Richard Akinola the Second is a citizen of great significance and influence.
He deserves every accolade. He paid his dues the hard Nigerian way.
I remember coming to The Guardian to collect my lineage for stories I wrote as a student journalist and my shock at seeing Mr Akinnola on that list. That paper to which he made great contributions used him and others as guinea pigs for close to two years. He wrote front page stories yet they did not engage them fully until later.
Mr Akinnola is Patience Personified. He is a Big Picture person. As Judiciary Reporter/Correspondent, he enrolled to study law. Now he has more books on legal developments in Nigeria than many other authors, practising or teaching.
His corpus includes Salute to courage: The story of Justice Yahaya Jinadu (1989), History of Coup D’etats in Nigeria (1998), Abiola, Democracy and the rule of law (1997), Nigerian Media and Legal Constraints (1998), Defending free speech through litigation (2003), The Politics of Corruption and the Corruption of Politics: The Atiku Abubakar Cases in Perspective, Murder of Dele Giwa: The Answered Question (2009), Public Interest Litigation: My Case Against the Lagos State House of Assembly Over Governor Fashola’s Probe (2010) .
Richie Akinnola has arrived at significance and relevance.
Happy 63 years, egin.

Courtesy Chido Nwakanma

Chido Nwakanma is the Chief Executive Officer of Blueflower Communications, a marketing communications company.

He lives in Lagos