Deji Sasegbon: The Innovative Publisher
Deji Sasegbon, chairman/editor-in-chief of dsc Publishers Limited ,is an alumnus of the University of Ife Now Obafemi Awolowo University where he studied law, graduating in 1979 and was called to the bar in 1980. After almost a decade at the ministry of justice where he made his mark as a prosecutor and was exposed to problems of paucity of relevant an up-to-date indigenous legal reference books, he left in 1986 to establish both dsc Publisher and his ultra-modern law firm Deji Sasegbon & Company.
However, it is through dsc Publications that Sasegbon has made invaluable contributions to the legal profession by churning out books an reference materials to make legal practice much more easier and rosier.
Renowned for his landmark works like the Nigerian Supreme Court Cases nscc now in 38 volumes, the legal desk book and the companies a allied matters law and practice, Sasegbon only recently introduced the legal electronic publishing which entails using the computer to serve the law. Through this method whose purpose is to expose to the whole world the decisions of the highest court in the Nigerian legal system, Sasegbon has now put the Supreme Court Judgments on the Internet.
By this feat, anybody can now search on the Internet for any subject matter that has been litigated upon by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. This device has helped ensure for Sasegbon that all the cases reported in his nscc are now exposed to about 10 million Internet users in the world. This, no doubt, is a bold and hard step in exposing the Nigerian legal system to the world. More so, in a country where one of the most daunting aspects of legal practice to both the bench and the bar and ultimately to every litigant, is the grinding slowness at which manual oriented proceedings go. With such brave new moves as Sasegbon's legal publishing, the Nigeria legal system will never be the same again.
Another of Sasegbon's contribution to law is the "Nigerian Companies And Allied Matters Law And Practice" which today remains one of the most comprehensive publications on the provisions of the country's Companies an Allied Matters Act of 1990. In his foreword to the book [now in six volumes] Bola Ajibola, san, former attorney-general of the federation and retired judge f the icj, in the Hague noted. "The format adopted in the volumes is particularly novel."
The renowned jurist further deposed: "the book contains a serial analysis of the Act, copiously annotated with case law and text writers' opinions. In addition, cross-references are made to the old companies act ad adequate comparisons of the new and old provisions are made."
The book also exhaustively deals with the provisions of the Act and is a veritable source material not only for lawyers but also for business men highlighting company registration and winding up procedures including dealings with the Corporate Affairs Commission. There are six volumes in all. Traditional company law is the subject f the first two volumes.
The third volume is the book of procedure company secretarial practice, precedent's etc. Volume four is an elaboration on the eclectic approach of the parent statute. The fifth volume is dedicated to shipping and related matters while volume six is general index.
Assuredly, Sasegbon, 43, still has a lot to offer the legal profession in the area of documenting its laws and practice for enhanced professional performance now and easier reference in the future.
Newswatch June 29, 1998
" Newswatch 1998