Good afternoon, friends.
This afternoon, I want to call the attention of my audience to how one may be forced to let go of his legal rights for moral obligations in some circumstances in life.In other words, even as a lawyer you may be forced to sacrifice your rights in the face of pressing  moral obligations towards your friends, neighbours or even your community at large.

To illustrate this point, I want to share a personal experience with you.Sometime in December, last year, I was driving, in the night, along a busy road in my home town and my friend was sitting beside me in the car.All of a sudden, one drunken commercial motorcycle rider ( popularly called 'okada' in the south western Nigeria) lost control of his vehicle, dashed out of his lane and fell into my lane hitting the bumper of my car while the car was in motion.As he fell against my bumper, he swerved back to his lane and he eventually crashed with an elderly woman he was carrying.The woman too was carrying a baby girl who was asleep in her hands during this incident.Initially, it occurred to me to stop and hold the man responsible for the damage done to my car but I felt the little scratch the impact of the crash left on the car bumper was too minor to grumble about considering the extent of injuries that humans involved in the accident may have sustained.When I also saw the reaction of the thugs who did not really know what had happened indicating that they thought I hit the 'okada' man, I decided to leave that scene as I was not responsible for the accident in the first instance.

However, little did I know that I would not be able to manoeuvre out of the place as I soon ran into a traffic hold-up ahead.

At this point, I was tracked down and the rogues did not even want to hear me out.They accused me of what I never did and threatened to vandalise my car.However, God still managed to put some reasonable individuals at the scene to maintain peace and ensure that I was not physically attacked by these rogues.It was these guys that intervened such that the matter could be settled.

Later,  some of my friends also came around to intervene.The matter was almost escalating to a mob action and the police were not readily at hand.We then discovered that the baby girl had suffered shock causing her to pass out and was being revived at a quark doctor's clinic nearby.When my friends and I got to the clinic, one of my friends advised that the baby be rushed to a standard private hospital which was done.

It was this that saved the life of that baby.To my surprise,  when that baby recovered,  her father still expected me to pay her hospital bill.At this time, the 'okada' rider that caused this whole mess had absconded.My friend and my mentor's husband, one of those who had intervened earlier persuaded me not to argue with him and paid the bill being the sum of ten thousand naira (N10, 000) only.This is where I am going.You see, I was compelled to pay him the money back out of a moral obligation towards him. After all, if I did not want him to intervene why did I call him to the scene in the first instance? Although it was one of my friends that called him to the scene, I owed the person that called him too a moral obligation not to castigate her to have called someone that would not encourage me to refuse to pay the hospital bill.

Dear friends, my message for today is simply that we should not allow our knowledge of our rights to always dictate our conducts.This may strain our social relations with friends, colleagues and neighbours. If I had refused to refund the money the person paid in the circumstances, I would have been seen as an ingrate regardless of the merit of my claim.

Thank you for your attention. See you tomorrow.