Today is the 8th anniversary of my call to the Nigerian Bar (some say 9 years). On 20 November 2019, I decided to use this platform to highlight the exploits of some of my classmates in various sectors of the Nigerian and the international economy. A set I am extremely proud of.

As I said last year, it's impossible to capture all the 3886 lawyers called to the Bar that day (including those who unfortunately left us early), but I will endeavor to continue to celebrate as many as I can. In fact I will continue to do this every year until it becomes formal.

Again, while I have the privilege of maintaining some personal relationship with almost all on the list, I have endeavoured to only reflect information in the public domain, out of respect for their privacy. I have not had the time to ask for individual permission to do this.

I will also repeat what I promised last year, that anyone recognised on the list who is not happy with the publicity should please indicate to me privately and I will promptly delete his/her profile.

One thing that is striking about this class is the diversity of the career paths that the people pursued after law school. This is reflective of the new trend and accords with my belief that legal education does not confine but merely provides you a platform actualize any desire.

We have those in private and public law practice, in house counsel, government officials, I have personally counted 10 Magistrates already, company secretaries, entrepreneurs, tech gurus, those in the academia, etc and we have not even started.

Ladies and gentlemen, I please make welcome (only some of) the distinguished members of the Nigerian Law School Class of 2012… drum rolls

Samson Itodo @DSamsonItodo is the Founder & Executive Director of  @YIAGA Africa, an NGO whose mission is to promote democracy in Africa. More importantly for us, he was the Chairman of the SRC at the Bwari Campus of the Nigerian Law School in 2011/2012.

Samson convened the Not Too Young To Run movement that led the successful advocacy for the reduction of age limits for running for public office in Nigeria, possibly the first privately led public advocacy directly resulting in constitutional change since independence in 1960.

Samson is a 2019 Desmond Tutu Fellow; In 2018, he was appointed by the Gates Foundation as a Goal keeper and honoured by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Washington DC as Rising Democracy Leader in Africa. He won the The Future Africa Award Young Person of the Year 2018.

He also won the Leadership Newspaper 2018 Outstanding Young Person of the Year award. He was inducted into 100 Most Influential Young Africans by the African Youth Awards in 2017. In 2017 and 2018 he was recognized amongst YNAIJA’s 10 most powerful names in advocacy in Nigeria.

His quest for knowledge has seen him join the Wadham College of the University of Oxford for a Masters Degree in Public Policy as a Standard Bank Scholar. Samson will undoubtedly be a worthy addition to the programme. He is also a sure bet candidate for a future INEC Chairman.

Dr Eddy Wifa @WifaDr is an Energy and Natural Resources Law Lecturer at Aberdeen University. He completed his PhD at the same university in 2018, possibly making him the first from the class to complete his PhD. He is an astute Contracts and Regulation specialist.

Dr Wifa teaches Decommissioning, Contractual Risk Allocation, Petroleum Resource Governance and Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms (ADR), is fast becoming a highly sought after speaker and regularly delivers papers in different parts of the globe.

Dr Wifa has expertise in Oil and Gas Law Contracts and Risk Regulatory Theories for high and major risk industries. He is an Environmental Law activist and an advocate for best global environmental standards and social corporate responsibility in the Nigerian extractive industry.

Dr Wifa's PhD thesis is titled, 'The UK Offshore Wind Energy Governance Regime: Lessons from its Offshore Oil & Gas Industry. Prior to commencing his PhD, Eddy received a Postgraduate Distinction in his LLM in Oil & Gas Law from the University of Aberdeen. He owes me coffee.

@fatuogwuche Fatu Ogwuche is the Politics & Global Outreach Lead for SSA at Facebook. She is a Mandela Washington Fellow with renowned expertise in the deployment of technology for elections and Situation rooms.

Fatu loves elections and is consistent in exploring innovative solutions in advancing elections and technology in Africa. She was very instrumental in establishing the INEC Citizens Contact Centre where she developed strategies for civil engagement using technology and new media.

Fatu created partnerships with tech giants @facebook and @Twitter to spur participation in the electoral process and worked with African Elections Project (AEP) as elections technology consultant for Ghana's general elections in 2012 and 2016.

Fatu has worked on election projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Kenya, Liberia and the United States.

@SolagbadeS Sogbetun is a Senior Associate (and Partner designate) at @ALPNigeria (ALP). Before joining us at the Nigerian Law School almost 10 years ago, Solagbade obtained his LLB from University of Essex and thereafter proceeded to the College of Law, London.

Solagbade has garnered extensive experience from advising diverse clients on a broad spectrum of legal issues especially in the areas of Project Finance, Oil & Gas, Mergers and Acquisitions etc. He was formerly Senior Associate at Berkeley Legal & Associate at Aluko & Oyebode.

SOS, as we know him, is now on course to be the first in our Law School class to make Partner in one of the top law firms in the country. That is no mean feat. I look forward to joining him for celebratory drinks later while we pray his elevation opens the door for others.

Nnaemeka @EzehN1 is an Associate in the Finance and Capital Markets team at one of leading law firms in the entire world @Freshfields Brukhaus Deringer. He is dual qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and a Solicitor of England and Wales.

Prior to joining Freshfields, Nnaemeka obtained his LLM from Queen Mary University, London and his LLB from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. In between his sojourn for further studies, he worked with two of the top firms in Nigeria, Babalakin & Co and Simmons Cooper Partners.

In the course of his training, Nnaemeka also undertook secondment placements as a Legal Assistant at Heathrow Airport Limited and as a Legal Trainee at Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. Nnaemeka is quitely but steadily carving a niche in the financial legal sector.

Even though I don't like to say this publicly, Mr Ezeh is a fantastic person and an even better host. I am eternally in his debt. Scratch that, this wasn't supposed to be personal. Moving on?