Uwais: Salute to a great jurist at 80
Shortly before Hon. Justice Muhammadu LawalUwais retired from the Supreme Court Bench as the Chief Justice of Nigeria on 12th June 2006 at the mandatory retirement age of 70,the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory wrote :“ Hon. Justice Uwais ,C.J.N conducts himself with decorum when he is presiding in the Supreme Court. He exudes the lustre and aura of the mastery of proceeding and has complete control of the court. Though firm, he does not intimidate counsel however young at the Bar. He gives respect to every counsel and patently allows each one to present his or her argumentwithout inhibition, browbeating or intimidation. The National Judicial Council under his leadership has been effective in fighting corruption on the Bench. In conclusion, no other Chief Justice of Nigeria had achieved these feats.” That the longest serving retired Justice of the Supreme Court has reached the age of 80 is not only a thing of enjoy but an achievement which any practitioner of law will desire to achieve as reaching such a milestone in Nigeria of today is a great privilege. We all must join Justice Uwais in thanking the Almighty Allah for still preserving the life of this great jurist.
Born in Zaria on 12th June 1936 to the family of Mallam Abdullahi Uwaisu and Hajiya Hajara Uwaisu, the young Uwais began his primary education at the Native Authority Elementary School ,Kaduna and later at Tudun Wada Elementary School where he schooled with the likes of the late Alhaji Rilwan Lukman, a former Minister of Petroleum .He was in 1950 admitted to Zaria Middle School where he stayed for two years before he proceeded in 1952 to Barewa College , where he was a classmate and housemate of the late General Murtala Muhammed, a former Head of State. While still at Barewa College, Zaria, he used to secure vacation jobs with thoseestablishments such as Paterson Zochonis Ltd (PZ), the Veterinary Department of Zaria Native Authority and the United African Company Ltd (UAC). The salaries he earned from those establishments made him to be one of the “big boys” in his class in those days.
It was during his years at the college that he developed interest in reading law as he was inspired by the law practice activities of such lawyersas the late Mr Noel Grey , who then lived and practised in Kano, Mr Beckley ,who later became a judge of Lagos State High Court, the late Mr Sawyer ,who then lived and practised in Lokoja as well as Alhaji A.G.F. Razak (SAN) who was the first indigenous lawyer from the Northern Nigeria. When he completed his secondary education at the Barewa College, Zaria in 1957, he applied for the Northern Nigeria Government Scholarship to study law in U.K, he was invited in 1958 for the interview but the invitation got to him late and he missed the interview. As a result of this he resigned his appointment as Accounts Clerk with the Nigerian Tobacco Company to join the civil service as Publicity Assistant in the Ministry of Information, Kaduna in 1959. His experience in the said Ministry later assisted him greatly when he served as the Editor of Law Reports of Northern States of Nigeria between 1974 and 1978.
Justice Uwais later attended the Institute of Administration ,Ahmadu Bello University from where along with other of his colleagues including Hon. Justice Mustaph Akanbi ,a former President of the Court of Appeal , late Hon. Justice Shehu Usman Mohammed ,a former Justice of the Supreme Court, late Justice Umaru Maidamma, a former Justice of the Court of Appeal, late Hon. Justice Anthony Aina Ekundayo, a Judge of Kwara State High Court and late Hon. Justice Adamu Minjibir, a Judge of Kano State High Court left for England where they were called to the English Bar and thereafter enrolled at Nigerian Bar on 17th January 1964.He was later that same year posted to the Ministry of Justice of the Northern Nigeria as a Pupil State Counsel from where he rose through the rank to eventually become the Solicitor –General and Permanent Secretary of the North-Central in 1971.
His lordship was elevated to the Benchas Acting Judge of the High Courts of North Central ,Benue –Plateau and North Eastern States of Nigeria in 1973 and he became substantive Judge the following year. He later shortly acted as the Chief Judge of Kaduna State in 1976 and on 1st January 1977 was elevated to the Federal Court of Appeal along with others including Hon. Justice Mustaph Akanbi who eventually retired as the President of that court . Hon. Justice Uwais was at the Court of Appeal till August 1979 when he was elevated to the Supreme Court together with Hon. Justice Augustine Nnamani of blessed memory. Hon. Justice Muhammadu LawalUwais sat on the Supreme Court Bench for 27 years out of which he presided over the court as the Chief Justice of Nigeria for 11 years. As at today no justice of that court has spent close to three decades on that apex court bench in Nigeria. He was the first Chief Justice of Nigeria to retire at the age of 70. During his stay in the court he served under 5 Chief Justices of Nigeria who are: Hon. Justice Darnley Alexander,Hon. Justice Atanda Fatayi –Williams, Hon Justice George Sodeinde Sowemimo, Hon. Justice Ayo Gabriel Irikefe and Hon. Justice Mohammed Bello all now of blessed memories. Before retiring from the Supreme Court Bench, Justice Uwais worked with not less than 54 Justices of the court.
When beingsworn in as the 9th Chief Justice of Nigeria in 1995, the then late Head of State, General Sani Abacha had this to say:“Hon. Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais ,by his appointment as Chief Justice of Nigeria has assumed leadership of the judiciary after 16 years as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria…He is no less a legal giant. His training, experience and intellectual capacity have adequately prepared him for the exalted office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria. His rich professional back-ground explain the high expectation engendered by this appointment, especially at this critical time in our history. We expect he will bring his vast experience, maturity and foresight to bear on the judiciary”.Hon. Justice Uwais during his reign at the apex court actually demonstrated his vast knowledge and experience .In his lordship’s ownwords: “In my capacity as Chief Justice of Nigeria, I succeeded in bringing about a number of changes in the manner in which the Supreme Court conducts its affairs. In 1998,I was able to convince General Abdulsalam Abubakar , as Head of State ,to appoint more Justices of the Supreme Court. For the first time ever since the 1979 Constitution came into operation, the court got full complement of 16 Justices. This enabled me to change the sitting arrangement of the Justices of the Court in September to mark the beginning of the legal year and have new Senior Advocates of Nigeria sworn-in. I also introduced 3 terms for the court in the Legal Year, during which arrangements of panels change.”
The legacy left behind by this great jurist on the apex judicial bench still remain indelible through his several landmark decisions at the apex court between 1979-2006 as aptly put together in the book titled: Uwais Through Cases edited by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Among those cases where Justice Uwais re-emphasised the importance of the Supreme Court in the interpretation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are A-G., FederationVs. A-G, Abia State (2001) 11 NWLR (Pt.725) 689; A-G., Ondo State Vs. A-G., Federation (2002) 9 NWLR (Pt. 772) 222; A-G., Lagos State Vs. A-G., Federation (2004) 18 NWLR (Pt. 904) 1; INEC Vs. Musa (2002) 17 NWLR (Pt. 796) 412 and Fawehinmi Vs. I.G.P. (2002) 7 NWLR (Pt. 767) 606 just to mention few.During his tenure he fought gallantly against the disease called corruption in the judiciary while at the same time he demonstrated how a head of an institution should live above board as he made it an habit to remit to the Federal Treasury whatever remain unspent of the money allocated to the judiciary which was attested to by Chief OlusegunObasanjo during his presidency.
When his lordship was retiring from the bench ,Chief Obasanjosaid: “…I must however,admit that your retirement at a time when Your Lordship’s experience, hard work ,integrity and humility were very much in demand and when the reforms initiated by this Administration ,with particular reference to judiciary, are beginning to take root,is a great loss to me as a person, the administration and indeed, Nigeria as a whole…I am however happy to say that under your leadership, the judiciaryhas been able to restore public confidence in the judicial process through the enthronement of rule of law.Let me at this juncture express the nation’s gratitude to you for the meritorious service you rendered to your fatherland in the past 47 years.Nigeria will certainly miss your exemplary leadership and commitment to the rule of law .It is our hope that the legacy you are living behind will continue to be the guiding principles of Judiciary so that together we can move Nigeria forward.”
The exemplary leadership and meritorious servicerendered to the nation particularly the judiciary by Hon Justice Uwaisis a legacy that must be followed by every practitioner of law particularly those judicial officers on the bench. There are many judicial officers on the bench today who unlike Justice Uwais derive pleasure from intimidating counsel appearing before them. While some do not respect counsel, some display the attitude of “between them and us”meaning they on the Bench aresuperior to those at the Bar. There are judicial officers today who unnecessarily keep counsel waiting in court and when they eventually come out to preside cases do not believe they owe counsel an apology for sitting late or keep them waiting in court. When some lawyers are elevated to the Bench, they behave as if the Bar was not their gate way to the Bench.Among the attributes of a good judge is to accord respect to all the counsel appearing before him or her, to maintain good comportment on the Bench by not intimidating counsel and to patently allow each counsel to present his or her argument without inhibition and browbeating.
Hon. Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais for his selfless service and contribution to the nation and judiciary in particular was at various time awarded with several laureates. In 1980 he was conferred with the National Award of Commander of Order of Niger (C.O.N) while in 2000 he was again awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON). Between 1993 and 1994 he served as the Chairman of the Body of Benchers. In 1971 he became a Fellow of the United Nations Human Rights while in 1997 he became the HonoraryPresident of the World Jurists Association, Washington D.C, United States of America. In 2000, Justice Uwais became Honorary Life Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies, London, United Kingdom.
Abdulrasheed Ibrahim
Abdulrasheed Ibrahim is the former Publicity Secretary, NBA Lagos Branch.