Politicians should not appoint judges – Justice James Ogebe
Justice James Ogenyi Ogebe, retired from the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2010, after spending 42 years as a government lawyer in the old Benue-Plateau State, judge in Benue State and many postings in the Court of Appeal. He was in the Supreme Court of Nigeria between 2008 and 2010, reaching the peak of his […]
Justice James Ogenyi Ogebe, retired from the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2010, after spending 42 years as a government lawyer in the old Benue-Plateau State, judge in Benue State and many postings in the Court of Appeal. He was in the Supreme Court of Nigeria between 2008 and 2010, reaching the peak of his career before retirement.
You are one of the early northerners to be educated in Government College, Keffi. Tell us about the journey from your village in Benue to Keffi.
I attended Methodist Primary School, Igumale. Incidentally, Igumale was the first place the Methodists established a church in 1924. In 1953, I took an entrance examination to Benue Middle School, then provincial middle school and passed; and in 1954, I went to that school in Katsina-Ala. I was there for two years.
Was it like senior secondary school?
No; the middle school was a primary part of it. It was while I was there that the school was changed to provincial secondary school. General Danjuma was in the first set; I met him there. After two years, I passed the exam to Government College, Keffi and moved to Keffi in 1956.
Keffi was one of the few secondary schools in northern Nigeria at that time; how competitive was it going there?
There were also Barewa, Government College, Zaria and Queen Elizabeth School, Ilorin for girls.
How difficult was it to gain admission into those schools?
It was competitive. You had to do entrance examination, then education officers would come for interview in the schools. They made sure that they took people from various provinces. Keffi was mainly for the Middle Belt area, and Zaria was for the upper North.
You were the head boy in Keffi. I guess your leadership skills started manifesting from there?
Yes.
How easy was it to manage boys your age – your peers?
It was very interesting. I was very strict, even as a prefect. Whenever I was on duty, the students behaved well. They knew that Ogebe didn’t take nonsense, so they behaved themselves. We had a principal, Mr Patient, who used to be principal in Government Secondary School, Katsina. He was a fatherly figure – very fatherly. We got on very well. In final year (HSC), he made me the head boy and I was able to control the students very well. In fact, I was so good at it that they left virtually the running of the school and students affairs for me. They hardly interfered. I always gave them weekly reports on the progress of the school.
At what point did you decide that law would be your future? Was it something that was decided for you?
No. As a child, back home at Igumale in primary school, I used to be very inquisitive and asked lots of questions. And people would say, ‘leave me alone; are you a lawyer?’ That was when I first heard the word, lawyer. So, as I grew older, I said I wanted to be a lawyer.
I remember that I got a prize in Latin in December 1956 when Adam Brown was the Chief Justice of Northern Nigeria. When he came to give us prizes, he shook my hand and asked: “What do you want to do?” I said I want to be a lawyer and he shook me specially.
When you finished from Keffi (HSC), was it difficult to get admission into a law program?
Not at all. In fact, the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) was just starting and they were looking for students. I had admission to go and read Law in England, which was my initial ambition. But when I got to Kaduna, the scholarship secretary said I should go to ABU, not England. I felt very disappointed, but in the end, it was a blessing.
That was the ABU of 1962?
Yes.
How was it?
It was full of expatriates; and we were very few. And they treated us well. Can I say they spoilt us? We had everything. We were in the Institute of Administration. We had cooks. We had men who used to wash our cloths. It was fantastic.
So as a student you were on a government scholarship and were paid?
Yes. We were not many. In fact, in our class, we were 25.
You finished in 1967?
Yes. I went to law school in Lagos.
You were a government lawyer – state counsel in the old Benue-Plateau, Jos.
Yes.
A lot of young people from law school, especially in the South, would rather go for private practice and things like that. Why did you choose to go to the government?
Well, I felt the government had spent so much in my education. Quite frankly, I started getting government’s scholarship right from primary school. When I was in Standard Two, the headmaster of the school met my mother and said: “Do you mind if the local government (they used to call it L.A.) give scholarship to your son?” She said she I didn’t mind. So they gave me scholarship right from there.
Then I went to Katsina-Ala on partial scholarship. And when I went to Keffi, it was complete scholarship. The government was responsible for everything. The only thing my parents did was to pay my exam fees.
So, I felt the government had done so much for me and I should pay back. That’s why I decided to become a state counsel. And at that time, it was really honourable to be a government lawyer.
You were a state counsel and chief registrar in the same Benue-Plateau; how was the experience?
I started as a pupil state counsel. I began to grow in the system and became a state counsel. After only three and a half years, because of lack of manpower, I was appointed an acting director of public prosecution. After some time, the government decided to have reorganisation.
The chief registrars were all acting. They were from South-West. The then military governor, Joseph Gomwalk, wanted an indigenous person to take over, so they moved me from the Ministry of Justice to the High Court, as a chief registrar.
I read somewhere in your biography that the salary wasn’t too good, which surprised me because we used to think that small salaries of those days were much better than the big numbers of today.
It is true.
Were you kind of struggling as a young lawyer?
Oh yes. We were living from hand to mouth. It wasn’t much at that time.
Do you remember your salary?
It was £62 per month. And it wasn’t enough for everything. I had young people living with me and I had to take care of them. I remember that on one occasion they cooked soup and the boys forgot it on fire and went to school. By the time they came back, it was all burnt.
When I noticed what happened, I said we would drink garri until we were able to buy condiments and cook another soup. Surprisingly, one of my cousins, a lady, came and I couldn’t keep my promise to punish those boys.
I think one of the disappointments you had in Benue-Plateau was that you couldn’t be made a judge, maybe because you are not an indigene of that place?
In fact, what happened was that they were proposing me to be a judge when Benue was created out of Plateau. They continued with that process.
At that time, if you had been a lawyer for five years, you could start acting as a judge. By the time we moved to Benue, I had been a lawyer for eight years, so I was appointed as an acting judge. This was in July 1976.
Maybe politics did not really start in Plateau, but there was a lot in Benue judiciary. How was it back home in Benue?
When we moved to Benue, the Igala side joined us. So there was a lot of competition between the Igala people, Tiv and Idoma. The Igala seemed to be more politically conscious than the rest of us, so they were dominating the civil service.
Were they better educated?
Yes. They were dominating the civil service. They produced most of the secretaries to the government. The Idoma were the minority. We suffered a lot in the hands of those people.
When it was time, I became a substantive judge. At one point I became the most senior justice, next to the chief judge of Benue State. When he was retired, I was to be the chief judge, but because of the politics of Benue, they bypassed me and put my juniors ahead of me.
Did you feel as if your career was being truncated at that point?
I felt very sad that I was bypassed because nobody gave me the reason why they were doing that. I really felt sad, but as a child of God, I said my destiny was not in any human’s hands. I remember that the Ochi’Idoma at that time was very angry and wanted to petition the government and all that.
Who was this?
The paramount ruler. He was very close to me, so I told him not to bother because my destiny was in the hands of God, and if God wanted me in that position, nobody would stop it. So, I remained under my junior for about six years before I was appointed to the Court of Appeal.
Before we go to the next stage of your career, I want to take you back to some of the interesting cases you handled in Jos. There was Obeya and Abashe – the famous case of the secretary to the government of Benue-Plateau. Can you recall what the drama was all about? You hinted on it in your biography, but not so much.
What happened was that Andrew Obeya, who was the secretary to the government of Benue-Plateau, was in federal service and they brought him to head the Government of Benue-Plateau State. And he was chasing Abashe’s wife.
Was Abashe a civil servant?
I don’t think he was. I think he was a private person. He was chasing the woman and they got caught or something like that, and Abashe decided to prosecute him for adultery.
The State High Court referred the matter for an interpretation of the Idoma customary law to the Supreme Court – whether adultery was a criminal offence. We had to go to Lagos to argue that case.
Were you representing Obeya?
We were representing government’s side. Our position was that in Idoma custom, where Obeya came from, adultery was not a criminal offence. I remember preparing all the arguments and my solicitor-general, Morgan Obole decided to appear and lead me in that case.
I remember that I hardly slept that night. We reviewed the law and so on. It was so important that the Supreme Court even invited the former attorney-general of Nigeria, Dr Teslim Elias. I had a book I had to read and prepare my argument. He saw the book with me and said, “This is the book I have been looking for in my office and we couldn’t find it.” He took it up.
When Elias was asked to talk, he picked on the book and emphasised what I wanted him to emphasise. That was the basis on which the Supreme Court decided and threw out the case.
It was a very sensational case. I remember it from the New Nigerian. So Obeya got off the hook?
Yes.
I think that as a judge in Benue you also had a brush with Mr Godwin Dabo.
Yes.
He was a journalist who was publishing a newspaper called The Broom. There was some scandal. What was it about you and Dabo?
What happened was that Dabo slandered the commissioner for health. I have forgotten his name – an Igala. He slandered him, so he sued him in my court. And Dabo would not come to court even when he was served a notice of hearing. He had a lawyer but they would not show up.
So, one day the matter came up and he was not there as usual. I asked the clerk if he had been served and he said yes. So I gave judgement against him. They went and attached his property. In fact, they got him arrested to pay the money. Eventually, he paid it. And since that time, he was finding a way to fight me. So when I was being recommended to the Court of Appeal, he did everything he could to blackmail me, but he failed.
Dabo was well known for fighting people, even the governor of that time.
Yes.
So it didn’t really affect your career?
No.
Finally, you moved to the Court of Appeal but couldn’t become the chief judge of Benue State. Did you really want the position?
No. What happened was that I was recommended for the Court of Appeal. In the meantime, Kogi State was created and the chief judge, Alhassan Idoko, was from the state.
He was Igala?
Yes. So he was expected to move to Kogi State. The politicians approached me, saying that since he was going away, I should remain in Benue and be the chief judge. But I told them that I had already been recommended for the Court of Appeal, which was really my interest because I believed that being a chief judge was limited. You are just a local champion. If I went to the Court of Appeal I would be serving the whole nation.
I told them that if I declined to go to the Court of Appeal they would give the position to another person – another state. It would not come to Benue State. So, I would rather go to the Court of Appeal and leave the younger ones to take over.
From what happened later on, do you think you made the right decision to go to the Court of Appeal? That it wasn’t better to wait and be a chief judge?
Actually, my ambition was the Court of Appeal. In fact, if I had been made the chief judge, I would have served for a number of years and found my way to the Court of Appeal. There were some people who did that.
Remember that Justice Mahmud Mohammed was the chief judge of Gongola State, but after serving for few years, he came to the Court of Appeal. Any serious lawyer would prefer the Court of Appeal to remaining as chief judge.
It seems to me that judges are always moved from one location to another; is that movement part of the experience? What is the attraction in the Court of Appeal?
The main attraction is that you are in core judicial practice. The whole country is your constituency.
All the zonal cases go to you?
Yes. And you are able to interact with many more people. You get to know many more Nigerians. In fact, you get to know the whole country. That movement from one place to another is not easy, but we liked it. It exposes you to the whole country. By the time you get to the Supreme Court you would have known everything about Nigeria.
How many movements did you make at the Court of Appeal level?
I started in Benin during the time of Anini, a notorious armed robber, so my friends were all saying that they would not come to visit me. People were afraid of Benin. I was there from 1991 to 1995.
While there, my first daughter died in a motor accident, so the president of the Court of Appeal said he desired that I moved to a new environment. He moved me to Kaduna.
What happened was that Umaru Abdullahi, who was my classmate, was the presiding justice in Kaduna. He actually requested that I come and assist him there. So I moved to Kaduna.
I kept growing in the system. By 1999, I was posted to Port Harcourt as the presiding justice of that division.
I think the Court of Appeal is known as a place where a lot of political cases are decided. One of the cases that passed through your hands was that of Ladoja in Ibadan, where you reinstated him as governor after he was impeached. The second one was that of Peter Obi. What happened in these two cases?
Ladoja went to court to challenge his impeachment. I remember that Umaru Abdullahi, who was the president of the court, was going to Ibadan to hear the case, but for one reason or another, they were accusing him of taking bribe, which was false, so he decided that he would not do the case. He called on me to go and do the case. At that time, I was the presiding justice in Enugu, so I went there with my team of five justices.
We got there to hear the case. After the argument, there was confusion and pandemonium in the court. I asked what was happening and they said that one Adedibu, a politician, was there with his thugs.
I told the presiding justice in that division, Justice Fabiyi, who was not a member of my team, that if he didn’t do anything to protect us, I would not come back to Ibadan, but I would write the judgement and send to him to read.
By the time we came back, they made sure that Adedibu and all the thugs were not allowed to come near the court premises at all. Even some lawyers were not allowed. There was tight security.
So we gave the judgement; and the facts of the case were really simple. A number of members of the House of Assembly in Oyo State decided to impeach the governor but they didn’t have the number at all.
The speaker and his deputy were not among them. They chose somebody as their temporary speaker and met in a hotel room and said they had removed him. They didn’t have the requisite number. It requires two-third majority to impeach a governor and they didn’t have it at all.
We listened to the argument and decided that if we sent it back to the High Court, which said it had no jurisdiction, it would take another long time for the matter to be sorted out. Meanwhile, Ladoja had only seven months to the end of his tenure.
So I took the bull by the horns and said there’s a section of the law that allowed us to decide it. All the arguments were already before us, so we took a decision to restore Ladoja. It was unprecedented.
They appealed to the Supreme Court (which) supported our position.
What happened in Peter Obi’s case?
It was the same kind of thing. I don’t remember the facts as clearly as Ladoja’s case, but it was while we were doing Ladoja’s case that they also did the impeachment of Peter Obi.
When we went back to Enugu and the matter came before us, we used the precedent of Ladoja to say that they were not competent; they didn’t have the number at all. So we restored him as well.
What about the case of General Muhammadu Buhari? You were also at the Court of Appeal when he went to court more than once to demand that he won the elections.
Well, I was the presiding justice of that particular case – the presidential one involving Yar’adua, Atiku, himself (Buhari) and even Ojukwu. There were several of them who contested and they all came.
I was preparing to go to America for a wedding, so I went to take permission from Umaru Abdullahi. He told me to go and come back quickly and handle the Yar’adua case. I was shocked; so I said alright.
In my naivety I thought that since these were all northern Muslims they would be able to settle. I thought the emirs would be able to settle them by saying, ‘We are all brothers, so let’s not fight, let’s agree.’ That was my thinking. But they fought and fought. I was amazed. I didn’t know that politicians didn’t value relationship – people from the same ethnic group, the same part of the country.
The same Katsina?
Yes. I didn’t know that they would fight to the finish. Anyway, we listened to the case. ( Mike) Ahamba was his lawyer and they had no case at all. He called very few witnesses. There wasn’t sufficient evidence at all for him to win that case, the same thing with Atiku.
At one point, he claimed that he wasn’t allowed to contest or something, but there was evidence that he contested. There was confusion in the account, so we had to dismiss all their petitions.
And you gave it to Umaru Yar’adua.
Yes.
One of the interesting things he ( Umaru Yar’adua) said was that the election that brought him to power was somehow flawed. So it gave room for people to think that the court would be the one to settle the matter; what is your take on this?
Well, the court does not work in a vacuum. You have to produce evidence. And they did not produce the evidence, so we couldn’t just give it. It is not like a criminal case where you plead guilty. No. Anybody who said something must prove it; and they were not able to prove their case.
In fairness, a lot of things went wrong. But clearly, Umaru Yar’adua had the support of most Nigerians. He was a good man. In fact, I didn’t even want to do it. I told Umaru Abdullahi that Yar’adua went to( Government College) Keffi same with me.
So there was that connection?
Yes. I told him to leave me out, but he said no, explaining that Buhari was his classmate, yet he did his case. So why should I not do it? I said I would use my professional ethics.
Did you know Yar’adua on a personal level?
No.
Because he was junior to you?
Yes. He didn’t meet me in secondary school at all. It was after he became president that I got to meet with him.
Judges like you – from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court – ultimately decide who would become governor, president etc. Do you accept the growing criticism that judges are now becoming the kingmakers of electoral contests?
Yes. And I am really concerned about that. I think the electorate should be able to determine who becomes president, governor or any elected office. We must ensure that the law is amended to give the people a chance to decide for themselves.
Unfortunately, because politicians are greedy for power, everybody wants to go to court. And the courts are dancing to their tune. I feel that we should produce a system where the electorates decide. And as much as possible, the courts should not interfere.
Well, as a judge in the Court of Appeal and so on, my policy was that even in electoral matters that came before me, I would try to determine where the majority of Nigerians, in that jurisdiction, supported. I would find a way to give judgement in favour of the majority.
So you didn’t rely on technical issues?
I never relied on technical matters.
There is a growing perception that some judges are actually influenced by politicians to deliver judgements in their favour. Would you say there’s truth in this?
Yes. I have that feeling myself. For example, it was well known that ( Hope) Uzodinma did not win anything. He did not win that first term election in Imo. I don’t know how the Supreme Court manipulated the evidence, or whatever, to give it to him. And you know that the American people are very angry about that particular case, such that the judges who were in that panel have been barred from going to America.
They would not be allowed to go to America because it was a serious miscarriage of justice. They made the man who did not contest governor. That’s why they used to call him a Supreme Court governor.
From your experience as a judge for 40 years, is there any way to get out of this situation where judges become the electorate?
Honestly, it is a vexing question. My position is that we should be more careful in the appointment of judges. What is happening is that politicians are influencing the appointment of judges. They look for people who are pliable; and when they have such cases, they will support them.
There should be a system where politicians have no say in the appointment of judges. I mean it. There should be an independent body that recommends the appointment of judges outside politicians so that we are free from the influence of politicians.
Right now, many politicians are influencing the appointment of judges because of the interest they have for the future.
Is the National Judicial Council not the body that processes and nominates these judges?
Yes. But even in the National Judicial Council, recommendations are made through the various states and so on. So governors have a lot of influence over who gets appointed.
They make the final decision.
Yes. Even at the federal level, it is the same thing. Politicians decide who should be in the Supreme Court, chief justice and so on. But I am recommending that they should devise a system where they have no hand at all.
Tell us about your experience in the Supreme Court. You only served because the age limit was moved up to 70. You were 68 when you went to the Supreme Court and served for two years. Do you think the short brief was worth it?
Before Abacha’s time, the age limit was 65 years. He didn’t want the system to collapse. Abiola took a matter to the Supreme Court and they said they didn’t have enough hands to decide the case.
So, as a dictator he decided to arbitrarily increase the age limit to 70. Anyway, that was to my advantage, otherwise I would have retired at 65. I got there when I was 68.
I think that one of my greatest days in life was when I got appointed to the Supreme Court. It was my ambition to get there and I was able to get there. It doesn’t matter how long. Your impact is what matters. I had my own impact in the Court of Appeal and that was what helped me to get to the Supreme Court.
Some people were opposed to my going, but I remember that one member of the National Judicial Council came to my house in Enugu and wanted to find out why I had not reached the Supreme Court.
I said it was because of federal character and the politics of the North and all that. He said to me that there was now a listening chief justice and it would be over his dead body for me not to be appointed to the Supreme Court. So he did all the hard work and I got appointed at the age of 68.
It was the apex court and you were reaching the end of your career.
Yes. I enjoyed working with my colleagues there. A good number of them are dead now. I enjoyed my time in the Supreme Court, particularly because by the time I got to there, I was the oldest serving judge in Nigeria. I was older than all of them at the bench.
Including the chief justice?
Yes. It was only Uno and myself that started together and he was in the Supreme Court; but as soon as I got there, he retired. So I was older at the bench and they all knew that; so they respected me and I respected them. I said yes, by seniority in the Supreme Court, they were senior to me, but in terms of seniority as a judge, I would not bow to any of them
What have you been doing since you left?
Enjoying my pension.
Is the pension good?
They are reversing it; better than when we entered. Even Tinubu has (improved) it and made it better for us.
Since I retired, and even before I retired, I have always been a preacher. I used to go to schools to preach to young people to try to build them up. And I am involved in one organisation called Church and Testimony Nigeria. Our focus is rural evangelism – taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to rural areas. So, since I retired, I concentrated on that up till now.
Are you able to go to the rural areas?
I used to go, but now, we employ younger ones. We meet every two months. I meet with the workers at the field. We have workers in Benue, Kogi and part of Enugu State.
How do you get money to do this?
We are in partnership with some American Christians who are also supporting the work. And of course, we have churches and their collections and so on.
It is well known that your son, Emmanuel, is also quite involved. He is in America?
Yes.
Tell us about the fun side of life – apart from law, preaching – what do you to enjoy yourself?
Of course, I go out. I go on a walk virtually every day. In the morning when I wake up, after my quiet time, I read the Bible. I go on a walk to keep fit.
In this neighbourhood?
Yes. In fact, wherever I have been, it is a priority. My wife being a doctor says that to keep healthy, you have to exercise. And I do a lot of reading, biographies and the likes.
You also seem to have a lot of time to travel around the world.
Yes; my wife loves travelling.
So you tag along with her?
Yes. She was a member of the Leprosy Mission, an international body that treats leprosy. She was in the international body for eight years and they used to travel all over the world to have meetings, and she would tag me along. So I enjoyed it.
You also have family abroad to visit.
Yes; our two children are in America. So we visit them every summer and spend time with them. When it is winter, we run away.
When I interviewed your wife, she mentioned the two health challenges you had – health scares. How is it now?
I am okay now.
How do you feel at 85?
I will be 86 in March. I feel okay and have every cause to thank God. Many of my colleagues with whom we served in the Supreme Court have died, such as Dahiru Mustafa, Katsina Alu, Onu, Aderemi; many of them. Tanko Mohammed died recently. So I thank God that I am still around.