A Nigerian Legal Giant: Chief Magistrate Abimbola Folashade Olatokunbo Adisa-Williams (Granny)

on this International Women's Day, i'd like to take the opportunity to honor ALL women across the world. i would, however, like to in particular, honor my paternal grandmother, the late Judge Abimbola Folashade Olatokunbo Adisa-Williams. she was a Nigerian Independence freedom fighter in the UK, a prolific corporate lawyer, and a distinguished jurist and judge over the course of her long and beautiful life and career.

if you're interested, please take some time to read about her below:

Mrs. Abimbola Folashade Olatokunbo Adisa-Williams nee Franklin was born on the 16th of January 1922 to Ebenezer Akiola Franklin Barrister at Law of the Middle Temple London and Mrs. Adedoyin Franklin. Her mother at the time was one of the first set of Nigerian women to be trained in England and to qualify as a midwife, having been trained under the first British female Obstetrician in the early twenties. Mrs. Abimbola Adisa Williams had her kindergarten, primary and early secondary education at the Wesleyan (now Methodist) Girl`s High School at Broad Street Lagos.

She was also one of the first two Nigerian women from that school to sit and pass the junior Cambridge School Certificate examination. From there she went on to Queens College Lagos, then at Race course, now Tafawa Balewa Square where she completed her secondary school education. She sat for and passed the senior Cambridge School Certificate examination. This significant accomplishment qualified her for a special course in Education arranged by the education office (now the ministry of education) leading to the award of the Diploma in Education qualifying her to teach in secondary school.

She went on to teach at her alma mater Methodist Girls High School, she taught all subjects except math. She went on to England in the forties just as the Second World War was coming to end. She attended Queen`s College Harley Street London an exclusive girls “finishing school” designed to make ladies out of daughters of middle class families. Ladies who attended the finishing school were exposed to subjects like Art Appreciation, Logic, Modern Languages, Ball room dancing and sports like hockey, fencing , horse riding and went on to study Law at the University College London. She was later called to the Bar at the same prestigious Middle Temple Inns of Court in 1960 where her father had been called to the Bar almost 40 years prior in the early twenties. While in England, she met and got married to her husband Mr. Adisa Williams - a journalist, lawyer and broadcaster who was then at the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was at the time the first non-English person to introduce a British monarch (King George) on the annual Christmas Broadcast to the then British Empire.

They had three children, a daughter and two sons. On her return to Nigeria in 1960 she went into private practice with eminent lawyers like .A. Lardner Esq. Alivin T. Dundass and David Garrick, representing the likes of Ford Motor Company and other prominent foreign corporations. Later she joined John Holt Limited as the legal adviser and worked there till 1967. She subsequently returned to private practice while maintaining a great relationship with John Holt.

In 1975 she was invited by the Lagos State Attorney General to be the Chairman of the newly established Lagos State Rent Tribunals. She performed this role while maintaining her private legal practice. She was subsequently offered an appointment as a Chief Magistrate in the Lagos State Judiciary – a post she held till her retirement in 1987. During her appointment as a Chief Magistrate she was elected as the chairman of the Magistrate Association for the period 1983-1984.