Miakpo Emiaso has courageously blazed a trail by publishing what is doubtlessly the very first full length work on the law, practice and procedure of modern customary courts in Nigeria.

The effort is courageous in that it has addressed certain grey areas in the law rather boldly. For instance, stare decisis, which is also known as judicial precedent has sometimes been said to be inapplicable in customary courts. But Emiaso, in discussing judicial precedents in this book humbly submits that in appropriate cases, stare decisis or judicial precedent is applicable in the Area Customary Court.

The learned author declares his objective in writing this book in the preface as being ‘to contribute to learning and to enhance the quality of legal practice in the Area Customary Court’ and that he expects the book to excite ‘healthy legal debates, robust controversies and legislative action’ among others.

The book has eighteen full length chapters and ten pages of appendices incorporating the new Delta State Rules of the Area Customary Court and useful court forms which all add up to make Emiaso’s Red Book on customary courts, as it is now being referred to apparently in reference to its attractive fire red finishing, a veritable handy tool not only for the practicing legal practitioner but also for the student of law who desires to excel in his examinations; and for staffers of the judiciary such as registrars and clerks of court.

Areas covered

The chapters include those on substantial justice and customary courts, customary courts and evidence, inheritance and administration of estates, form and commencement of actions, control of the court and the spread of modern customary courts.

On evidence, the learned author very strikingly declares, contrary to widely held traditional views, that in Delta and Edo states where the Area Customary Courts are in existence, ‘it has always been the intentions and desires of the legislatures and the governors to make all the provisions of the Evidence Act (or law) applicable in or before all courts established in these states except proceedings before arbitrators’. Chapter Four of The Red Book on Evidence is a compelling read for every practicing legal practitioner as the author’s argument is flawless and rests a long standing contentious issue once and for all.

Emiaso also takes on the controversial issue of a state High Court’s exclusive jurisdiction for matrimonial causes arising from the Marriage Act which he roundly debunks as being unfounded in law since the notorious Section 2 of the Matrimonial Causes Act does not so provide.

Tohim, the statutory marriage is a ‘mere’ union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others which comes to an end with the death of any of the parties but that the customary law marriage is a ‘voluntary union of two families represented by one potentially polygamous man and one woman to the substantial inclusion of all members of both families and which union inures beyond the life of the man’.

The author’s discussion on the jurisdiction of the Area Customary Court for land matters is definitive. It is that, given the Supreme Court’s decision in Adisa v Oyinwola, the jurisdiction, though unlimited in monetary terms, is nevertheless limited to non-urban lands.

Finally on jurisdiction, Emiaso deals with the Area Customary Court’s exclusive jurisdiction for chieftaincy causes in Delta State in Chapter Eleven where he masterfully mirrors this jurisdiction of the court through other comparative but relevant enactments. He points out that the constitution is silent on the subject of chieftaincy as it is neither in the exclusive nor in the concurrent legislative list which makes it a subject for the states to legislate upon.

This book by Mr. Emiaso could not have been written by any body but him. He was once a senior reporter with the Nigerian Observer and worked as Senior Sub-Editor with the New Nigerian Newspapers in Lagos before he moved on to legal practice after getting called to the Nigerian bar in 1989. He is a graduate of the prestigious Nigerian Institute of Journalism where, in his student days, he was the president of the student union government in 1980.

With his wide exposure to civil litigation spanning a period of nearly two decades and given that he has been sitting on the bench of the Area Customary Court in Delta State for nearly a decade, he perfectly suits the bill for writing a book of no less a quality and standard. Only Emiaso could discuss serious legal issues in the kind of relaxed prose as he has employed in this book as though he was writing a soft sell thriller in paperback.

For a practice book, The Law, Practice and Procedure: Area Customary Courts in Nigeria is highly affordable at the stated cover price of N4,500 for paperback and N6500 for the hard cover compared to other practice books of its kind. The laminated finishing of its cover and the fact that it contains the complete new Rules of the court for Delta State are value added features of the book.