Echoes from my past (3)

He had invested heavily in shares of foreign-owned companies that had been affected under the indigenisation law in force at the time. He was desperate to be economically potent. He spent large sums of his income from the practice hosting important people to parties and even feting them with Champagne made in his personal label and shipped to him. There seemed to be something driving him to assert himself on the socio-economic landscape. At the time, I thought that he was being driven to that behavioural extreme by the fact that his father was a Briton. His mother was a citizen of Itsekiri land. He needed, I thought, to etch himself deep into the minds of Nigerians perhaps to consign his antecedents to oblivion. He achieved that glamorously, I grant. He needed money to achieve that. He had to play at the high league level. He did. But it cost him attention to the profession. He is today an industrialist or baron of maybe rubber or wood. He cannot claim to be a current professional. But he is loved and respected by the high and mighty for his capacity to host. He has enviable humour and the capacity to drink which he shared with his elder brother, the late Ambassador Leslie Harriman. I will return to Uncle Leslie further down in this work. In the meantime, it is sufficient to mention that Leslie belonged to Apapa Boat Club with me. I found out from this association that he was of similar nature with his brother, Hope. He was a great Nigerian Ambassador also with the capacity to host as he became ambassador to top nations like France and United States of America. He also loved glamour. He and his brother loved recognition immensely. But Leslie was more modest in throwing himself on people than Hope. Both of them had problems coping with women in and outside marriage. Perhaps we share some similarities there, as the reader will soon come to appreciate. Quite a bit of time was spent sorting out complaints of women they married or kept.
At Harriman and Company, I was a stickler for decent professional conduct. I was on my desk at 8am and did not leave it for some flimsy personal reason. I never liked to be reprimanded by my superiors. I also did not miss any opportunity to come heavily against unfairness of any sort.
I once handled the defence of a client whose building was marked for demolition by Lagos City Council of those days. The client, Intra Motors Nigeria Limited, had contracted Foundation Engineering to investigate and design foundations for its headquarters building at Ijora in an area of Lagos that was being prospected by industrialists as relief to intensively developed Lagos Island. Foundation Engineering completed its work and Foundation Construction was awarded the contract to construct the foundations. Both companies belonged to same proprietors, Costain West Africa Limited. The edifice, shortly after construction and at only about five years of use, started developing cracks that showed foundation failure. Lagos City Council was alarmed and had to mark it for demolition on account of its unsafe status to users. That was when Lagos City Council was manned by people who knew about safety and ran proper people-oriented administration.
Harriman and Company was called in as valuers to advise on the compensation payable to Intra Motors Nigeria Limited for all the rights extinguished for them by the negligent professional work of both Foundation Engineering and Foundation Construction who were owned by Costain. I went to do the survey, and when I was satisfied, I compiled my report and found for a value of about £84,000 payable by both companies to Intra Motors. The report was compiled and sent to the negligent group.
In British style of diplomacy, the negligent group contacted their home office in England and one top lawyer and negotiator was dispatched to discuss with me. He hosted me to a handsome lunch at Quo Vadis Restaurant on top of Western House on Broad Street Lagos, to see if he could persuade me to change my value finding. I respected his highbrow style of negotiation but did not yield for any reason. It did not matter to me one bit who was being hurt. What I found could not be changed at all. The gentleman whose name I do not remember was satisfied with the work in the end and the compensation I had found adequate was paid in settlement of the dispute. I became an instant professional to be trusted with serious work. It was another notch for me beyond Shell assets, which I had creditably dispatched by computer process earlier in my acquaintance with Harriman and Company.