Adeyinka Moyosore Kotoye, legal practitioner and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is the Head, Pisces & Gemini Law Office, Lagos. He shares his life story with TUNDE ADELEKE.
Can you let us into the kind of background that produced you?
Well, I was born to a couple known as Mr Adeyemi and the late Mrs Stella Modupeola Kotoye. Both parents were teachers; my mother was a vice-principal before she died and I am the first of five children. I had mixed growth and upbringing, spanning from Abeokuta to Brooklyn in New York, United States, back to Abeokuta with my grandparents, then to Lagos and then my university days and early working life in Ibadan, Oyo State. I served with the firm of Afe Babalola & Co., which actually changed my career trajectory. When I finished, I was employed by Chief GOK Ajayi & Co., now of blessed memory. Then I moved to the chambers of Mrs Hairat Balogun, which we call Libra Law Office where I spent a considerable number of years before I started Pisces & Gemini Law Office known as PG Law Office.
How was life growing up?
Interesting. As I said, I had a mixed growth or mixed upbringing, but the major part of my childhood days were spent with my maternal grandparents in Ago-Ika, Gbagura, Abeokuta. Many people don’t know this about me; when I tell them this in Abeokuta, they always think I am an ‘Atohunrinwa’ (stranger). But I grew up with my maternal grandparents, who were Muslims and who in all areas, indulged me. My maternal grandmother was one of the foremost businesswomen at Itoku Market at that time. She was into textiles. Later in the late 70s, she went into commodity trading. Her husband, I learnt, started up as a teacher, but eventually became the first bursar of Ansar-Ud-Deen School, Ishaga-Orile, Abeokuta. I grew up to know him as the first bursar of the school. So, basically, I have always had a background steeped in both western education as well as business. As part of that background, you`ll be surprised that I went to Quranic school though my mother was a Christian. She became a Christian when she got married and I used to stay back with my grandparents. Of course, you have to go to Quranic school. It was part of our upbringing that in addition to going to normal school, you go to the school in the afternoons. I attended Trinity Nursery and Primary School. At that time in Abeokuta, I think there were just about three of them – Trinity, St. Benedict and Children Home School that I can remember. And out of the three, Trinity was like an upscale elementary school in the whole of Abeokuta. The proprietor, the late Mrs. Funmilayo Sobande, was also an educationist, whose husband was a lawyer and also at a time, a member of the House of Assembly in Ogun State. The proprietor, I learnt after I had left, also later went into the state House of Assembly. I stayed briefly with them before my parents came back from the United States. But basically, most of the time I was with my maternal grandparents and it was a very wonderful experience because in that compound, you have traditionalists, you have Muslims and Christians, yet my maternal grandmother would insist I have to go to church on Sundays, even though she was a Muslim. Later I discovered that she also came from a background of traditionalists, the Ifa worshippers I think- Odumuyiwa.
You were mixing everything?
I had a mixed upbringing and in all of it, though my maternal grandparents would not subscribe to it, as children, we would oscillate between the Muslims and Christians during festivities and of course, when the traditionalists were doing their things, we joined them to eat whatever they provided, including bean cakes. In fact, I was notorious for following masqueraders everywhere because we had a section of that household that was made up of adherents or devotees. So for us as youngsters, it was always a fad when the masqueraders came out, to follow them, not for any other thing, but just for the fun of following them, dancing and of course, there will be free food. I had that experience, anytime they wanted to do their ‘ita’ (third day) or ‘ije’ (seventh day), they would fry bean cakes and we would eat, although my maternal grandfather must not know that I ate the bean cakes. And anytime they were doing their ije or ‘iwedo’, that is shortly before the masqueraders came out, we would follow them to do all they were doing. In all this, there was no issue of ‘you`ll go to hell, I will go to heaven’. I’m not sure with the adults, but with the kids, it was never an issue. It was a free world. And on Sundays, my grandmother would prepare me for church; she wouldn’t follow us, but we had neighbours in the same compound, who were adults and were Christians. It was even recently that I learnt that they were descendants of slaves, they would ask them to take me to church. So, it was like that throughout.
And going to school, I had a cousin who was going to the same school with me. When we were going to school in the morning, the children of the then Agura of Gbagura, it’s either we waited in front of the palace for the school bus to pick us or the Agura used his Mercedes Benz to take us to school. That’s the way my primary school life was. For secondary school life, I started at Premier Grammar School, before my parents came back from the United States. But when my parents came back, I had to relocate to Lagos.
Can you throw more light on your educational background?
My secondary school was also an admixture of many factors. As I said, I changed schools. When my parents came back from the United States, we initially stayed at Ketu. I started at Government Secondary School, Ikorodu. From there, I moved to Baptist Academy, from there to Apostolic Church Grammar School, Ketu, where I completed secondary education. At that time, my parents moved from Ketu to Festac Town. So, Ikorodu no longer became accessible to me; the roads had become narrow, and I had to change schools. Pretty well it was also good, from Festac to Ketu or Obanikoro, it was fun. My father then was the head of the science section of the Federal Ministry of Education, Yaba. Initially, he wanted to be taking me to school, but at a point, I resisted because of my adventures. I had these Hare Krishna people who always played at Oshodi every morning. The late Ayo Rosiji (Jnr) was usually there with me. We would have free ‘eko’ and ‘efo riro’ with ‘egusi’, a fantastic meal every morning. It was a constant thing for them in the morning. I was a young boy who was used to following masqueraders, so to me, it was not an issue, I just stayed there. When my father found out, he nearly fainted, because he just couldn’t believe that with his status, his son could be descending that low.
Of course, they told him stories about me when they came back into the country that I was following masqueraders, that I was tough and so on. But he could not fathom that I could descend that low. So, it became an issue between us until I left the university and I was called to the Bar; that was when we were able to resolve it. He thought I was never going to become anything in life. It became a real tug of war between us. He thought I smoked in the secondary school, but I didn’t. I was just having fun. It was an admixture of adventure, risks, dangerous paths, civility and good home upbringing.
So after secondary school, what came next?
After secondary school, I had a lot of challenges. I had difficulty in persuading my father to allow me to study Law. He had thought I was already a truant and that I was never going to do well. He actually wanted me to study Medicine or Engineering. As far as he was concerned, you are either a science student or you`re not a student at all! As a matter of fact, when we were growing up, if you told my father that you were in the polytechnic, he would tell you, you have not gone to school at all. It was later I realized that he tried as much as possible to get into University of Ibadan, but couldn’t. So, out of that frustration, he left for the United States. But for him, all his children must go to University of Ibadan. When I was to go to the senior secondary class, I chose the arts and there was a very huge fight in the house. Eventually, he compelled me to go for sciences and I complied. My sciences were not particularly bad, but I was horrible in Mathematics; Mathematics just scared me. I have been trying to figure it out, I wouldn’t know how I missed it.
But my father didn’t see it that way, that I had a huge problem with Mathematics. As far as he was concerned, so long I decided not to do science, I never existed in his dictionary. He never considered me as if I existed as a child, not to talk of his first child. Painful though, but that’s the stark reality of my life. So, when I chose arts and he compelled me to do science, I had to obey him, but I had a Plan ‘B’.One of my friends suggested that I should go and do Commerce, Government and Economics; that I could be attending the classes in school without anybody knowing.
You combined arts with sciences and even what they now call commercial?
While registering for the final examinations, I would just enter the subjects. It sounded outlandish at that time, but incidentally, the principal was my father’s friend. I was sneaking into Commerce and Government classes. We did a mock exam and in the whole of Kosofe Local Government, I scored the highest in Commerce, Government and Economics. It created a problem for the teachers in charge of registration, how they’re going to register someone in science class for arts subjects. They did a conference and invited me and asked me to debate. Before then, we had an invitational debate at CMS or St. Finbarr’s where they asked me to be a supporting speaker for the main speaker at Reagan Memorial. Somehow, I became the star of the event. After that, they thought they could possibly consider me for the position of social prefect of the school. They invited me to the Staff Room. Of course, in my typical element, I just went to town with the topic. It took them a hot debate amongst themselves before they could agree to allow me to be the social prefect and to register me for the arts subjects. I now had to continue arts and science. That’s how I took Government, Economics and Commerce on my own and started reading. So, by the time we did the mock exam, I came out tops in the whole local government. By the time I did WASSCE, I had A1, A2, A3 respectively, but still that didn’t persuade my dad because I failed Mathematics as expected. I had a pass in Physics, credit in Chemistry and credit in Biology and my father went to tell my mother that I actually failed completely. They didn’t release CRK and Biology, it was later I got them sorted out. But I told my mother, I didn’t fail. So, the issue of my admission into the university came up.
He insisted on UI?
For me, I wanted to go to Ogun State University. At that time, my father’s best man, was the registrar of OSU, but my father said no; that he couldn’t send any of his children to OSU. For me, UI was not an option because a lot of my friends were in Ife and OSU. So, he kicked. So, out of annoyance, I went to Ife, but my mother brought me back to Abeokuta to do NCE at Osiele [Federal College of Education]. I did it and when I finished with upper credit, my father felt I had not started at all. The NCE was not an issue. I then had to sit down and start doing distance learning at Palmgrove Rapid Results College and sat for GCE A` level which I did twice. After much fighting and arguments, I wrote three subjects – Government, Economics and CRK. Surprisingly, I also wrote UTME that year. I was still expecting the result of the A’ level when the UTME results came. That was how I got into UI. I have always wanted to be a lawyer and nothing more. Surprisingly for me, my father couldn’t be bothered. In fact, I nearly lost the admission as a result of the discrepancies in my names on my certificates. At UI, I was compelled to go back to WAEC to do confirmation of results and that was what saved me. A lot of people didn’t know I had the kind of background that I had. I was thrown into a deep ocean and I learnt to sort myself quickly. He was simply just not there. I was involved in so many things as a student – student unionism, business, cab business, I had a shop. My dad didn’t show up until my Law School result came out and his senior brother called to tell him I made a 2:1. That was when he realized he really had something up his hands and then came for my Call-to-Bar ceremony.
How did you find love?
I met my wife in a very unusual circumstance. The issues I had with my father affected so many things at home. You can imagine as a young man when you don’t have the kind of directions you expected, you`ll be left to grope. I was involved in so many things. My saving grace was my mother. Unfortunately, she died. Since I had a relationship with my maternal uncles, I tilted towards them. My maternal grandfather had a house at Agege where I was during ASUU strike and MKO-Abacha crisis. That`s where I met my wife. She came to plait her hair at the house. One of the tenants’ children was her friend; they were in the same secondary school.
I saw her and after she finished, I chatted her up. She was scared; I tried to follow her, she ran and I waited for her. She ran and entered into somebody`s house while I waited outside patiently. When she came out, I still followed her. It was on a Sunday, and after she got home, she made enquiries and she got all she needed to know. But it took a while, it was not the typical boyfriend-girlfriend courtship thing. Because of my involvement in so many things, we hardly see each other; we may not see each other for months and, of course, I don’t write letters, I have that poor habit. She would write letters and was more committed than I was when she came around. We dated for almost 10 years before we got married. She had her doubts and her pleasures as well. From what she later told me, a lot of her friends told her that I just wanted to use her. But she stayed the course.
What preoccupied you?
For me, what was uppermost in my mind was survival. Most times she would just hear stories about me from my cousins. For instance, during the SDP primary in Jos where the late MKO Abiola emerged as presidential candidate, I was there and she just heard I was there. She was wondering what I had gone there to do; she couldn’t understand. It was later I had to explain to her about my situation at home and I had to survive. At that time too, she didn’t know anything about my background. When she discovered later she marvelled at how I had that kind of situation and I was still managing to carry on. So, I had a lot of explanations for her; that for some strange reasons I never existed in my father’s world. So, I had learnt to run my race by myself and by God. I didn’t care a hoot about what people said. I have a date with destiny and I have to accomplish that destiny. Later, when we got married, with the sequence of events she understood what the issue were, but to say that I had the time to give her the kind of attention expected of a young man to his fiancée, it never existed, even after we got married, for the first 10 years of our marriage, I was always on the road.
With your kind of background, you must have got involved in a lot of pranks?
Yes, I did a lot of it. The only thing I never did which I say gladly is that I never committed any crime; I hate fraud up till today. I don’t smoke, I rarely drink. But childhood pranks? Who wouldn’t, as a young man with my kind of background? As a matter of fact, I had a lecturer in the university then, who would call me an artful dodger. I was in the 100 Level in school, I ran for the House of Representatives (Students Representative Council) and I got elected. In 300 Level, I wanted to run for a student union position, and the practice then was that no Law student must participate in student unionism, not to talk of contesting. But I told them I was going to contest.
I went to meet Dr. Ojo who told me in his Ekiti dialect, ‘O maa feeli… to ba feeli pere!’, but I told him I won’t fail; we took a bet that if I scored less than ‘B’ in his two courses, I would give him ₦500. But if I scored above ‘B’, he would be the one to give me N500. He was taking us Constitutional and Administrative Law at that time. In the former, I had A while I had B+ in the latter in the first semester; in the second semester, I had A+ in both. And the man came to me and gave me my ₦500. So basically, my years in Ibadan were spent politicking. So many people didn’t know I was a Law student when I was at UI. They probably thought I was in Yoruba or Sociology, Political Science or Theatre Arts. I was more in politicking and activism. But I left Ibadan, went to the Law School and got providence again. Like I always tell people, I am a product of grace. Because of my issue at home, I could not pay Law School fees. I was one of the beneficiaries of Bishop Oyedepo’s scholarship, if not the first. That was what I used to pay my school fees.
How did that happen?
My uncle that I went to visit when I met my wife moved to Raji Oba Street where Oyedepo’s church headquarters was at the time. Winner’s Chapel was just adjacent to our house. It was the time of the Abacha-Abiola crisis. In the evenings of Tuesdays and Thursdays, as a young man, there wasn’t much for me to do. My wife, who was my girlfriend then, and all I did was just stroll to the church, and I became a member in the church. They started this Africa Growth Initiative (AGOI), I was one of those who started it. So, when Bishop Oyedepo was celebrating his 40th birthday, they announced that scholarship. The criteria were that you must have been contributing to AGOI and you must have a 2:1 from the university, either going for postgraduate studies or probably you’re in final year. All the criteria I met because I was about to go to Law School. I applied and they called us for an interview; I told them my story. I was given ₦125,000 or ₦150,000. So Law School was good. I was able to pay and with what I had experienced at Ibadan, I just concentrated on my studies and came out of the Law School with a 2:1. When we were at the final stage, somebody came and said he could help us influence NYSC posting. I was not interested, but I just told them if I could be posted to Ibadan or Osun, anywhere in the South-West. Out of all of us that requested, I was the only one posted to the South-West. I was posted to Ibadan, camp was in Iseyin. With an innocent mind, I went to UI where my wife was still a student. One of the hall wardens at Sultan Bello Hall just met me and enquired where I wanted to serve. He then directed me to somebody at the NYSC Orientation Camp at Iseyin, who took me to the director. For the three weeks we spent in the camp, I went with five novels and finished all. When I finished camping, again I went back to Ibadan, not with the aim of seeing the man, but fortunately, I ran into him again in Ibadan, and he asked where I wanted to be posted. Already all the six lawyers in camp had been posted to Ibadan. I said I don’t know. He asked whether I didn’t like litigation. The man put me in his car and drove me to Afe Babalola’s chamber. It was at Afe Babalola & Co that my career projection changed completely. When I was in school at Ibadan, I was trying to tailor my career in line with the corporate world. I had read so much about the likes of Sonekan, Abel Ubeku, the man at the helm at the Guinness then, Chris Ogunbanjo and Subomi Balogun: lawyers who were in the corporate world and were doing fantastically well and I tried to tailor my career projection towards that. But Afe Babalola changed everything about me. I saw legal practice, litigation in a different way. So, this could also be profitable.
Do you have any favourite food?
No, I eat anything that comes my way.
What genre of music turns you on?
Because of my background, when I started I was more into pop. Again, that’s another area people don’t know about me. Because of how my life eventually evolved, I got heavily involved and influenced by Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and much later, Ayinla Omowura and Haruna Ishola. As a matter of fact, at a point, I could sing all of Barrister Ayinde’s songs off hand. Then, later Shina Peters, Dele Taiwo and Dayo Kujore. I was the first person to bring Dayo Kujore, Dele Taiwo and Obesere to UI as a promoter. My choice of music over the years is dictated by the circumstance and whatever is in vogue. Till now, I still listen to old school, not that I don’t listen to hip hop, I follow them, but I am not particularly crazy or enamored of their contents. Though, I respect their creativity because they have done well. They have gone beyond where people like Chris Okotie, Chris Mba, Alex ‘O’, Harry Mosco and Dora Ifudu stopped. They have moved beyond the music of Marinho, Obi Onyioha and the rest. They`ve pushed the boundary. There’s hardly anywhere in the world you go now and you don’t find Nigerian music. I give them credit for that; they have done really well.
What are your pastimes?
I play squash and I read a lot.
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