Uwais and my Alagbon story

COMING a close second behind Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola, Nigeria’s first indigenous Chief Justice who was in the saddle for 14 years, Mohammed Lawal Uwais, who passed away penultimate Friday, spent 11 years in office as Nigeria’s second longest-serving head of the country’s judiciary to date. 

He however owned his exclusive record as the longest serving justice of the apex court, coming in at just 43 and spending 27 years, to retire at 70. 

Not too far behind is his once-upon-a-time buddy and classmate, Salihu Modibbo Alfa “Jeje” Belgore, the 10th Chief Justice of Nigeria, who was appointed to the apex Bench at 49, to be around for 21 years before the constitutional age-cut of 70 in 2007.  

The Kwaran however held the unenviable record of the shortest period of any CJN to date, serving for just seven months and five days (June 12, 2006-January 17, 2007). If this would warm him and his own, in not-too-faraway years from now, he is going to be relinquishing the briefest CJN sach to a current justice of the court who is in the succession-by-seniority line and due to the Uwais/Belgore situation, with another CJN-in-waiting colleague, will serve for 11 days! 

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE: June 12: The Abacha people are now legislators, ministers — Adeniyi Akintola, SAN

Like Uwais and Belgore, these two awaiting-CJNs share very close birth days (Uwais was just seven months and five days older than Belgore and both were positioned to lead the judiciary), and whether by human design or fate, both, like the two elders before them, are now destined to head the arm of government and one is going to deny the other, meaningful time in the saddle. 

The birth date of the first of the “Siamese twins” of the apex court is April 15, 1960; while that of his “brother” is April 26, 1960. One will end his CJNship on April 15, 2030, the other, who would be the most senior jurist of the court then, will take over, if succession tradition holds, on April 15, 2030 and cease to be CJN 11 days after, when he would clock 70, God preserving their lives. A simple search and seniority/retirement age calculations would yield their identities. 

The current most senior justice of the court who is also in line to mount the throne, the once-indicted and cleared John Inyang Okoro, will also ipso facto end early. He is expected to serve between May 7, 2028 when the incumbent is leaving, and July 11, 2029. The next one year is for the duo in the 11-day drama, considering that their current seniors would be out before Kekere-Ekun and Okoro are done. 

When something won’t be durable, Yoruba will call it “elemi kukuru (short lifespan). Chinese or Aba products used to be material representations for stuff suspect or proven to be short on durability. But times have changed, especially for China which is now a world superpower, going toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball with the United States. 

Even Yoruba still have ways of encouraging with wise sayings in the situation the apex court has found itself with the supersonic turnover of CJN in recent time. One of such, is if yam is pounded inside a leaf and its accompanying soup made inside groundnut pod, whoever is determined to be fully fed, will be. It simply means that impacts can be made with little when very determined. Brevity of time notwithstanding, an outstanding administrator will still excel. English would say not how far but how well. Even the 11-day CJN can still be impactful, especially if he comes in with the right mindset and policy from the very first minute of his CJNship, not something impulsive like someone who removed the cushion from the masses before asking how painful and how he could mitigate the consequences of his thoughtlessness. 

But truth be told, the turnover of Chief Justices since Uwais’s long tenure, is frightening. A simple mathematics will properly situate the worrying trend. Uwais and his immediate predecessor, Mohammed Bello who spent 20 years on the apex court Bench, cumulatively spent 19 years as Chief Justices; Uwais 11, Bello, 8. There have been 10 CJNs since Uwais, adding incumbent Kekere-Ekun, and the 10 have collectively spent the same 19 years in office! 

February last year, in a haul of 11 justices to the apex court, then CJN and chair of the National Judicial Council, Kayode Ariwoola attempted what looked like a deliberate reset to restore longevity to the Bench and the number one seat, by favouring more appointees from the Court of Appeal in their early 50s, while sidelining their seniors on the same Bench who are in their late 50s, early 60s and mid 60s. A significant “victim” is now-retired Justice Olukayode Bada, the Ile-Ife-born then-most senior justice of the Court of Appeal. A much-younger junior colleague from Lagos was assisted to leapfrog him. The perceived Ariwoola bias was roundly condemned by concerned stakeholders especially over the South East and North Central appointments, which appeared to have targetted individuals both for favour and disesteem. 

A striking example was the pole-vaulting of Justice Mohammed Baba Idris from North Central (Niger to be precise) over numerous seniors from the geo-zone, to the irritation of many. What makes his elevation peculiar is that he is son of Nigeria’s 11th CJN, now-late Idris Legbo Kutigi and many are reading meanings into the filiality, though the brilliance of the younger Idris has also been considerably acknowledged. 

Strangely, with his appointment last year, Idris now has the prospect of a 17-year run in the court exactly like his dad who spent the same number of years as a justice of the apex Bench. Idris is also poised, if succession-by-seniority is sustained, to lead the judiciary from June 17, 2035, when he would be the most senior, to October 25, 2040. 

Talk of a power family from the Power State. It remains to be seen if Ariwoola’s alleged ojoro (favourtism) will restore longevity to the Bench but there is no doubting that justice would be better served with experienced jurists and that can only be, by being around long enough to understand the nitty-gritty of the duty. 

Longevity on the Bench especially for those in CJN succession line, becomes paramount considering that for years now, Nigeria has been appointing CJNs without prior administrative experience except for the time they would serve as the vice chairman of the NJC before stepping up when it is their turn. And the result of their inexperience has been glaring. Several policies roundly slammed by the Nigerian public in recent times are downright due to the limited administrative abilities of the CJNs, some who would not even allow informed and long-serving officials of the system, to guide them as required. 

I personally support the move to have the power of the CJN over critical agencies of the judiciary whittle, as recommended by the think-tank that guided the National Assembly Constitution Review Joint Committee. I hope there would be the courage to go the whole hog. While the CJN should remain the overall boss of the judiciary, those critical agencies should be freed from the daily encumbrances of the top judicial officer. The CJN supervisory function should be limited to quarterly meetings, so the number one judicial officer can truly face the real job of dispensing justice. 

The Uwais epoch is in the history book and posterity will be a better determinant of its placement in judicial pantheon. But beyond longevity of the era, one inexpungible feature of the time is the manifest attempt to give the system a decorous outlook, maintaining respectable distance from politicians and their trade in infamy, though that didn’t automatically turn the Bench to a sacristy. There was still the Uwais/Belgore thing which had a tinge of spousal nepotism. There was still a lawyer accusing Uwais, as CJN, of corruption in the Honda Place case, in the open court. There was a Delta State political case that besmeared the court under him. Infact the Uwais/Belgore poorly-concealed war, was so consuming that the former had to cancel the convention of sitting CJNs quitting three months to tenure expiration, in the guise of retirement leave, for the incoming to have enough time outside their tenure to acclimatize. In Belgore’s case, it was meant to be a gentleman’s agreement between two friends and brothers to give the Kwaran additional months to have about a year in office. 

Then the centre collapsed and Uwais stayed put to the very last day of his tenure. I was also caught in-between the crisis of confidence just doing my reportorial job. A write-up on the alleged rot swirling around the court under Uwais, who at that time was returning unspent budgetary allocation to government coffers (though he was accused of doing that to spite his colleagues at least he was not lavishing it on self and family like some successors), did not sit well with him and after I would not confirm my source(s), which he believed were internal, to him, at a meeting with select media, he wrote to police leadership, submitting himself to probe. 

I became a suspect/witness/collaborator, all rolled into one.  Then-Tribune editorial leadership summoned me to Ibadan. There was summons from Force CID, Alagbon for my interrogation. My then-editor, Mr. Dapo Ogunwusi, played it clever. He ran the probe story as cover the same Monday I was scheduled to appear. Off to Lagos with Tribune’s external solicitor. Were it to be now, I would have definitely spent days in detention. After hours of reading my story to me in insinuating manner, direct interrogation and written statement, just to know if I was being sponsored, the case officers left me wondering if I would return to Ibadan that day. They disappeared for a while. Then our lawyer got hold of one and pointedly asked “is he (me) under arrest? Are you detaining him”. He paused, disappeared, possibly to consult and reappeared to say “no but we are releasing him to you”. 

Orlando “Kennery” Owoh sang of his Alagbon ordeal “bi won se wa mumi nile o ni bo se je, ona t’Oluwa fi yomi jade, oni bo se je (how they came for me, e get as e be, how God worked my escape, e get as e be). The details will be in my book “Objection My Lord; The story of judicial corruption in Nigeria”. Don’t worry, I will be guided.