Al-Mustapha’s continuous detention is scandalous – Oputa

My grandmother was all I had as I lost my mother when I was very young. My grandmother was very keen on education. She was very rich; I would say the richest woman in her age. She did not want to spoil any of the children, so I was sent to live with a teacher […]

My grandmother was all I had as I lost my mother when I was very young. My grandmother was very keen on education. She was very rich; I would say the richest woman in her age. She did not want to spoil any of the children, so I was sent to live with a teacher who was in the hinterland. We used to walk three miles to school. I was young and could not carry anything; my elders carried the books for me.  

WT: On a lighter note, how did you meet your wife?

Oputa: This is a very interesting question because at that time you did not really have much say on how you meet your wife. Then, the parents would agree on whose daughter would marry whose son, and after that, you are informed. My wife was in London doing Nursing and Midwifery then and I was teaching here in Nigeria. When both mothers agreed, they informed us and my wife had to travel from England back to Oguta for the marriage in 1951 and that was it.

After the ceremony we both went back to England and I continued with my Law having got my BA and B.Sc and then I did my LLB.  She continued with her nursing and midwifery. We came back in 1953, and then I started practice in Port Harcourt. Charles (Charly Boy) was born in 1955; we had two other children who died.

WT: As a father, some people thought that you would have wanted your only child to take after you. But as it is, he has turned out to be a musician and entertainer. Are you comfortable with this?

Oputa: Well, every father’s wish is that his son will succeed him in his profession. I wanted him to become a lawyer but he said he was not interested in law; and there is a limit to how far you can push a child. If you push too hard it could be disastrous. If you find out that the child is determined, support him in what he wants to do. So, when we could not shake him to move from his idea of music and come back to law, we allowed him to do what he felt was best for himself and what he thought would give him joy and fulfillment. Well, I think he feels happier doing what he knows how to do best. If we had forced him to be a lawyer maybe he would have never found happiness in his life.

WT: Is there any particular judgment that you gave which you later regretted?

Oputa: Every judgment is an important judgment. Every judgment is part of law and the law is useless if it fails to shape out the way we live.

WT: Do you have any regret that the resolutions of the famous Oputa Panel which you chaired have not been implemented?

Oputa: We were asked to investigate human rights violations in Nigeria which we did. Unfortunately, the government then did not take it serious enough to be published for everyone to see. Father Kukah took it upon himself to have the report published which is not the same thing as government publishing it as a report. We looked into human rights violations by the legislature, the executive and sometimes the judiciary. We then went ahead to write our report.

Whether the government published the report or not, people attended, gave evidence, and heard what happened. The happenings at the panel were being aired live on television and on radio, morning, afternoon and evening.

Even if the report is published today, how many people will read it, how many people in Nigeria are literate?

WT: We thought government was going to take a decision based on the report made by the panel by punishing the culprits and righting the wrongs that had been made. That never took place…

Oputa: This question should be addressed to the Head of State. But, then the panel was not really a commission designed to punish, it was one designed to reconcile aggrieved people. When we are talking about reconciling we cannot talk about punishment; we cannot reconcile by punishing. We reconcile by asking the aggrieved parties to forget and forgive and come back together.

WT: Sir, you said the commission was conceived to reconcile aggrieved parties. Major Al-Mustapha was one of those who testified at your panel, but for the past twelve years he has been in detention. What is your take on this development?

Oputa: I must say Al-Mustapha’s case baffles me. We have lawyers all over the place; I expect that if a man is wrongly detained, they should be able to challenge the detention in the court. What we say here and in the newspapers have no effect. Except they go to court and make it an issue and ask, why is this man in detention? Even if he committed the offence, has he not purged himself of this offence?

Even if he killed the man, he does not have 12 years as sentence. The highest he gets is seven years. Questions should be asked. It’s hilarious to think that this case has been in court for 12 years. Somebody should do something about it because this is scandalous on the image of our judiciary. This is really wrong and scandalous, I must say.

WT: In the past eleven years since the start of democracy in Nigeria, the election tribunals that have been set up to adjudicate various cases have been accused of bribery and corruption.  In your opinion, how do we address this issue of corruption and the judiciary?

Oputa: The question on corruption is a very intriguing one. It involves not only law, but sociology, ethics and religion. Taking bribe is viewed as something bad. Like I tell most people, corruption is not a Nigerian language, it is an English word, which means they have such in their culture, that is why they have a word for it.

So, Nigeria is not the only place where there is corruption. What is worrying is when it becomes the order of the day, and then it becomes a dangerous development. From our indigenous culture we have advanced a step further by giving gifts to people before they do what we want from them. We are not giving the gift because he has done it, rather we are giving to enable him do it in your favour, that is where corruption comes in. You are now corrupting him and making it impossible for him to use his judgment.

It is a terrible thing that justice, of all things should be corrupt. When we were young barristers, nobody went to the judge’s house. It was never done. I wrote a book ‘Unwritten Laws of the Legal Profession’. One of the unwritten laws is that you do not visit a judge. What are you going there for? See him in court and that is all.

Most judges in the olden days do not allow any visitor near their houses. Secondly, in the olden days hardly you see a judge at a party. What is he going there for? You meet someone at a party over the weekend and on a Monday you see him in the dock, what do you do? Pretend you do not know him? If he then wins, people who saw both of you together at the party will view you as corrupt.

The society should help the judge by not exposing him to all the dangers in the society including bribery and corruption. But the case is different these days.  If there are ten parties to take place, a judge will make sure he is present at all ten which is not good enough for the image of the judiciary.

WT: Where does the solution lie?

Oputa: It lies on all of us taking the bull by the horns, deciding that we want a clean society, from a clean society we will have clean social institutions, including the justice delivery system. Very many of our institutions are not clean enough; equally many people are where they are not because they merited it.

Corruption has placed many people in positions they are not supposed to be occupying. We do not fight what we do not know exists. If we know that corruption exists in Nigeria and it is endemic in the nation, then we fight it from the roots.

In the family, if children are thought that giving money to seek for an advantage or favour is wrong, they grow up with that teaching. So, the best place to start fighting corruption is from the family. Raising them and telling them that corruption is wrong. Then, it is further stressed by schools, worship centres and other places. Then, corruption becomes one vice people will turn away from as no one would want to be associated with it.

As a judge, and I have been on two or three years on the bench and I build a huge mansion in my village, nobody raises an eyebrow to ask how I got the money to build it. Not even a single soul raises alarm, and then in other words we condone corruption.  How then can we fight and kill corruption if we condone it?

WT: Who was your role model as an aspiring lawyer in your younger years?

Oputa: Sir Rotimi Williams, because he was a very hard working despite how huge he was; he made sure it did not stand in his way as he prepared his case very well. Success at the bar is 90% perspiration and 10% desperation. A good judge will be able to unveil the secrets of a case. It is the job of a good lawyer to do that in his chambers first. If your client is really at fault the proper thing to do is to go to the court and say you are sorry and guilty. But very few lawyers will listen or even suggest that. Any good lawyer has to also be a good historian, a sociologist and a lawyer.

WT: You are aware of the political happenings in the country today. What is your position on this zoning debate between the North and the South?

Oputa: Legally speaking, what I often ask is, is Nigeria one country? Are all Nigerians one people? Then, we go back to our 1960 National Anthem. What we all want from Nigeria is a nation where no one is oppressed, a law-abiding nation. A nation, that will help us realize and fulfill our obligations. Peace is very important; if we have peace, people can go on with their businesess to produce wealth. Now, have we succeeded in this idealism of 1960? The answer is yes and no. In some areas, yes, we have done very well while in other areas we have not done so well.

If we say we should rotate presidency, it’s done in Australia, Switzerland and we have so many examples where it is done. That is their constitution, but is that what our constitution says here? We cannot have rotating presidency without changing our constitution. So, the first step to take if that is what we want is to change the constitution and then make zoning part and parcel of the constitution.

The constitution as it is envisages one indivisible country. If we have this one indivisible country then everyone from that country is a Nigerian, it does not matter if anyone is from the north, east, west or south. But if we feel we are not yet Nigerians, we are Easterners, Northerners, Southerners, then we can then advocate rotating presidency. But advocating for zoning or rotation or whatever it is called is an admission of failure. If we are talking about rotating presidency then we have failed in our experiment to build one Nigeria.

WT: In your lifetime, sir, do you see an Igbo man becoming the president of this country?

Oputa: It is either we are Nigerians or we are not, or we are Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. This argument does not make sense as we are just making noise out of the mere fact that we have failed to build one country. If we were really united it would not bother anybody if the president was from any part of the country.

Awolowo in 1948 said we are Nigerians when we are outside Nigeria but in reality Nigeria is just a geographical expression, not a reality of history. Every country started as a geographical expression. It was left to the inhabitants of that country to change its fate to a reality of history. So, the question is of how are we developing?

On the other hand if we go back to confederation it means that the regional forces have won over and above the national forces.  If this happens it could be very dangerous. Now, you talk about the Igbos never having a chance to clinch the presidency. Are those Igbos Nigerians? If you say yes, they are Nigerians, and then what is the problem? So, we are either Nigerians or we are not.

WT: How do you relax?

Oputa: If reading is relaxation, then that is one way in which I relax. I love to take long walks especially in the early hours of the day and in the evenings. But a really busy man has not got time for relaxation. Sleeping also is a form of relaxation; any man who sleeps twelve hours a day has failed.

WT: How about giving us a brief biography about yourself?

Oputa: I was born in 1922. In my time, polygamy was the order of the day. A man’s wealth was judged by how many wives and children he had. Also, by how many canoes we had because we lived around the riverside areas. Then, your wealth was assessed by the number of wives you could afford to cater for. My father had about six or seven wives. My mother was the last of the wives and I am the last of the children. My father was a very handsome man. Sometimes when he goes for this dancing they had in age group, before he comes home about three to four women would run and follow him and ask to be married to him. We had a very good aunty; she would always take them back to their families. Surprisingly, some of these women were married women (laughing).

One of his children called Joseph took after him and was very handsome too. It was then we realized that a man who is extremely handsome runs into a lot of problems. Some of these women will do anything to be with you. Though he died quite early during the civil war, he had more than his fair share of women falling head over heels for him.

 I started school in 1930. In 1929, they said I was too young to start school because my hands, when held over my head, could to not touch my ears. So, in 1931 I started school. Luckily for me, I’m the last born of the family. So, when the elder ones came back from school I used to spend a lot of time with them. Luckily for me too, three of my elder brothers went to Teachers’ Training Colleges. I was lucky I was brought up in an atmosphere where going to school was given priority.

I did not go to any university and had my second class honours at home. The only thing I did in the university was my LLB final and my Bar final. The great mathematician, Professor Chike Obi, did his M.sc at home. He did not go to the university. The only thing he did in Cambridge was his PhD. We both went to the same schools in Onitsha and then we went ahead to teach in the same school also.

After three years’ practice at the bar, I rose to the post of chief judge of the state. To distinguish it from the chief justice of the federation, the state judges are called chief judges, not state justices. This is so, so that there is only one chief justice in Nigeria.

After nine years I was made justice of the Supreme Court. I served in the Supreme Court for five years then retired when I reached 70. I have been on my own since retirement, writing. I have written about three or four books.  Most lawyers have copies of the books.

I should have done my masters a long time but there is the tendency to digress and become a teacher after that and that isn’t what I wanted. So, that is where I have been, a lawyer, judge, retired and now delivering lectures in various places when the occasion calls for it.