The annual ritual of the opening of the judicial year at Nigeria’s Supreme Court is an occasion for pomp, ceremony, and celebration. It usually marks the admission of a new set of lawyers into the sequined ranks of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SANs). This year, 68 made the cut....
Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
Nearly 20 years ago, while stumping for his party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, out-going president, Olusegun Obasanjo, decided to confront head-on morbid rumours about the health of his hand-picked successor. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, then governor of Katsina State and the president’s man for the job, was said to be...
What Happened to the Peace Accord?: A Memo to the National Peace Committee, By CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU
What Happened to the Peace Accord?: A Memo to the National Peace Committee, By CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU
As Nigeria marked 66 years of independence this past week, the Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Jarrett Tenebe, turned prayerful. Mr. Tenebe is not priest, pastor, or Imam. He claims to be a professional politician. Ordinarily, that should mean that he is interested...
The contest for the presidency of Nigeria in the election on 11 August 1979 was between five candidates. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the Nigerian Peoples Party was born on 16 November 1904. On election day in 1979, he was over 74 years. Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria...
Sir Henry Wotton, the Renaissance-era politician and diplomat from Kent in England, is credited with the line that an ambassador is “an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” What he did not quite capture was the situation at home, from which the ambassador...
The year 1993 changed Nigeria’s judiciary. Over a period of a mere five months, the military that year contrived to overthrow the government twice. First, in June, Ibrahim Babangida, the army General who was Nigeria’s military ruler at the time, nullified an election his regime reorganised to determine who would succeed...
“Divine right is an old, established principle. It means that kings have the right – ordained by God – to act in any way they wish. Human-made laws are of no consequence beside the awesome power of God, and God’s representative, namely the monarch.” -Vija Prashad, Washington Bullets, 23...
When the Economist described Nigeria over 18 years ago as a “democracy by court order”, it ventured into prophetic journalism. In the period since then, partisan politicians have become comfortable with playing second fiddle to judges, a sizeable number of whom have emerged as the most avid tribe of belligerents in...
As Africa approached the turn of the Millennium, the leaders of the continent were well on the way to reaching a consensus that “democracy, good governance, respect for human and peoples’ rights and the rule of law are prerequisites for the security, stability and development of the Continent.” To many, this...
Twenty-three days after its transmission by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the upper chamber of Nigeria’s National Assembly, the Senate, held public hearings on 18 December 2025 to consider the Legal Practitioners Bill. At this pace, the bill could become law well before the middle of 2026. The journey to this bill has been somewhat...
When Olusegun Obasanjo took over in 1976 from the slain Murtala Mohammed as Nigeria’s military Head of State, the regime was already committed as a matter of policy to transition power to an elected civilian administration in 1979. This was a big deal, alright, but not one over which...
In January 1993, Ibrahim Babangida was the military ruler of Nigeria. He was supposedly in the last year of an interminable transition at the end of which he promised to hand over power to an elected civilian administration. Moshood Abiola was actively canvassing to inherit that mantle. As Chief...
Seven years ago, in 2018, my good friend and former Dean of Law at the University of Ghana at Legon, Professor Raymond Atuguba, undertook a path-breaking study which sought “to move away from the perception that Justices of the Supreme Court dispense justice impartially under a constitutional democracy and reflect on...
In 1981, Chief Gani Fawehinmi was already 16 years at the Nigerian Bar and one of its brightest stars. He had also become a pioneer in the enterprise of legal publishing and a breakout litigator. One decade earlier, Gani had served as national publicity secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Among lawyers of...
In an unusual style of book review, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, presents ‘Demonstration of Craze: Struggles and Transition to Democracy in Nigeria,’ the memoirs of acclaimed journalist, editor and civil rights activist, Abdul Oroh. The author and the book reviewer are most unsparing of the dramatis personae who violated citizens’ rights or...
By TYAV SAM TYAV, Makurdi – Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia has described the comments of Prof. Chidi Odinkalu during his recent reaction regarding governor’s response to the ongoing violence in Benue State as unveiling a disturbing insensitivity towards the casualties of these attacks. The governor, who spoke through...
The political control of the resources of the territory known as Rivers State in Nigeria’s Niger Delta has been a site of curious jurisprudence since the Acting Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, Harry Johnston, procured the judicial liquidation of King Jaja of Opobo in December 1887 in Accra,...