The Inspiring Story of Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, SAN

Here is a true-life story told by the man with a resilient spirit, focus, determination, hard work and God’s grace. Please, read on:

“I have every reason to be grateful to God. For, 34 years ago, precisely on 10th December, 1991, I was called to the largest Bar in Africa, the Nigerian Bar as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

“To attend the ceremony, I spent three days traveling to Lagos because I did not have the money to board a taxi but a 911 lorry.

“It was a lonely ceremony as I had nobody to accompany me on the trip. But God accompanied me. Since then, from 1991 till date, God has been with me, blessing and protecting me as a lawyer and legal practitioner in my travels to almost all parts of Nigeria.

“Were there adversities? There were, but God made me triumph over all adversities. Within these thirty four years, the lord honoured me and elevated me to the Inner Bar on the 7th of July, 2011.

“God has been most kind to me. But given my background, I am the most unqualified person to be so favoured. The story of my life has shown that greatness is not a function of your background but a function of the grace of God.

“Our destiny is in the hands of God. Whatever he has destined a man to be, he will be no matter the man-made obstacles.

“I was never amongst those privileged to be sent to school. I did not start primary school until I was over 17 years. I ran to primary 2 on the 3rd of September 1977 and stopped at Primary 3, to learn motor cycle mechanics.

“I finally got the opportunity to write my first school leaving certificate examination in 1980 when the late Umaru Fonga as Headmaster gave me the opportunity to do so.

“I did not go to secondary school at all. I wrote my GCE from home.

“Today, I celebrate the hands of God upon my life. My life is the story of from grass to grace. It is the syllabus of from nothing to something.

“Happy 34th anniversary of being a lawyer to me. God lifted me far above my enemies. Blessed be the name of the lord.

“Join me in thanking God who has made me what I am today and who is not done with me yet.

“Glory be to his name.”