NIGERIAN SOCIETY CELEBRATES 5TH YEAR MEMORIAL OF OBAFUNKE AKINKUGBE

Last week, the Nigerian social establishment ceebrated the fifth year memorial of notable lawyer and society icon and matriarch, Chief (Mrs.) Obafunke Folashade Akinkugbe. She gracefully bowed out on Sunday, March 1, 2009, while returning from a social outing in Ikorodu. She was aged 73 years old at the time of her death. The late society matriarch was well venerated for her strong sense of intergrity and high standards. A lawyer by training, Akinkugbe ran Obafunke Akinkugbe and Co., a flourishing law firm in Igboshere, Lagos Island. Beyond running the law firm, she was actively involved in championing many worthy causes, especially those which seek to promote women and womanhood. She was a mentor to many women and tower of support for several other people. Sadly too, Akinkugbe’s death occured barely six months after that of her husband, Dr. Ajibayo Akinkugbe. Having enjoyed a blissful union, which spanned over 48 years with her husband, the late matriarch had felt devastated when he died after undergoing a surgery.

 Obafunke Akinkugbe was born in Idah, Kogi State on July 25, 1935. She was the first daughter of Dr. Jamieson Femi-Pearse. Her mother, the late Mrs. Elsie Femi-Pearse was a prominent woman right activist in her lifetime. She was also the first female Counsellor of the defunct Action Group during the First Replublic. Akinkugbe’s early schooling in Nigeria was at Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti’s class in Abeokuta, Ogun State and Guides Seminary School, Lagos. Later, she enrolled at Queen’s College, Yaba. Upon the completion of her secondary education, Akinkugbe left for England, where she studied for a degree in Law. A lively and close knit group of young Nigerian students and professionals were then living in London and Obafunke Akinkugbe was very much part of this group, most of whom have remained friends till now and formed the elite of the present Lagos society.

In 1959, Akinkugbe was called to bar at the Gray’s Inn, London. A year later, she was enrolled as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She worked at various times as Legal Adviser to the Federal Ministry of Trade and was a member of Lagos State Land Use and Allocation Committee. 

  In 1988, Akinkugbe went into private practice by establishing her law chambers, Obafunke Akinkugbe and Co. The chambers handles all matters of general litigation but has bias for real estate, property law and commercial law. The chambers also manages several estates and properties of absentee landords within South-West Nigeria. They are also involved in property development,  and have through their property company, Jamieson’s Gate Property Limited, acquired and developed properties within Lagos Island and facilitated the development of a number of properties within Ikoyi and Victoria Island. 

There is no doubting the fact that Obafunke Akinkugbe lived a fulfilled life and she impacted positively on the lives of those who came her way. This explains why, five years after her death, the Nigerian society still misses her sense of fun, her sense of style, her hearty laughter, her zest for life, her passion for holidays in new and far off places and her enthusiasm for philanthrophy.