlantic speaks for itself.

From his first big hit- "Rhythm is love" through "Million miles from home", "Liquid sunshine" , "Blufunk is a fact"– and his latest efforts on the Nigerian Wood album- as well some excellent work done on Gboyega Afrologic Oyedele's album (Black Man's Cry/Rugged Internatiional), Mr Jones has broken huge barriers, confounding all expectations, whilst slowly re-inforcing a strong connection with his Nigerian roots. Testimony to this being at a packed concert at the Jazz Café in London a few years ago (promoting the Black Orpheus album), he played two tracks which had inspiration from a recent trip to Nigeria- "Orin Olomi" and "Kpafucation" – proud moments indeed if you were a Nigerian as was his entry which was heralded by the opening bars to the Fela track"Colo Mentality". It was further testimony to his appeal that the crowd that day, which was packed to the rafters, consisted of a broad mix of races, shapes ,sizes and palaver- awesome stuff! Keziah Jones put simply is a globally acknowledged Master Funk instrumentalist (Guitar/Bass/Voice) who went back to his roots and married his craft with the legacy of his African origin, hence lets do the maths Funk + African + Globally acknowledged Master= Afro Funk legend, hence tribute is paid to a true son of the soil.

On another less high-faluting note, the first time Mr Jones and I met was at the Buka Restaurant at Kilburn (don't ask me why the heck I keep jamming people at Nigerian restaurants we are what we eat you dig!) jamming with Mike Appoh again, when Mr Jones walked in to meet up with his friend Ayo Ordia (Reverend Mind Blowin) who happened to be jamming with us. I was in the middle performing the song "Confusion" by Fela, when I recognised him and rather clumsily tried to work the lyrics of "Rhythm is love" into it, after nearly injuring myself, I invited the master (interrupting him in the middle of his Goat Meat pepper soup by the way) to come on stage and finish the job, which he did with ease and characteristic coolness. A true star and a quality performer.

Epilogue

Well that's my homework done, hope this has proven useful and educated. I would probably have left out a large number of deserving musicians, having said that, this is just my own small way of honouring the ones I remember, if you have anyone in mind, please let me know and we'll add them. As usual, if there are any inaccuracies, which are unavoidable. Thanks for reading

Ikoli Harcourt-Whyte- a life

2011-11-17T15:14:00.003Z

Ikoli Harcourt-Whyte was born in 1905 in Abonnema in the Niger delta of Nigeria to a family of the Kalabari tribe. His parents- Munabo and Odibo named him Ikoli, however he adopted the name Harcourt-Whyte later on in his life. He was trained by his parents in the vocations of the Kalabari people, fishing and trade and also was schooled in the traditional vocal traditions of the Kalabari.

He was diagnosed with Leprosy in 1919, at the age of 14 and was sent first to the Port Harcourt Hospital- the closest hospital to Abonnema- by his siblings and then to the Uzuakoli Leprosy Hospital in the East of Nigeria. In keeping with the practice at the time, he and other patients were kept in virtual seclusion since Albert Schweitzer's vaccine had not been developed by then. Its also important to point out that his beloved mother and father died in 1916 and 1919 respectively thus making him both an orphan and a victim of one of the most dreaded diseases of the time at a very young age.

Substantial background about Harcourt-Whyte's affliction with Leprosy is provided by the research of Hazel Mae Rotimi (wife of Ola Rotimi) and Achinivu Achinivu who wrote a PhD dissertation at the University of Berlin on the life and works of Harcourt Whyte- the symptoms of the disease were first noticed in 1918, and the symptoms aggravated very quickly until its full blown manifestation in 1919. Especially noteworthy was that In ancient lore, leprosy was considered a curse from the Gods and Lepers were banished, resulting in most committing suicide.

Harcourt-Whyte however sought a deeper meaning for his fate and conviction that his life had a greater purpose than his affliction and the attended stigma represented to him.Whilst at the Leprosy hospital, he immersed himself in Biblical text and in particular developed a strong interest in the religious hymns sung in the Hospital chapel and was encouraged to join the choir by the English Missionaries who ran the hospital and soon became an important part of the choir, subsequently becoming its conductor. He was encouraged by the missionaries also to compose choral pieces in Igbo, which though not his native language was the language of expression at Uzuakoli of which he mastered. He is on record as having been the first person to combine Igbo language and rhythmic structure with the classical choral format.

Harcourt-Whyte wrote over 200 choral pieces in his career, an incredible feat for a man with virtually no formal education. In 1949, upon the discovery of the drug Dapsone- Leprotic therapy of which the Methodist Hospital Uzuakoli was central in development, by the team of Missionary Doctors led by Rev(Dr) T.F.Davey) , he was cured of Leprosy, upon which he dedicated the rest of his life to composing inspirational music and educating on the need for care of Leprosy patients.

His music incidentally became a source of comfort for Igbos during the Nigerian Civil war, especially the track Atulegwu. three of the most popular recordings of his work were namely two albums by the Choir of the Uzuakoli Leper Colony (comprising Leprosy patients) and conducted by the legendary Musicologist and poet- Nnamdi Olebara, whose haunting and powerful poetry/narrative make these two of the most important classical works ever recorded in Nigeria. The third being the album "A e na o" by the St Louis Missouri African Choir, the only readily available recorded version of his work. By the way the Choir was composed entirely of Americans.

Harcourt-Whyte died in 1977 in a motor accident, however his compositions gained huge global critical acclaim after his death and whilst not on the same scale as his contemporary Fela Sowande, however his work is immortalised in the published research by Hazel Mae Rotimi (subsequent to a 23-year research), Achinivu Achinivu's work and Ola Rotimi's great play "Hopes of the living dead" which featured the music of Harcourt-Whyte.

In some of my most challenging times- especially when undergoing Chemotherapy 2 years ago, the music of Harcourt-Whyte was inspirational to me - especially the song "Atulegwu" (never fear), also his composition "Umu gi emebiwo uwa gi" (Oh God, your children have destroyed the beautiful world that you created..) is one of the most moving songs I have ever heard and has resonance with several themes of the beauty of this earth destroyed by man's greed, avarice, covetousness and individualism. It is important also that Harcourt-Whyte's ministration never included condemnation of other faiths but focused on the simple philosophy love, compassion and empathy for your fellow men.

A simple man, he never sought acclaim, money or fame, he believed his life had a purpose beyond the challenges he faced or merely acquiring material achievement. One of the greatest African's who ever lived, if you asked me.

The Nigerian Civil War Photography of Hakan Gottberg

2011-08-31T11:31:00.009+01:00

This note is essentially a condensation of an email received from Hakan Gottberger a Swedish photographer, who had spent 6 months in Biafra between 1968-1969 - not as a photographer, but as a volunteer with the Red Cross. He was however able to document some of the work of the Red Cross in Biafra and by his own account spent time behond the lines in such theatres as Item, Olona and eventually at Uli, where he participated in the night movements of relief materials into Biafra- hazardous work as we now know. I was introduced to Hakan by an old-school mate and friend- Ebele Obumselu, also a Historian in his own right.

Hakan set up a photographic museum chronicling his works in general and the images he captured during the Biafran war. His mission and the motivation of Ebele Obumselu and myself in publicising this obeing not to inflame sentiment and arouse emotions, but to give spotlight to an incredible body of work that has not achieved wide exposure and has not been published in any of the popular photographic works of the Nigerian Civil War we are familiar with. These photographs are the creation and private property of Hakan Gottberger done with his own hand and skill and whatever your position on either side of the divide, they should be appreciated for what they are, another original chronicle of a watershed in Nigerian History.

I have reproduced his note here after the photographs, with minimal editing, however the story is told more comprehensively by his excellent photographs, which are published above the text of his note . Thanks very much Ebele and Hakan

Note- This photographs are not to be copied or reproduced without the permission of Hakan Gottberg.

My name is Håkan Gottberger and was invited to the group by my friend Ebele Obumselu. I met him through a mutual friend, Obi C Agora in conjunction with my exhibition Two x Africa, where I showed my pictures from Biafra 1968-69, at an exhibition together with pictures from Kenya 2007th

It was my first show in more than 40 years, I am a photographer by profession but experiences in Biafra gave me a different outlook on life. Ebele has expressed himself as so "Your pictures are amazing. Coming from eastern Nigeria myself, I have a special interest in the Biafran Catalogue and think you capture Human Suffering and Strife in a very Immediate and human way. I Hope That more People who live in what was Biafra - Eastern Nigeria - get to see your photographs. They are a powerful, compelling and personnel record of the Biafran war, Which sometime devastated Many Lives. "

I attended the Swedish Red Cross Biafra team for about six months 1968-69 as a volunteer, not a photographer, but I offered to document the work of the Red Cross, for I had the resources in Stockholm who could take care of the rolls I sent home with returned air and thus provide the RC images for information.

My niece, who is a renowned painter, wanted to write something personal about me on my catalogue, when I consulted her about how to do an exhibition.She is the one that best describes me:

”My uncle Hakan ....It has always been a magical glow over my uncle Hakan. When I was little, he lived far away in Malung, north of Sweden and I met him and my cousins a few times a year. I had several uncles, but none as Hakan, with the noisy laughter and the sad eyes.

I always knew that Hakan was a photographer. He was a photographer, but without a camera. I can not remember during my childhood saw him take a single picture. There he must have done, but there's nothing I can remember. There were pictures taken Hakan. Pictures that swept into my mother's story of a movie star light. A black and white photo of my mother in profile with a blank page so that you felt every hair, where the mother is present, but completely inaccessible. My parents' wedding photo. A Dalmatian in the snow. Images that I illustrated for my parents 60. All photos taken with the same attention, focus and clear contrasts. It's Hakan look that says.

My grandmother had on the wall of her bedroom a picture or a photo that Hakan taken. It was a remarkable image, an abstract photo. A black vastness that was marred by a jumble of white and red light dots and lines.How can one photograph the abstract? I never understood the image as a child. It showed nothing. My grandmother loved the photo. She told me repeatedly about how Hakan won first prize with it and how it had to grace the cover of the Philips Annual Report 1966th I have not seen that image in more than 20 years, but when I called Hakan and asked him about it as I remembered it perfectly. What image is that can burn itself into memory like that.

Hakan's life became a part of our family's history. A story as a child I never heard from beginning to end and had served in fragments. The story of how he, after his return from Biafra, left a promising career as a photographer and moved to the forest in Dalarna. He acquired sheep and began working with handicapped children. My grandmother never stopped to talk about what a great photographer Hakan was. It was reported about the images from Biafra. That they demonstrated in newspapers in Sweden and how strong they were.They had an almost mythical dimensions. The first and only time I saw the pictures was on a visit in Malung.I must have been around 14 years. There were large black and white images in a black portfolio folder.Mostly I remember the eyes, I found it hard to believe that it was true and that Hakan really have been there. It was great.

When I today see them again, I recognize the feeling of unreality, but now I see also the joy of life in several images. I see the lovely people behind the famine. There are amazing pictures. Hakan has managed to capture these individuals in their misery, and every boy, girl, man and woman becomes a living human being, a destiny. While the photographs are not afraid of the horror, hunger, death, violence. To Hakan not traveled there as a photographer but as aid workers for the Red Cross affect images. He was not there to observe and record, he was there to help and alleviate suffering. He became part of these people's lives and so he came close in his portraits. He documented not an emergency, he portrayed it.

One can understand that it was difficult for Hakan to get back to everyday life in Sweden and use the camera as a tool for advertising and stylish portraits again. It must have rung empty.

When Hakan again took up the camera scarce forty years later and traveled to Africa again, it feels like the end of a mourning process. Image Series at a wedding in the Masai are so full of exuberance, color and beauty. What unites the two image series in the exhibition is partly Hakan interest for the individual but also his sharp gaze that strips away all unnecessary in the composition, until only the essence remains.

The joy of life following Hakan wherever he goes. No one can laugh as Hakan. Those who once heard, or should I say experienced Hakan laughter know what I'm talking about. Hakan's laughter can overturn a house.It fired a bolt at 100 meters, completely without warning and all that is within audible distance shaken.

I think that there is a balance in life. If you place Hakan laughter on one side of a scale and Biafra, the images on the other, we will find Hakan there in the middle, balancing as all of us but with a greater burden and more light than most of us. The gap between then and now, it is essential. It is in the gap I read of a life story. Not Africas, but Hakans.
Astrid Sylwan Stockholm, March 2010"

I hope you find this of interest for your group.

Yours sincerely,

Hakan Gottberger"

Edwardian Nigeria- High Society in 1920

2011-03-07T13:40:00.019Z

I first came across the book- "The Red Book of West Africa" in 1980. This work was originally published by Frank Cass and Co in 1920 and authored by Alistair Macmillan, a journalist who visited West Africa in 1919 and compiled a lot of extremely useful, political, commercial and general historical data in a compact but easily readable 305 page book, the version I have was re-published in 1968. The book covers the three main Anglophone colonies of West Africa at the time i.e Nigeria, Gold Coast (Ghana) and Sierra Leone.

The coverage of Nigeria, was naturally of more interest to me (being Nigerian) and the book provided a brilliant insight into life in Nigeria at the time, both on the European expatriates and on the local personalities and organisations. I was particularly struck by the respectful perspective on the local professionals and business personalities, even if certain other perspectives in the book, reflected a slant more appropriate to the 1910's than the noughties, overall it was for me, a brilliant reference work and a book I would recommend highly to any student of Modern West African history.

I had written an article 5 years ago on this blog, on The History of the Palmwine Guitar, in which I referred to the high society of Lagos at the time, this was entirely based on content contained in this book. I however had to rely on residual memory, since I had misplaced my copy. I am however glad to say I have just found it after a particularly strenuous search in my stored archives, through dust, mould and mildew. This post is focused on highlighting several personalities that graced what would have been the equivalent of Tatler in Nigeria at the time, but this time as a more serious historical study of the personalities and an insight on life at the time.

I have highlighted a number of the personalities at the time and their bios. Its necessary to mention the images and information herein are subject to the copyright of Frank Cass and Co (or its successors).

Miss Ore Green b. 1885- Lagos) Educated at CMS Girls Seminary, St Mary's Convent School and Private tuition under Rev WB Euba. Proceeded to London in 1912 and obtained the following qualifications- 1st Class Certificate Music, Theory of Music (London College of Music); Certificate of Central Midwives Board, Honours Certificate- Clapham School of midwifery and Clapham Maternity Hospital, She was the first Black woman to obtain the Apothecaries Certificate of the Pharmaceutical Society of London (A practical Pharmaceutical qualification). Certificate of Westminster College of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Botany and successfully qualified as a Licensed Druggist. She worked as a Dispenser at the Soho Eye and Ear Hospital in London, before returning to Nigeria in 1917, where she first worked as Midwife at Dr Savage's hospital. She later set up her own Nursing practice. She was fluent in English, French and Latin(?!) and was also a gifted actress, who famously played the part of Portia in a production of the Merchant of Venice in 1911.

Dr Oguntola Odunbaku Sapara MB.BS (1861 -1927) Formerly Alexander Johnson Williams )attended CMS Grammar School, Edinburgh University and Glasgow University qualifying as Medical Doctor in 1893 and specialising as a Gynaecologist. He joined the Government Medical service in 1896 and from 1897, dedicated hislife to the eradication of Small Pox and was singlehandedly responsible for securing the the abolition of arm-to-arm vaccination. He famously joined the Smallpox Worshippers Cult "Sopona"- who glorified Small-Pox?!?) so as to obtain info on and fight their practices- thus leading to a Law abolishing the worship of Small-Pox. He was also at the forefront of the campaign by African Medical Doctor's to receive equal pay with their European colleagues.This is one of the most distinguished, but unsung African's. He was famously painted by the pioneer Artist Aina Onabolu. His brother Christopher Sapara Williams, was the first Nigerian Lawyer.

The Hon.Kitoye Ajasa. BL (Inner Temple) Born 1866. A Barrister at Law, he attended CMS Grammar School, Public School in the United Kingdom and The Inner Temple Inn of Court in London and was called to the Bar in 1893. He returned to Nigeria and set up a successful Law Practice. He entered into Politics and was elected to the Lagos Legislative Council and the Nigerian Council in 1914. Greatly respected by the Colonial authorities, he was persuaded by the Sir (later Lord) Frederick Lugard to found a newspaper- "The Nigerian Pioneer" in 1914, which was the first Indigenous Newspaper in Nigeria to voice the opinions of Whites and Black- basically an elite journal. He was the first Nigerian to receive a Knighthood and rose to become a Judge of the High Court of Lagos.

Dr Adeniyi Jones was born in 1876 in Sierra Leone and attended Sierra Leone Grammar School and in 1906 proceeded to Durham University UK, where he studied medicine. He then practised at the Rotunda Hospital Dublin, West London Hospital, Hammersmith London and the Liverpool Institute of Tropical Medicine under Sir Robert Boyce. He returned to Nigeria in 1913 and built his hospital in 1914, containing both male and female wards and an operating theatre.

Debayo Agbebi. b.1886- Lagos) CMS Grammar School, Birmingham University- 1911. Member British Association of Civil Engineers, Life Fellow of the British Geological Society, Member of the Astronomical Society and the Royal Sanitary Institute. Joined the PWD Lagos-1912 as Assistant Engineer, set up a private Firm of Engineers and Licensed Surveyors- 1914.

Samuel Herbert Pearse FRGS b.1866. Educated at CMS Grammar School, he joined WB Maciver and Co (a trading company) after leaving school and learnt the skills of trading from his fastidious and knowledgeable Scottish Manager and mentor Mr Carr. At the age of 17, he was poached by another company for his commercial talent and intelligence and at the age of 22, he set up his own trading Firm Pearse and Thompson, with offices in Marina, Lagos and Leadenhall St- City of London (1888). This venture folded up in 1894 as trading suffered following the Native wars in Nigeria, at the end of the 19th century (prior to unification). He engaged in agency trading for a few years and eventually bounced back in 1907, this time in Calabar where he engaged in the export of Rubber and Ivory to Europe. He amassed a fortune from this trade, eventually returning to Lagos in 1912 and re-establishing his trading empire. Samuel Pearse and Joao Da Rocha amongst others, were reputed as two of the richest men in Lagos at the time. He built the magnificent Elephant House in central Lagos,which by any standards was an excellent mansion. He was honoured with the fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society in 1915, as well as membership of the Royal Colonial Insititute.

He was described by the Red Book of West Africa- as "one of the most influential and respected men in Nigeria". His children went on to professional careers, also his Grand-son Dr Femi Pearse became a Medical Doctor. His great grand children, include Professor Femi-Pearse and my mentor- the late Chief (Mrs) Obafunke Akinkugbe.

Two early Nigerian Medical Practitioners

Dr Moyses Joao Da Rocha (b.1876, Lagos) CMS Grammar Schools, Edinburgh University- MB.BS -1913. Private Medical practice from 1914.

Dr Magnus Macaulay (b.1879 Lagos) Methodist Boys High School, Dispenser Lagos Hospital 1897-1907. Edinburgh University MB BS- 1912. Private Medical Practice, Lagos- from 1914

David Evaristo Akerele born- 1876, Lagos. Started his career as a Clerk in the Government Service, firstly in the Railway and later in the Attorney-General's office. He left to set up business in 1906, firstly as a general contractor to the Government, in 1909 he set up his trading business at Balogun, Lagos, which grew exponentially with branches in Douala and Victoria in the Cameroons. He traded in Agricultural produce and mixed goods.

J.H.Doherty- Born Lagos- 1866. He started his trading career in 1891, as an apprentice in a local business at Alakoro (which was to be his base throughout his career), with the small start-up capital of £47. He built up a business empire, based on meticulous attention to detail, uncompromising integrity and pure hard graft, he was known to scrutinise his accounts meticulously and as they say "follow every penny". By 1899, his business had flourished to the extent of his opening branches of his enterprise in Alakoro- Lagos, Oshogbo, Zaria, Lokoja and Kano. He epitomised the true qualities of integrity, hard work and honesty which to a large extent was fairly typical in Nigeria at the time.

Born.Lagos 1881, Karimu Kotun was a successful Merchant and son of the famous Braimoh Kotun of Lagos. He was notable for being one of the few traders who went into business immediately after leaving school in 1896, without going through a period of apprenticeship. A totally confident and intelligent man, he grew his trading business aggressively and astutely, trading all over Nigeria, from Lagos to Jebba to Calabar to Kano. His reputation as a consummate deal-maker grew such that in 1910, he was appointed local Agent to Messrs EH Stein & Co of Liverpool and later Messrs S.L.Behrens (Manchester) Ltd at the relatively young age of 29. He was one of the first Presidents of the Mohammedan Cricket Club of Lagos (i.e the Muslim Cricket Club) and succeeded Adolphus Martins and the Private Secretary.

George Da Costa - born- 1853- was described as "the ablest and best known photographer in Nigeria". Educated at CMS Grammar School, he was the first African Manager of the CMS Bookshop, from 1877-1895, when he resigned to set up as a photographer. He did this after investing £30.00 in special training (the meticulous nature and pride of skill at the time is evident in my view). His skill was recognised by the colonial government, who commissioned him to photograph the whole Railway Construction project at the end of the 19th/ beginning of the 20th century, which he covered all the way from Lagos, through Jebba, to Kaduna. His works adorn most of the coverage in the Red Book of West Africa.

The Calabar Bar and Bench. Most of the Black Lawyers at this time were from Sierra Leone (Saro), many of whom settled in Lagos and Calabar and forged careers. They were mostly either returned freed slaves or the descendants of these (from the UK). Justice Webber went on to a distinguished career as President of the West African Court of Appeal (WACA)

Prince Bassey Duke Ephraim-( b.1878), a member of the Royal House of Duke of Calabar- was a successful Merchant and exporter of Agricultural produce and Ivory. Calabar and Lagos were the most important cities in Nigeria at the time, being seaports. He was the son of the great Obong Duke of Calabar and was educated froma very early age in the UK (1887). First at Seaforth School and then Waterlow College (under Reverend Bain). Reputedly a highly intelligent and ariculate man, he spoke with an English but was still very much steeped in the traditional ways, leading the punitve military expedition of the Efiks against the Ibibio's (to revenge a previous massacre of the Efiks at Itu). He was also Presidentof the Native Court at Calabar and was also a political leader, famously leading the delegation of the Calabar people to London in 1913, to make representations on Land tenure.

Samuel .O.Bamgbose was a popular trader and a Partner in the famous Lagos tradng firm- S.O.Bamgbose and Brothers (estab.1915). Exporters of local produce and importers of Cotton and fancy goods from Europe. Its unclear if Bamgbose street was named after him, very likely to have been named after an older forebear, since this was a popular Lagos family.

G.T Bickersteth was a popular licensed auctioneer based at Victoria Road, Lagos Originally from Porto Novo,he started out as a teacher and rose to become Headmaster of Holy Trinity School- Ebute Ero, but went into trading shortly after in 1909, dealing in Haberdashery and eventually became a licensed auctioneer and commissioned agent of property and personal goods.

Ed Keazor- 2011

Images- property of Frank Cass and Co (and successors)

Last Innings for the Default retirement age.

2011-02-01T09:25:00.003Z

Finally and inspite of the gallant and brave efforts of the CBI and other employer-oriented groups to either scuttle or delay it, its going to happen.

Basically, on 13 January, after consultations and submissions from several concerned individuals and organisations (from all three sectors), notably- Age UK its been confirmed that the Default retirement age of 65 (which was introduced by the Employment Equality Age Regulations of 2006- now absorbed into the Equality Act 2010) is to be abolished by 1 October 2011. What this means is that employers will no longer be able to force employees to retire at the age of 65. The only exception to this being where it can be objectively justified i.e where there is compelling business or other reason for there to be a retirement age. However it will now be a matter of individual contracts, rather than a statutory requirement

The Government has announced a milestone schedule to the implementation of removal of the default retirement age, which will ultimately culminate in complete abolition by 1 October 2011.

The key planks of implementation are thus:

From 1 October 2011, employers will no longer be able to restrict employment to persons approaching the age of 65, i.e 64 years and 6 months, as is the case now.

From 6 April 2011, employers will no longer be able to issue notices of retirement and any notices of retirement issued before then would have to expire before 1st October 2011 to be valid. Any notice issued after 6 April 2011 or scheduled to expire after 1st October 2011, will be invalid and will not be enforced.

The notice of retirement procedure contained in Schedule 6 of the former Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, is to be removed and replaced by a formal guidance which has been prepared and published by Acas, in its revised “Age and the workplace” guidance. This is referred to as a guidance document, rather than a Statutory (legislative) code.

Employers will however still be able to terminate the employment of a member staff, if they are seen to be incapable of doing their job, as opposed to merely being on account of their age- this being a current provision of Employment legislation.

The Government, also recognising the implication of the removal of the default retirement age on Group risk-insured benefits (i.e that employers may be tempted to stop offering these, following the removal of the DRA) has announced that an exception to the equal treatment principle for Group insured risk benefits will be introduced. The exact detail of this will be announced later.

All of these shall be contained in regulations which shall come into effect on 6 April 2011.

There are varying opinions on the implications of the various provisions listed above, ranging from the positive i.e the freedom for those who are capable to continue to contribute to the economy regardless of age, the rectification of the often-unfair disengagement of perfectly able and skilled employees- purely on account of numerical age, to the negative views of the cost implications for employers, the removal of the expectation of quiet retirement in some instances etc.

My considered view being that the concept of a statutory retirement age, wherein perfectly able individuals are forced to retire, is unacceptable and that retiremnt should now be the subject of individual negotiation and indeed capability to perform the task for which the person is employed.

Anyway, its here and a lot of hard work has gone into making this happen, for now lets celebrate...

Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes - Age Discrimination decision of the Court of Appeal

2010-08-09T12:11:00.004+01:00

This judgement was delivered 24 hours before the announcement last week, that the coalition government would be removing the default retirement age in october 2011. The judgement was focused on determining the legality of a discriminatory clause in a Partnership agreement.

The key points established in this Judgement were thus:

a. The distinction between the respective duties of a Government and an Individual Firm to fulfil the Social policy objective. In effect the former have this obligation and the latter- in deciding to have a retirement age, do not (par.14); Waller LJ clearly favoured the argument of Dinah Rose for the BIS to that of Robin Allen for Seldon.

b. Justification of age discrimination: Following from the above- and quoting from Blake LJ’s dictum in the Heyday case- par 94.- age discrimination remains justifiable by a government for the over-arching purpose of creating a wider field of employment for young and old (?!?- some mistake surely since the effect here being specifically to deprive the old of work) –par 19.

c. The aim of the discriminatory clauses: The “dead men’s shoes” (policy giving associates assurance of partnership after a reasonable period and facilitating long term personnel progression) and “collegiality” (policy limiting the need for expulsion of partners on performance basis -in favour of retiring them based on age) of the Firm were upheld in any event as lawful- since the Court believed them to satisfy a social policy objective of a “happy workforce”. Note that its ruling on the point was that a Firm did not have this obligation i.e. to satisfy the social policy objective. He goes on to give his personal opinion on the justification of a retirement age i.e. to allow people to retire with dignity. This comment is more obiter (side comment) than ratio (substantial judgement) in that as a preamble he states that he has not read in full, the evidence adduced in the Heyday cased.

d. The ultra vires question. Whilst regulation 3 of the Employment Equality Age Regulations was arguably out of sync with Art 6(1) of Council directive 2000/78/EC. Art 6(1) of course provides exception to prohibition of age discrimination, to be only in respect of measures justified, by legitimate social policy objectives. The Court ruled that any disparity between a national legislation and Art 6(1) could be cured by judicial intervention and would not render the national law void for conflicting with the EC directive, unless it was a significant deviation

e. Ex post facto justification (Retrospective justification) - An aim which was not envisaged at the time a discriminatory clause was created, may be recognised even if it was conceptualised afterwards. In this instance Waller LJ ruled that the aims had been in view when the clause was created in any event.

f. Significance of consent- The Court ruled that contrary to the view of the ET and in line with the view of the EAT- consent to a discriminatory clause is binding and assumes that the clause is justified. This is very significant and may have major impact on collective agreements going forward.

g. Choice of 65 as an age- Waller LJ ruled that 65 as an age is justified in that any age chosen would prejudice persons outside of the age catchment e.g. a retirement age of 66 would in any event prejudice persons over 66 whilst benefiting persons over 65 but under 66. Thus there was no merit in arguing against 65 as a retirement age. This being side by side with other planks of his ruling as above, justifying the existence of a retirement age and contractual clauses enforcing it.

My comments:

An appeal is imperative because:The Judgement did not provide detailed clarification of:

a. The effect of Regulation 17 (Partnerships) of the Employment Equality Age Regulations on the Partnership Deed And;

b. How far Regulation 17 is compliant with or ultra vires Art 6(1) of the Directive. This being possibly because it was not emphasised in the Grounds of Appeal or indeed in the original Claim.I believe this is relevant because the focus of the Judgement ideally ought to have been on Partnerships, based on the distinct provisions for both categories. The judgment slightly muddies the waters between the two and could be exploited by employers.

Whilst the removal of the Default Retirement Age would steal most of the thunder of this judgement, it remains to be seen what the regulations will say specifically with regard to implementation and how much of a gap will be left for this Judgement to be applied. It honestly is difficult to say in the absence of the same;

Significance of consent. The judgement provided that the discriminatory clause which was negotiated and agreed from “a position of equal strength” would be binding and provide justification of a discriminatory clause. This seems to overrule Loxley v BAE Land Systems, which provided that where a Collective agreement had been negotiated for staff by a Union, it would be deemed to have been fairly negotiated but would not amount to justification of a clause which is discriminatory. This is extremely important, since it could prospectively affect thousands of workers subject to collective agreements and indeed Partnerships.Conclusion:This story is not finished, this matter will have to go to the House of Lords to be resolved, pure and simple, it asks more questions than it answers. However I do find that until the publication of the regulations removing the default retirement age, there is not much guidance for a positive resolution of all questions arising from this.

The Equality Act 2010 Unleashed!

2010-06-21T11:23:00.003+01:00

The Equality Act 2010 received Royal Assent on the 8th of April 2010 and is geared to be the most radical Equality Law ever enacted in the United Kingdom- for the simple fact of integrating key discrimination laws/instruments into one single document- These being:

a. The Equal Pay Act 1970;

b. The Sex Discrimination Acts of 1975 and 1986;

c. The Race Relations Act of 1976;

d. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995;

e. The Equality Act 2006;

f. Employment Equality (Religion or belief) Regulations 2003;

g. Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003;

h. Occupational Pensions Schemes (Equal Treatment Amendment Regulations) 2005;

i. Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (aside from Schedules 6 and 8);

j. The Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008.

The Equality Act also integrated some of the provisions of a number of Statutes and Regulations complementary to those listed above, such as:

a. The Local Government Act 1988;

b. The Employment Act 1989;

c. The Social Security Act 1989;

d. The Pensions Act 1995; e.

The Greater London Authority Act 1999;

f. Civil Partnership Act 2004;

g. Equality Act 2006; h. Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.

The key aims of the Act

a. Harmonisation of the definitions of rights, discrimination and exceptions applying to them and by extension;

b. Simplification of the principles applying thereto;

c. Broadening the categories of protected persons and strengthening protection for them

All these being under the broad theme of promoting socio-economic equality

Key changes introduced by the Act

a. The Public sector Equality duty- simply put- Public authorities now have an overriding general duty to promote socio-economic equality in strategic decision-making. Following from this, they were given responsibilities beyond the existing protected categorisations of promotion of racial, sexual and disability equality to further include age, sexual orientation, religion and gender reassignment. Public authorities are required to set their own equality targets/objectives. This duty being set to come into force in April 2011;

b. The creation of clear categories of protected characteristics, namely: i. Age; ii. Disability; iii. Gender reassignment; iv. Marriage and civil partnership; v. Pregnancy and maternity; vi. Race; vii. Religion or belief; viii. Sex; and; ix. Sexual orientation;

c. Following from the above- the elevation of Age Discrimination protection from secondary to primary legislation;

d. The inclusion of protection from discrimination in the provision of services (also covering goods) which is of particular important for its extension to the age category;

e. Allowing a person with two protected characteristics, the opportunity to make a dual claim under both categories;

f. Providing employment Tribunals the power to recommend to a respondent who has lost a discrimination steps geared towards remedying matters for the benefit of its workforce at large;

g. The amendment –modernisation- of Family property law, essentially abolishing the duty of a man to maintain his wife, the abolition of the presumption of advancement. Also the amendment of Married Women’s property Act 1964, re-wording the presumption of equal ownership of property derived from housekeeping allowance from the ” husband and wife” assumption to a more broad-based definition “either or them”- providing the amendment to be cited now as the Matrimonial Property Act 1964 . Following from this, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was also amended to extend the equal shares presumption for property derived from housekeeping allowance contained in the Matrimonial Property Act 1964 to Civil Partnerships;

h. Reinforcement of provision for equal pay between men and women and a disclosure requirement for employers to reinforce this provision

The Act and older persons

The act impacts on older persons as follows by:

a. Full statutory protection from age discrimination beyond the work-place

b. Providing In particular- protection from discrimination in the provision of goods and services;

c. Allowing older person subject to any of the other protected characteristics, the opportunity to claim for discrimination on both grounds;

d. Protecting carers of older persons from discrimination;

The act however did not deal with the lingering question of change to/or abolition of the Default Retirement Age.

Territorial Coverage

The act applies to England and Wales, as well as Scotland – with the exception of provisions relating to Improvement of dwelling houses (S.190) and Family property (Part 15). A few of the provisions apply to Northern Ireland.

Implementation and other matters

The act, whilst now an existing law was meant to have active force from October 2010, however as at the time of writing this, the October date is now subject to question, having been removed from the Government’s website, an announcement on this is awaited- possibly alongside or subsequent to the June 22 2010, emergency budget.

In addition to the above, its important to note that the Act whilst a comprehensive legislative document, will require a substantial amount of subsidiary legislation- by way of regulations- to give effect to its provisions, many of which may affect the character of the provisions substantially, hence it is clear that the Act is still work in progress, however its undeniable that the act in itself has introduced several long awaited changes and we anxiously await the regulations which it is hoped shall give greater ambit to its provisions.

DISQUALIFIED DIRECTORS AND THEIR SHADOWS

2010-02-25T13:01:00.005Z

A Director (and indeed the Board of Directors) is appointed and empowered by the Shareholders of a Company to run the company as an agent of the said shareholders, (hence the agency principle). The power however is accompanied with a heavy responsibility to run the affairs of the company to a statutory and ethical standard.

In many instances when the Director(s) fail to carry out this duty in accordance with the said standards and the company suffers loss, either by way of Insolvency or otherwise, the Directors are usually held to account or indeed responsible for the losses. Note the distinction between the responsibility and accountability of Directors. A brief word on the distinction between the two- Responsibility is the functional duty to carry out an act, which may be delegated or shared, whilst accountability refers to the ultimate and singular burden of seeing that the act is carried out, this can neither be shared nor delegated- to put it in layman's terms- accountability is where the buck stops, as is well known, you can't pass the buck.In the event of Director's of a company carrying out an act that exposes the company to loss and/or Insolvency, there are a number of sanctions that they may face, examples being:

a. Criminal Sanctions: If the act amounts to Criminal conduct e.g Fraud, Manslaughter etc The Directors as well as the company may face charges;

b. Civil Sanctions: If the c onduct of the directors directly results in financial loss to the Shareholders, the directors may face civil action to recoup the losses so suffered. In the UK however, where the Company is deemed to have committed a criminal act for which it faces sanction of a fine as tends to be the case, civil action has never been brought based on the contractual principle "Ex turpi causa non oritur actio" which means in plain English that a claimant cannot bring civil action based on his own illegal act. This principle is however being currently tested in the UK Courts in the case of William Morrisons v Webster and Others. Where this supermarket chain brought action for damages against the Former Chairman on Safeway (which Morrisons bought in 2004) following criminal sanction against Morrisons based on cartel price-fixing of dairy products by the defendants, before the purchase by Morrisons, the case is currently on-going and indeed an application to strike out the Claim was refused by the Court.

c. Disqualification: Where a Director has carried out an act which is deemed to be of such a serious nature as to merit the person from being barred for a specified period from acting as a Director of a Company - in the public interest, a disqualification order can be made preventing the said person from so acting as a Director.

The mechanism for this is provided in the UK under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, which provides for a procedure whereby an Order of Court is made on application for the person to be disqualified from:

i. Acting as a director of a company taking part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company;

ii. Being a liquidator or an administrator of a company;

iii.Being a receiver or manager of a company's property.

The five main circumstances, in which a Director may be disqualified being:

i. Upon conviction of an Indictable offence (An indictable offence is a serious criminal offence such as a Felony) Section 2;

ii. For persistent breaches of Companies Legislation- This refers to failure to file returns and documentation relating to the company on at least three occasions in the five years preceding the Order, also for conviction for an indictable offence related to failure to so file such documentation. Section 3

iii. If in the winding up of a company the person has been guilty of either fraudulent trading (whether convicted or not) or for fraud committed whilst an Officer, Receiver, Liquidator or administrative receiver of the company or in breach of such duties while so acting. Section 4

iv. On Summary Conviction for an offence (whether indictable or otherwise) related to the failure to file company documentation or otherwise comply with requirements of Companies legislation relating to the filing of such documents. This order may be made by the court trying the said offence. Section 5

Disqualification is an instrument used to regulate the actions of Directors who would otherwise be provided the protection of limited liability of a company. Limited Liability refers to the principle in Company Law limiting the liability of the Shareholder to the value of the shares. Also it acts to lift the corporate veil. The sense behind this being that a registered company can act in its own name and indeed be sued or charged for an offence in its own name, however in circumstances as have been detailed here, the Corporate "veil" can be lifted for direct action against the directing hands that did the act.

Who makes the Order:

The Order is made by a Court- on application, under the auspices of the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills

The Procedure

In the event of the failure or liquidation/administration of a company, the Official Receiver (or Insolvency Professional in a voluntary liquidation, administrative receivership or administration) after reviewing the conduct of the Directors for the 3 years preceding liquidation, if any misconduct is found such as- allowing the company to continue to trade when it was unable to pay its debts;a failure to keep proper accounting records, failure to prepare and file accounts or make returns to Companies House, failure to submit tax returns or pay over to the Crown tax or other money due,failure to co-operate with the OR/IP, the information is passed to the Office of Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, where a decision is made as to whether it shall be in the public interest to seek a disqualification order, where the same is decided, the application is then made to the Court on the auspices of the Secretary of State.

An application has to be made within 2 years of the winding up of the company or voluntary liquidation/administration etc. The court may of course extend time for the application to be made beyond the 2-year time-limit.

Upon a decision to apply for disqualification being made, the Director is given notice of the same. Furthermore, the Official Receiver or Insolvency Professional prepares a report which is submitted to the Court.. The director is then given the opportunity to respond to any allegations raised against him, by way of filing an affidavit in Court, rebutting any issues of misconduct raised in the report. Accountants and other officers of the company may also give evidence of fact either in support or in opposition facts contained in the report. The court then hears the application and makes a decision after considering evidence from both sides. If a disqualification is decided, the court will then decide how long it should last for i.e. between 2- 15 years.

A new procedure was introduced in April 2001, whereby a Director could give an undertaking to comply with the restrictions ordinarily imposed by a disqualification order and is the same in effect; only that it avoids the need for Court proceedings. The undertaking would be made to the Secretary of State and would be enforced by an application to court for breach of undertaking.

The Effects of Disqualification:

The disqualification order is an almost total ban on any form of Executive activity by the banned director and for the avoidance of doubt, the person is absolutely barred from acting as: a. A director of a company; b. Receiver of a company's property;c. Directly or indirectly being concerned or taking part in the promotion, formation or management of a company; or Being a member of or being concerned or taking part in the promotion, formation or management of a limited liability partnership and; d. From acting as an insolvency practitioner.

The consequence of breach of a disqualification order is a fine, imprisonment or both. This is detailed in Section 13 of the act as thus- ” If a person acts in contravention of a disqualification order or of section 12(2), or is guilty of an offence under section 11, he is liable-(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine, or both ; and; (b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for not more than 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both.”.

The next part of this study is the nature of Shadow Directorship

Shadow Directors:

A Shadow Director is defined by in section section 251, Companies Act 2006 (formerly Section 741(2) of the Companies Act 1985) ; section 251, Insolvency Act 1986; section 22(5), Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986) (CDDA) as “a person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of the company are accustomed to act (although a person is not deemed a shadow director by reason only that the directors act on advice given by him in a professional capacity).”

Guidance on the mechanics of the definition in the former Section 741(2) was provided by the High Court and reinforced by the Court of Appeal in Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v Deverell and another as thus:

a) Majority of the board must be accustomed to act in accordance with the directions or instructions of the alleged shadow director. The purpose of the legislation is to catch a person who effectively controls the running of the company by controlling the board. Therefore, a person is unlikely to be within the definition of a shadow director if only one or two directors on a board of several directors follow his instructions;

b) The directors must “do something in conformity with” such instructions. It is not sufficient for the alleged shadow director simply to give instructions to the directors; his instructions “must be translated into action by the board”;

c) The directors must act on the alleged shadow director’s directions as a regular course of conduct of the directors over a period of time.

Of great significance is the dictum in the lead judgement of Lord Justice Morritt: “(1) The definition of a shadow director is to be construed in the normal way to give effect to the parliamentary intention ascertainable from the mischief to be dealt with and the words used. In particular, as the purpose of the Act is the protection of the public and as the definition is used in other legislative contexts, it should not be strictly construed because it also has quasi-penal consequences in the context of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. I agree with the statement to that effect of Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson V-C in In re Lo-Line Electric Motors Ltd [1988] Ch 477, 489. (2) The purpose of the legislation is to identify those, other than professional advisers, with real influence in the corporate affairs of the company. But it is not necessary that such influence should be exercised over the whole field of its corporate activities. I agree with the statements to that effect of Finn J in Australian Securities Commission v AS Nominees Ltd, 133 ALR 1, 52-53 and Robert Walker LJ in In re Kaytech International plc [1999] BCC 390, 402. (3) Whether any particular communication from the alleged shadow director, whether by words or conduct, is to be classified as a direction or instruction must be objectively ascertained by the court in the light of all the evidence. In that connection I do not accept that it is necessary to prove the understanding or expectation of either giver or receiver. In many, if not most, cases it will suffice to prove the communication and its consequence. Evidence of such understanding or expectation may be relevant but it cannot be conclusive. Certainly the label attached by either or both parties then or thereafter cannot be more than a factor in considering whether the communication came within the statutory description of direction or instruction. (4) Non-professional advice may come within that statutory description. The proviso excepting advice given in a professional capacity appears to assume that advice generally is or may be included. Moreover the concepts of "direction" and "instruction" do not exclude the concept of "advice" for all three share the common feature of "guidance ". (5) It will, no doubt, be sufficient to show that in the face of "directions or instructions" from the alleged shadow director the properly appointed directors or some of them cast themselves in a subservient role or surrendered their respective discretions. But I do not consider that it is necessary to do so in all cases. Such a requirement would be to put a gloss on the statutory requirement that the board are "accustomed to act" "in accordance with" such directions or instructions. It appears to me that Judge Cooke, in looking for the additional ingredient of a subservient role or the surrender of discretion by the board imposed a qualification beyond that justified by the statutory language.”

The implications of this in summary being thus:

a. The definition of a Shadow Director should not be construed strictly or literally but should have regard to the facts of each individual case, because of the consequence of criminal sanction in the event of breach.;

b. The definition of Shadow Director is very likely to apply to any person who gives directions or instructions to the Directors of a company unless the same is by way of professional advice.

c. The purpose of the directions or instructions are less important than the fact that they were given (except where given for professional purposes);

d. The Directors who acted in compliance with the direction or direction of the Shadow Director, need not be shown to act in a subservient position but more importantly to have acted or be accustomed to act (i.e. there should be a course of conduct).

The co-relation between Shadow Directorship and Disqualification of Directors is statutorily expressed in Section 22(5) of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986) (CDDA), which repeats the definition above i.e. " Shadow director, in relation to a company, means a person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of the company are accustomed to act (but so that person is not deemed a shadow director by reason only that the directors act on advice given by him in a professional capacity)”

This definition being important as per Morritt LJ, based on the penal sanction attendant on breach of the disqualification order, in that if a person were to act as the Shadow Director of a company whilst disqualified, the consequences are serious and are detailed as stated above in Section 13 of the CDDA as thus- If a person acts in contravention of a disqualification order or of section 12(2), or is guilty of an offence under section 11, he is liable-(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine, or both ; and; (b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for not more than 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both.

The simple fact being that it is extremely risky for a disqualified Director to seek to continue to run or manage a company in the Shadows (literally and figuratively), since the Court will examine in details the nature of communication with the Directors and if any instructions are given and acted upon by a majority of the Board, then a Shadow Directorship will be assumed, unless the instructions were given in professional capacity.

The professional advice route does not provide a trouble-free escape route however, because Section 1 very clearly disqualifies the person from being involved with the promotion, formation and management of a company. Thus, if the advice is given in the course of management of a company offering professional services, it would arguably be in clear breach of section 1(d) of the act.

The two elements being : i. Management and ii. Of a company.

We shall examine these hypothetically:

i. Management

Chambers Dictionary defines management as “management noun 1 - the skill or practice of controlling, directing or planning something, especially a commercial enterprise or activity. 2 the managers of a company, etc, as a group. 3 manner of directing, controlling or using something.”

Using this as a general guide, the key elements would be control, direction of the organisation, enterprise or activity, the next element being:

ii. Company

Guidance is provided in S. 22. (2) of the CDDA- “ The expression “company”— in section 11, includes an unregistered company and a company incorporated outside Great Britain which has an established place of business in Great Britain, and (b) elsewhere, includes any company which may be wound up under Part V of the Insolvency Act.”

Part V of the Insolvency Act and specifically S.220 defines an unregistered company as thus “Meaning of "unregistered company" (1) For the purposes of this Part, the expression "unregistered company" includes any trustee savings bank certified under the enactments relating to such banks, any association and any company, with the following exceptions –

(a) a railway company incorporated by Act of Parliament,

(b) a company registered in any part of the United Kingdom under the Joint Stock Companies Acts or under the legislation (past or present) relating to companies in Great Britain.

(2) On such day as the Treasury appoints by order under section 4(3) of the Trustee Savings Banks Act 1985, the words in subsection (1) from "any trustee" to "banks" cease to have effect and are hereby repealed.”

There is no mention of Partnerships or Sole Traderships, however for greater clarity, reference must be made to the Companies Act 2006 which defines a company in Section 1 as thus:

“(1) In the Companies Acts, unless the context otherwise requires— “company” means a company formed and registered under this Act, that is—
(a) a company so formed and registered after the commencement of this Part, or

(b) a company that immediately before the commencement of this Part—

(i) was formed and registered under the Companies Act 1985 (c. 6) or the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (S.I. 1986/1032 (N.I. 6)), or (ii) was an existing company for the purposes of that Act or that Order, (which is to be treated on commencement as if formed and registered under this Act).

(2) Certain provisions of the Companies Acts apply to—

(a) companies registered, but not formed, under this Act (see Chapter 1 of Part 33), and;

(b) bodies incorporated in the United Kingdom but not registered under this Act (see Chapter 2 of that Part).

(3) For provisions applying to companies incorporated outside the United Kingdom, see Part 34 (overseas companies)”

As seen above, the contrary position is found in the provisions of Part V of the Insolvent Partnerships Order 1994, which provides for the winding up of Insolvent Partnerships as an Unregistered Company either on presentation of a petition against all members, where no petition is presented against any member, or indeed Insolvency proceedings not involving winding up. The operative fact being that there is provision for a Partnership to be deemed an unregistered company.

Once again, this definition does not clearly extend to a Partnership or indeed a Sole Trader and is subject to inference rather than clear prescription in the CDDA, thus it is arguable that to come under the definition of company under Section 22(5), the company would have to be one registered under the Companies Acts or be a Limited Liability Partnership or even a Limited Partnership, it is important to note that this principle has not been tested judicially.

Conclusion

In conclusion and for the sake of good order it is important to distinguish between a Shadow Director and a De facto Director

De Facto Directors:

In Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v. Deverell and Another, reference was had to the judgement in In re Hydrodam (Corby) Ltd [1994] 2 BCLC 180 applying the definition of Millett J: "A de facto director ... is one who claims to act and purports to act as a director, although not validly appointed as such”

The judgement also affirmed the definition given by Judge Cook in Deverell (at the High Court) in which he set out two categories of de facto directors (in addition to two categories i.e shadow and proper directors so called) i.e “De facto directors type 1, being those who assume to act, claim to be and are held out by the company as being directors”; (b)” De facto directors type 2, being those who directly assume the functions of the directors and act on a equal footing with those who are but without having any sort of label”

The essential characteristics of De facto Directors being that they either openly assume the duties and profile of Directors or they directly hold themselves out as Directors, even if they are not properly appointed as such.

The distinction between a de facto Director and a Shadow Director being that the latter does not hold himself out, rather preferring to give directions from the background.

Edward C.Keazor ©

Non-Financial Loss in Employment Claims- When, Which, How?!?

2010-02-03T11:04:00.007Z

One recurring question that Lawyers face from clients in the course of taking Instructions for Employment related claims, is whether a claim can be made for non-financial loss, such as Injury to feelings, Mental stress, Loss of Family life to name a few..

Just a bit of background here: Financial Claims can be made for pure financial loss i.e. actual financial loss suffered, such as loss of earnings if you’re fired, wages deducted unlawfully or in breach of contract etc or for non-financial loss such as compensation for distress, which as you can imagine has no direct monetary value- and which necessarily needs proof, assessment and/or determination by the court or by agreement of the parties.

The fact is that non-financial Claims can only be made in very limited contexts in Employment Tribunal Claims, the said being mainly in the area of Discrimination Claims.

A brief word about Discrimination Claims:

These are Covered statutorily by the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005 as well as a number of Regulations covering Age, Sex and Transgender Discrimination and indeed the Human Rights Act 1998, covering discrimination claims against Public bodies. The main forms of Discrimination Claims are:

a. Racial (necessarily including Nationality and ehnicity); b. Religious; c. Gender; d. Age; e. Disability; and f. Sex/Sexual Orientation/Trans-gender Discrimination, which are specifically prohibited by law and damages are claimed on the basis compensation for Injury to feelings, since generally the damage caused by this is usually intrinsic and psychological and in addition to any financial loss which may be suffered e.g. loss of earnings upon dismissal based on discrimination (this would naturally be unfair and entitle a claimant to compensation for Unfair Dismissal, in addition to damages for Injury to feelings).

It is however extremely difficult for a Claimant to found a Claim for Non-financial Damages on a premise other than discrimination- especially in a Claim for Unfair Dismissal.

The only permissible- though extremely narrow route- being for damages occasioned by the manner in which the Dismissal was carried out, i.e. in such a manner as to severely hurt the reputation of the Claimant, this in itself is still tied to financial loss, since the measure of the effect of the damages caused by the manner of dismissal being in difficulties in obtaining new employment and the loss suffered as a result of this in earnings.

To state the obvious, the law on Non-Financial claims in Employment Law has been prescribed by a line of cases- all decided by the House of Lords which defined to a large but rather complex extent- when a non-financial claim can be made and granted.

Chronology of Cases:

Addis v Gramophone Co Ltd [1909] AC 488

This being the classical case on the subject wherein the House of Lords determined rather conclusively that the only claims that can be entertained as arising from an Employment Contract being a purely Financial Claim, simply put the Law could not entertain any namby-pamby claims for Mental stress or Hurt feelings, there was either remedy for financial loss or nothing. The reasoning behind this is not far-fetched; this Judgement was delivered in Edwardian era (in short in the immediate-post Victorian era) with the concept of Master and Servant being the central philosophy behind Employment contracts.

Norton Tool Co Ltd v Tewson ([1972] ICR 501

Addis was the clear and unequivocal statement of the Law for over 60 years until this decision – delivered by the National Industrial Relations Court (forebear of the Employment Tribunals) which- whilst adopting Addis substantially- however carved a minor distinction, the key points being:

That the Court in the course of a claim was empowered to award an amount believed to be just and equitable and that the amount of the award need not be arithmetically tied to the amount of proven or provable loss ( i.e. financial loss), in short that the court could use its discretion where just and equitable – or in its words where “natural and possibly essential”

B.

The "loss" suffered by an employee who is unfairly dismissed without notice, and the compensatory award to which he is entitled in respect of that loss, must be calculated without taking into account any wages he earns during what should have been his period of notice (this is generally known as "the rule in Norton Tool");

C.

It however conclusively excluded damages for Injury to feelings from a Claim for Unfair Dismissal. The dictum of Sir John Donaldson the President of the National Industrial Relations Court is repeated below

“The court or tribunal is enjoined to assess compensation in an amount which is just and equitable in all the circumstances, and there is neither justice nor equity in a failure to act in accordance with principle. The principles to be adopted emerge from section 116 of the Act of 1971. First, the object is to compensate, and compensate fully, but not to award a bonus, save possibly in the special case of a refusal by an employer to make an offer of employment in accordance with the recommendation of the court or a tribunal. Secondly, the amount to be awarded is that which is just and equitable in all the circumstances, having regard to the loss sustained by the complainant. 'Loss' in the context of section 116 does not include injury to pride or feelings. In its natural meaning the word is not to be so construed, and that this meaning is intended seems to us to be clear from the elaboration contained in section 116(2). The discretionary element is introduced by the words 'having regard to the loss.' This does not mean that the court or tribunal can have regard to other matters, but rather that the amount of the compensation is not precisely and arithmetically related to the proved loss. Such a provision will be seen to be natural and possibly essential, when it is remembered that the claims with which the court and tribunals are concerned are more often than not presented by claimants in person and in conditions of informality. It is not, therefore, to be expected that precise and detailed proof of every item of loss will be presented, although, after making due allowance for the skills of the persons presenting the claims, the statutory requirement for informality of procedure and the undesirability of burdening the parties with the expense of adducing evidence of an elaboration which is disproportionate to the sums in issue, the burden of proof lies squarely upon the complainant.”

It is important to give some background to this decision. Addis was decided on the basis of Common Law; however this case was decided by the National Industrial Relations Court, which was created by Section 99 of the Industrial Relations Act 1971. The history of this law being that in 1968, the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations recommended a statutory system of remedies for unfair dismissal, the said recommendations subsequently giving rise to the Industrial Relations Act 1971. Unfair dismissal was a completely new principle with a unique set of remedies and the National Industrial Relations Court was conferred with exclusive jurisdiction to hear complaints and award remedies. There are side arguments of the realpolitik behind this court being that this court was created by the Conservative Government of Ted Heath to counter the Union’s and thus reflected the same establishment oriented viewpoint of Addis, however that is not the focus of this write-up. The Industrial Relations Act 1971 Act was later repealed by the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974; however the unfair dismissal provisions were retained and, subsequently transformed into Part X of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The new adjudicating authority being the Employment Tribunals, as we have them today.

Johnson v Unisys [2001] IRLR 279

This case represented the first real deviation from the reasoning in Addis. The House of Lords, in Johnson v Unisys, essentially gave organic effect to the statutory provision first referred to in Norton Tools the power of tribunals to award amounts, it "considers just and equitable in all the circumstances having regard to the loss sustained by the complainant in consequence of the dismissal in so far as that loss is attributable to action taken by the employer" This being the provision of Section 123 Employment Rights Act 1996.

The facts of the case being that Mr Johnson was employed by Unisys and worked for them for 16 years till 1987, was made redundant and then re-employed in 1990 and then dismissed in 1994 based on allegation, he filed a claim at the Tribunal for Unfair dismissal and was awarded damages of £11,691.88. He subsequently filed a Claim at the Milton Keynes County Court for Breach of the Implied Contractual Term of Mutual Trust and Confidence – (which cause of action had been firmly established by the House of Lords in Mahmud v Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA [1998] AC 20) and an alternative claim for Negligence. The main plank of his claim being that the manner of his dismissal caused him severe mental distress in that: a. His fragile mental state was known to Unisys prior to his being made redundant in 1987; b. His dismissal in 1994, caused him to fall into a spiral of depression, alcoholism, attempted suicide, culminating in him being admitted to a Mental Hospital; c. He made over 100 applications for alternative work, but was unsuccessful and at the age of 52, was unlikely to ever find work.

The House of Lords whilst refusing Mr Johnson’s appeal- nonetheless decided conclusively that there was "no reason why in an appropriate case it should not include compensation for distress, humiliation, damage to reputation in the community or to family life". A very radical decision in that it broke the yolk of an 80+ year old judicial mindset. This case however did not overrule Norton Tools and in fact made no reference at all to it, hence the question at this stage remained- to a large extent unresolved. It however opened the door for the award of damages for non-financial loss.

Dunnachie v Kingston upon Hull City Council [2004] ICR 1052 HL

This case provided the final or indeed, the present statement of the law on this subject. On an aside I shall add that this judgement was described by myself and some colleagues in Chambers as the Ping-Pong Judgement, in that I was leading a case M v. London Probation Office, in which part of our clients claim was for Injury to feelings and of which the decision in Dunnachie clearly had an impact. The Claim was filed when the Employment Tribunal, awarded damages for Injury to feelings based on Johnson v Unisys; set down for preliminary directions when the EAT overruled the Employment Tribunal, in the middle of hearing when the Court of Appeal upheld the Employment Tribunal’s decision and Judgement delivered just after the decision of the House of Lords determining conclusively that a Claim for Non-Financial Loss can not be made as part of a Claim under Section 123(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Just for the avoidance of doubt this section relates to Compensatory Award for Unfair Dismissal and states thus “Subject to the provisions of this section and sections 124 and 126, the amount of the compensatory award shall be such amount as the tribunal considers just and equitable in all the circumstances having regard to the loss sustained by the complainant in consequence of the dismissal in so far as that loss is attributable to action taken by the employer.” In effect closing the door on the “Just and Equitable” open door for Claimant’s seeking to get damages for Breach of the Implied Term of Mutual Trust and Confidence

The facts of this case were thus: Mr Dunnachie worked for the Kingston upon Hull City Council between 1986 and 2000. In January 1995 he was appointed senior environmental health officer and then acting principal health officer In March 2000. On 8 March 2001 he resigned on notice with effect from 9 April 2001 alleging constructive dismissal and then commenced proceedings in an employment tribunal on 29 June 2001.The tribunal held that he had been unfairly dismissed and also awarded him the sum of £438.46 in respect of an unlawful deduction of wages. The actual conduct complained of being a series of acts of harassment and bullying by Mr Dunnachie’s Line Manager, which resulted in his being compelled to leave the employment of the Council. The comment of the Tribunal repeated “The respondent's treatment of the applicant by those officers caused his ill-health. We are satisfied that there was the clearest evidence of a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence.”

The employer appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The main ground being as to whether compensation for injury to feelings may be recovered under section 123(1). The EAT allowed the appeal, upholding Norton Tools, with the President, Burton J, concluding that Lord Hoffmann’s dictum in Johnson v Unisys was obiter (i.e. not part of the main decision, otherwise referred to as the Ratio) and that on a correct construction of section 123 of the 1996 Act, it did not allow recovery for non-financial loss.

Mr Dunnachie further appealed to the Court of Appeal, purely on the question of whether the Claim for Injury to feelings. The Court of Appeal decided that: a. The comments of Lord Hoffman in Johnson v Unisys were indeed Obiter (or merely peripheral to the main case), but that nonetheless; b. Section 123(1) indeed allowed claims for non-financial loss in this case Injury to feelings.

The Employer then appealed to the House of Lords, for a final determination on this point. The decision of the House of Lords was to the effect that: a. To re-inforce the decision of the Court of Appeal, that the comments of Lord Hoffmann at paragraph 55 of Johnson and Unisys were indeed obiter and; b. That Section 123(1) could not and did not give rise to a right to claim for Non-Financial loss, because to do so would be to stretch the principle or indeed blur the lines between separate claims for financial and non-financial loss. Lord Steyn’s dictum is instructive as to the rationale of restricting claims under S.123 (1) to financial loss " Sir John Donaldson in Norton Tool observed that the natural meaning of "loss" in section 116(1) does not include injury to feelings. He added that this view is reinforced by the elaboration in section 116(2) of the 1971 Act, now section 123(2) of the 1996 Act. It is significant that in sections 116(2) and 123(2), and indeed in the remainder of sections 116 and 123, there is no reference to non-economic loss. “It may be of some assistance to imagine a parliamentary draftsman, faced in 1971 with a departmental brief to prepare a bill which would make provision for compensation for financial loss as well as for a solatium for injury to feelings. Such instructions could have been given pursuant to the recommendation in 1968 of the Royal Commission that the remedy for unfair dismissal should include compensation for "injured feelings and reputation": Cmnd 3623, para 553. Is it conceivable that a parliamentary draftsman would have provided for the two radically different remedies by the rolled-up wording of section 116(1)? Intuitively, I regard it as implausible that if such a policy decision had been made the technique of providing simply for compensation for "loss" would have been adopted.”

Lord Steyn also addressed the comments of Lord Justice Sedley at the Court of Appeal “In my view section 123(1) must be construed as a composite formula. The interpretation preferred by Sedley LJ splits up the formula in a way which, with great respect, is more than a little contrived. It unjustifiably relegates the criterion of loss to a subordinate role. Given the hypothesis that the legislature expressly provided for the recovery of economic loss, it fails to explain why the legislature did not also expressly provide for compensation for injury to feelings. It also fails to take full account of the context. For example, on this expansive interpretation there would as already mentioned be nothing on the face of the statute to exclude the award (subject to the cap which is now standing at £55,000) of aggravated or exemplary damages. This could not have been intended. The better view is that the provision was not intended, in the words of Brooke LJ, to provide for "palm tree" justice.”

The judgement left very few ambiguities and sealed the fate of potential Claims for Injury to Feelings brought under an Unfair Dismissal Claim, the simple answer is that it is not possible. Injury to feelings may be couched under a claim for Discrimination which is a specific legal provision, allowing for the same; however there is no carte blanche under Compensation Claims for Unfair dismissal allowing for non-financial claims.

Conclusion.

When drafting an application before the Employment Tribunal it’s important to be clear as to what you can or cannot claim for. If an employer has been guilty of improper conduct giving rise to an employee feeling that the Contract of Employment has broken down fundamentally, Constructive Dismissal is the route to take, however an employee choosing to leave on the basis that the said conduct is a Breach of the Implied Contractual Term of Mutual Trust and Confidence, should be aware that the particular conduct on its own does not give rise to damages on its own, but must still be subject to Section 123 of the Employment Rights Act, which lays ground rules for determining the amount of compensation and which is indexed as we have seen here based on pure financial loss. Which if you have worked for over a year, would consist of a Basic Award, computed against your years of service x weekly salary and a Compensatory award based on actual loss, which could include actual loss of earnings e.g. earnings lost whilst you’re out of work or the difference between new earnings and old earnings if the new earnings are less.

Where there has been simple Unfair Dismissal, the nature of the dismissal i.e. the conduct of the employer is irrelevant as to the nature of the quantum of the damages to be awarded and Section 123 still remains the award benchmark.

Two negative parameters on an award for damages, which must still be borne in mind, are i. Polkey Deductions: A deduction which is made, where the Tribunal is of the view that the dismissal would have taken place in any event, this deduction could be as much as a 100% and varies from case-to-case; and ii. Where there has been a failure to mitigate loss. This means effectively that whilst a Claimant might have suffered financial loss, he has a responsibility to mitigate his loss, by actively looking for work, as opposed to sitting back accumulating lost earnings; the Tribunal will require this as an act of good faith. This principle is common to the general Law of Contract in any event.

SHORTFALLS ON MORTGAGE REPAYMENTS- A DIY FIGHT BACK KIT- Revisited

2010-01-04T15:34:00.002Z

This is a re-posting of a piece I wrote three years ago, the facts are clearly different today, however the Legal position remains the same, however the information here is no substitute for obtaining legal advice, please, please consult a Solicitor or the Citizens Advice Bureau

There’s been a pretty choppy property market in the last few years, luckily all the doom and gloom predictions haven’t quite come true yet. Having said that we’re not out of the woods yet, the fact remains that the property market in the South-East is inflated, the hammer might yet fall.

This takes me back to the 80’s when the last crash in the market took place and the negative equity virus spread like wild-fire. If my memory serves me well, lots of home-owners simply walked away from their properties and let the Banks repossess them. A fairly simple solution ordinarily, however was it? In principle no, because there were usually shortfalls in the amount due to the Banks, since there was in any event a negative equity position. The Banks at the time didn’t bother, preferring to just let matters ride or in many other cases commencing Bankruptcy proceedings at the time against debtors….and getting nothing.

As it turned out the property market resurged in the mid-late 90’s, with the general air of prosperity prevalent in cool Britannia, people were making and spending money, some buoyed by cheap and available credit, others actually making good money, inclusive in this quota being some of the victims of the negative equity virus of the mid 80’s who equally had moved on and were making new starts acquiring property.

As is to be expected, on or about the first quarter of 2003, there was a spate of actions by Banks seeking to recover the monies owed them as shortfall on the Mortgage Loans in question. The easy (and admittedly most effective) tool of Debt Recovery in the 21st Century UK Economy is a Bankruptcy Petition or the threat of it against a person who owns visible assets. This appeared to be the preferred route for most of the Banks and did they go for it.

I had occasion to act in such a matter for a Client who was being chased by a Lender for a shortfall of £6000.00, which had now burgeoned into £48,000.00 (Interest). The property was repossessed in 1992, and the Bank served a Statutory Demand (which is the prelude to filing a Petition for Bankruptcy, essentially a warning to pay the Debt in the Demand within 21 days) in 2003. A Judgement had in the interim been obtained in the County Court in 1994.

We filed an application to set aside the Statutory Demand (which you are allowed to do within 18 days of being served with the Demand).

We relied on the following:
The Original Mortgage Loan was £25,000.00 and the property was sold by the Bank on repossession for £35, 000.00+ Hence the shortfall constituted of accrued Interest.

The Bankruptcy action ought to have been brought within Six years, since the Interest element was all that was being recovered and an action for Interest is an action under Simple Contract not a Speciality Contract such as a Mortgage Deed, upon which action may be brought within 12 years Being a principle established by the House of Lords in Bristol & West plc v Bartlett [2003] 1 WLR 284

A Bankruptcy Petition is not merely Enforcement of a Judgement but a distinct Cause of Action or Claim which is subject to the Rules on Limitation of Actions. (Applying IN RE JELLY and Section 6 of the Limitation Act 1980).

The High Court agreed with us and set aside the Statutory Demand, however it noted that they were still entitled- if they wished- to seek enforcement of the Judgement obtained in 1994, this of course not being within its power to deal with since they had come under a totally different procedure. I equally found it interesting that they hadn’t gone down that route, I later found out that the records of the Case in 1994 had been destroyed by the Court in 2000, hence enforcement was a problem. They did not bother appealing.

Simple lessons stemming from this in plain English:

If you owe your Bank a shortfall on a Mortgage, they have six years to come after you if the shortfall is on the Interest and 12 years if it consists of the Principal Mortgage Loan. This is because the Contract for Interest is separate for the Contract for the Principal Loan. The latter is contained in a Mortgage Deed, described as a Contract of Speciality, which as said has a 12 year time span for a Claim to be brought in Court as opposed to 6 years for the Contract for Interest, which is under what’s called a Simple Contract. This principle of Limitation applies to all actions for Money and is not necessarily restricted to Mortgage Shortfall cases.

The time is calculated from the date you default in your Mortgage repayment, i.e when “the cause of action accrues”. (This principle has recently been firmly established as the current Law on this subject by the House of Lords last year in West Bromwich Building Society v Wilkinson [2005] 1 WLR 2303)

If they do not do this then you can raise it as a defence to the Court action they’ve brought against you. Its called a Limitation Defence. Bear in mind however that if the Bank issues a demand after the cause of action “accrues”, then the Limitation period then has to be calculated from the date of the demand.

If however the Bank gets or has gotten Judgement against you, then there is no time limit for it to enforce the Judgement. Enforcement refers to action taken by a party at law to recover a Judgement its obtained, such as Attachment of Property (the good old Bailiffs), Attachment of Earnings, etc. For this there is no time limit. Be careful.

In conclusion a word of warning, never ignore demand letters, always keep a conversation going with creditors and always demonstrate good faith by making a payment no matter how small. If however the Lenders adopt a rigid stance, talk to an IFA or a decent Solicitor. The main lesson is that in a capitalist world they never go away (debts that is- not the Solicitors and IFA’s).

Ikenga- Songs at Sunset

2009-12-27T05:10:00.001Z

Monday, December 01, 2008
Ikenga -Songs at Sunset

Finally put a video to the track my band- Ikenga recorded eight years ago- Songs at Sunset.

This song being to highlight the plight of the Igbo's during the Nigerian Civil War, from the genocide suffered pre-war, to the heroic and often-times Quixotic battles fought during the three year war May 30th 1967- January 15th 1970.

I was born on the the day the war started and pay tribute to my parents, who after having set up a cosy middle class paradise of a home in Enugu (then within Biafra) were caused to become refugees from 1967-1969, enduring hunger, exposure and the ever attendant dangers of war. They were the lucky ones, One Million Igbos died during the war, 80% of whom were innocent civilians mostly womenand childrensimply looking to survive within or apart from a country that appeared not to want them.

I do not seek to justify Biafra, or indeed to promote a neo-Biafran cause-not at all! Nigeria as an entity is far too important, not just to itself but to the continent and the world o be fragmented into mini-failed states. In addition, most thinkers who were part of Biafra will tell you that the Biafran administration was its own worst enemy and it was only a matter of time before there was internal implosion, even inspite of the highly skilled, motivated, industrious and knowledgeable population.

This song and video are meant merely to remind the hawks that war is not glamorous and fun, it is a bitter, sad, painful phenomenon.

Fact: The scourge of armed robbery and insecurity in Nigeria today was as a direct result of the demobilisation of several restless and disturbed young men nto society- with their guns.

That is a direct sociological legacy of the Nigerian Civil War- 41 years after.

The video comprises images pre and during the war, the image copyright is held of three main sources- a. The Corbis archive; b. CUNY ; c. www.emeagwali.com; d. The BBC and e. Reuters.

The songs being essentially a medley of folk and contemporary songs popular within Biafra, before and during the war. Some being songs of sorrow, others merely expressions of every day joy and pain. I leave you to make up your own mind.

The Nigerian Afro-Funk History Record

2009-09-20T13:35:00.002+01:00

The term Afro-Funk was popularised (and arguably invented) by the enigmatic Tony Allen, Fela’s drummer and creative partner, to symbolise the style he practiced in the mid to late 90s. Afro-Funk has over the years had various definitions; however, I will attempt a simple definition: Afro-Funk is a fusion of Funk music infused with African rhythms and melodies. To properly understand the term Afro-Funk one must look at its component parts. While African rhythms and melodies probably don’t require any explanation, Funk, on the other hand, has a more complex profile.

“Funk” is defined in the dictionary as “a strong odour”. Colloquially, the word has its origins in its use by African-American musicians to describe a more syncopated or rhythmic beat pattern. The word in this context is reputed to have first been used by Earl Palmer, the New Orleans drummer, who was part of Little Richard’s Band in the 1950s. Ironically to musicologists, the syncopated and danceable rhythmic pattern which Funk embodied had its origins in West African traditional music, which in itself found its way into expression in African-American Spiritual/Gospel forms and work chants, eventually evolving into more contemporary Soul, Jazz and R&B forms. Funk is however an amalgam of all these forms, with the underlying West African rhythmic base.

Upon Little Richard’s sabbatical from secular music into the gospel form, there was a mass migration of a large number of his sidemen, including the aforementioned Earl Palmer, into the stable of an emerging superstar of R&B—James Brown. James Brown was instrumental in popularising Funk music as a genre, actively pushing Funk into the global consciousness. His first hits employing the 1-2-3-4 downbeat pattern were “Out of Sight” (1964) and “Papa’s got a Brand New Bag” (1965), followed by “Get Up (Sex Machine)”. Another pioneer of Funk was the phenomenal Sly and the Family Stone, whose hits “Sing a Simple Song”, “Thank You (For Letting Me Be Myself)” and “It’s a Family Affair”, became quintessential poster tunes of Funk music. Particular mention must be made of Larry Graham, bass guitarist for Sly and the Family Stone, who revolutionised the slap-bass style which became a staple of Funk and R&B.

Funk evolved progressively over the years: the 1970s was the P-Funk era, revolutionised by George Clinton with his bands Parliament and Funkadelic, followed by Bootsy Collins (who incidentally was James Brown’s bassist). Withthe 1980s came the stripped-down Funk era popularised by Rick James, Prince, Cameo, The Gap Band, Dazz Band, One Way, and a whole host of other bands with the same central rhythmic driving pattern incorporated with West African genetic origins. Then came the 1990s and 2000s with Funk’s re-incorporation into popular music which cut across ethnic barriers (“Travelling without Motion”, which was one of the biggest selling Funk albums of this period, was from the all-white English band Jamiroquai.

Several variants of Funk emerged in the 70s and 80s. One of these styles was Electro-Funk/Hip-Hop, which was pioneered by acts such as Afrika Bambataa, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and The Sugarhill Gang. Jazz Funk was another popular variant which emerged in the early 70s through the effort of the pianists Herbie Hancock and Bob James, vibraphonist Roy Ayers, and many others.

Afro-Funk

The key principle behind the emergence of Afro-Funk is the fusion of various styles from across ethnic genres. Nigerian contemporary music as a musical form was characterised by the fusion of Western and local elements which can be traced to the beginning of the 20th century when the first popular recordings were released. Artistes like Justus Domingo and Irewolede Denge sang in Yoruba while using Western instruments such as the guitar and banjo. These early styles, infused with an African rhythm section, evolved into the Juju music of Tunde King and Ayinde Bakare in the 1930s.

Aside from the obvious fusion engendered by the use of Western instruments, there was the tendency for African musicians in the early and mid-20th century to assimilate Western styles. Even credible performers like Irewolede Denge and Dickson Oludaiye fell into this trap, as can be noted when one listens to their earliest recordings. In “Orin Asape Eko” (1929), the singing style adopted—even though it was sung in the Yoruba languaget—was so heavily influenced by 1920s American Jazz tunes to be Jolsonesque in delivery.

Irewolede Denge and Dickson Oludaiye c.1935

Domingo Justus- c.1928

Some great African bands emerged in this era, which, whilst focusing on their core genre, still diversified into foreign-influenced form to satisfy the appetite of an audience which had a taste for diverse styles. For instance, one of E.T. Mensah’s most popular hits, “Day by Day”, was clearly influenced by Calypso rhythms. Also, combos like The Cool Cats were playing to a strong captive audience with their fare of Jazz and Soul. So it was only a matter of time before the ever-increasing influence of Funk found disciples within the Nigerian Music scene.

One of the first superstars of Funk (not Afro-Funk) in Nigeria was incidentally not Nigerian—he was Gerald Pyne (known by his stage name Geraldo Pino), the son of a Sierra Leonean lawyer settled in Nigeria, who took the country by storm in the mid-60’s with his explosive live performances. Pino became the Funk Ambassador of Nigeria and with time became one of the most popular musicians in the contemporary music scene, with a larger-than-life image to boot.

Pino’s influence was not lost on a struggling but hugely talented, classically trained trumpeter, Fela Ransome-Kuti, who had been prominent in the small UK Jazz crowd whilst still a student. Performing Highlife and Jazz tunes initially Fela eventually fused these two musical forms into a workable hybrid with his excellent band, The Koola Lobitoes. However Fela was the first to admit that Pino’s Funk Train—at the early stage—blew away the opposition, even Fela himself. The turning point however came when Fela went on his first tour of the UK in 1968 and a subsequent tour of the US in 1969, from which he came back a different man—completely radicalised, politically and musically. After his return, Fela developed his Highlife/Jazz fusion platform into a deeper, more visceral sound, by fusing Jazz with a more traditional African rhythmic pattern and the now independent musical style of Funk. The greatest examples of this new emergence are the seminal tracks “Jeun Koku” (Chop and Quench), “Funky Horn”, “Fight to Finish” and “Don’t Gag Me”. Through these recordings Fela became the flag-bearer of a genre which had slowly emerged from the winding origins of African music, exported to America during the Slave trade and refined into a new independent form—Funk—which, in the new era and as a result of the curiosity of African musicians, had found its way back to Africa, this time fused into a unit with its African musical ancestor.

Whilst Fela gave face to the new movement, his music in truth was something different—his musical form had a strong Jazz element and was in his own description more Afro-Beat than Afro-Funk—from the tunes which were being produced by young bands all around Nigeria, who started out playing covers of Rock and Roll and subsequently Soul and R&B music, and who wittingly (like Fela) or unwittingly fused those forms with African influences. Fela however gave form, direction and influence to the emerging genre; his contribution transcended Afro-Funk as a genre and is definitely beyond the limitations of an article of this breadth.

One of the earliest influences on this trend towards the new musical genre was Orlando Julius, whose early tracks “Efoye So” and “Mapami” betrayed the strong hybrid influence of Funk and Afro Rhythms; however, Pino remained the man to beat and behind him came a new generation of acts who increasingly gained prominence. In the East of the country in particular, there emerged a strong generation of bands, who cut their teeth in the Soul scene of the mid 60s but who sadly got caught up in the Nigerian Civil War and who ironically survived by playing to entertain the soldiers—who indeed were the only ones who could afford to pay the musicians. Bands that emerged during this period include the Strangers led by Bob Miga, whose track “Love Rock” was one of the biggest selling singles for EMI in 1970.Another band that was of this period was Airforce Wings, led by Dannie Ian, which became the Wings after the War and gained prominence after Ian was replaced by Emeka “Spud Nathan” Udensi. Dannie “Ian” Mbaezue later recorded one of the most popular tracks of the era “Fuel for Love” with his band Wrinkers Experience. Other bands which deserve mention are The Hykkers (featuring Jake Sollo and Joe Juwe on guitars), Cyclops and The Spades.

Some young bands emerged in the late 60s in the northern part of the country. The Sunflowers—managed by Sunny Okogwu (Miriam Babangida’s older brother) and featuring the young Mike Appoh, who later emerged as a legendary Highlife saxophonist and bandleader—was one of such groups. Laolu Akins, then a prodigiously talented young drummer, was also a member of this group. Another young but extremely important band was The Moonrakers, which- also featured Mike Appoh and the awesome guitarist Frank Martins.

In Lagos a number of young bands emerged with a newly defined earthy sound. One of these was The Cutes, led by the inimitable Dom Bruce. The Cutes featured two talented guitarists: one was Jimmy Lee (who later joined Monomono) and the other Harry Jones. Another important member of the band was the ground-breaking bassist, Pedro, whose unique style blended the deepest Afro-Rhythms with the purest Funk progressions—in short, Afro-Funk.

The Thermometers was another young Lagos combo worthy of remembrance. But the best of the Lagos crowd was Segun Bucknor and The Assembly, whose hits “Adonrisogba Sogba”, “Poor Man No Get Brother” and “Dye Dye” were comparable in musicianship to anything available in the Soul/Funk era.

However the emergence of Afro-Funk as a pure musical genre was, in my view, crystallised with a recording by a five-member group of ex-Biafran soldiers with a young Highlife crooner at the helm. This recording was “Akula (Owu Onyeara)” by The Funkees. This band comprised of some of the most solid musicians in the East at the time. For lead vocals was Mohammed Ahidjo (former lead singer with The Atomic 8 of Aba and who sang the hit “Angelina Pay My Money”); lead guitar was Jake Sollo (formerly of the Hykkers); Harry Mosco was rhythm guitar; Sonny Akpan, congas; Billy Ike played the organ and Chike Madu the drums. The track “Akula”, according to Danny Ibe, was recorded on a four-track mixer in the most primitive of surroundings, but it still went on to become one of the most powerful tracks ever produced in Nigeria misic. “Akula”, simply put, revolutionised Afro-Funk. The track combined native Igbo rhythms in the bass line and percussions, which simultaneously displayed the classic syncopation of Funk. The more conventional Funk characteristics in the track were displayed in the Funky guitar and Hammond Organ arrangements, while the vocalisation—which was a unique concept for an African band, —was more akin to a Rock vocal performance. In short, these elements blended into a raw, tight unit.

Berkly Jones, Laolu Akins, Lemmy Otu- BLO!

After this track followed a whole swathe of ground-breaking recordings from other bands which further established Afro-Funk as a genre. Amongst the first was the ground-breaking album “Chapter 1” by BLO, which was released by EMI in 1974 and which featured the talented trio of Laolu Akins on drums, Berkeley Ike Jones on guitar and Mike Odumosu on bass. This band was particularly important on account of their pedigree. Berkeley Jones and Laolu Akins had, in 1971, been recruited by Ginger Baker as part of his travelling band SALT, and had toured the UK with him. The album was instrumentally one of the most advanced albums to come from a Nigerian band at the time. This album was subsequently followed by their second album “Phase 2”, with massive tracks like “Don’t Take Her Away From Me”, “Native Doctor” and “Atide”.

Joni Haastrup and Monomono (Kenneth "Baba Ken"Okulolo 2nd from the right)

Another important record was “Give the Beggar a Chance” by Monomono, which featured the bass heroics of Kenneth Okulolo and the vocal mastery of Joni Haastrup. Joni Haastrup in his own right was one of the most important figures in contemporary Nigerian music, on account of his other seminal Afro-Funk hits under Monomono, such as “Ipade Aladun” and the excellent “Tire Lomada Nigbehin”. it was also during this period that “Odenigbo” and “I’ve Been Loving You” was released by The Wings and also “Look at the World” by One World (One World was a splinter group formed after the breakup of The Strangers and the band showcased the excellent vocals of Sam Matthews as well as the talent of Funk guitarist Anii Hoffner. There was also “Masquerade” and “More Bread to the People” by The Aktions, which was led by Lemmy Faith and Renny on bass. Mention must also be made of Headzfunk and Akwassa, two exceptional bands which had the same personnel but co-existed simultaneously. Both bands featured Felix Odey (Feladey) on guitar and Eddie Offeyi on drums, and had to their credit a monster track in 1975 that was called “Be Yourself”.

Ofege

The Afro-Funk revolution reached its peak in 1974 with the advent of what was to be Nigeria’s most popular school band ever, the awesome Ofege and their seminal album “Try and Love”. The youth band featured students of St Gregory’s College, Lagos (my alma mater).There was Melvin Ukachi on vocals, Paul Alade on bass, and also Mike Meme, Soga Benson and Dapo Olumide and the session effort of Berkeley Jones on guitar and Laolu Akins on drums. The album was produced by the great Odion Iruoje of EMI. “Try and Love” was another milestone in the Nigerian Afro-Funk story, with tracks like “Whizzy Ilabo, “Nobody fail”, “Ofege” and “Gbe Mi Lo”. Ofege’s live performances were a study in dedicated musicianship and vibrant youth culture at a time of plenty in Nigerian history: the band represented the joy and optimism of a country enjoying prosperity under the “oil boom” as well as the rebelliousness of youth. I remember my sister getting warned off ogling over pictures of the Ofege stars. Ofege were to influence a generation of high school and university Afro-Funk bands such as Tirogo, led by a young (and exceptionally talented) Funmi Onabolu; Salty and Koku (featuring the talented Sultan Anibaba on Bass) and BAC Foundation, to name a few.

Osayomore Joseph

I must also mention what may be described as the Benin “mafia”, meaning the rich storehouse of talent that Benin City produced and whose sounds promoted the new genre. In the vanguard was the genius of Victor Uwaifo, whose initial material was in the Highlife genre, but who with his “Ekassa” albums diversified into a deeper Funky sound which integrated native Benin rhythms in a fantastic blend. Notable examples of this style are “Do do do Ekassa” and “Ekayan Ekassa”. Other artistes of note were Osayomore Joseph, with the excellent “Eguae Oba”; Leo Fadaka and the Heroes, with “Blak Sound”; and my favourite, Collins Oke Elaiho and his Odoligie Nobles Band, with their influential track “Simini Yaya”.

At this juncture it should be mentioned that the common thread between all these artistes is the excellent musicianship and the faultless blend of the pure Funk instrumentation and the deep native soul rhythms of their productions, only possible on account of the ancestral affinity between Funk and West African Rhythm.

In the late 1970s up till the 1980s Nigerian Afro-Funk declined, with the big record companies preferring a more Calypso or Disco oriented beat in recordings- with the notable exception of a couple of outstanding seminal works from two artistes Kris Okotie- via the album “I need someone” and the exceptional Gbugbemi Amas- via his “Amas Grill” album- . Also, the US and UK Disco scene literally obliterated the influence of Afro-Funk, with the same record companies obtaining licences to sell these albums in Nigeria to a captive audience. Mention however must be made of an important album released in the US in 1980—which was more or less at the end of the Afro-Funk revolution in Nigeria—by the Nigerian Aleke Kanonu, which featured a young Wynton Marsalis on Flugelhorn and which had an awesome compliment of tracks like “Ngwode” and the excellent “Nwanne Nwanne”. Aleke Kanonu was a percussionist from Ukwuani in Delta State, who learned his trade from his father, who was himself a native drummer.

Aleke Kanonu

Afro-Funk never re-emerged in Nigeria, unlike in the USA, where there was a re-emergence of its hybrid counterpart Funk in the 90s and early 2000s. However, with the re-emergence of Funk on the global landscape Nigerian Afro-Funk bands experienced a renaissance of sorts as compilation albums of their work were released in Europe. Examples of these include Duncan Brookers “Afro-Rock”, featuring Geraldo Pino, and Quinton Scott’s “Nigeria 70”, featuring a whole host of Nigerian Afro-Funk groups. Tony Allen however is the biggest face of the re-emergence of Afro-Funk (and fittingly too, being one of its most important innovative fathers). His album “Home Cooking”, produced by the British superstar Damon Albarn, was a classic study in Afro-Funk structure; as was his recent contribution to the international hit album “The Good, the bad and the Queen”. Afro-Funk also found a live stage re-emergence with the Funkees being featured as opening act for Pharaoh Saunders at the Brighton Festival in 2003 and also on their own bill at the Jazz Café in the same year (for the Jazz Cafe gig, yours truly was drafted in on lead vocals in the absence of Mohammed Ahidjo).

In addition mention must be made of the sterling contributions of a new generation of Nigerian Afro-Funk stars of which particular mention must be made of Dele Sosimi- who cut his teeth as a young Keyboardist- whilst part of the original Egypt 80 (as distinct from Africa 70) and who has stayed faithful to the cause of Afro-Beat, but diversifying into a more mainstream and indeed original Funk feel; the inimitable Keziah Jones- whose albums- “Blufunk is a fact” and more particularly “Black Orpheus” – apart from their commercial appeal, have been part of a truly serious drive by this gentleman to tap into the storehouse of musical power that Afro-Funk represents, whilst coursing an original musical direction of his own. Also Ayetoro, Harri Best, Mike Aremu (though more Gospel based in his orientation), Kola Ogunkoya, Juwon Ogungbe refreshingly back from a sabbatical, Gboyega Oyedele and a whole host of other talented and hard-working artistes, who have doggedly persisted in promoting the genre.

In 1996, a particularly important revival or re-congregation of the old Afro-Funk stars of the 60's and 70's took place in the course of the famous weekend Jam sessions initially at the private residence of Captain Emma Anyanwu and subsequently culminating in the De Captain's series ?(this being a venue in Ikeja Lagos) which featured a who's who of the old boys of Afro-Funk ranging from Laolu Akins to Lemmy Faith and Rennie Pearl of the Aktions, Ahmed Moore of the Strangers, Emma China of the Wings, Feladey and Eddie Offeyi of Headzfunk etc and with the central axis of a group of young professionals, with a love of music such as Captain Anyanwu, Tony Martins, George Anozie, the late Captain Ebi Okudu, Emeka Nwandu, Sultan Anibaba and yours truly amongst several others. These sessions were extremely important in that they formed a focal point for the old boys to get together, perform and be seen once again.

Mention also must be made of a number of independent labels that have in the present day continued to influence and propagate the cause- Kayode Samuel's Ekostar, Quinton Scott's Afrostrut, Miles Clerets series, Duncan Brooker's Afro-Rock, the inimitable STORM Records of Obi Asika, Olisa Adibuah and Nnamdi Eneli. Special mention should be made of two incredible bloggers who have been outstanding in propagating information on the history of Nigerian music namely WithCombandRazor and Likembe.Also mention must be made of the sterling efforts of Club owner Muyiwa Majekodunmi, whose Iconic venue "Jazzville" provided a platform for several Afro-Funk veterans (Willie Bestman being an example) to ply their trade in the lean years.

The legacy of Afro-Funk still endures in the consciousness of true music lovers, with seminal Afro-Funk records such as the albums of Aleke Kanonu and Ofege being sold for as much as $200.00 on collector’s sites. And as for the fact that Nigeria was the crucible wherein the melding of this high artistic form came to occur—that is a legacy for which we can all be proud.

Pioneers of Nigerian Afro-Funk- Where are they now

Geraldo Pino: Pino died in Port Harcourt in late 2008 after a brief illness,, he had held sway as King of the music scene and almost after receiving long overdue accolade in the UK with a concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

Bob Miga: Keyboardist and leader of The Strangers. Miga settled in London as a staff of the Nigeria High Commission. He recently retired from the diplomatic service and is said to be living quietly in London with his family.

Dannie “Ian” Mbaezue: Former lead singer of The Spades, The Wings and Wrinkars Experience. He explored a career as a Highlife musician after the demise of his Pop career and and is said to be a running a trading business. He was recently seen on stage in Nigeria in 2006 at a PMAN sponsored event.

Laolu Akins: After his stint with BLO Akins had a successful career as the influential A&R Manager of Sony Music. He now works as a consultant, and divides his time between the UK and Nigeria.
Mike Appoh: Appoh went on to a career as a super session-man and producer, working with diverse acts like Lenny Kravitz, The Real Thing, Onyeka Onwenu, Majek Fashek and many more. For many years he worked in the UK Civil Service until his recent retirement and currently plays infrequently, usually for charity and educational purposes.

Mohammed Ahidjo: Ahidjo’s career stands out as one of the most distinguished yet unrewarded. After providing Dan Satch and the Atomic 8 of Aba with one of their biggest hits, “Baby Pay My Money”, for which he was neither paid nor given credit on the album, he joined the Funkees, from which, after the dissolution of the band, he did not receive the requisite terminal benefits. due. He currently lives in London, where he runs a trading business.

Danny Ibe: Bassist/songwriter of The Funkees, Ibe re-trained as a lawyer and has worked as an immigration lawyer for many years. He recently released a solo album.

Joni Haastrup:-

Haastrup, before joining Monomono, had toured the UK with Ginger Baker as part of his band Air force (he replaced Steve Winwood). He later returned to the UK after Monomono, working as a much sought-after session-man. He then moved to the US, where he got a band together, after he which he became a music teacher in California interspersed with a career as a super-session-man. His name can be found on the credits of some major works, such as Chris Isaaks albums in the early 90s.

Lemmy Faith:

Lead Singer of The Aktions. Faith travelled to the UK in the mid 70s and remained there until he returned to Nigeria in 1996 at the behest of his brother Andy Nwani. He ran a small music studio and equipment rentals business. He died in 2007.

Felix Odey:

Feladey had an extremely resilient career after his time with Headzfunk/Akwassa, emerging as part of the combo Japadodo and releasing his own solo album in 1995. He set up a successful band playing out of Mobil Eket in the late 90s and currently runs a successful business in the same area.

Eddie Offeyi: After Headzfunk/Akwassa, Offeyi joined up with Kristie Essien-Igbokwe’s Gold Train Orchestra, of which he was for many years Bandleader. Offeyi, who recently turned 60, occupies his time now as a session-man.

Sultan Anibaba: After Salty and Koku, he trained as an Architect and currently lives in the UK - running an Architecutural Consultancy.

Melvin Ukachi: After Ofege, Ukachi embarked on a modest solo career. He currently resides in the USA.

Dapo Olumide: Olumide later became a pilot and was at one timea senior manager at Aero Contractors in Lagos.

Funmi Onabolu: The former keyboardist of the boy band Tirogo is now a leading advertising and media executive on the Board of Bates and Cosse, Lagos.

Sot. Lelos kai Sia EE v GSK Update on Anti-Competition Legislation

2009-07-23T17:05:00.003+01:00

This article is an expanded version of a previous post on this case, which was published in the Business Strategy Special Report of Pharma Technology China Autumn 2009

In the field of Anti-Competition legislation, one of the most important European statutory provisions is Article 82 EC which states:

"Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the common market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market insofar as it may affect trade between Member States. Such abuse may, in particular, consist in:

(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;

(b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;

(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

(d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts. "

This provision was recently examined and re-interpreted in the recent decision in Sot. Lélos kai Sia EE and Others v GlaxoSmithKline AEVE Farmakeftikon Proionton

The facts:

GSK AEVE- the Greek subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline plc which imported, warehoused and distributed GSK’s products in Greece- including the prescription brands, Lamictal and Serevent - Migraine, Epilepsy and Asthma therapies respectively.

· The appellants in the main proceedings were customers of GSK AEVE i.e wholesalers/distributors and had been for a number of years. However on 6 November 2000, GSK AEVE stopped supply of products to the appellants (citing shortage in product supply, for which it denied responsibility) and then proceeded to distribute the said products directly to Greek hospitals and pharmacies through a company Farmacenter AE.

· In December 2000, February and December 2001 GSK AEVE applied to the Greek Competition Commission for a declaration that its direct sales to Greek consumers did not infringe Greek anti-competition legislation. Following discussions with the said Commission, GSK AEVE agreed to deliver quantities of medicines equivalent to national consumption plus 25%.

· The appellants i.e a number of Greek pharmaceutical wholesalers and Pharmaceutical Trade associations, applied for and obtained an Interim order- pending a final determination- from the Competition Commission requiring GSK AEVE to meet orders to the appellants.

· Also between 30 April 2001 and 11 November 2002, each of the appellants filed proceedings before the Greek Court of First Instance, claiming that the conduct of GSK AEVE in failing to supply products ordered by them and by distributing through Farmacenter- constituted unfair and anticompetitive acts and an abuse of GSK’s dominant position The Greek Court of first Instance however dismissed these actions- deciding substantively that GSK AEVE had not abused its dominant position.

· Prior to this the Greek Competition Commission- as a result of the plurality of actions- referred the matter to the ECJ for determination, of which the ECJ declined Jurisdiction in (Syfait and Others [2005] ECR I‑4609), since the Commission was not a Court or Tribunal as per Article 234 EC. The appellants in the main action proceeded to appeal the decision of the Court of first instance at the Greek Court of Appeal in Athens which stayed the action- and this time- successfully referred the matters to the ECJ. The Italian and Polish Governments as well as Commission of the European Communities also joined with the Appellants in the action against GSK.

The preliminary questions referred to the ECJ being the following:

a. Whether there is an abuse of a dominant position contrary to Article 82 EC if a pharmaceuticals company occupying such a position on the national market for certain medicinal products refuses to meet orders sent to it by wholesalers on account of those wholesalers involvement in parallel exports of those products to other Member States.

b. Guidance as to the relevance of a series of factors, such as:

I. The degree of regulation to which the pharmaceuticals sector is subject in Member States;

II. The impact of parallel trade on the pharmaceuticals companies’ revenues, and;

III. Whether parallel trade is capable of generating financial benefits for the ultimate consumers of the medicinal products.

The Proceedings:

The Grand Chamber in its consideration of the issues delineated two issues for examination based on the respective arguments of the parties:

a. The existence of a refusal to supply liable to eliminate competition;

It examined the general proposition of Art.82 EC as applied in the Joined Cases 6 Istituto Chemioterapico Italiano and Commercial Solvents v Commission [1974] ECR 223, paragraph 25, and Case 27/76 United Brands and United Brands Continentaal v Commission [1978] ECR 207, paragraph 183). It was common ground with the parties that GSK AEVE aimed to limit parallel exports by those wholesalers to the markets of other Member States, which in itself was contrary to Art.82 EC, the next consideration thus being whether the same amounted to abusive conduct. Leading to the next item of consideration:

b. The abusive nature of the refusal to supply;

GSK AVEVE in this regard argued- citing (United Brands Continentaal v Commission), that a dominant undertaking is not under an obligation to honour orders that are out of the ordinary and that it may take reasonable steps in order to protect its legitimate commercial interests. Further arguing with regard to the Pharmaceutical sector, that the general logic behind protecting competition within a brand does not function, because of the attendant intervention of the public authorities of Member States- preventing the manufacturers of medicines from developing their activities in normal competitive conditions (being the largest customer base). GSK AEVE also argued that as a consequence of the slim margins referred to, the parallel trade, which it sought to limit, brought financial advantage only to the intermediaries (who exported the goods to other member states) and who did not make any contribution to the R+D process which ultimately would not benefit the consumer.

The Appellants on the other hand advanced two contrary arguments: a. That Art.82 EC cannot be applied differently to the Pharmaceutical sector; b. That the repercussions of parallel trade do not impact on the R+D investment of Pharma companies and that parallel trade in products bring advantages to consumers. Furthermore they argued that to accept GSK AEVE’s arguments would amount to accepting a restriction on free trade.

The Grand Chamber:

1. Rejected GSK AEVE’s argument that parallel trade did not bring comparative advantage to consumers, deciding that on the contrary where a lower price impact results, it is in fact of advantage to the consumer;

2. Accepted that whilst price regulation within national territories may have an impact on profit margins within a particular territory, a party had a choice to trade within a territory where such price restrictions exist and if it exercises that choice, it cannot claim that there has been a restraint on competition- especially where in many instances it is involved in negotiating the said prices- importantly stating that price regulation does not remove the said prices from the law of supply and demand;

3. Accepted that a refusal to supply distributors would amount abuse, if the orders were ordinary orders, but not so if the same were extra-ordinary orders, however it determined that the nature of what amounted to an ordinary or extra-ordinary order would be a matter for the referring courts in the member states to determine, based on lack of uniformity of circumstances from state to state. The Grand Chamber acknowledged that in Greece, pharmaceuticals wholesalers were obliged by Law to supply the needs of a defined geographical area with a range of pharmaceutical products, it also accepted that in cases where parallel trade would lead to a shortage of medicines on a given national market, it would be for the national authorities to resolve the situation, by taking steps consistent with national legislation as well as with the obligations flowing from Article 81 of Directive 2001/83.

Consequent to all the arguments and its determinations of Law and fact above, the Grand Chamber then made a final determination in the following terms:

“Article 82 EC must be interpreted as meaning that an undertaking occupying a dominant position on the relevant market for medicinal products which, in order to put a stop to parallel exports carried out by certain wholesalers from one Member State to other Member States, refuses to meet ordinary orders from those wholesalers, is abusing its dominant position. It is for the national court to ascertain whether the orders are ordinary in the light of both the size of those orders in relation to the requirements of the market in the first Member State and the previous business relations between that undertaking and the wholesalers concerned.”

The Implications:

Whilst patently clear that the Cases in issue here are far from resolved, being that the Greek Courts would now have to determine whether the orders were indeed Ordinary or Extraordinary, the fact does remain that that this case is extremely important for having at least clearly defined some very important areas of controversy in Anti-Competition Law, namely:

1. That Pharmaceutical Industry inspite of attendant regulation of pricing in many national markets is not immune from anti-competition legislation at both EU and National levels, since as the Grand Chamber stated- a company has the free will to either participate in a market or not and where it does so cannot claim an exemption from anti-competition laws.

2. Parallel trade by wholesalers or distributors of Pharmaceutical trade cannot justify abuse of manufacturers dominant position i.e by refusal to meet ordinary order, since such parallel trade is within the spirit of free trade engendered by the community in general and specifically enshrined in ART 81 EC (formerly Art 85 of the EC Treaty) and applied in the joined cases of IAZ International Belgium and Others v Commission [1983] ECR 3369, paragraphs 23 to 27; Javico [1998] ECR I‑1983, paragraphs 13 and 14; and P General Motors v Commission [2006] ECR I‑3173, paragraphs 67 to 69;

3. A dominant party inspite of its overriding obligation to comply with Anti-competition statute, otherwise have a duty to protect their commercial interest where parallel trade by wholesalers/distributors is based on extra-ordinary orders;

4. Member states are the sole determinant of whether the conduct of a dominant party amounts to abuse- based on the exercise of its discretion to determine whether the orders in question are ordinary or indeed extra-ordinary.

Whilst one school of thought may be that the Grand Chamber merely passed the responsibility for finally resolving this thorny issue to the member state courts, its is undeniable that this is a most important decision with far-reaching implications for the Pharmaceutical industry and which shall certainly give rise to a plethora of litigation in Courts in member states and which may indeed influence the emerging markets in due course and it is the view of this writer that new questions may soon arise- especially from a determination of the broad parameters of Ordinary and Extra-ordinary orders- which will necessarily have to go back to the ECJ for an authoritative pronouncement. This and much more remains to be seen.

© Edward Keazor

The Countdown Begins

2009-07-16T16:06:00.000+01:00

Countdown To

Sot. Lelos kai Sia EE v GSK

2009-01-03T01:21:00.003Z

There was a fair bit of jubilation amongst IP owners and specifically speaking the big manufacturers about a recent decision of the ECJ, which epitomises once again the age-old wisdom- "You can't fight City Hall".

The gravamen of the decision being that an Undertaking with a dominant position in a relevant market abuses its said dominant position (as per Article 82 EC) if it fails to meet ordinary orders merely to frustrate parallel exports. Which is a sensible enough proposition in itself, however the decision goes on to state the following: a. What constitutes an Ordinary order is a matter for the national courts to decide and; b. The principle would exclude an extra-ordinary order. In short, the ECJ left the definition of an ordinary order open to interpretation and also specifically opened the door to justifying failure to meet extra-ordinary orders.

Just by way of background Article 82 states:

"Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the common market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market insofar as it may affect trade between Member States.

Such abuse may, in particular, consist in:

(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;

(b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;

(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

The facts:

This was an application brought by the Greek Competition Commission, which was originally denied on the basis of lack of Jurisdiction by the ECJ, since the Greek Competition Commission was not a Court or Tribunal as defined by Article 234 EC ( Applied in Case C-53/03 Syfait and Others). Based on direct supply contracts between GSK and Greek entities.

The Greek Competition Commission had then ruled that the conduct of GSK in refusing to fulfil orders to frustrate parallel import (by wholesalers) was an infringment of Art.82. GSK then appealed to the Greek Court of Appeal which referred the matter to the ECJ, which then made a merits determination on the second try.

The ECJ's key consideration being that “a producer of pharmaceutical products must be in a position to protect its own commercial interests if it is confronted with orders that are out of the ordinary in terms of quantity. Such could be the case, in a given Member State, if certain wholesalers order from that producer medicines in quantities which are out of proportion to those previously sold by the same wholesalers to meet the needs of the market in that Member State”.

Well as the saying goes let the games begin, there shall be several litigitious raves going on around the courts of Europe, for the soul brothers of the bar to disscect, define the parameters of what is certain to be an interesting concept i.e "ordinary orders"?!? Hey party hard people!

Magisterial Diktat

2009-01-02T14:39:00.005Z

The Old Session Magistrates were famed/feared for their ascerbic wit and oft-dictatorial control of their courts, hence one story i heard didn't fail to amuse me for its sheer brilliance as an example of their ascerbic wit.

A young Barrister was labouring through a particularly testy and lengthy address before one of the old Bench warriors, in which the young wig was getting a pasting from the old salty dog on the bench and still managing to get himself twisted in knots.

Anyway as the story goes, older Counsel on the other side found it difficult hide his amusement at the poor little Sprog's travail's and sat in a smug, arrogant survey of the proceedings with a massive smirk on his face to boot.

The Magistrate at one stage and with a completely straight face scribbled a little note, which he asked the Court Clerk to pass to the chuckling old Counsel.

The contents read - and this is classic "Dont laugh, he's better than you"

Have a happy new year

The Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy

2008-12-17T08:33:00.002Z

This is a repeat of an old post going back two years but remain even more topical and which I ought to have published on Armistice day. It may be lat but hope it is still significant

Theodore Bayley Hardy was born on the 20th October, 1863 in Exeter. He was educated at home, then went on to the City of London School at nine, also London University.He was ordained a Deacon in the Church of England in December 1898, at the age of thirty-five, and ordained as Priest in St George's Church, Nottingham in 1899.At the advent of WW1 , Hardy tried several times to join the Army Chaplain's Dept and was unsuccessful until 1916, when he was finally accepted as a Temporary Chaplain 4th Class (Captain) and was posted to France where in September and October 1917 he was firstly awarded the Distinguished Service Order and then the Military Cross for his gallant conduct in going out into the open to bring in wounded men. He later was awarded the Victoria Cross at the battle of Boucqoy, which was personally presented to him by King George V.

So what? Well, Hardy was a Non-Combatant, being an Army Chaplain and most importantly, he was a pacifist. It is said, that he hated war and conflict in its entirety- going against everything he genuinely believed as a Clergyman. Why join the Army? Well, difficult to say, but it is said that Hardy genuinely believed that those that needed conversion and indeed his Ministration were men who were about to die or indeed that were going to kill. He also believed genuinely in the cause of the Army he was part of, being the victim, not the aggressor- as such he felt the battle was God's battle, since the War was fought in defence not in attack. Any Military Historian will tell you the mindset of a Soldier tends to differ in the two instances (see "Case Studies in Motivation" and which is why Politicians are best advised to think long and hard before invading other people's countries.Hardy would regularly go out into the Battle front, ministering and praying with the men, in the most horrendous conditions, literally with bombs exploding around him and on many occasions, he had to be dug out of a mound of earth after an explosion, usually with a cheeky grin on his face and a mouth full of mud (creative licence admitted) . He was constantly calm under fire and the men in battle genuinely believed he was charmed in that men would be literally dropping dead around him and he would calmly walk through without flinching, praying with the wounded/dying and encouraging the fighters and mostly recovering wounded soldiers and handing them over to the Medics. He would usually announce himself as he calmly walked to a section of men in intense combat, sometimes in pitch darkness, with a soft spoken "Its only me". It is said that he genuinely had no fear of death in that he believed that when God wanted him he would go as and when.

One of his most notable actions- whilst with the 8th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, being to walk 400 yards into no-man's land to recover wounded soldiers (three times) on one occasion, personally digging out a wounded man and another dead soldier, buried under a heap of mud, raised by Shellfire- whilst under intense fire himslf. He then covered the wounded s0ldier's body with his own whilst waiting for a lull in the fire, praying constantly with the soldier and encouraging him. This continued over a number of days and he remained at his task doing what he did best. For the avoidance of doubt it must be said that Hardy did not fire a single shot at an enemy- even in self defence.

This situation continued for several days and Hardy was constant in his efforts, it is impossible to count how many wounded men,he dragged to safety at this battle. Neither is it possible to recount the number of lives he saved or acts of bravery that he exhibited. Always with a gentle manner and always soft-spoken, he was regarded by his men as super-human, not by any display of macho bravado but by consistent displays of unambiguous, cold, clear courage.
There have been many recipients of the Victoria Cross, many deserving, many secretly regarded by Mlitary historians as political and un-merited, being for acts which a Soldier is ordinarily paid to do i.e fight and stay alive.

There have been many displays of Courage in war, however a number of authors would define courage in two ways- Hot Courage- an act of bravery or foolishness, at times done in the heat of the moment, at which the person responsible looks back and wonders how come. Then there are acts of cold courage by men and women in battle or in everyday life, consisting of consistent acts of exceptional bravery, selflessness and sacrifice. Hardy's acts were of the latter, over a period of two long hard years, day in day out.

Hardy did not survive the war, dying of Pneumonia after being hospitalised for a bullet in the thigh. The bullet did not kill him, rather the unsanitary conditions in the Hospital did- on October 18th 1918.

The paradox, is that a peacenik and Vicar, proved to be one of the most courageous and respected Soldiers in modern warfare (alongside the better known- Dr Noel Chavasse). A man who would probably be vilified in many circles, by the armchair soldiers who send other peoples children off to war. Thrillseeker or Idealist, the fact is its difficult to say. A man who tried for two years unsuccessfully to go to War and who rejected the option of demobilisation -offered by the King no less- whilst totally abhorring War and who often did things that might have been regarded as insane could be termed under each head, but I personally regard this mild-mannered Vicar as a true Idealist, naive he might be regarded by some, but he lived and died by the courage of his convictions, I'm not sure I could do that.

A word or two must be said about two other Army Chaplains who received the VC, Revd Noel Mellish and Rev William Addison, whose acts were of the same character as Hardy's and which had a profound effect on their men- whatever your view is on Religion. Here's a quote from an article about Mellish:

"Another story worth relating is that of a cockney soldier who was one of those brought in by the padre. This man was well known for his anti religious views yet when settled in a base hospital after the fighting enquired "What religion is 'e".? When told he replied- "Well I'm the same as 'im now and the bloke as sez a word agen our church will 'ave 'is ****** 'ead bashed in."

I end this post by pointing out that Its noteworthy that no woman has ever received the Victoria Cross, inspite of the uncountable acts of bravery by Female members of the Medical Corps, who displayed the same level of cold courage and selflessness over the years that Hardy displayed. In addition, no woman has ever been given a medal for going through 12 hours of labour and childbirth (or for that matter bringing up children in a council estate or remote African/Asian Village- without support and holding down two jobs at the same time).

I recommend a simulated version of pregnancy, Labour/Childbirth as part of Special Forces Training- now that would take cold courage.

Ikenga -Songs at Sunset

2008-12-01T06:08:00.001Z

Finally put a video to the track my band- Ikenga recorded eight years ago- Songs at Sunset.

This song being to highlight the plight of the Igbo's during the Nigerian Civil War, from the genocide suffered pre-war, to the heroic and often-times Quixotic battles fought during the three year war May 30th 1967- January 15th 1970.

I was born on the the day the war started and pay tribute to my parents, who after having set up a cosy middle class paradise of a home in Enugu (then within Biafra) were caused to become refugees from 1967-1969, enduring hunger, exposure and the ever attendant dangers of war. They were the lucky ones, One Million Igbos died during the war, 80% of whom were innocent civilians mostly womenand childrensimply looking to survive within or apart from a country that appeared not to want them.

I do not seek to justify Biafra, or indeed to promote a neo-Biafran cause-not at all! Nigeria as an entity is far too important, not just to itself but to the continent and the world o be fragmented into mini-failed states. In addition, most thinkers who were part of Biafra will tell you that the Biafran administration was its own worst enemy and it was only a matter of time before there was internal implosion, even inspite of the highly skilled, motivated, industrious and knowledgeable population.

This song and video are meant merely to remind the hawks that war is not glamorous and fun, it is a bitter, sad, painful phenomenon.

Fact: The scourge of armed robbery and insecurity in Nigeria today was as a direct result of the demobilisation of several restless and disturbed young men nto society- with their guns.

That is a direct sociological legacy of the Nigerian Civil War- 41 years after.

Thw video comprises images pre and during the war, the image copyright is held of three main sources- a. The Corbis archive; b. CUNY and c. www.emeagwali.com.

The songs being essentially a medley of folk and contemporary songs popular within Biafra, before and during the war. Some being songs of sorrow, others merely expressions of every day joy and pain. I leave you to make up your own mind.

Judicial Horseplay

2008-11-13T16:41:00.004Z

If there was ever any doubt that the British are animal lovers, then read on:

Appeal court judges last month approved a £1.5 million divorce settlement which included £50,000 a year in maintenance for the upkeep of three horses and a lump sum of £900,000 to buy a house with land for the horses. Sir Mark Potter, Britain’s most senior family law judge, commented that the lady’s husband had known about and consented to the horses playing a key role in his wife’s life and had actually encouraged the hobby by purchasing one of the animals following the loss of their baby. The couple had been married for 11 years and had no other children. Experts believe that the decision could set a new legal precedent, with divorcing couples claiming thousands of pounds in maintenance for animal interests.

At £16666.67 per horse per annum, I would say this is a pretty decent time to be a horse, what with the credit crunch and all. I do not and have never had anything against horses and infact will go as far as saying I am glad for the horses, however this seems slightly excessive - forgive me but this is my opinion and I would further posit that if the horses could talk they might equally view the expenditure as excessive, having said that what do i know about horses and their needs, what do we expect next Horse weddings and Horse prenuptials? Why not, the two nags now have an assured income and indeed assets which stand eligible for asset protection/division.

I can imagine the poor horses being badgered by Telesalesmen, trying to interest them in our "outstanding range of exotic sugarlumps" or "our Korean Organic carrot range", lifestyle gurus sending brochures urging the poor nags to undergo life-coaching on Barnyard Fengshu (goodness!).

Anyway I thought you might want to know.

The Indian Patents Amendment Act 2005- Pt 1

2008-10-16T12:55:00.004+01:00

One of the more significant developments in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry in recent times being the Patents Amendment Act 2005, amending the Patents Law of 1970, and extending Patent Protection to Pharmaceutical products – as opposed to processes as was the case before. This being to satisfy the deadline set by the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS), which made patent protection on both products and processes compulsory for 20 years. The new statute forced recognition not only of new patents but also any patents filed after 1st January 1995.

Key provisions in the statute are as follows:

*a) Extension of product patent protection to all fields of technology (i.e., drugs, foods and chemicals);

b) Deletion of the provisions relating to Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMRs) (which would now become redundant), and introduction of a transitional provision for safeguarding EMRs already granted;

c) Introduction of a provision for enabling grant of compulsory licence for export of medicines to countries which have insufficient or no manufacturing capacity, to meet emergent public health situations (in accordance with the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health);

d) Modification in the provisions relating to opposition procedures with a view to streamlining the system by having both Pre-grant and Post-grant opposition in the Patent Office;

e) Addition of a new proviso in respect of mailbox applications so that patent rights in respect of the mailbox shall be available only from the date of grant of patent, and not retrospectively from the date of publication;

f) Strengthening the provisions relating to national security to guard against patenting abroad of dual use technologies;

g) Rationalisation of provisions relating to time-lines with a view to introducing flexibility and reducing the processing time for patent applications, and simplifying and rationalising procedures.

* Source http://www.indianembassy.org/

Of particular significance to the Pharmaceutical Industry was Section 3 and of even more specific interest to the on-going question of Patent protection and the WTO-TRIPS regime is Section

(3)d.

The wording of Section 3(d) is thus: “The mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance or the mere discovery of any new property or new use of a known substance or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus unless such known process results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant” The section is further explained thus: “ For the purposes of this clause, salts, esters, ethers, polymorphs, metabolites, pre form, particle size, isomers, mixtures of isomers, complexes combinations and other derivatives of known substance shall be considered to be the same substance, unless they differ significantly in properties with regards to efficacy”

The application of this Law was tested in two cases in the New Delhi High Court namely In Re Novartis and Roche v Cipla.

In Re Novartis- this case being based on a Claim filed by Novartis in the New Delhi High Court, challenging refusal of a Patent application for its product Glivec. The Claim being for a Declaration that Section 3 (d) of the Patents Amendment Act 2005 was unconstitutional and non-compliant with India’s obligations under WTO/TRIPS. Novartis was unsuccessful in its claim, with the court deciding that S.3(d) was not unconstitutional as contended by Novartis, further deciding that the Claim was more appropriately addressed to the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism.

In Roche v CIPLA- Roche registered the patent for the API - Erlonitib- of its Drug Tarceva last year, CIPLA however launched a generic version of the Drug. Roche naturally brought action against CIPLA who claimed that the Patent was invalid being that Erlotinib is a derivative of an earlier Molecule Gefatinib, hence it wasn’t original. Roche sought an order of Interim Injunction restraining CIPLA from further infringement of its Copyright, which was refused by the Delhi High Court on the basis that there is a serious triable issue as to the originality of the API; hence a case had not seriously been made out for the grant of an Injunction. The case being ground-breaking in that the Court whilst determining the application, placed substantial emphasis on public interest- whilst still applying the American Cyanamid v Ethicon principles.

A simple summary of CIPLA's argument being that the patent suffered from invalidity as it wasn’t new, obvious and didn’t involve an inventive step as it was

i. A modified version of a pre-1995 drug- and hence not eligible for patent protection in India;

ii. There was no evidence of improved efficacy as per S.3(d) in addition the application had not disclosed that the drug was a mixture of two polymorphs, or drug derivatives, which would have been ineligible for patent protection, since the efficacy test was not satisfied.

iii. That the Roche claim be denied and fundamentally that the court rule in favour of a regime of public interest, i.e lower cost drugs (the comparative cost of Roche/Cipla drugs being 4800 Rs/1600 Rs respectively). It is necessary to clarify that Roche' contention is that the actual cost of the drug is 3200 Rs, however the court was minded to accept Cipla's account of cost- as it contended to be found on the packaging.

This case is now currently being heard by the Indian Court of Appeal based on appeal from the High Court by Roche.

Viewpoint:

b. The perspective of Multi-national Pharmaceutical companies on the application of India’s responsibilities under TRIPS differs substantially from that of Indian Pharmaceutical establishment as succinctly defined by Komal Shah of InnovarIP “the matter really pertains to the obviousness criteria and the scope of patentability…. In the U.S., obviousness is assessed based on various criteria including commercial success, motivation to combine, long-felt need, praise and skepticism, or unexpected results. In Europe, patentability is judged by applying the problem-solution approach”

One-dimensional Case Law seems in my view be wholly insufficient to resolve the issues inherent in S3(d), since the very breadth and implications of the section lends itself to amorphous applications of its content. The way forward? Difficult to say, Class action/WTO Tribunal? These may only answer part of the question, Legislative intervention? Still not a comprehensive answer, since fresh amendment may only throw up further questions. The only real finality may come - as stated above- from authoritative interpretation by the Supreme Court of India. The world waits.

Soto!!!

2008-04-16T12:10:00.005+01:00

Whilst putting together the write-up on Ikenga, I suddenly remembered a gentleman I refer to as my twin brother from another mother and fellow grumpy old man- Dr Sotiris Papadopoulos- Physicist and Guitar virtuoso. I proceeded to call him after digging out his telephone number and we had a memorable telephone conversation- which started with him uttering the emotional words- "You cretinous bastard where have you been!" A man with a way with words...

Sotiris was the bestman at my first wedding and has been a close friend for 18 years, since we met at Jazzville the seminal Lagos Jazz club, where he exercised his immense Guitar-playing skills in his leisure time from his job as a Senior Manager at a Brewery in Lagos at the time, a musical friendship was struck which later became a personal and business association.

Blessed with an uncanny and almost unnerving intelligence and razor sharp wit and an incredible humanity, Sotiris was born on September 17, 1956, in Volos, Greece. He left High School at 17 for Germany where he studied Physics. He moved on to Oxford where he got a Masters and PhD in Atomic Physics, not satisfied with assuming supreme nerd-hood, he then moved on to the Max Planck Institute where he worked as part of the team that supported Professor Klaus Kitzing on his Nobel Prize winning effort in the discovery of the "quantized Hall effect".

This gentleman had other professional ideas however and came to Nigeria on a Hippy visit in 1980 and famously performed on stage playing a Guitar solo with Fela Kuti at the Afrikan Shrine. He basically fell in love with the country and came back in 1987 to take up a job as Head of Department of Physics at the University of Port Harcourt. I remember Soto's account of his having to nip out at night and play gigs in dodgy clubs to support his ludicrous income- although I fathom he would have still played regardless of the same. His stay in Port Harcourt was nonetheless fruitful the highlight being his playing with Dizzy Gillespie on his tour of Nigeria in 1989. For those who aren't aware- Dizzy Gillespie's famous African hat was gotten during this trip where he was made an Honourary Chief.

On his music , he started At 17 as a singer in a local rock band, Eternal Wealth in Volos. He picked up the guitar in Germany heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix and other rock guitar greats. He made friends with the great Japanese Guitarist Eric Ishihara, a friendship that survives till date. He has also played/guested with some of the following- Steel Pulse, Billy Taylor, Frank Foster (Duke Ellington Orchestra), Ira Coleman (Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock), The Jazzmobile Ensemble, the great Tito Puente and the equally late and great- Art Blakey. Not a bad cv for a skinny hippy Phycist from Volos Greece. In Nigeria apart from Fela Kuti, he's also played with Femi Kuti, Victor Uwaifo and Tee Mac-(top Photo) probably better known as composer of the 70's Disco hit "Fly Robin fly" for his then band- Silver Convention http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM72iWami9M

In 2004, he formed his second band Sotiris which was renamed Salvador Sango, his pseudonym. The band toured Europe in 2005 and I'm still slightly peeved that the bugger didn't tell me, although he turned it round on me by saying that I never answered my phone and that i didn't call him on my last trip to Nigeria (sound familiar?)- touche!

He recently obtained the franchise for a Fizzy Drink- La Carsera for Nigeria, recently sold or transferred to a Multinational company- which he co-owned with his brother Dimitris, who now heads Coca-Cola in Bosnia(?!) and now is solely occupied with his music- what a life.

We had a massive belly laugh on our telephone conversation last friday, in which we reminisced on some of his caustic-tongued gems- a couple being - i. On a drive back from a gig, he asked me to slow the f--k down "my Guitar is twice the cost of your diseased metal scrapheap!" ii. On Nigerian Policemen- "The worst kind of human being is a policeman and the complete gutterscum of Policemen is a Nigerian Policeman"

Salute to my brother Soto

Ikenga- The 10th Anniversary

2008-04-10T21:57:00.008+01:00

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the formation of my band Ikenga www.soundclick.com/Ikenga , http://www.peoplesound.com/artist/ikenga/ Which has also recorded under the peudonym- "Ariara" www.soundclick.com/Ariara

The band's name was sourced from the Igbo tribal symbol of unity and endeavour, physically represented by a carved horned symbol.

I shall pay tribute to some people who have made it all possible:

Joanna Moffatt, Max Chudi Okoye, NU, Deedee, Chris Okoro my sidekick and co-producer, Muyiwa Majekodunmi, Azu Keazor, Eddie Offeyi, - Dr Sotiris Papadopoulos- my twin brother from another mother and one of the greatest Guitarists the world has ever known, who has sadly sold his soul to fizzy drink. VIF studios, where it all started and- nearly bloody well ended.

Its been an interesting journey from the mosquito infested studio in Ikeja Lagos, hard 12 hour gigs in Lagos, all the way to even harder 12 hr gigs in London, to playing at the Jazz Cafe, Brighton Festival, Fridge, Yatra and many other venues around the UK, working in the studio and/or playing on stage with diverse acts like Damon Albarn, Keziah Jones, Dele Sosimi, Fela Kuti, The Ebony Steel Band, Tunde (Lighthouse family), The Funkees, Fatai Rolling Dollar and many more, I wouldn't change a damn thing.

The band has had some of the most talented musicians on the planet I'm proud to say, have we made money? No, it was never about that, did we make good music? Hell yes. I know because Number one spot on the African and World fusion Charts on http://www.mp3.com/ in its heyday and a number one spot on the soundclick.com charts World fusion charts for 3 months, is enough testimony to the fact that the music brought enjoyment and enlightenment to many. Have we stopped? No, but slowed down? Yes sadly. A roll call of some of the members/guest performers of the band- past and semi-present would be:

a. Eddie Offeyi- Drums; b. Mike Aremu- Alto/Soprano Sax; c. Laja Adeyemo- Guitar; d. Wille Makola (ex- Quartier Latin); e. Chris Okoro- Keyboards; f. Sotiris Papadopoulos- Guitar; g. Dieudonne Falna King (ex-Zaiko Langa Langa; Lagbaja); h. Samson Olawale - Percussions (ex-John Scofield, Carl Denson); i. Tino Batangisa; j. Tex Becks- Alto Sax; (ex-Rex Lawson, Fela Kuti); k. Phillipe Bitamba- Bass; l. Gary Walsh- Keyboards; m. Jose Suarez- Guitar; n. Oscar Elimbi- Guitar (ex- Damon Albarn, Ayetoro etc); o. Biodun "Batik" Adebiyi- Trumpet; p. Leo Adjebro- Bongos/Harmonica; q. Hickson Delmondo Mokinda- Vocals; r. Claude Ngaishani- Bass/Vocals; s. Barry Laing- Fiddle.

Special mention must be made of Chris Okoro, a massively talented Classically trained Pianist and Hammond Cat, who co-produced the albums with me and played the Keyboards on some of the early tracks, an incredibly talented guy, who I'm proud to have worked with. Eddie "Metronome" Offeyi- an incredible dynamo of a Drummer with a gentle, compassionate personality that contradicts his muscular playing style and strength as a drummer, one of the most steady hands I've ever encountered on the Jazz Drums. Eddie put a lot of things together behind the scenes and has always been a friend/confidant. Max Chudi Okoye, whose financial support in finalising the first recording was a God-send, my sister OO, whose painting above was nicked for the original album God bless these four.

I shall end by paying tribute to one of the great musicians who was part of this band but who passed on a couple of years ago - the great Tex Becks- Ex- Rex Lawson, Ex- Original Fela Kuti Koola Lobitoes Saxman, Ex-Orlando Julius sideman amongst many other great bands in Africa and the USA. Becks career straddled three generations of African music from the late 50's and the highlife scene to the 60's and the advent of Afrobeat, the 70's and Afro-Funk, the 80's -90's with Afro-Jazz and the 00's with the Highlife revival. A colossus of a man inspite of his slight frame. He was a complex , difficult man but a genius nonetheless, who inspite of his dying in his 60's died far too young. I remember Becks' standard mantra- "where's my bread man?" He never suffered fools and certainly didn't die one. I salute his genius and leave you with a track- Becks and I composed and which the band recorded, which was nameless but which I have named after him- "Becks last stand", which was the last track he recorded in his lifetime- http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=305893&content=music. On the same page you shall find the band's first recording - "Fuel for love".

Thanks for listening one and all and God bless.

Doherty does Porridge

2008-04-09T14:56:00.004+01:00

Well fancy that Pete Doherty actually having to serve a custodial sentence?

All I can add is that my criticisms of him go beyond his problem but to the seeming dupicity of standards, every adult human being of sane mind has to take responsibility for his/her actions. Whilst a custodial sentence may not cure him of his problem, there has to be a consequence for his actions which do not give younger impressionable persons the feeling that its okay to take drugs and evade the consequences of the Law that everyone else has to comply with - pure and simple.

My valued mate the - venerable Rasta Mouse considered my comments somewhat judgmental, well I fully appreciate an respect that there is need to consider circumstances before passing such judgment, however the substantial argument remains that if a man is found guilty of administering drugs to a teenage fan- he is not just a danger to himself but to others and my only concern about the sentence being that it wasn't longer. I sincerely hope that this prison sentence provides a catalyst for this guy to clean up his act, many far more deserving people have not had a tenth of the chances he's had and if he doesn't well ....

The Inquest

2008-04-08T17:52:00.003+01:00

The results of the Lady Di inquest may not have come as a surprise to many, least of all those who are familiar with Al Fayed's style, well...so much for that, for me the highlight of the whole business was his colourful attack on the Royal family. I need not bore you with details, you've probably read the various pieces. Reading between the lines i believe we may come away with the impression, he's not too pleased with them.

I noted in particular his reference to Camilla as a Crocodile, now that in my view was absolutely unfair, low inappropriate and totally uncalled for after all....we all know that her association with the animal kingdom is more appropriately of the equine species. Really Mr Al Fayed!

Well I guess his citizenship application now rests on shakey ground...

Alifa

2008-03-30T07:45:00.004+01:00

I came across the story below on the website of the respected Nigerian Guardian newspaper and was struck by the name of the author of the piece- Alifa Daniel, Assistant Political Editor, who alongside the dreaded Lager Lawyer was amongst our close circle of young professional friends in Abuja, Nigeria's capital 16 years ago, who wrought havoc in the young capitals Beer parlours

Alifa was (is) a highly articulate, intelligent and vibrant young Journalist, as straight as an arrow, sadly my friend had the misfortune of covering the political desk and in particular ran a story on misgovernance by the Government in Nigeria's Kogi State. the said story did not go down well with the Government as you would expect. To cut a long story short, my friend was accosted by a group of thugs and had his face literally bathed in Sulphuric Acid. Luckily its didn't kill him, but left a good-looking strong man almost completely facially disfigured. This being particularly poignant as being a few weeks before his wedding. Alifa survived and revived his career as a Journalist, however I'll never forget the emotional welcome, we his circle of friends gave him when he came out of hospital and in particular, the Lager Lawyer's typical but emotional welcome "Alifa can you still drink?" With a sheepish tone, he answered yes and with that he was back with us, though sadly scarred emotionally and physically.

He doggedly rebuilt his career as a journalist and has risen to the strategically important position he today occupies. The story I saw was particular poignant in that it covered an election in the same Kogi State and indeed involved the gentleman who was Governor of the said Kogi State at the time Abubakr Audu, the attempt was made on Alifa's life. All I can say is that Alifa was incredibly objective, bearing in mind the unique circumstances. Also I point out the stark reality of life in Nigeria, - 18 AK-47'S, Hand Grenades?? All for what? I really can't tell you. Anyway this piece is a tribute to my friend and a salute to his personal and professional courage. Now thats a real man, not the prancing peacocks and cowardly bandits with guns and knives who rule nations.

Benue Police Foil Arms Movement To Kogi, Arrest 17

From Alifa Daniel (Asst। Political Editor, Abuja)

WITH a slow start, the much-awaited Kogi State re-run governorship election went off smoothly yesterday but with palpable apathy amongst voters, especially in the dreaded Okene town in Kogi Central।

Indeed, the Police Command in neighbouring Benue State said on Friday night that it had intercepted 17 suspected political thugs at Otukpo while they were conveying arms to Kogi State to participate in the governorship election that took place yesterday। Parading the men at the Police Headquarters in Makurdi, the State Police Commissioner, Ibiyinka Kayode, said that the suspected political thugs were arrested at the Leach Hotel, Otukpo, while taking a rest.
He paraded the suspected gunmen with 18 AK47 rifles, hand grenade, charms, axes and cutlasses, which they were to use during the election. The hoodlums, said to be from the Igala ethnic group, had two Toyota Hiace buses with which they conveyed the deadly weapons.
However, in many Lokoja polling centres, election began at about 8।00am, with two prominent Kogi politicians, former Governor Ibrahim Idris and Senator Tunde Ogbeha voting at the Lokoja Club. The first voter at the booth voted at 8।22am. Idris voted at 11.52am shortly after Ogbeha did his balloting 20 minutes earlier. The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate in the re-run, Alhaji Abubakar Audu, voted in his Ogbonicha town at about 12.27pm.

Kwame Kilpatrick continued....

2008-03-25T19:35:00.004Z

I came across some Internet based sources of Info on some of the Detroit Mayor's past alleged indiscretions. All I can say is that if true, he certainly made RichardDaley look good, which takes some doing.

"He was criticized for using city funds to lease a car for use by his family and using his city issued credit card to charge thousands of dollars worth of spa massages, extravagant dining, and expensive Moët et Chandon champagne. Kilpatrick would later pay back $9000 of the $210,000 credit card charges"

"In January, 2006, the Detroit News reported that, “… Kilpatrick used his special administrator authority to bypass the water board and City Council on three controversial contracts: • A $131 million radio system that will be used mostly by Detroit police and fire departments. • A $21.3 million security upgrade performed by a company tied to the mayor's friend, Bobby Ferguson. • A $38,000 no-bid public relations contract awarded to Bob Berg, the spokesman for Kilpatrick's re-election campaign"

"Kilpatrick's first controversy started as rumors of a wild party in the fall of 2002 involving strippers at the official residence of the mayor—the city-owned Manoogian Mansion. It is alleged by former members of the mayor's Executive Protection Unit that the mayor's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, came home unexpectedly and upon discovering Kwame with the strippers began to attack one of the women."

"Tamara Greene was a 27-year-old exotic dancer who went by the name "Strawberry" and who claimed to have performed at the Manoogian Mansion party. While sitting in her car with her boyfriend, Greene was shot 3 times with a .40 caliber Glock handgun. Her boyfriend was wounded, but he was not shot after the white Chevrolet TrailBlazer driven by the shooter(s) turned around and drove by a second time. This fact led Bowman to conclude that Greene was the intended target and not her 32-year-old boyfriend"

"In 2005, WXYZ-TV reporter Steve Wilson reported that the city had entered an expensive one year lease for a luxury SUV. It was to be used to chauffeur the mayor's family. The lease was for $24,995; five dollars under the amount that would have required the approval of city council. Kilpatrick, chief of staff Christine Beatty, police chief Ella Bully-Cummings, and other members of the mayor's staff all denied that the red Lincoln Navigator was intended to be used by the mayor's wife and children. Eventually, Kilpatrick admitted the Navigator was for his family, claiming he had told the police chief that it was "too much" and to take it back"

"On May 8, 2007, WXYZ reported that Kilpatrick used $8,600 from his secret Kilpatrick Civic Fund to take his wife, three sons and babysitter on a week long vacation to a five-star California resort, the La Costa Resort and Spa. The fund, controlled by Kilpatrick's sister and friends, was created to improve the city of Detroit through voter education, economic empowerment and crime prevention. Tax and accounting experts said Kilpatrick's use of the fund was a violation of IRS regulations. The story was also compounded after WXYZ's cameras caught Kilpatrick in a fit of rage grabbing the microphone out of the hand of reporter Ray Sayah and throwing it hard across the room such that it hit a wall, while Sayah tried to question him about the situation."- Wikipedia

Poor behaviour by a Politician

2008-03-25T11:58:00.005Z

The Mayor of Detroit- Kwame Kilpatrick, is facing a jail sentence for Perjury, Misconduct by a Public officer, Obstruction of Justice and a number of other sundry charges following an allegation that he lied on oath in respect of an extra-marital affair he was accused of, in addition to having falsely obtained approval from the City Council for payment of a settlement in a whistle-blower claim. This whole affair being blown up after salacious texts were allegedly found on his Official Mobile phone to (and from) the young lady in question (not that many though, just over 10,000 such texts)..

Whilst I emphasise that he has not been found guilty of an offence and the allegations remain precisely thus- allegations, I shall say that if he is indeed found guilty then this would be the lowest and possibly the most unbecoming behaviour to be exhibited by a front-line politician- i.e he err...got caught!?!

Shocking behaviour indeed!!!

The Ultimate Superhero!

2008-03-20T20:49:00.004Z

Its really humbling to meet someone with so vastly superior a force of arms that compels you to accede complete defeat.

A week or so ago, I woke up as I sometimes do in a very bad mood and left for work in a grumpy self-indulgent mood, which wasn't helped by an idiot who stepped on my shoes on the 137 bus to Marble Arch- who then sneered at me for good measure, my reaction being to call him a cretinous moron who if he had half a brain would have stayed home with his head in the microwave with a tin-foil wrapped round his forehead. He of course threatened me, with my bored reaction being simply that I was a 40 year old with two children, on my way to work with better things to do than get into physical confrontation with a heap of organic waste and that if he was keen on a sparring partner, he could start with the blow-up doll he had shop-lifted. To put it mildly, I was in a bad mood.

Anyway our gormless friend was not the source of my admiration, the story goes like this, I was rushing off to the nearby Tesco durin my lunch break or in the 15 minutes I allow myself for a meal during the day, when I almost bumped into this bent over prim and proper looking octogenerian lady- in the space-restricted alleyway we both found ourselves- dressed rather symbolically in black from head to toe, from her hat to her shoes, I apologised and made a rather unintentional but admittedly patronising gesture of courtesy going "you first ma'am" her reaction was a pretty simple- F..K YOU! with a huge smile on her face. My first reaction being complete shock and then complete and utter amusement and I just could not help bursting into uncontrollable laughter, her reaction- with an even bigger smile on her face being the complete coup de grace - JUST SHUT UP YOU MUSCLE-BOUND BUFFOON! - Completely dumbstruck, I crumpled to the floor in paroxysms.

To put it mildly, this old lady had completely floored me with two sentences, I went through the rest of my day with a huge smile on my face and in complete awe of this formidable old bird. An enquiry from my Septuagenerian Restauranteur friend- Mario (owner of one of the oldest cafes in Soho) was to reveal that she was an old wealthy Jewish Widow and an institution in Soho for her acerbic tongueand formidable character, clearly she had met more worthy opponents than myself.

I dedicate this blog to this old Amazon, you certainly cheered me up and I salute you!

Scared Straight Part 4

2008-03-12T22:30:00.005Z

This is the final part with a review of the kids lives after the documentary.

Scared Straight Part 3

2008-03-12T22:30:00.003Z

This is the third part and probably the most hard-hitting

Scared Straight

2008-03-12T22:30:00.001Z

I first watched this documentary about 1989, which was moderated by Peter Falk and which won an Oscar at the the time.

Hard-hitting and extremely unnerving, it featured a programme, where hard-core convicts serving terms from 25 years to double life for serious crimes ranging from Armed Robbery to Double murder spoke to a group of Juvenile offenders in a bid to give them the true picture of prison life and the consequences of a life of crime. This in my view is one of the most compelling pieces of sociological programming I ever watched and which in all honesty ought to be aired in the UK today.

The opening lines of the first speakers "presentation" simply went thus "We ain't no social workers or penal officers, we are convicts, we don give a sh-t whether you help yourself or not, we are here for life talking to you ain't going to help us". Stark takes on the reality of life in prison from Homosexual gang rape to random violence and the futility of the choices of prison were conveyed in clear hard language. I say boldly that no amount of gentle Home Office Infomercial content can rival the style or content of this and if anyone has ever watched a more effective documentary, I really would be interested in seeing it.

I am going to place three parts of this documentary and would ask that anyone who has a difficult teenager needing Counselling, really should get them to watch this. I wasn't a teenager but it certainly had an effect on me 19 years ago and even today. Please watch this and if possible circulate it as much as you can. Classic stuff.

In Re Novartis: Matters arising in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

2008-03-06T12:19:00.005Z

One of the more significant developments in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry in recent times has been the Patents Amendment Act 2005, amending the Patents Law of 1970, and extending Patent Protection to Pharmaceutical products – as opposed to processes as prescribed by the previous statute. This legislative change being in accordance with the deadline set by the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS), which mandated patent protection on both products and processes for a period of 20 years. The gravamen of the statute being to enforce recognition not only of new patents but also any patents filed after 1st January 1995.

The application of this Statute was tested in particular in the recent case of In Re Novartis- a Claim filed by Novartis in the New Delhi High Court, challenging refusal of a Patent application for its product Glivec. The essence of the Claim being for a Declaration that Section 3 (d) of the Patents Amendment Act 2005 was unconstitutional and non-compliant with India’s obligations under WTO/TRIPS.

The New Delhi High Court refused Novartis' Claim – deciding significantly that Section 3(d) was not unconstitutional and further ruling that TRIPS compliance and/or the lack of it was a matter for the WTO to determine, using its dispute resolution mechanism.

The import of this decision is two-fold based on the initial premise of there being two opposing views as to what should be the tenor of the Industry, whilst the Multinational school of thought is of the view that India should comply with TRIPS and ensure protection of entrant Patents, essentially giving Multi-nationals protection of their products -a la Novartis, on the other hand there is the Indigenous Industry view that local entities should be permitted to produce low cost forms as had been the case – a position championed most notably by Dr Hamied CEO- Cipla Laboratories India's third largest Pharmaceutical company and the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association- IDMA.

a. The TRIPS regime gives contracting countries the freedom to define the scope of patentability, which includes as described by Komal Shah of Innovar IP- “obviousness”, which in this instance would relate to “enhancement in efficacy”- as defined by Section 3(d).

b. By implication, the status quo post 1972 i.e the commencement of the Patents Act 1970 remains in reality since for a Patent application to succeed, there would have to be almost completely original Compound composition, unless enhanced efficacy is proven. It is noteworthy that the Delhi High Court decision did not define the parameters of enhanced efficacy as per S.3 (d) leaving the WTO to determine this.

The following facts are undeniable in the light of the present regime:

a. There are still unanswered questions as to the efficacy of the new Patent regime engendered by the Patents Amendment Act 2005, which is presently in a state of uncertainty pending a final determination on the subject both by the Indian Supreme Court and indeed the WTO, on India’s compliance with its obligations under TRIPS. The key questions being to determine what constitutes “enhanced efficacy” as per S.3(d) and the larger question being whether Section 3 (d) satisfies the threshold of compliance espoused by TRIPS.

b. The perspective of Multi-national Pharmaceutical companies on the application of India’s responsibilities under TRIPS differs substantially from that of Indian Pharmaceutical establishment as succinctly defined by Komal Shah of InnovarIP “the matter really pertains to the obviousness criteria and the scope of patentability…. In the U.S., obviousness is assessed based on various criteria including commercial success, motivation to combine, long-felt need, praise and skepticism, or unexpected results. In Europe, patentability is judged by applying the problem-solution approach”

What then are the implications of this decision for the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry, the simple answer being that there is no clear winner, there will always be opposing views of the way forward between what may be described as the globalist position and the Indigenous position. The following facts are however undeniable:

a. India's Pharmaceutical Industry possesses a highly skilled work-force, combining excellent training with a high level of motivation, a legendary work ethic and proficiency in English;

b. A comparatively well organized, increasingly sophisticated and forward-looking sector with over 20,000 Manufacturing entities;

c. Overall growth in the Indian economy with a highly proficient service sector and most importantly;

d. India is a liberal and progressive democracy, with an effective Judiciary in which entrepreneurship is not only actively encouraged, but actually forms an integral part of the indigenous eth

The combination of all these factors point to one thing- sustained growth regardless of what perspective the same assumes. In plain and simple terms if India maintained its 1972 Patents Act position, the indigenous Pharmaceutical Industry would continue to flourish based on the four factors listed above and continue- at least in terms of Generic drugs production- to be a formidable factor, whilst on the other hand if the TRIPS regime is determined ultimately in favour of the globalist position, India has positioned itself to take a leading role in Discovery and development, coupled with the attraction of India as an attractive investment option for multi-nationals equally based on the four factors listed, in essence a heads you win, tails you win situation.

I end this article with a quote from Santosh Bagrodhia- Head of the Indian Parliamentary Committee on Manufacturing and Trade (Pharma Technology India Winter 2006 issue), which in my view summarises the benefits of the polarised opinions on the future of India's Pharmaceutical Industry.- “India’s diverse gene pool offers an exciting opportunity for Genomic research. Its unique and diverse plant, animal and Microbial biodiversity also provides exciting research opportunities. The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is globally competitive in fermentation-derived pharmaceuticals that can be sued for Biogenerics. India is a recent entrant in the global economy and the global trade regime does not create a level playing field for fresh participants. However India’s endeavour is to convert the challenges into opportunities. We can benefit from our cost advantages, skills and resources. While some global players may try to subvert the TRIPS agreement by “evergreening” their patents and undermining the promised free global competition, the International Industry will be able to share some of the rewards of India’s rapid growth”

This is a short version of article published in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry Special Report Supplement- Pharma Technology India Spring 2008

The Plastic Bag Wars Pt 1

2008-03-01T06:54:00.003Z

Come on all this hot air about shopping bags and preserving the environment is totally unnecessary, they're not really that bad, as the photo taken in Nigeria clearly shows...

I mean they only take a millenium to biodegrade and even when recycled the best is a 33% content recycle....

William Blair QC

2008-02-29T12:54:00.004Z

Mr Justice William Blair was sworn in on wednesday as a Justice of the High Court.

As the name suggests, he is Tony Blair's older brother, however he is more appropriately renowned as oneh of the UK and indeed the World's foremost authorities on Domestic and International Banking and Finance Law and was until his appointment, a Banking and Finance Silk practising from out of 3 Verulam Buildings.

He was also a Visiting Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and was called to the Bar in 1972 and was appointed QC in 1994.

I could possibly go on about his substantial CV but shall not, the focus of this post being in the most simple sense to genuinely salute a true gentleman of the Bar and a true symbol of what the Legal profession ought to represent.

I first met Bill Blair- as he introduced himself to me- in 2005 in the course of a Commercial Litigation matter in which I represented a set of defendants and which he appeared on behalf of the Plaintiff. His demeanour throughout the case was extremely humble, highly knowledgable as you would indeed expect, fair and totally professional. Whilst we were on opposite sides of an extremely bitter and contentious matter, one could not but be impressed by his professionalism, integrity and sense of propriety.

There are very few men deserving of elevation to the Higher Bench and Bill Blair is or at least should be a shining example to the Legal profession in the widest global context. I extend my sincere and genuine congratulations to a man whom I truly respect and admire.

Being a Lawyer is just a job not a mark of status- Mr Justice Blair plainly epitomises this ethos

Depressing News Pt 2

2008-02-26T18:03:00.002Z

I just received this email 2 minutes ago from GSK Corporate Communications, an addendum to today's press release- well what can I say it gets more interesting...

"GSK rejects any suggestion that we deliberately withheld data on paroxetine from NICE. GSK provided both published and unpublished data as part of the development of the NICE guidelines regarding the licensed use of paroxetine in adults with depression, anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. In addition GSK responded to a request for data on the use of paroxetine in children. The company provided a list of the studies that had either been completed or were underway however this was an unlicensed indication (that is to say the product was not approved for use in this patient population) and was subject to an ongoing regulatory review by the MHRA. It was therefore not appropriate to provide these data to NICE ahead of the MHRA's conclusions."

Depressing News?

2008-02-26T15:54:00.003Z

I just received a Press release from the good folks at Glaxo Smith Kline basically countering the recent Public Library of Science article which in simple terms cast grave doubts on the efficacy of Anti-Depressant Therapies except in the most severe cases. Please find link below:

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

The article specifically states that for majority of cases the efficacy of the therapies is nil and that if at all the therapies are not more effective than placebos. Petty strong stuff, based on the seeming emphasis by GP's and Psychiatrists on Anti-Depressive therapies, sometimes to the detriment of alternative therapies.

The GSK response being absolutely objective was quite strong, fair and in my view ought to be read on a credible counter-balance. The key points in the GSK press release are as follows:

a. The study was based on only a very small fraction of the Data available for anti-depressants i.e In the case of Paroxetine- 16 Clinical trials out of a total 170 involving 14000 patients;

b. 10 out of 16 of the Clinical trials referred to reached a score of 3.0 on the NICE clinical threshold;

c. Patients should not abandon their medication in panic without advice from Physicians, as clearly the study is likely to cause panic in the minds of the patients who would be justifiably concerned by the outcome of the study. A copy of the press release is available via this link http://www.gsk.com/media/pressreleases/2008/2008_pressrelease_0011.htm

Now then, my view is that whilst I believe there is some measure of merit to the report I am loathe to accept the air of finality it posits and I would certainly have advocated some measure of caution or indeed a caveat on the findings posited.

Not for one second do I think this story is over, clearly the manufacturers are going to react and rightly so. The effect of this study is too important not to have a considered and comprehensive consideration and we await the same with interest.

Sir Louis Mbanefo- Wikipedia

2008-01-16T17:32:00.000Z

I attempted to place the article on Sir Louis Mbanefo on Wikipedia as a simple information resource on the gentleman. However it has been deleted twice on the basis of...wait for it Copyright violation.

Basically I was accused of flagrant Copyright violation of an article on wait for it...The Blog Subliminalcodesintext, as in err....this Blog!!?!

Whilst I understood the first deletion (the sentiment being quite reasonably to protect author copyright), but the second being after I had raised the fact that I was the original author of the article boggles the mind. I repeat that this is an article which I originated and researched with the assistance and consent of the late gentleman's family and which I seek to disseminate as a free information resource for posterity.

Essentially Wikipedia is patrolled by volunteer users who go round deleting, modifying and editing articles as they see fit, which is in itself commendable, on an otherwise unregulated site, however there are limits to this and in this instance it borders on the extreme.

The Greatest Try Ever Pt 3

2008-01-12T07:56:00.001Z

The last and certainly not the least, Gareth Edwards incredible try.

The Greatest Try Ever Pt 2

2008-01-12T07:54:00.001Z

This is Robinson's try

The Greatest Try Ever

2008-01-12T07:49:00.001Z

There's controversy as to what stands as the greatest Rugby Try ever, I'm going to narrow my choices down to two- a. Gareth Edward's try in the Barbarians v All Blacks match of 1973 and b. Brian O'Driscoll's try during the Lions v Australia tour of 2001. Special mention must also be made of Jason Robinson's try in the same Lions match in 2001.

I'm going to lay out the video's in three posts and have to say O'Driscoll's try gets my vote and here it is.

Tony Allen: The Master at Work

2008-01-12T07:34:00.001Z

I came across a Video on Youtube of Tony Allen giving a lecture on Drum Technique at the Red Bull Music Academy in Toronto and I believe if there was any doubt about his status as one of the best Drummers in the World, this is one way of clearing this up.

Tony Allen by the way is the Nigerian Drummer and ex-Bandleader of Fela Kuti's Africa 70, Drummer in The Good the Band and the Queen etc

In his completely effortless and almost inert style, he plays a deceptively complex and powerful Drum riff.By the way he's 71 this year, I stand in awe.

Django Reinhardt - Film Clip 1952

2008-01-06T23:03:00.001Z

Jean-Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt- was a Gypsy, born in Belgium in 1910.

He suffered a fire accident at 18, which deprived him of the use of all but two fingers on his left hand and which left one of his legs paralysed, inspite of this he went on to become one of the greatest Jazz Guitarists of all time.Using his two fingers to greater effectiveness than many if the best Guitarists with a full complement of digits

He was a member of the legendary Quintette Du Hot Club De France" formed by Louis Vola, with Reinhardt, Roger Chapul on Guitars and Stephane Grapelli on Violin, Vola on Bass.

The concept of The Lead and Rhythm Guitar arose from this Band. Reinhardt and Grapelli prior ti WWII went on to form a strong partnership adding more conventional instruments. They eventually wnet on to collaborate with contemporary Jazz greats like Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong and toured with Duke Ellington.

Reinhardy settled in Paris after WWII and carried on a successful career, generally regarded as one of the most advanced Guitarists of all time, his career was often marred by his natural Romany wanderlust and rejection of modern life, as exe,plified by his penchant for skipping concerts in preference for walks on the Beach, or simply to lie in

He dies in 1952 from a Brain Haemorrhage Reinhardt influenced a whole swathe of great Guitarists like George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, Jimi Hendrix- who named his second Band the Band of Gypsy's after Reinhardt- amongst many others.

Reinhardt's story was one of incredible talent and triumph over adversity.

I have embedded a film clip from circa 1952 showing his legendary technique.

Ginger Baker Drum Solo- Toad

2008-01-06T11:23:00.001Z

I came across this 1968 video of Ginger Baker's live drum solo of "Toad", which confirmed to me once again, his pre-eminence as one of the greatest drummers of all time. I leave you to judge and by the way....Happy new year!

Retrospect-Happenstance- Perspective

2007-12-20T06:51:00.000Z

Its often necessary to re-evaluate recent events, co-relate to past events and re-assess based on historical antecedents the provenance of happenstance. One often wonders what could have been or not?

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't boarded the Harka Air flight from Kaduna in Nigeria in 1995, the fact is that I survived the crash and healed from my injuries and recovered my financial losses, so what then did I lose other than the experience and what did I gain other than the wisdom and perspective of survival, when perhaps several of those more worthy than myself died painful deaths in the crash.

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't decided to take a taxi to see Yusuf A in Kaduna in 1995, perhaps I would have avoided the 11 armed and drug-crazed Policemen who abducted and robbed me, but then I survived, when at least three probably more deserving people lost their lives, on the same night. What I lost in fear and financial loss I gained in the loss of fear and once again the wisdom of survival.

What would have happened if I hadn't stayed and had "one last drink" in Soho with Alex in 2000 and if the Victoria Line hadn't shut down at Finsbury Park and terminated at Highbury and Islington, I wouldn't have been passing by when the two men were about to rape the young girl and raised an alarm, at least the Police said thank you.

What would have happened if I hadn't gone to deliver the Magistrate sisters Wedding Invitation in 1993, I may have been spared the pain and heartache, but I would not have experienced the sublime happiness of 4 years and most importantly I would not have my D and K.

On the other hand what would have happened if Lexi and I had stopped over at the Supermarket to buy some drinks on the way to the Studio in Surulere, Lagos in November 2005, the extra 10 minites spent would have placed us smack dab in the middle of the most violent armed robbery attack in Lagos at the time in which a whole street was cordoned off and everyone in between robbed and in which three people were shot dead.

What if I had taken an extra couple of minutes on the tube, I may not have gotten the phone call from JB inviting me to take on Partnership at N&C, minutes before I was meant to be signing a new Contract at MG. I may have been spared the trauma of the last 15 months, but I would not have otherwise have had the opportunity of generating the amount of gratitude I gained from people whom I represented for free simply because they had nowhere else to go, the opportunity to shape the Law in my own small way in AG V Z; A v B; In Re B and so on, many with longer careers did not achieve half of what did in a few years in this Jurisdiction and for that I am grateful and in a strange way proud.

The fact is that whatever is ordained in life will be, if it isn't- no amount of desire, drive and or caution/planning or risk assessment will prevent it. of course one has a duty not to take reckless risk, but life is a wondrous spectacle and I have learnt never to regret anything I have done and whilst one has one's moments, I am grateful that I am and have been alive to be able to make the choices I have- good or bad and the prayer I say at the end of another wonderful year is for God to give me the permanent gift of perspective.

May all our dreams come true in the coming year and and most importantly, may we be preserved in life to see the fruits of our labours and exertions, many who entered this year are no longer with us, perspective no?

Ps/ By the way this is the 200th Post on this Blog, thanks for reading.

Dismissal – A Game of two halves

2007-12-06T17:27:00.000Z

I have re-posted two articles I wrote last year on Dismissal, in the light of recent discussions and hope its useful to whoever.

Lets get straight to the point, an Employer can dismiss an employee if a. he/she’s guilty of misconduct e.g dishonesty, Racial abuse, Sexual abuse, Gross breach of Trust; b. other less serious but substantial breaches of Contract e.g Poor work output/quality, attendance etc; c. Incapability of the employee to do the job he's employed for; d. Business expediency. In addition there can be a dismissal on the basis of Redundancy i.e a genuine redundancy situation- as opposed to a ham-fisted contrivance targeted at getting rid of a pesky employee.

This isn’t rocket science, its an employers right under the Law, however there are rules for these things like everything else. The employee has a right to be heard at a meeting, in respect of the allegations made and an opportunity to state his side, prior to dismissal. He equally has a right to be accompanied by either a Union Rep or a Friend to any such hearing, but not to be represented by a Solicitor. It is equally important that the hearing is presided over by a person or persons distinct from the Individual(s) who have made the complaint against the Employee otherwise bias may be inferred. A rehash of the rules for this a. Inform the employee clearly of all the allegations against him/her and make available all material you rely on, b. Ensure an impartial panel at the earing and; c. At the hearing, the employee should be allowed all reasonable opportunity to state his side and be accompanied if he wishes.

Now when is Dismissal Unfair? In an infinite number of circumstances based on the specific facts, however the common sense heading would be when the Employee has not breached his Contract, has not been guilty of misconduct, where the proper disciplinary procedure has not been followed, where there is no genuine redundancy situation and where the Employer has fundamentally breached a contract whereby an employee is entitled to treat himself as having been dismissed (Constructive Unfair Dismissal)- simple. The facts are often intricately different and it is often a matter for the Employment Tribunal to determine after hearing evidence from both sides. Its absolutely important to make clear that to bring a Claim for Unfair Dismissal, you have to have been employed continuously for at least a year. If you have not spent up to a year, then the only claim you are entitled to bring is for Wrongful dismissal of which the remedy is Notice pay and no more.

However in a majority of cases, a sober eye can usually tell where the pendulum is swinging and its no coincidence that majority of claims are settled before a Claim is either filed or heard by the Employment Tribunal, either by the parties or with the help of ACAS- the Governments Independent Arbitration service (who in my view are half-asleep most of the time, but often have the rare dedicated Officer, who will actually push a settlement- usually female). The prospects of settlement usually require a consideration of a realistic and commercial view of the cost vs. benefits of heading to the Tribuna. The Employer will usually employ a Firm of Solicitors and a Barrister over a minimum of one, two, three or even seven days- not counting preparation time, with average costs of £5000-£15,000.00 or more, depending on the complexity. Common sense usually dictates paying the guy £2000.00 after some hard-nosed bargaining if that’s all he wants rather than spend all that money and have key managers out of the office for days.

Unlike the Courts, costs aren’t generally recoverable at the Employment Tribunal, unless a party has behaved unreasonably or irrationally, e.g bring a Claim for £100,000.00 because the Boss got rid of the Drinks dispenser, or where an Employer has been patently unreasonable in dismissing or indeed maltreating an employee and then refuses to explore settlement. I need to mention however that the power of the Tribunal to award costs has been expanded of recent and its also necessary to mention that the Tribunal whilst conceived as a simple, self help forum for employees to seek justice has increasingly become bogged down by procedure and red-tape and in some instances actually outstrips the County Court for formality- another reason to avoid it if you can.

A word for the Employee at this stage- If in doubt get advice from your Union, a Solicitor or CAB at the earliest opportunity there are strict steps you must follow, which may be laid down in your Employee Handbook or which are contained in Employment Statutes, for which you will need help in interpreting. Do not take anything for granted. Most importantly, take all reasonable steps provided either by the Employee’s Handbook or by commonsense, to seek a resolution of all matters, however never admit anything you are not sure of or take any steps which may legitimise any wrong action taken against you by your Employer. It is impossible to provide an exhaustive list of these, hence advice is crucial.

The most important piece of advice being after having explored all these avenues, make sure your Claim is filed three months less one day after you were dismissed. What this means plainly is if you were fired on Friday 19th May, make sure your application is filed on Friday 18th August at the very latest, my candid advice is that you file it before 4pm, do this by Fax it’s the most reliable. After faxing, call the Tribunal and ask the staff if they’ve received it, when in doubt send it again, they may hate you for sending a thousand copies, but at least the Tribunal will hear your claim. The time limits are extremely strict and the Employer will happily exploit this. The Tribunal will very rarely extend time, even if your were very ill beforehand, once you had an opportunity to do so within time and didn’t, it will weigh against you, even though your claim is super-strong.

Its also necessary to mention that if you haven’t quite gotten your claim ready as the time limit approaches, file the Claim anyway, including every conceivable claim you may have (a holding or omnibus claim), this being because you are allowed to amend later and file a proper and complete Claim. However you may wish -out of courtesy- to have a word with the other side and make clear why you had to file in that manner and agree that they be given additional time to respond to your Claim, whenever you perfect it.I also need to mention that being a Claim under contract, you may bring the Claim in the High Court where the Claim is especially complex and the amount claimed is large.

What to Claim: Majority of Claims under Unfair Dismissal are for money, however you may ask to be re-instated, though the employer is not bound to take you back, then you can ask for money. The money claim comes under two heads – a. The basic and; b. The Compensatory award. The Basic award is indexed to the numbers of years you’ve worked x £250.00 for each year, the Compensatory award is based on the loss of earnings which you shall face e.g on an income of £3000.00 a year, if you anticipate that you are unlikely to ever find work until retirement age and you’re 50, its likely to be 10 x £3000.00 - £30,000.00. The limit of compensation is £50,000.00, unless there’s a Claim for Sex, Race or Disability discrimination, where there’s no limit. Basically, you can’t simply put in any old figure you like in the Claim Form because you want to “hit the bugger where it hurts” (I’d actually leave that to his Lawyers, believe me they never lose). Bear in mind the actual amount you're entitled to, may be reduced under the following circumstances- a. Polkey Deductions- Where the Employer might have dismissed you anyway for good reason e.g Long term sickness; b. Failure to mitigate loss- You are required after dismissal, to actively look for work, as opposed to sitting on you haunches waiting for a settlement, failure to look for work and present evidence of actual Job search may result in a reduction of the award.

The Hearing

The hearing usually takes place before a Panel of three consisting of a Qualified Solicitor or Barrister as Chairman and two non-Lawyer members, one an Employer and the other an Employee member (a fine balance).

The Employer usually calls his witnesses first, examines them (asks them questions based on the facts you rely on for your claim) in a bid to disprove your claim, you then have a chance to cross-examine; basically to challenge the answers the Employers witnesses have given. You can ask pretty much anything in cross-examination, however you may not call the witness a twit or a blithering Idiot or any other form of abuse for that matter and your questions should be relevant to the issues or at least relevant to proving that the witness is a bare-faced liar- in a subtle way of course. They may want to re-examine the witness to straighten out any ambiguous or problem points arising from cross-examination, no new evidence is allowed at this stage.

You then call your witnesses and whilst questioning, you should not lead them i.e direct them to an answer, you should keep your questions relevant and most importantly short and effective. Hearsay evidence is allowed, but less weight is placed on it. The Tribunal will usually ask its own questions of the witnesses to clarify points, try and restrain yourself at this stage they haven’t taken a position and just want to establish points that may have been missed.

After the witnesses are called, then submissions or arguments are heard from both sides as to why they should win, you summarise your facts and repeat relevant points raised in the evidence in your favour and try and explain points raised against you. If you have any knowledge of relevant laws, make your points at this stage (if you don’t, then you should have bloody well gotten advice first). The Tribunal will then close the session and subsequently deliberate on the evidence and arguments and invite the parties back for a decision or post the decision to you in writing.

Appeal: If it goes against you, you have 42 days to appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal. You have to file a Notice of Appeal (a special form) and attach your Grounds of Appeal. Basically, your grounds must be based on the fact that the Employment Tribunal has made a mistake in Law or applied the facts so terribly wrongly as to amount to an error of Law. If permission to appeal is granted, then its heard over one day in front of the same type of Panel at the Tribunal and a decision is usually given on the same day- read out in Court.

Moral of the story- Employment Tribunal disputes are extremely stressful, time-consuming and expensive- avoid them if you can. If you can’t , then seek the earliest and best opportunity to settle or accept a settlement if it makes financial sense. If not possible, then get proper advice and prepare adequately, it’s a battle believe me.

Take This Job and Shove It?- The Constructive Dismissal Conundrum

2007-12-06T17:20:00.000Z

I'll try and keep this simple- one of the nightmares of Employment Lawyers when advising is deciding if a client has merely resigned or if he's been forced to resign - unfairly. The latter entitles him to claim for Unfair Constructive Dismissal. For resignation, he gets- zilch, for Unfair Dismissal,.. well he gets an award (discussed previously). This principle was established in a fairly old case Western Excavating (ECC) Ltd v Sharp [1978] IRLR 27A bit of background, in an Employment Contract, there are usually written terms, e.g Contract or at least a letter of Employment (if none then damages are due to the Employee, by the way). The written terms define the basic terms of employment.

Also the Law usually will assume whats called Implied or Unwritten terms, the relevant one here being an Implied Term of Mutual Trust and Confidence, what this means is that there is a responsibility on both sides to treat each other and act in a civilised respectful manner, basically do your job without disrespecting me and my company verbally or in action e.g disloyalty, leaking trade secrets, assisting competitors. For employees it means, give me the tools to do my job, pay me as agreed and treat me with a minimum respect due to a human being or employee, no abuse racial, sexist or otherwise. Don't deliberately make things hard for me and don't undermine or harass me. Of course this list is not exhaustive and the rules often differ as to what is acceptable in different work environments, e.g a Building Site or Restaurant Kitchen will have different considerations from the Admin Department of a Women's Crocquet Club. Essentially, the Employer should not breach a Fundamental term of the Contract, e.g providing the Employer with a suitable working environment, work or indeed support, also he should not breach the Implied Term of Mutual Trust and Confidence. A Claim for Constructive Dismissal cannot stand on its own, the dismissal also has to be seen to be Unfair for the Employees to be successful.

How do you differentiate between resignation and Constructive Dismissal? Here are a few ground rules:

a. The action by your employer must go to the root of the relationship and result in it being absolutely clear that there is no way you can continue to work there or that it no longer wishes to respect or be bound by the Contract of Employment, an example being if a Supervisor is verbally abused and undermined by his/her Employer in front of his/her team and if deprived of responsibility; Sexual harrassment, physical intimidation/bullying, False accusations, preventing return to work after maternity leave etc. Clearly these examples show that the Employer either does not wish to keep the Employee on or doesn't care either way.

b. The action must be in direct breach of a Fundamental term of the Contract or the Implied Term of Mutual Trust and Confidence. The Tribunal time limits still apply here in that if the action you're complaining about took place over three months back, you're out of time. However if there's a series of events and the final act happens within the time limits then the previous incidents can be brought to the Tribunal as a Claim - this is described as "The Last Straw".(Explained further below).

c. The Employee must immediately or soon afterwards resign his/her appointment in reaction to the action of the Employer. The resignation must be clearly stated to be as a result of the action of the Employer, not merely an "I don't want to work here no more". Under the new Rules, the Employee must raise a Grievance even after resigning, asking that the Employers take action in considering his/her Grievance. If they fail to consider this within 28 days then a Claim can then be made to the Tribunal, if the Grievance is not raised, then The Tribunal may treat your Claim as having been filed prematurely and this usually happens after the Time Limits have then passed, so be very careful here- as always get advice!

To restate the point, Grievance procedure is now mandatory by Law, so even if your Employer doesn't have one, the Law provides for this and it has to be followed.d. The Employee must not do anything that shows that he/she accepts the action of the Employer, either by doing nothing or continuing to work even under protest. The reaction of the employee must clearly be that he/she finds the action unacceptable and that he/she believes that the Contract has been terminated by the Employer -by its conduct.

The circumstances in which an Employee can treat him/herself as having been constructively dismissed differ from case to case, but the basic points listed above are fundamental guides. A very serious word of warning- this is one of the most difficult Claims to prove in Employment Law, because the circumstances giving rise to an argument about Constructive Dismissal are usually quite emotive and often happen on the spur of the moment and on many occasions the communication by the Employee that he can no longer work for the Employer is by word of mouth and thus has to be put to proof in the Witness box. In addition the rules are so fluid its a diligent Lawyers nightmare and the lazy Lawyers comfort claim. Frankly If you believe your Employer has been guilty of discrimination, which in itself amounts to a fundamental breach of contract, you may be advised to file a Claim for Sex, Race or Disability Discrimination, because these do not require you to resign before they can be brought. In addition be warned you can only get damages for Injury to feelings if you bring a Claim for discrimination. All you're going to get for Unfair Dismissal is provable Financial loss as decided in Dunnachie v Kingston [2004] IRLR 727. I happen to have learnt this the hard way in that in a case I appeared in 2003/2004, the Law changed thrice in this regard within 6 months following Dunnachie , firstly with the Employment Tribunal saying you could get damages for Injury to feelings on Dismissal Claim, (following a case called Johnson v Unisys), the Employment Appeal Tribunal saying you couldn't , then the Court of Appeal once again saying you could and then the House of Lords saying finally that you couldn't. Save the expletives, I used up all that were available at the time.The moral of the story again is always get advice where possible, many a good claim has fallen simply because one of the many complex rules that guide the so-called Layman's bastion- The Employment Tribunal stand in the way.

A last word on the Last Straw, as said a series of incidents of breach by an Employer may all be linked up even if the earlier breaches were outside the time limits set by the Tribunal i.e 3 months., if the last is within time. I have however appeared in an Appeal which was finally determined in the Court of Appeal, which was to the effect that even if the act constituting the last straw was ambiguous in effect, once there had been established serious breaches previously, the Tribunal would still be entitled to hear the matter and decide if unfair. Now I till today do not agree with this decision in that it flies against all the prescriprtions laid down by Law as to time limits, whatever I feel however, its now the Law. Hopefully, someone will take the point to the House of Lords, where hopefully things shall be clarified.

Gilian Gibbons

2007-12-03T17:20:00.000Z

The case of Gillian Gibbons reminds me of an incident which happened in Nigeria, about eight years ago.

A young Christian man resident in Kano in the heart of Nigeria's Muslim North got into an argument with a Muslim neighbour- as neighbours do all over the world- the Muslim neighbour whilst having considered the most effective way to retaliate, raised the alarum accusing the young Christian chap of having used pages of the Quran in place of Andrex for the err..purpose of ablutions. Anyway, the young Christian man promptly received mob justicep he was beheaded. No questions asked, no quarters given.

It didn't end there, the mob then proceeded on a rampage round town killing, maiming and impaling any man-jack remotely identifiable as Christian. This was not the first time this had happened, the history of Kano and indeed the North of Nigeria being replete with such incidents. I will never forget looking through the windows of the Coca Cola Offices in Kano where I was engaged in a Consultancy Project when the religious riot started and witnessed the mob swarming all over a pregnant Christian woman and hacking her to pieces, my pleas to my colleagues for us to go out and help were met with the simple warning that if the mob now a couple of thousand strong even had any idea of our being there, they would burn the building down and probably behead us all if we managed to survive the fire.

Gillian Gibbon's case thus touched a nerve with me, because of the similarities. A disagreement between a Secretary and the Director, a false and malicious report based on Religious sentiment and an innocent woman is put in mortal danger. The fact is that at least Gillian Gibbon had the benefit of a"Trial", public outcry and Governmental intervention, thousands of natives of Darfur were not so lucky, also thousands of innocent men, women and children who have lost their lives to mob action from savage, fanatic morons.

I am extremely glad that there was an almost universal outcry from British Muslims, my sadness being that this gives fodder to Nick Griffin's equally deranged hordes. They'll probably be licking their lips at the opportunity this gives them to bleat louder, well same meat different gravy, the BNP and their ilk are of the same stock as the fanatics, all it takes is a sympathetic Government and there you have it.

Adieu Billy Whizz

2007-12-03T11:34:00.002Z

Its been said that Football is a game of gentlemen played by Ruffians and that Rugby is a game of Ruffians played by gentlemen.

Last weekend hosted the last competitive performance for one of the true heroes/all-time greats of British Sport and indeed Rugby- Jason Robinson.

Robinson was nicknamed "Billy Whizz" -after the fleet-footed Beano comic character- for his blistering runs/sheer speed on the Rugby pitch. He will also be fondly remembered as one of the most committed, determined, accomplished and brave men to grace the Rugby pitch- of all time.

Robinson was born in Leeds in 1974 and started his career at Hunslet a South Leeds team and inspite of having been offered a contract by Leeds, stuck with his Hunslet, later joining Wigan in the Rugby League, winning the Rugby League Cup whilst there. Robinson was to make history by his successful transition to Rugby Union on joining Sale Sharks in November 2000.

He first played Union for England in February 2001, as a substitute agains Italy, having previously played Rugby League for England, being only the second man in history to have played at International level under both codes. He was also selected for the British Lions tour of 2001, scoring a memorable try against Australia in the 29-13 win, in which he completely outsprinted and outfoxed Australian fullback- Chris Latham. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH7nIZ1e0u0

Robinson's greatest moment in my view was his try in the Rugby World Cup 2003 final against Australia, of which he displayed his remarkable strength and speed in scoring what in my view was the most important try of the tournament judging by the narrow point lead by which England won the match and by extension the tournament.

Robinson also captained England in the 2003 Internationals, he was however at the helm in what was England's worst Six-Nations performance in 2005. He eventually retired from the International game in September 2005, to spend time with his family but came back to be part of the British Lions Tour and indeed the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

I will also cite his performace, injury and recovery at this World Cup as another of his greatest moments. Robinson was injured during the whitewash defeat by South Africa, with a severe Hamstring Injury only to recover and return for the Quarter-finals and play a part in the final, which performance by the team was exemplary of the conduct exhibited by Robinson throughout his career- sheer guts, determination, discipline and courage.

In his personal life he had initially been subject to the scourge of Rugby players- i.e Drink and women, but eventually became a born-again Christian, via the influence of his ex-Wigan team-mate - Va'iaga Tuigamala, a change that certainly extended his career. A consummate family-man, Robinson always insisted on touring with his wife and children. He was awarded the MBE by the Queen in 2003 after the World Cup.

In an era of ego-inflated Footballers, Drug-charged Track-stars and Rapacious Basketballers, Robinson and several of his ilk in Rugby stands as a strong example of a great sportsman, sterling gentleman and true national hero.

I've placed a photo tribute above to a man I consider a personal inspiration.

From the Mouth of the Sage?!?

2007-11-29T17:15:00.000Z

Do these quotes sound familiar:

"They misunderestimated me."

"They have miscalculated me as a leader."

"I became totally inebriated with hitting the big one."

"These people don't have tanks. They don't have ships. They hide in caves. They send suiciders out."

America stands for liberty, for the pursuit of happiness, and for the unalienalienable right of life."

"Suiciders are willing to kill innocent life in order to send the projection that this is an impossible mission."

"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me --with an ideology of hope."

Come on, only by the World's most powerful leader

Morrissey

2007-11-29T14:35:00.000Z

Morrissey is quoted as follows:

"British identity has disappeared because the country has been flooded by foreigners"

"Also, with the issue of immigration, it's very difficult because although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.

"So the price is enormous. If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England and you have no idea where you are.

No comments really other than the following:

a. Morrissey is the son of Immigrants to Britain

b. His response to a Britain suffering from an Influx of Immigrants was to err..emigrate to Italy and then the USA, where he has lived for upwards of 10 years.

Any questions?

The Collapsification

2007-11-26T09:56:00.001Z

I sit across from a work colleague PK, who heads the Transport Technology Division of the company in which I work. A proud, traditional, middle-aged Scouser of the Everton supporting variety, a former teacher and speaker of four European languages (five if you count Liverpudlian)

PK has in moment of great excitement (whether at or outside of the Coach and Horse) come up with his own special vocabulary geared towards describing an extreme state of affairs, an example and my favourite being the term- "Collapsification" which he uses to describe an almost total disintegration of cohesion, structure or stature, last used to describe the England performance against Croatia.

No other word better describes the recent near annihilation of the Labour Party since the ascension of Gordon Brown.

There are many theories within and outside the Labour Party as to how things have to come to the present pass. Here are a few theories:

a. Upon the exit of Tony Blair, Labour has been deprived of its valuable, sleek information management machine, hence the present debacle being more a question of Info management, since there did not appear to be much worse happening than in the past (with the exception of the HMRC Disc scandal);

b. Gordon Brown’s structure is more geared towards open honest resolution of issues, hence the presentation of facts is geared more towards clarity and propriety than political info-manipulation;

c. There is a vacuum of crisis management leadership within the party; hence the seeming lack of ability to deal with the crisis of confidence within the party and the serious national image–disasters the Party seems to be stumbling into one after the other.

d. A genuine and serious lack of direction, initiative and vision within the party leadership, engendered by dictatorial control by Gordon Brown of practically all decision-making vehicles.

My sincere view is that there is a little of all of the above, which is probably Karma for Labour, which has itself to blame for throwing away the goodwill it enjoyed from the British people. There is no doubt that a lot of the difficulties faced by Labour were inherited from Tony Blair, however that is purely academic, leadership involves taking responsibility for stewardship a choice which was palpably clear to Gordon, who actively sought the position.

The sad thing is that Britain is on the road to returning the Tories back into Government, for this the Tories should not be commended but Labour should take responsibility- rather sadly in my view- for having betrayed the hopes of the country.

Cameron says call me Dave, well perhaps we'd better call him Sir or Prime Minister.

Ps/ Just gotten details on the David Abrahams donation disaster, goodness, even Frank Spencer couldn't possibly manage Labour's recent propensity for self-destruction!!

Greatest Highlife Guitar Performances

2007-11-23T19:20:00.000Z

1. Raphael Amarabem - Suzanna Pango. Jolly Papa, Osima Toru Korote , Love Mu Adure, (Rex Lawson); Eddie Quansah, (Peacocks); Atabla Woman (Professional Seagulls).

2. Oscar Elimbi- Iyogogo- (Onyeka Onwenu); Songs at Sunset (Ikenga)

3. Fatai Rolling Dollar- Iyawo Ma pami; Easy Motion(Afro-Skittles)

4. Easy Kabaka Brown- Day by Day; Esi Nana (ET Mensah); Mo fe Mu Oyan; Bola (Victor Olaiya).

5. Professor Kwame Gyasi- Manse Umo

6. Eric Agyeman- Kyen Kyen Bi Adi Mawu (Thomas Frimpong)

7. Godwin Kabaka Okpara- Uwa A Tuola Mu Ujo; Akwa Uwa, Onye Ma Uche Chukwu (Oriental Brothers)

8. Frank Essien- Whisky Son U Odo

9. Kwaa Mensah- When I die tomorrow

10. Victor Uwaifo- Joromi

11. Koo Nimo- Yaa Amponsah

12. Harry Mosco- Ijenu, Usondu (Celestine Ukwu)

13. Messi Martin - Mengala Maurice

14. Oliver De Coque- Identity

15. Ezekiel Uti- Osondi Owendi, Makojo, Baby Pancake (Stephen Osadebe)

16. Soliman Rogie- Dead men don't smoke Marijuana

Judge Tunji Sowande Pt 2

2007-11-19T13:52:00.000Z

Interesting to note that my previous article on the late Judge Tunji Sowande, has been syndicated in a number of Print and electronic Media platforms- including the flagship Guardian. Well very good, but not for me, for the late gentleman who was very little known or celebrated. In addition I have verified the authenticity of the facts contained in the article from none other than his daughter -Mrs Ayo Eneli.

I say once more that Tunji Sowande was one of the greatest Black Britons and Nigerians who ever lived and to the extent that my write-up is the only comprehensive source Bio on the great man, then as said I've done my bit.

Here's a link to the Guardian article Guardian and indeed my original article is reproduced below.

Tunji Sowande was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1912 to a fairly wealthy local family by standards – his father being the Anglican Priest- Emmanuel Sowande, a pioneer of Church music in Lagos and contemporary of the distinguished classical composer and organist- Dr Ekundayo Phillips. His was a musical family, with his older brother being none other than the renowned Classical composer- Fela Sowande, described by Wikipedia as “the father of modern Nigerian art music, Sowande is perhaps the most internationally known African composer of works in the European "classical" idiom.” A reputable resource on Fela Sowande is attached - FELA SOWANDE.

Tunji Sowande had his early education at the CMS Anglican Grammar School in Lagos and proceeded to the Yaba Higher College, where he obtained a Diploma in Pharmacy on or about 1940. As was the practice, he worked with the Public Health department in Lagos as a Dispensing Pharmacist for a number of years. His contemporary being the late Adeyinka Oyekan, his good friend, who was later to become the Oba (King) of Lagos.In the family tradition, Tunji was an excellent Baritone Singer, Organist and later a Jazz Drummer. Largely plying his musical skills in the conservative surroundings of the Anglican Cathedral in Lagos in his spare-time.

In or around 1948, he decided to travel to the United Kingdom to pursue a career in Law, though his personal account was more to the effect that he wanted a change of scene to pursue his musical skills, with legal studies being a respectable adjunct to his genuine quest.He studied Law at Kings College and took and passed the Bar Finals at Lincolns Inn, having said that he occupied himself primarily playing around the UK, supporting several acts both Jazz, Classical and Choral. He collaborated on live sets with several contemporary heavy-weights like Johnny Dankworth, Ronnie Scott, Paul Robeson to name a few as well as popular Afro-Caribbean icons like Ambrose Campbell and Edmundo Ros. He is on record as having formed a long standing partnership with the hugely popular pioneering Black Singer and Pianist Rita Cann and was indeed part of the circle of Black Intellectuals and musicians who met regularly at the Regents Park flat of the African-American musician- John Payne. Rita Cann had actually been mentored by Fela Sowande. A link to the resource is attached- Rita Cann

He also recorded at least one single on the Afro-Caribbean Melodisc label, the track being “Thin Rere” and Igi T’Olorun” a link to this resource is attached- MELODISC. Contemporary acts on this label being Lord Kitchener and Ambrose Campbell. He is also reputed to have dedicated a substantial part of his musical career to playing for Charity entertaining an Elderly audience- as a duo with Rita Cann, travelling around the UK for this purpose.

Tunji Sowande upon completing his pupilage was informed by his Pupil Master that he had been offered a full Tenancy at the prestigious 3 Kings Bench Walk Chambers. His reaction was however that of surprise, since his own ambition was to pursue his musical career on completion of his studies. This is to be seen in the context of the fact that Tenancies in prestigious Chambers were not available to Black Barristers- the UK still being subject to the racial and class strictures attendant at the time. He initially refused it but subsequently accepted it after pressure from his Pupil Master, who would not countenance a Lawyer of his exceptional intellect and ability doing otherwise than taking the opportunity of a career at the Bar.

Tunji went on to pursue a distinguished career at the Bar, specialising in Criminal Law, he was recognised as an exceptionally competent, unassuming and scrupulously honest Lawyer. His only other Black contemporary at the Bar at the time being the Caribbean Barrister – Learie Constantine, who was a professional Cricketer and Captain of the Legendary West Indian Cricket team- who rather wonderfully practised Law as a hobby and who had famously sued and won compensation from the Imperial Hotel in London in 1944 for barring him “on the grounds of colour”. Constantine later became Trinidadian High Commissioner to London and indeed the UK’s first Black Peer.

He rose to the rank of Head of Chambers at 3 Kings Bench Walk after several years, no mean feat. In addition, he was appointed a Recorder (Judge) of the Crown Court, from where he retired on or about 1989. He handled a large number of complex Criminal matters in the course of his career, I am in the process of researching the archives to locate some of these.

There is speculation on this point, but there is evidence that Tunji Sowande was the first person of Black African descent to be appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court and indeed to Head a Barristers Chambers. Whilst Dr John Roberts QC (the Sierra Leonian born former RAF officer) is listed by the Black Lawyers Directory as the first of such, link is attached to this resource-ROBERTS, I disagree completely in that Dr Roberts was appointed to the Bench in 1987, whilst Tunji Sowande was certainly sitting as a Recorder in 1985. In addition it is to be remembered that Tunji Sowande was called to the Bar in 1952, whilst John Roberts was called in 1969. Whilst this is not necessarily a requisite for appointment to the Bench, it is a fair Indicator. In any event, Tunji Sowande assumed the Headship of 3 Kings Bench Walk in 1968, before Roberts was called to the Bar.

I recall sometime in 1983, reading the magazine Tatler- belonging to my mother, of which contents were plainly meaningless to me on account of the status-based content- I had nothing else to read on that day- and I noticed a photograph of a very tall, elderly Black gentleman, amidst all the great and good of English society at some society function, the gentleman was described as Judge Sowande, the same one. This sparked my interest and on an aside, enquiries almost 10 years on showed him to be the father-in-law of my Uncle (my mother’s cousin) and the grand-father of some of my closest cousins.

Sowande’s life was a study in simplicity, integrity and conviction. He lived his life in accordance with his own unique standards, applying himself excellently in all he chose to endeavour. He died in 1996, though I am informed that he still climbed the 3 floors to his flat in Temple EC1 up till his death at the age of 84.

Tunji Sowande was instrumental to the careers of several Lawyers of minority persuasion, always a source of subtle and useful fatherly advice, he however did not view himself purely in the context of an ethnic professional but recognised the difficulties faced by ethnic Lawyers. One such Lawyer being Kim Hollis QC, the first female Asian QC, who was given her opportunity of Tenancy by Tunji Sowande, who indeed mentored her in the early stages of her career. A link to her Interview is attached Hollis. She cites his advice to her as the most important she ever received in her career- "BLD: What was the best career advice you were given? KH: This was from Olatunji Sowande, who offered me my first tenancy: if you are determined, you can succeed. BLD: What career advice would you give to others?KH: It is really what Olatunji Sowande told me. Determination and hard work: if you are determined to succeed and work towards your goal, you can achieve it."

There are several other accounts of several minority Lawyers who benefited from his assistance and mentoring. Another example being the highly respected Barrister- Chima Umezuruike, whom he beckoned at a function, whilst Umezuruike was still seeking a Pupillage and engaged him in a conversation about his plans. From thence a fatherly relationship ensued with, Tunji Sowande encouraging and imparting sage professional advice to him at several stages of his career.

An undeniable fact is that the work of Tunji Sowande and some of his peers broke down the barriers that stood in the way of Lawyers of minority persuasion. This is to be read in the context of the times he practised Law, a period when minorities were effectively barred from several institutions of British life, much less the protected institution of Law Practice at the Bar, of which there are obstacles even today, not just to ethnics, but to White Britons from the wrong end of the class spectrum or the wrong Academic catchment i.e non-Oxbridge.

Tunji Sowande never achieved his ambition of becoming the UK's first Black QC but certainly left his mark on the profession and it is a mark of his modesty and under-stated substance that not much is known of his work and life, simply because he was an extremely humble man who did not believe in self-promotion, his disposition being to get on with the tasks at hand and show respect for all regardless of station and apply himself with complete dedication to his vocation.
This has been one of the more difficult articles I’ve written on account of the total dearth of web-based information on a very distinguished man. This probably being on account of his modest and private nature. I would thus appeal for more information and ask anyone with the same to please get in touch on ek3005@yahoo.co.uk or indeed by publishing a comment on these pages, which I shall publish upon verifying its authenticity.

I also noticed that Sowande was not listed amongst the 100 greatest Black Britons of the last century (of which his musical partner- Rita Cann was listed and undoubtedly most deserving) or even on any Who’s Who of Black Briton’s or indeed Nigerians, which I think borders on the criminal, well I’ve done my bit and ask that more be done in his memory to highlight his life as a beacon to persons of ethnic minority persuasion or indeed any one wanting an example in how to lead a simple, decent life. In my view he was one of the greatest Black Britons and indeed greatest Nigerians that ever lived.

Sir Louis Mbanefo

2007-11-19T13:50:00.000Z

APPROVED BY AUTHOR FOR PUBLICATION ON WIKIPEDIA

AND GENERAL FREE LICENCE

Following the initial publication of this article, I sought clarification of the facts herein from Mr Louis Nnamdi Mbanefo SAN- Sir Louis' son, who has very kindly offered substantial corrections, which I duly reflect and express my apologies for the inaccuracies which were completely inadvertent. I have highlighted the corrections in Italics below:

There are few personalities who have shaped the course of the Legal profession in Nigeria, as Louis Mbanefo, it is however interesting that there is very little information on his life on the web and my intention is to provide some kind of composite record.

Louis Mbanefo was born in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria on the 13th of May 1911. He was educated at The Methodist Boys High School in Lagos and subsequently at the prestigious Kings College, also in Lagos, which was modelled on Eton and Harrow College's and where he ws a keen Cricketer and Footballer- all these between the years 1925-1932. He was then admitted to the University College London, where he studied Law, graduating Second Class Upper in 1935 and was called to the Bar at The Middle Temple later on in the same year. He was then admitted to Cambridge, where he obtained a further Degree in the Humanities in 1937.

He returned home to Nigeria and set up practice in his hometown of Onitsha and is on record as the first Lawyer from the East of Nigeria. By virtue of this status, he developed an incredibly successful practice, with clientele largely sourced from his kinsmen who were an extremely resourceful breed of wealthy traders and also as a result of the frequent Land disputes arising as a matter of course in the territory. It is reputed that whilst such disputes had previously been settled by Tribal Warfare, they were now being resolved in the arena of the Law Courts and an indigenous and competent Gladiator- as Mbanefo undoubtedly was, became an invaluable asset in the new dispensation. His practice covered a huge area, basically the East and North of the country. He made several notable appearances in landmark cases before the Regional Court, Supreme Court and West African Court of Appeal, reports of appearances before the Privy Council are as yet unconfirmed.

He then veered into politics and was elected into the Eastern Region Parliament in 1950, where he distinguished himself as an excellent Orator and Lawmaker. However the pull of the Legal profession was such that he returned after 2 years, but this time to the Bench, as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1952, with his first posting being to Warri in the Mid-West of Nigeria, where he sat as resident Judge.

He was later seconded back to the Eastern Region as Chief Justice in 1961 and in 1962, reached the peak of his Judicial career by appointment to the International Court of Justice, as an ad-hoc Judge, a position he occupied till 1966, when he returned to his post as Chief Justice of the Eastern Region. His appointment to the ICJ being to sit on South-Western Africa Cases i.e Liberia v South Africa and Ethiopia v South Africa ICJ Reports 1966 (click link for full report of Judgement - ICJ which spanned over four years.

This decision being on consideration by the ICJ, of applications by the Governments of Ethiopia and Liberia in respect of the Mandate held by the Union of South Africa over the peoples of South West Africa (The mandate system being a creature of the Charter of the League of Nations and upon which South Africa had exercised control of the territory and its people) and more specifically as to whether South Africa had properly exercised its mandate or whether it should be condemned for having failed to properly exercise this mandate -by its illegal treatment of the said people.

The split decision of the Court being that South Africa be condemned for failing to properly exercise the said mandate. Sir Louis' contributions were succinct, powerful and knowledgable- on the whole ethos, status and principle of the Mandate system- especially regarding the administrative and reporting obligations of Nations and his crucial finding being that whilst the Administrative reporting and monitoring duties ceased on the dissolution of the League of Nations, the moral obligations of the Mandate state continued beyond the dissolution of the League and such an obligation was essentially binding on the Union of South Africa. This in my view was the defining moment of his career and an indelible Legacy to International Law.

In 1961, he received a Knighthood from the Queen and assumed the title which he proudly answered till his death- Sir Louis Mbanefo- Kt

Upon the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War, he was appointed the Chief Justice of Biafra and Ambassador Plenipotentiary. He was actively involved in the Peace talks with the Nigerian Government and worked actively towards a diplomatic resolution of the Crisis. He remained in Biafra till the very end, after the Biafran Leader fled, leaving Sir Louis and Major-General Phillip Effiong to effectively take the noble step of ending the War, the surrender being effectively signed by Major-General Phillip Effiong. History will judge Sir Louis and Major-General Phillip Effiong as men of sterling courage and integrity who rather than prolong the suffering of Biafra effectively negotiated an end to hostilities, whilst those who preached a fight to the very end, fled they stayed in Biafra and took the necessary and dignified step of ending the unnecessary suffering of their people.

Upon the cessation of the war, Sir Louis resigned his appointment to the Bench on grounds of principle, the same of which was not accepted by the Nigerian Government for a substantial period. The fact remains that beyond any shadow of a doubt, Nigeria had been robbed of the services of one of its most distinguished Jurists and Statesmen.

He dedicated his later years to Charity and Church work, serving variously as President of the Christian Council of Nigeria, Chancellor of the Niger Diocese- a position he had held since 1946, President of the Anglican Consultative Council from 1972 and a Fellow of the University of London.

Sir Louis sadly died in 1977, in many people's view without his country having had the full value of his knowledge and ability as a Jurist and Statesman, however his legacy was to open doors for several of his Kinsmen to pursue careers at the Bar as well as his sterling career as a Barrister and illustrious career on the Bench- especially at the International Court of Justice, this in my view is a worthy legacy.

Sir Louis was undoubtedly a Pioneer in his field and a man who broke down huge barriers, its not to be forgotten that he obtained his education in the United Kingdom at a time when it was extremely rare to have a person of his ethnic persuasion pursuing higher education, much less professional training at the Bar. He was an extremely intelligent, disciplined and diligent man who applied himself with single-minded dedication to his profession. A towering intellectual whose contribution to International Law via the South-Western African cases, showed that his professional intellect was at par with the best in the World and that he was not merely a local treasure but indeed a sterling icon of the Legal profession in the highest possible Index.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

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Hope this clarifies all trepidations?!?

The African Guitar Sorcerers

2007-11-16T11:52:00.000Z

Needless to say these gentlemen form the elite of the African Guitar legacy.

I have written previously on the advent on the Guitar as an Instrument into Africa and its pride of place as an instrument of musical expression, spawning musical heroes who rest in the legend of contemporary African musical history.

I cannot even pretend that this list is exhaustive, however this is an attempt to give due credit to genuine heroes of this genre, who span over 80 years of African musical history, from the Igbo Justus Domingo, Fanti- George Williams Aingo and the ferociously talented mixed race Ashanti- Frank Essien in the 20's on to the 30's with Irewolede Denge and Tunde King, the 40's with Kwaa Mensah and Ambrose Campbell. The 50's and 60's which witnessed an explosion in the use of the Guitar, with continental stars like- Fatai Rolling Dollar. Julius Araba, Wendo, Dr Nico, Picollo, Koo Nimo, T.O.Jazz, Kayode Fashola, on to present day superstars like Baba Maal, Agboola Shadare, Keziah Jones, Oscar Elimbi et al.

The Guitar has taken on a near spiritual significance in African music, rivalled only by the Drum and these gentlemen herein are the exponents of this phenomenon.

On account of the sheer work involved in putting this together, I would ask for your indulgence in completing this article in instalments. I shall add full summaries under each individual entry as time goes on.

Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay (Dr Nico)

Felix Waku ("Manuakou")

Zangilu Beniko ("Popolipo "/"Zero Faute")

Felly Dimbedi

Oscar Elimbi

Agboola Shadare

Zanzibar

Henri Dikongué

Ali Farka Toure

Papa Noel

Djelimady Tounkara

Mory Kante

Ambrose Campbell

Irewolede Denge

Raphael Amarabem

Sekou Bembeya Diabate

Kayode Fashola

Fatai Rolling Dollar

Victor Uwaifo

Frank Essien

George Williams Aingo

Koo Nimmo

Eric Agyeman

Diblo

SE Rogie

EK Gyasi

Wendo

Lucky Ranku

Jonathan Butler

Luambo Makiadi (Franco)

Cheikh Lo

Baba Maal

Boubacar Diallo

Matima Mpioso

Willie Makola

Tessema Guma

Jimi Mbaye

Ademola Adepoju

Godwin Kabaka Okpara

Gustave Manzaka Mankoyi

Easy Kabaka Brown

Kari Bannerman

Justus Domingo

2007-11-13T18:04:00.000Z

This is a review of what has been described as the earliest recorded Juju Music track. I came across this album 6 years ago, whilst browsing through the stands at Sterns African Records in Marylebone London, which has one of the most comprehensive stocks of African music in the United Kingdom.There is not much material available on this artiste- whose name and indeed the content at first glance suggests a Yoruba indigene of Brazilian extraction, however an independent text refers to him as an Igbo man who settled in Lagos and imbibed the language and idioms to the extent of being competent to perform in the language in Native format. My only conclusion being that the gentleman is certainly not of Yoruba birth and early upbringing, based on the heavily accented nature of his lyrical execution, a trait common to a vast majority of Brazilian returnees of the early 20th century and late 19th century. I would hazard a guess that Justus Domingo is a Brazilian returnee probably of the first generation, since he was in his 50’s when this album was recorded coinciding with wave of returns by Brazilian descendants to Lagos from Bahia.This album appears to have been released under the Zonophone label.By way of an introduction- the Zonophone label was founded in 1899, in Camden, New Jersey USA and was to all intents and purposes what may be described as a major Record label for the time, as founded by Frank Seaman, a New Jersey native who had worked previously for the Emile Berliner’s- Berliner Gramophone company- basically the founder of the Gramophone.As a result of a legal dispute between Seaman and Berliner over Copyright to the Gramophone technology, which was resolved in Berliner’s favour and consequent upon which the Zonophone label was absorbed by Victor Records (forebear to RCA-Victor) in the USA and in the UK. The strategy being to release less mainstream material (or as they termed it- inferior material) under the Zonophone label. This label was later to be absorbed under the Columbus RCA-Victor records merger in 1931, to form Electrical Musical Industries (more commonly known as EMI Records).A number of other African artistes were recorded under this label- namely Frank Essien/Edmund Tagoe. George Williams Aingo; Nicholas van-Heer, all great Ghanaian musicians of the 1920’s. The schema of the label being top record the artistes in London and market the records to the ever growing African community in London and also for export to Africa.To all intents and purposes, this album was recorded in London and to me appears to be one of the first to have been so recorded by a Nigerian musician in London.

The Album

The album consists of 20 tracks (which actually should be 19, since the last two tracks were repetitive) largely ancient Yoruba folk songs, some being indigenous to Eko Akete and other having more generic origin, it does not appear that more than two or three of the songs were original compositions i.e Ori Aba bo (which appears to be in honour of the late Dr Doherty). The rest Wele sise eiye, Agba Mu Rere, Olurombi being examples of more Folkloric material.We shall examine the main tracks singly:1. Bandele – A mid tempo track, with a backing Native Conga drum and Guitar; 2. Agbamurere- An ancient Yoruba folk song, delivered Accapella, with the track title being the recurring Chorus in call and response format, particular compelling being the verse- “Kiriji Kikiriji Kenke luke”; 3. Eni Ba Dami- another Mid-tempo track featuring Native Conga and Guitar; 4. Oluronbi- A cover of a highly popular Yoruba folk song, also delivered Accapella; 5. Omo Lanke- Another Folk track, arguably of Lagosian origin as gathered from the line “Ti Akara ba jabo sile, Ewure Eko ma jehun” ; 6. Egbe Wa Ki Npe Lajo – Another mid tempo Folk track of Lagosian origin, featuring once more Native Drum and Guitar; 7. Adeoti Ori Wara Ori Wara- One of my favourite tracks- a Yoruba Folk song, executed with the standard Native Drum and Guitar accompaniment; 8. Eyi Mowi Re; 9. Bi Ina la Ku Fi Eru Boju; 10. Koju Gbagbe- Another sterling track- the song featuring once again the Drum/Guitar accompaniment, a fairly repetitive Lyrical structure, but charming nonetheless- “Koju gbagbe o, Koju gbagbe o, eni aba sere ko ma mo bi agbe ti wa koju gbagbe o..”;11. Ori la Ba Bo- This song being a tribute to the late Dr Doherty, a prominent Lagos indigene of the time- Ori ababo ka fi Orisa Si ile, Doherty se be a eriwo; 12. Iya Matu- An accapella rendition of this Folk song with the melodiously catchy chorus- “Ajanti Ele” in call and response format; 13. Awalo de, Ore Bi Ole Jo Ma Mi; 14. Tourn; 15. Bi Mo Bi Omo Ti Oku Maron Lo Lewe; 16. Oniya Awa Lolare; 17. Igba Lahu- Another ancient Folk rendition in call and response vocal format, basically a riddle centred around the form of the native aubergine-; 18. Adabi Baba Epe An extremely moving track, basically a call for peace- “Ija Megbon O, Ija Megbon O, Bi aba ja ka pa rire..”;19. Ele Shishe Wa-A rendition of the popular ancient Yoruba song-made popular in recent times specifically in the 60’s by Dr Victor Olaiya;.The significance of this album is two-fold:a. This was the first recorded album by a Juju artiste, whilst there had been earlier recordings by Ghanaian musicians like the ferociously talented Guitarist Frank Essien and Singer- Edmund Tagoe and George Williams Aingo. However its significance in the history of Nigerian music is undeniable. Significantly it was recorded in London and even more significantly it was recorded under one of the world’s premier Record labels- albeit the subsidiary label, but one of the biggest in the World nonetheless.
b.Justus Domingo to all intents and purpose could be regarded as one of the, if not the first International Nigerian Music Superstar (if such description exists)Justus Domingo was probably the first Nigerian musician to record with a Guitar accompaniment and whilst, there were certainly local contemporary musicians performing with Guitar accompaniment and probably even more proficiently than Justus Domingo- Irewolede Denge being a case in point, having been plying his trade as a local minstrel from the early 20’s onwards for the entertainment of 1920’s Lagos gentry such as Da Rocha, Doherty, Kitoye-Ajasa etc. Justus was the one with the major record deal and could invariably be regarded as one of the father’s of Nigerian Guitar music. I expect a challenge to this being that I have in my collection a 1930 recording by Irewolede Denge- “Orin Asape Eko” featuring the excellent and popular Chorus in Ijebu dialect – “Mbati laya keregbe ni oje..” (I would have taken a wife but Palmwine refused). This is probably not the first recording by Denge however there is no evidence that there was any recording before 1928. I would however accept any challenge in good faith since this is only to the benefit of this genre. I am certainly able to confirm that the Ghanaian musicians mentioned above- Tagoe, Essien, Van Heer and Aingo certainly recorded in 1927 and before, since I equally have the music in my collection.It is instructive that this album whilst first released by Zonophone in 1928 lapsed into obscurity for several decades until re-release in 1969 by the label Heritage Music, which I am aware to be a subsidiary of Sony BMG Music, which acquired the rights to RCA-Victor material and is part of the labels strategic reissue initiative.

It is a great source of concern that this material has not attracted the interest of Nigerian businessmen or indeed Nigerian labels, who ordinarily ought to have an in-depth interest in the source material as a matter of pride and indeed business initiative, one thus hopes this review serves as a gentle reminder of the depth of National musical treasures which we lose on a regular basis and in some cases, maybe forever.

Paterson Zochonis Ltd v Lagos Island Local Government

2007-11-08T17:32:00.000Z

I was opportuned to act whilst at the Nigerian Bar, for Paterson Zochonis Ltd - a Greek trading Company in an Administrative Law brief, the facts being thus:

a. PZ Ltd had been levied a Charge by the Lagos Island Local Government- in the form of a Commercial Premises permit being basically a permit to trade within the territory administered by the Local authority. A bit of a background being that this Local authority was at the time one of the most affluent Governmental entities in Africa, with a budget/revenue equivalent to the GNP/GDP of most African countries.

b. PZ as a matter of policy refused to pay this and sought advice from Irving and Bonnar- Solicitors in Lagos, who advised that the Commercial Premises Bye-Law by which the Local authority levied the charge was Ultra-Vires and thus void and instructed the Chambers of Bentley Edu for the purpose of contesting the Charge and indeed the Bye-Law. This advice being on the basis of research by Chuma Uwechia (later renowned as the author of the authoritative- Nigerian Arbitration and Conciliation Law and Practice).

c. We proceeded to prepare an Originating Application, seeking a Declaratory relief from the Court voiding the Commercial Premises Bye-Law as Ultra-Vires.

The Commercial Premises Bye-Law, 1991, had as its parent Law the Local Government Law of Lagos State, what was however noted was that this Law did not give the Local Government the power to levy taxes against Companies, but against individuals, furthermore this in itself amounted to double taxation. Additionally the Nigerian Constitution specifically provided a bar to Local Governments levying Corporate Taxes.

I was fortunate to be handed the brief by Anthony George-Ikoli, the Chambers Head of Commercial Litigation and worked under the supervision of Wale Abiru (now Mr Justice Abiru- Lagos High Court).

The first hearing of the matter was heard before Mr Justice Hunponu-Wusu at the Lagos High Court in February 1992, which was adjourned on account of the Counsel for the Local autority turning up late and seeking an adjournment, to discuss "settlement". Our instructions were clearly to the effect that there was no basis for compromise, that the change of the Law was a matter of public policy which must be addressed by Legislative or Judicial prescription.

I prepared the Affidavit evidence and the submissions for the first hearing and presented arguments on the adjourned application in April 1992, on a whole day hearing which still was part-heard in that the Court could not accommodate the full vista of submissions. The hearing was further adjourned till October 2002 and the application was then completed by Koye Edu- Senior Counsel in Chambers, as I had at this stage left the Chambers to take on a Corporate role as General Counsel in a Financial Institution.

The decision of the Court was to conclusively declare the Commercial Premises Bye-Law Ultra-Vires and in essence creating a huge lacuna in that the Judgement did not provide for a refund of all payments made by Companies to the Local Authority amounting to close to N400 Million (£100 Million at the time). We had not sought this as our client had made no payments requiring refund.

This was one of the more important Administrative Law decisions of the period and moreso on account of its direct challenge of the Executive fiat of the Military Government in power at the time.

This decision was relied upon as persuasive authority in a number of similar cases and eventually on appeal in one similar case, the principle operative was upheld by the Court of Appeal and remained Law until the Constitution was amended in 1999. I note that there was a similar case on the same subject matter which involved another Local authority which had appearances from the late Ben Nwazojie SAN and Kola Awodein SAN (for the local authority), in which the Local authority succeeded, which decision was later overturned on Appeal, based on the reasoning in the PZ decision.

Doherty's Relapse

2007-11-07T15:01:00.000Z

Pustule-Pete we are told has relapsed again (surprise, surprise...)
(click link for definition of Pustule http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9538 )

I was about to write something cutting and sarcastic, but you know what sod it, who cares..

Shay

2007-11-07T09:29:00.000Z

I got one of those chain emails you delete without thinking, but once again decided to read and thought I'd post it for whomever it may mean something to.

I know many of you have read this previously however I think it is worth another moment to remember love and the importance of life.

Two Choices What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection.. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot und erstand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe, that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child..' Then he told the following story:Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps. Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.

Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team. 'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day! AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate.. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

Shakespearean Insults

2007-11-06T11:16:00.000Z

I came across an Interesting bit of literary software that generates insults from the Elizabethan era.

I'm embarrassed to say that I spent ages generating different insults with it, almost like an adult intellectual version of Nintendo or Playstation. Here http://www.william-shakespeare.org.uk/a1-shakespearean-insults-generator.htm

I invite you to give it a whirl and here are a few samples I came across, absolutely hilarious, I laughed my head off and its apt that as I came across these words certain people I've known in the course of life came to mind. Have fun.

Thou art:

A beslubberring, fat-kidneyed malt-worm!

A mammering, sheep-biting mold-warp!

An impertinent, onion-eyed malkin

A frothy, fool-born rabbit-sucker

A mammering, pinch-spotted hempseed

A haughty, earth-vexing measle

A loggerheaded, rump-fed rabbit-sucker (ouch!)

An errant rough-hewn pigeon-egg!

A mammering guts-griping death-token!

An unmuzzled, bat-fowling fustilarian

Mr Justice Rhodes-Vivour

2007-11-01T15:31:00.000Z

Goodness this is a season of old memories of my days at the Nigerian Bar. I stepped out during lunch to pick up Gift vouchers on the strict orders of the Energetic Environmentalist and who did I bump into but one of my modern day heroes at the Bar/Bench- The Honourable Justice Rhodes-Vivour- a Justice of the Court of Appeal in Nigeria.

I bumped into him on Oxford Street and when I reminded him of where we had met, his response with a smile being, “oh you’re that stubborn little man”- for me this was high praise and I was even willing to ignore the little man bit (I mean how did he know?)

Why is he one of my heroes?- well the story goes like this, I was representing a client in a Commercial Litigation brief before Justice Rhodes-Vivour- whilst he was still a High Court Judge in- 1994 I believe and involving a UK Pharmaceutical Company against my client a Nigerian company and subsidiary of another UK company in a claim for £12M. The twist being that the Barrister on the other side had the following things in his favour:

1. He was one of the most powerful figures at the Lagos Bar at the time, being a past Chairman of the Bar Association, whilst I was a wee, fresh-faced, poor, idealistic and bloody-minded neophyte;

2. He had been one of Justice Rhodes-Vivour’s referees for his elevation to the Bench, hence he anticipated this as a leverage point- I found this out several years after.

The other side made an application for Judgement (using the Old Proceedings In Lieu of Demurrer). The hearing before Justice Rhodes-Vivour started at 9am and ended at 2.30pm, - being based on Affidavit evidence and Legal submissions. On the weight of the submissions before him and err.. the fact that the Court room was now stifling hot- what with a power cut and the added burden of Heavy Lawyers/Judges Robes (in Tropical Africa for God’s sake), the Judgement was postponed for a week.

His Judgement a week later was short and sharp, he basically threw out the Case and the application and ripped up the senior Barrister on the other side to shreds, for a number of reasons-

a. His piss-poor preparations and shambolic submissions and most importantly;

b. For using his cronies in the Military Task Force to try and intimidate my client they had also roughed-up one of my Paralegal staff in the process.

His words being that such conduct by a Senior member of the Bar was inexcusable and that the only reason he was not taking more serious action being because I had declined the same, I had won the argument, hence I wasn’t going to get myself into a further kerfuffle with a washed-up old Street-fighter scorned.

If you live in the West, you would expect this to be the minimum standard to expect from a Judge, well Nigeria has totally different indices and this was extremely principled and extraordinary candour in a system where the truth and principle are always subject to compromise.

Justice Rhodes-Vivour is regarded still as one of the most honest, principled and intellectually sound Judges in the Nigeria Judiciary and people like him gave some of us hope for Nigeria. As said, he is now a distinguished Judge of the Court of Appeal and is certainly due for elevation to Nigeria’s Supreme Court, which in itself has been an oasis of Justice in an otherwise lawless land.

He tried to encourage me to come back to Nigeria or at least keep a foot in practice back there, I was compelled to be honest and say that there weren't many like him, hence there was the hindrance to my return, since there is no point in practising in an environment where Justice is not determined by Law but by other considerations. No, sorry this wasn't brown-nosing but simple fact. For the records he said nothing in response to that point but merely insisted that I keep up some kind of presence at the Nigerian Bar, I graciously agreed to consider it.

A real gentleman and a pride to his homeland.