TRIBUTE DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, YAHAYA BELLO, THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF KOGI STATE AT THE VALEDICTORY SESSION IN HONOUR OF MR. JAMES OCHOLI, SAN ON 17 MARCH, 2016.

‘Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.’ 

-Henry Van Dyke

If anything can be said about my late brother and friend, James Ocholi, SAN it must be first that he was never one of those timorous souls who never begin to live because they are struck numb with the fear of dying.

James grabbed life by the jugular and squeezed his due from its clenched fist. Extinguished at such a relatively young age, the outpourings of grief across the length and breadth of Nigeria tells us he collected every debt owed to him by life and mortality. That like the quintessential lawyer he was, he covered the field.

The old hymn says it best:

Only remembered, only remembered,
Only remembered by what we have done;
Thus would we pass from the earth and its toiling,
Only remembered by what we have done.

James started succeeding early, and by his achievements drafted an airtight brief on how to live life well – with urgency, making massive impact as one goes. Everyone from the President and Commander-in-Chief to the lowliest beneficiaries of his greatness in Dekinato many other places known and unknown are mourning him today.

In the words of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam AloomaMuhktar (as she then was) during a valedictory session like this one held for the Late Justice C. Oputa in June 2014, it goes without saying that James Ocholi, SAN was and remains‘…a legend, a legal icon, a distinguished jurist and a complete gentleman…(who) …earned an infallible reputation as a legal practitioner…(and)…drew respect by his air of quiet dignity.’

I cite with whole-hearted approval the further words of Her Lordship at that occasion:

‘His manner, demeanour and way of speaking readily showed his depth of character, intelligence and breeding. He proved himself a brilliant, honest and most respectable legal practitioner.’

Nothing else remains to adumbrate in this brief written address but to humbly adopt the words of Her Lordship as my own and declare them utterly referable to my brother, James Ocholi, SAN.

A fortiori, I wish to strongly submit that the late Learned Silk lived well. I therefore urge this assemblage of the best legal minds in our country to hold that our brother is not death, but sleeping. We will therefore not allow grief to blind us to his sterling accomplishments, or to the fact that he, being dead, yet speaks.

The Kogi State Government and the people of Kogi State shall never forget James. We will see to that by seeking creative ways to immortalize his memory. We shall remember his surviving children, and show them love as indigenes of Kogi State in their own personal rights as well as the Children of our friend, James Ocholi, SAN.

Blessing, his dear wife and Joshua his beloved son who died with him are also within my contemplation in this address. They helped to make James the man he was. Their support and cheerleading put the wind in his sail. Like himself, they too will be sorely missed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may God be merciful to each and every one of us and continually deliver us from accidents and untoward incidents.

Thank you.