My lord, the Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria Olukayode Ariwoola GCON permit me to adopt and rely on the protocols you earlier established at this event. With your leave having been sought and obtained, let me outrightly make one confession to this distinguished audience. Initially, it was not my desire that a valedictory be…My lord, the Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria Olukayode Ariwoola GCON permit me to adopt and rely on the protocols you earlier established at this event.
It was my view that valedictory sessions only provide honourees the platforms to tell their stories and, informed by experience in the course of service, make suggestions as to how to improve the institutions they had served. I was, however, unable to appreciate the extent to which previous suggestions had been exploited to effect the desired reforms.
I was born and bred in Limawa, a ward in Minna, now the capital of Niger State, then, in 1953, a relatively small and quiet provincial headquarters. I was named after my paternal grandfather known and called Musa Kumurya. Adamu, my paternal great grandfather traded in cattle and kolanuts between Kumurya, a village in present day Kano State and Ogbomosho in Oyo State and beyond. He would convey cattle southwards and kola nuts back to the north.
My maternal grandparents were of the Fulani stock that accompanied the Dan Fodio Jihadists to Nupe land. Muhammadu Maigari was my maternal grandfather. Rukayya, Inna Lalemi, his wife, gave birth to two children: Abdullahi and Aishatu Baiwa, my mother. Dr. Mahmud Tabo Minna, of blessed memory, was their sibling from a different mother. Fatima, Halima and Abdullahi, are my much younger aunties and uncle from my grandfather’s fourth wife. My mother and these three are still alive.
Now, how has the Judiciary fared in the course of my journey? The journey was calm and fulfilling until about halfway through my Supreme Court years when the punctuating turbulent cracks made it awry and askew. The conversation about the diminishing number of justices at the Supreme Court has become a refrain. As I bow out today, the number is further reduced to 10 against the Constitutional requirement of 21 justices. That this avoidable depletion has affected and will further affect the court and litigants is stating the obvious.
When I exit today, the North Central zone that I represent ceases to have any representation until such a time new appointments are made. My lord Hon. Justice Ejembi Eko JSC who also represented the zone retired on the 23rd of May, 2022. It has been a year and five months now. There has not been any replacement. With the passing of my lord, Hon. Justice Chima Centus Nweze, JSC on 29th July 2023, the South East no longer has any presence at the Supreme Court. My lord, Hon.