Chuks Nwana is a determined man, uncommonly urbane, suave, cosmopolitan, liberal-minded, progressive and intellectually sophisticated. This Lagos lawyer is on a mission to change the world for the betterment of mankind. Nwana shares his nostalgic memories of growing up with Adedayo Adejobi. He also talks about the gratefulness of being part of an era where values were the norm, the economy, how he’ll love to be remembered, and what Nelson Mandela’s life taught him
What were your nostalgic moments, growing up?
I grew up in Ojuelegba area of Lagos State where everybody was a family. We looked forward to coming back from school to play football and as you’re playing football, somebody would have taken a position somewhere to alert you when your father is coming so that you can abandon the football. I narrate this experience to draw the contrast between what happens nowadays where parents encourage their kids to play football as against chopping bulala (horse whip) for playing football. Growing up, life was seamless; there was huge trust. I could eat anywhere. I could go out late at night not necessarily the night club but so long I was in the neighbourhood my parents didn’t mind. Schooling was fun. All you need is to find your way to Yaba and there would be a school bus that would take you for free. School was exciting and teachers were. Our society has become a bit more difficult. Schooling has become a bit hard work and then the level of commitment is neither here nor there.
I remember travelling to school by air back in the days. Nigerian Airways was the only airline. I think it was N60 but with the student discount, just with your student Identity card, you’ll get it for N42 or less but it was only the Nigerian Airways. It was good and the flights were regular until things went south. All you needed to do was flash your Identity card and they would sell to you. Nobody took undue attention like ‘let me fact check your Identity.’ Society was bonded, there was trust, but all that has disappeared.
What was your first day in the university like?
It’s an interesting episode because I went to university at 16 and my father had to chaperone me. He took me by road in 1982 from Lagos to Calabar. The lesson for me was how my father chaperoned me to school. I try as much as possible to chaperone my own kids. I take them to school, settle them and encourage, talk to and advise them. My experience was quite packed.
What challenges you about what you do now?
I’ve been involved in legal practice for years and I get results. When I get results I’m happy. Legal practice is about getting results and not grammar and so when I get results, I feel happy about it. I also sometimes feel challenged by new situations and enjoy the moment. And then, you have kids they are doing well in school, you’re happy. But other than that, there are things that should depress a man- people taking bribes before your eyes or somebody twisting the truth, lying. There are so many things that would depress a man in our system. But in the midst of all that, we still manage to generate some pleasure. Being around and in the midst of my friends gives me some pleasure. We go out and have drinks but ultimately what you achieve, the objective you attain, the target you set are those things that give you pleasure.
What frightens you?
One thing that frightens me is where we are going to as a country at the macro level, then the orientation of some of our youths. There’s so much access to pornography, so much access to anything. The internet is a danger to humanity. I speak very candidly; there are positives and negatives nowadays. They say if you want to make a bomb go to the internet and it tells you how to do it. So, the society was progressing in a measured positive manner. Now opportunities are so fluid. I always say to myself that a parent is just a trustee for a child; ultimately God is the ultimate person that chaperones and determines what the child becomes. You can only do your bits. They say the generation after us is Yahoo generation and somebody said ‘can you imagine what it will be for somebody who has made a career of duping people of their money, hacking into people’s account, stealing money and tomorrow, he becomes president of Senate, or a governor.’? Moral no longer exists.
I remember back in secondary school, we used to have a subject called moral instruction taught by the founder of the school. It was compulsory but nobody teaches it anymore. And I went to my son’s school yesterday, he got some awards and I told him I’m proud of him. So, one of the Reverend fathers came and said something that was really instructive. He said, ‘academic excellence is 30%, character is the balance. If you get 7A’s and you’re a thief, liar, it makes no meaning.’ I found that very instructive.
What do you desire to have, which you still don’t have?
There are so many things you desire to have in life. At this stage of my life it’s like writing an autobiography when you’re 20. I just believe the world is still ahead of me.
You’ve been married for a while now, how would you describe the experience of marriage?
In my family, I’m the last born. I was really not under any pressure to get married. I wasn’t cut out for it then, but I can say to you when I started feeling lonesome you go to work, eat and go to bed at that point I felt that I needed somebody and not for a short period. And then, I had this longing for kids. I like kids a lot. I remember there was this guy from Spain or Italy who never got married and never thought about it. One day, I just asked him why he never bothered about marriage. I said ‘don’t you like kids’? He said ‘I like them only if they don’t grow beyond five.’ He went ahead to explain himself that the innocence of children is what thrills him but when they grow big, he will be unable to manage them and I could see. I have this particular interest in little kids. I remember going to church and seeing kids playing around. I call them and gist with them. I didn’t want to have too many kids but I ended up with four.
At what point did you make that decision that you were set to settle with your wife? What was the defining moment?
For me, there are several factors that play in this business of marriage and those factors are not constant but the most important thing is when you’re ready and the right person comes, then you move on. My story is not about some childhood sweetheart we had to wait for five-seven years. I just realised as a matter of fact that I have dated in the past but I wasn’t ready psychologically for marriage. So, I couldn’t get down with the thought of marriage. For me then was, how can? It won’t happen. So it’s a meeting of two lines you’re ready, you meet the person at that time you get down and whether the courtship is long or short, challenges are the same.
What makes your spouse unique?
To be candid with you the attractions you find in a woman changes over time. She’s pretty, tall, then the kids come and the attraction changes. You’re beginning not to pay too much attention to the beauty. You’re looking at how she handles the home, how does she handle the kids, is she supportive and statistically you know most husband die before their wife. So, you’re looking at if she would cope. Is she the kind of person that would not be able to withstand pressures and so on? Certainly at the point of marriage, I can tell you it was the beauty and calmness they say opposite people attracts. I didn’t see myself as being particularly calm but I saw somebody who was quite calm, who met the basic indices back in those days when you wanted to get married. It was our delight to go out with girls who are hot; we called them hot-chicks. We go out with them, we are always happy to be with them but when it comes to marriage you face church and start to profile some ladies and you know an important aspect of that business is somebody who is God fearing. When you say somebody is God fearing, the totality is inexhaustible in just action. So if you see all forms of those elements you just move on.
How do you feel about raising your kids?
I’m very passionate about raising them. I’m passionate about what gets into their heads. Even though you can’t filter everything but I’m passionate about it. I’m a bit of an old school guy when it comes to raising kids. I tend to see myself as a text book father and I know as they say, spare the rod and spoil the child. I know that if you raise your child in Europe or America and you slap your child, you get into trouble. So, I’m passionate about raising them by the books and hoping by the grace of God everything turns out well. But sometimes, I could get a bit overboard. I’m a perfectionist so sometimes I do not take into account their age in the challenges I throw at them. So, that for me is the area I need to try and be a bit more flexible. You see, my generation is not their generation, so I’m trying to show a bit more understanding.
What is the hardest and best part of raising your children?
I’ll start from the best part. It is actually in God giving you level-headed children who listen to you, kids who do not succumb to peer pressure, listening kids for me that’s the big attraction those are the kind of kids that they call model kids. They listen, engage and are more open to you. The challenge is that society has become too open; it is very fluid you can’t filter anything, you don’t know when you’re not with them what do they do, but the way to mitigate that kind of situation is try as much as possible to give them a very strong foundation. People make reference to the bible that says teach a child well the way he should go and when he grows he wouldn’t deviate from it. So for me, that’s the mantra.
Who are those you admire most in history and why?
That’s a long shot because you sometimes try to put them in square box because you admire people for different reasons. Somebody like Mandela, I admire for his resilience, patience and forgiving attitude. I admire him for his doggedness as well that’s why you see picture of Mandela in my office. Mandela represents triumph of the human spirit over evil. He could have died and become a foot note so I have a big admiration for somebody like Mandela. Then I like reading plenty of autobiographies somebody like Ghandi. From Mahatma Gandhi to Nelson Mandela, to Ali –Mazrui to Walters Rodney, and the king of them all in his annals is Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu, the man who single-handedly changed the course of our dear country, Nigeria. Reading about these people had in more than one way helped to reform, reshape and re-sharpen my view to various aspects of humans in our diversity. Mandela’s life taught me the resilience of the human spirit, its resolve, its ability to triumph over adversaries, and above all, his godlike traits of doing good.
I was born in Zaria so I should even be a citizen of Kaduna State if not that somebody goes to our constitution and write that you’re a citizen of where your parents were born. I’m not even a citizen of where I pay tax. You give me a form now I fill Anambra as state of origin. So sad, I travelled to Rwanda and I visited the genocide museum all accounts about the genocide what it was before the genocide, the genocide and afterwards as a matter of law and policy, you’ll never see a form in Rwanda asking where you’re from. You cannot even ask anybody whether you’re from this pace or that. If you ask they would say I’m a Rwandan. That’s nation building. By law and policy, you won’t see a form that has any of those things; it will have your name phone number address. They are not interested in where you come from; those are the things that have seemingly affected us. The Rwanda society is bonding; people are not identified by their ethnic background.
I should actually be a citizen of either where I was born or where I pay taxes. In America today if you move to a new place and you pay tax for 12 months, the law recognises you’re a citizen of that location. That was why Hilary Clinton could move to New York within 12 months and run for office there and became a senator.
If you could change anything in history, what would you change?
If I could turn back the hand of clock there are many things I desire to change. I would certainly wish that the bloodshed that the country had endured would end. I don’t want that kind of situation to occur. Nigeria has also had its fair share of competent and incompetent people at the helm of affairs. Leadership is the key and we have not had it after the era of Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello and the small six months of Murtala Muhammad who had a vision of what he wanted to do. Leadership is too sensitive, complicated for you to learn on the job. The stake involved is so high that you don’t come and start learning on the job. It’s like a doctor learning surgery with a live patient and so in a situation where we expect that visionary leadership would take you across the line, it hasn’t happened that way. And that for me is big regret. If I had my way, I would be happy to filter the way and manner leaders are being recruited.
I have come into the age bracket where my friends and colleagues are dying. The truth is every day, I think about death. So every morning you wake up and give thanks to God for another day, but I constantly think about death, why because it helps me to plan. I do not take the gift of life for granted. I’m constantly thinking it’s possible I sleep and I don’t wake up so what happens. If you don’t think about it, it’s foolish. If you think about it, you’ll put your house in order how it turns out eventually.
I will tell you a story of a man who was killed by armed robbers somewhere in Aba. He was dealing in scrap metals. I never get tired of telling this story because I want people to learn from such experience. The man had four boys and a wife and the kids were still in school or just getting out of school so the man was shot on his way to work one morning by armed robbers so I was called to process the letter of administration. It happened long time ago and I discovered the man had N17 million in Union bank but his wife could not access N500,000 for burial. So the lesson is whatever it is, always try as much as possible to have your wife be a signatory to the account. Eventually they had access to the money but it was after one year. They had issues they needed to sort out on a short term basis they couldn’t because they could not access the money. I encourage people to have their spouse as the second signatory or son who has come of age.
Who inspires you and why?
A lot of people inspire me. But one person who I know has inspired me is my late dad. And he becomes my entire profile in terms of what I do if I have a challenging situation. I would just close my eyes and say to myself what would my father do in this situation. So the way my father lived his life is how I try as much as possible to live my life. What he did, how he did it, his outlook on life, understanding people, showing love and affection. And so when I face challenges, I just ask myself what would my father have done and then I can say to you without any ambiguity my father has been my very first line of inspiration.
But then as I grew older, the only one that has remained constant is my dad. Others change due to circumstance of event. The person who provides you spiritual inspiration as you also grow spiritually you no longer see the person.
For instance I worked with Kehinde Sofola and I like the way he went about with his business. Everything is a challenge that needed to be overcome. So I imbibed that positive aspect of him.
What achievement are you most proud of?
I’m still not certainly; not very proud of material achievement, I’m more delighted by value achievements. Material things are vanity. What really is legacy is being noted for something honesty, doggedness and tenacity. I say to people the true value of a man is his name. Bill Gates is not assessed by his house, cars they are assessed by their ideas, values that have impacted people over time, then money comes in by the way side.
What would you love to be remembered for?
I would love to be remembered for my rendition. I was in Rwanda buying books, others are buying champagne; that gives you the idea of the value I have and want to be remembered for. I have my books I’m reading them. In life, the value you aspire for is very important. I like to be remembered for honesty, my doggedness and my passion for family.
What book are you currently reading?
I have been reading varieties of law books. As a lawyer, case related books, new authorities, new statute that applies to my situation. I love reading autobiographies a lot; I always believe that there is a lot to be learnt from the life people have lived.
Whose autobiographies have you read that has inspired you?
I’ve read Kaduna Nzeogwu, Mandela, almost all the autobiographies written by the American Presidents. I’m an average student of biography and autobiographies. I read them a lot to try to understand what they went through, their state of mind, challenges they faced; how they were able to overcome them.
If the annals of your life were to be written, what do you think the title would be?
A determined fellow who believes he could influence the world. I like making friends. I trust people easily. That’s a weakness I have.
