Lawyers From Nigeria

"At the heart of the legal practice today, there are two essentials. The first is business. It is essential that a Law firm is run like a business. This means that the objective is to solve the client’s problem as efficiently as possible. In pursuit of this efficiency, there is a need for top quality support staff in addition to competent legal practitioners. The value of competent support staff is evident in the increasing number of law firms that employ the members of staff to occupy roles such as chief operation officer, head of human resources, practice managers and other similar staff. The second essential for a 21st Century legal practice is ethics. It is of utmost importance that the ethics are not compromised on."

"Although gender was not a consideration in the appointment, a section of the public would definitely see her as being at the vanguard of our faith for more women participation in government. By her appointment, we now have a triumvirate of women in key positions like the Chief Judge, Head of Civil Service and one Deputy Governor."

"We must learn to state our opinions clearly, & stand by them no matter whose oxes are gored! How else do you assure the electorates that your word is your bond?!"

"If it is APC, never; I'm not going to work with them. Forget it. However, if it is PDP, AAC or absolutely any of the other parties, I'm willing to go in there and see what I can do to help us create a better Nigeria."

"We have to start making the men, women, children, the imams, the pastors and priests etc... understand that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. That is a challenge that I will have to deal with -- in terms of getting the average Nigerian to cast their vote for me."

"So, we thought it is good to bring the lawyers here and refresh their minds on how to present electronic evidence in their cases. We want to enhance their capability so that they do better in court"

"Nigerian women are hardworking and self-motivated, they create opportunities for themselves and also take opportunities as they come. Our women have always managed to triumph over challenges and cultural disadvantages. Nigerian women have excelled both in the public and private sectors. All we need is the enabling environment to excel in our chosen fields."

"Reni Folawiyo is a pioneer whose determination and vision have created a contemporary visual language for African luxury. Architecturally, the concept of the Alára store is a celebration of design talent—an architectural promenade through the different parts of the program. Socially, Reni Folawiyo has carved a way to promote emerging talent while establishing a creative hub and an essential new destination for Lagos."

"Reni is showcasing the best and brightest in a way that allows them to shine – and the exhibition is doing the same."

"ALÁRA was created to be a window to the world, an authentic curation of contemporary Africa...[it is also] a symbol of my personal journey of self affirmation and belief...a fulfillment of a burning desire to celebrate and elevate a lot of what I had come across on my journeys in Africa."

"I think we needed a symbol of what is now called the African renaissance, a showpiece that is unapologetic in its approach about who we are today,...that we have people who make and consume luxury and that we have done it all by ourselves."

"I understand the connection: female founders, a strong and unique point of view, curated and presented with a focus on art and its interaction with fashion. But our mission is different: upliftment."

"I felt that we needed something iconic that would change our city, change the way we see ourselves and also change the way the world sees us."

"There’s a great appetite for consumption of luxury goods by Nigerians, but in terms of experiential retail with a concept...that is completely new...We have definitely had to educate the customer with regard to African Luxury, getting them to pay more for African goods that they have hitherto seen as craft and substandard."

"I taught myself to make furniture and then started a furniture factory that still exists. But I realized I wanted to be around creative people. I started to travel within Africa, and discovered people making fashion and design pieces that were contemporary iterations of what you see traditionally—not what we would call contemporary in the Western sense, but in our context. And I thought that was very intriguing."

"It’s about beautifully made, bright, colorful, expressive things that have a story behind them. It’s about art, clothing, and design that’s unique and beautiful. It’s African but contemporary"

"I decided it would be interesting to have the best stuff from all over the world along with the very best from Africa all in the same space to get people from outside Africa to see what was possible, but also to get people in Africa to understand the value of what they had. It was a bit of an education on both sides."

"I have a huge vision, huge passion and huge ambition."

"It was important for us to have an aesthetic that we believed was our aesthetic...we chose designers who reflected the ideas of bold, unapologetic beauty, [had a] conscience and celebrated craftsmanship. We realised quite fast that people wanted to pay for brands they knew and coveted and if we were to succeed we had to first of all listen to our market, get them super comfortable with us and then start to explore other brands."

"We will open people’s eyes to the incredible creative renaissance that is growing in Africa and how seamlessly it functions as a part of the global conversation of style."

"Going beyond luxury retail, we’ve become a platform for exchange across all the creative disciplines. Our curation is trusted, and our network authentic."

"I used to spend a lot of time with artists and designers and I had a lot of friends that were doing creative things and I enjoyed spending time with them."

"I am surrounded by beautiful products with great history culturally and was always inspired by our own version of Luxury. I felt we needed a platform that challenged us into making traditional luxury objects covetable by ourselves and the rest of the world. Also I looked around and saw that we have great taste and love of Luxury but not many people were investing in retail in a formal way. I am also aware that Luxury Retail is becoming very experiential and that creating our own unique version of luxury retail will be interesting educative and inspiring."

"The exceptional beauty and versatility of Timber and the variety and abundance that we have here. Again the skills of the makers. For me honing those skills to produce simple streamlined and sophisticated designs is rewarding."

"Brands I believe embody the spirit of today’s Africa in terms of aesthetic and culture, luxury and fashion brands that people know, love and aspire to own and exceptional African brands."

"My love and appreciation for beautiful things and my value for artisanal products and respect for artisanship."

"The luxury of having a purpose, identifying it and being able to realise it. It's rare, it's valuable and it's is covetable. That's Luxury"

"Alara was conceived to show the world who we are today, to share how we live and to show Africans that we have a lot to be proud of, that we create and enjoy objects of exceptional quality and beauty, to celebrate those who have done it, and to support and encourage those who wish to exchange, educate, elevate and beautify."

"I devote a lot of time reading about and consuming the different art forms that we live with. I have tried to paint, I have made furniture, I have designed clothes, and I have always created experiences."

"We are selling our culture. We’ve clearly become an epicenter for cultural exchange for all kinds of creative people. In my native Yoruba language, alára means “wondrous performer, one who thrills endlessly”—that’s how we see African fashion and design, and how we want global audiences to experience it and embrace it."

"I got the impression that although people were making these things, they didn’t feel as though what they were making was good enough to be on a certain level. A lot of what people were doing hadn’t been properly celebrated and there were these very beautiful, very well-crafted African items that people didn’t know about."

"We are women. We are meant to rule the world. We are super."

"When I’m trying to define African luxury, and this is not an exclusive definition, it has to benefit the person who’s buying it in terms of its value, but it also must benefit the person who was making it and the people in that chain of making it."

"We have serious issues in this country but at the end of the day we only have ourselves to blame."

"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out."

"Dear Artiste, Management is a bit like a marriage. Your career can be significantly affected by who you choose to manage it."

""I believe as an individual, I have a social responsibility to make a difference any way I can"."

"Motherhood is not about you and your desires, it’s about the children that God has gifted to you. Children are not jewelry around your neck, neither are they meant for you to fulfill all your unfulfilled ambitions in your children."

"The quality of a mother determines the quality of society. We need to take motherhood and mothers really more seriously. It is not something that should just be left to chance."

"My best advice is whatever you put your hand to do, do it to the best of your ability. Everything you do eventually becomes part of your skill set and ends up being part of who you eventually become."

"One advice I always give to young people is that no experience is a waste. Try your hand at whatever your heart leads you to do."

"A true-bred Nigerian will always have a million and one things going on at the same time."

"Elections are not democracy. Holding regular elections is not democracy."

"Our political parties are generational. Nothing is going to die out. It has become a system, a process, and a culture. I met fathers who are preparing their sons to take their positions bearing the same mentality. Whether we have old people or young people it would be the same if we do not develop a different strategy to make things work"

"Every Nigerian is entitled to a lawyer if charged before a court, no matter how heinous the crime or how large the sum alleged to have been stolen."

"Decent, accessible, affordable public health is a right, not a privilege, and we should not give our votes to those who see the best health care as their entitlement and sub-par health care as a privilege to us."

"When we bury ourselves in a story that is well told, we can’t help but go away with an understanding that we may not have had before. We go away with being able to see things perhaps a little more clearly, a little more humanely."

"what would be considered a middle-class setting, where women seem to have power, but they are living in a particular context that requires them to contort themselves into different things. And so they make choices that are not necessarily the kindest choices for others or choices that we would consider to be good."

"Indeed the judiciary is a critical component in the war against corruption."

"No doubt, health is private, but it is not private when you put yourself up for the highest office in a country – not if you want lead – but maybe if you want to rule."