I was in a place recently where a lady was having an on-line presentation on Audience Analysis. She was good at it, I couldn’t but focus on her presentation for few minutes.
To drive her point home on Audience Analysis, she used Lawyers as example. Before making a presentation to lawyers she said to her trainee, try to know their language, their psychology etc, reason, they are learned!.
Done with her presentation, I asked her, are you a lawyer? No I am not. Are you learned? Yes of course I am, she replied. So why did you address lawyers as learned as if the word learned is their exclusive preserve? Are they the only people learned? She felt thrown off balance. But that is how they address themselves and nobody can change it.
She went on to share her experiences with law students in her university days, how arrogant, brash, pompous and self conciet they were , feeling on top of everyone as if law was one course only Kings, Queens and overly celebral persons study. Why do they have such a false and overbloated impression of themselves? Perhaps because they defend people at the law court, quoting laws with precision may be that could be trigger in their head.
Learned is an English word with a meaning that isn’t exclusive to one profession. *It is a word that means(of a person) having acquired much knowledge through study.Showing, requiring, or characterized by learning; scholarly*.
By this simple definition, anybody could be seen through the lenses of “learned” once the above qualities are seen manifest in them.
Learned isn’t like Dr. Engr. Arch. Surv, Bar. etc that qualify ones professional qualification. It is rather an English word that means depth, precise, excellent etc understanding and expression of knowledge in an excellent manner.
One can be a Bar, an Engr, a Dr. Without being learned. We have medical doctors who are opposite of what their profession demands, mere butchers and serial killers. Same can be seen in Engineers, Lawyers etc. Being learned is earned not an honour or mere appellation. Learned isn’t a title or mere guy name. It is not a word conferred on one for passing through the walls of an institution. It is a status attained through diligence, expertise and excellence.
If only all our lawyers were learned,the Judiciary would be an epitome of sound judgments above the waves of corruption it projects. If only all our lawyers were truely learned, the shame and disgrace many that wear the silver coloured wigs exhibit wouldn’t be that messy and overly disgusting.
The Judicial system as we have it today in Nigeria is a place where few learned heads ply their craft. Though we have them who are learned in the law profession, their numbers are in the minority compared to those who though glory in the expression”learned colleagues” and bask in its euphoria, but lack basic evidence of being learned.
Next time, before you address lawyers as learned, assess them if indeed they earn it. Sadly and heart broken to note that some of the judgements that are from our courts are far cry from being an expression of those who are learned. Bizarre, messy, abased and tinted with greasy or greased hands.
I truely look forward to seeing our lawyers exhibit that sense of “learnedness” in their duties. Standing for justice, equity, fairness, not an effigy of corruption, ingratiation and judgment for sale to the highest bidder mentality, a brand our justiciary has assumed in their scarecrow nature.
Even charge and bail, rent collectors and land speculators lawyers bask proudly too in this expression- My learned colleague! What an irony!!
Lawyers! use your knowledge creatively to promote equity, justice, fairness and integrity against what is the norm, a channel for dubiousity, corruption and manipulation of justice. You cannot be this antagonistic to fairness and truth and still be basking in the euphoria of being called my learned colleague. It doesn’t work that way, except learned in criminality and parody of justice.
Jarlathuche@gmail.com
