By Emmanuel Aziken & Emily Ogah
For more than a decade, Jim Beabubari Marshall stood quietly inside the lifts of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, headquarters, moving staff, visitors and top officials from one floor to another. To many who passed through those doors daily, he was simply the lift operator.
But behind the uniform was a man carrying a dream bigger than his station, a dream to become a lawyer and use the law as a tool for justice, defence and service to society.
On Tuesday, that dream came full circle as the Chairman of the NDDC, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, attended Marshall’s Call to Bar ceremony in Abuja. It was not just another ceremonial appearance. Ebie was, significantly, Marshall’s only guest at the event, standing by a man whose life had changed after one conversation inside the very lift he once operated.
Marshall, from Bane community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, had always wanted to study law. According to him, the desire began in his secondary school days, driven by a passion to stand up for his people and defend those whose rights were being trampled upon.
