Ex-UNILORIN DVC Rejoices With Legal Luminary Yusuf Ali Over Doctorate Award

The former deputy vice chancellor (Management Services) of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. Suleiman Ambali, has rejoiced with a legal giant, Prof. Yusuf Ali (SAN) on his conferment of honourary Doctor of Laws by Yakubu Gowon University, Abuja (formerly University of Abuja).

Ali received the honour at the institution’s 29th and 30th combined convocation ceremony held over the weekend.

In a tribute eulogising the legal icon, Ambali described the award as well deserved, given Ali’s more than four decades of principled legal practice, tireless scholarship, boundless philanthropy, and unwavering personal integrity.

“The conferment of the prestigious LL.D (Honoris Causa) by Yakubu Gowon University is not the invention of a reputation. It is the formal ratification of one that has been painstakingly built across more than four decades of principled legal practice, tireless scholarship, boundless philanthropy, and an unshakeable personal integrity that has made Professor Ali one of the most admired public figures in Nigeria today.

“The Governing Council of the university, at its 83rd Extraordinary Meeting, acted not merely in institutional wisdom but in national conscience when it endorsed the Senate’s recommendation to confer this honour upon him,” the university teacher said.

Ambali, who is a professor of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, said the award was a fitting crown for a man who had already represented state governments, high-networth individuals, and corporate institutions across all superior courts of record from the High Court to the Supreme Court, arguing landmark cases that continue to shape Nigerian jurisprudence.

Ambali also described Ali as a formidable force in the courtroom, known for his clinical precision, ethical steadfastness, and unwavering commitment to the Rule of Law.

According to him, Ali’s professional footprint extends far beyond the courtroom, having served as Pioneer Chairman of the NBA Section on Legal Practice (SLP), Pioneer Chairman of the NBA Anti-Corruption Commission, Former Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Bar Journal, Vice Chairman of the International Bar Association Committee on Damages and Negligence, and Member of the Council of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association.

“These roles speak to a career defined not by self-accumulation but by institution-building,” he said.

“The title is apt: Professor Ali does not merely theorise about the law, he has lived it, argued it, reformed it, and now teaches it with the authority of a practitioner who has stood at its very frontlines. He is also an Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, a gesture that speaks volumes about his love for his adopted city and his commitment to keeping knowledge accessible and local.”

Ambali noted that Ali has contributed more than 17 chapters to legal books and published over forty learned articles in local and international journals spanning litigation, commercial law, jurisprudence, constitutional law, and practice and procedure, saying the body of work earned him the unprecedented role of Professor of Practice at the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti, where he continued to mentor and shape the next generation of Nigerian lawyers.