“In the general course of human nature, a power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist, No. 79, cited in O’Donoghue v. US, Id., 531 at 516 NEARLY one year before he eventually prevailed in the legal contest over the destination of the governorship election which occurred in […]

“I am surprised that lawyers can be so blind as to suffer the principles of law to be discredited.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Fugitive Slave Law, 186 (1851) THERE is a joke that when he or she wants an excuse to impress a client in order to finagle substantial earnings, a Nigerian lawyer resorts to Latin […]

“Fools at the top would cause damage to any system not to talk of the fragile institutions of a fledgling democracy.”—Charles Archibong, A Stranger in Their Midst: A Memoir, 97 (2021) IN the last week of April, 2024, Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, co-convened and chaired a “National Summit on Justice” in Abuja, Nigeria’s […]

SENIOR Nigerian public officers are notoriously parsimonious with their recall once out of office. From among their club memoirs are the unusual. In a country ruled by whim, risk aversion is prudent when you are out of power. By feigning amnesia, yesterday’s men limit the likelihood that their successors may remember them for the wrong reasons. […]

Turning to the State Chief Judge, meanwhile, Yahaya Bello made life unbearable for Nasir Ajannah. He began by banishing the man from official state functions.

By Chidi Odinkalu ON December 26, 1991, Algerians voted in the first round of parliamentary elections. Over 40 parties fielded candidates. As returns started coming through, it became clear the country was in the throes of a political earthquake. The Islamic Salvation Front, FIS, took 189 of the 231 seats decided in the first round of […]

IN January 2014, a coalition of advocates, including Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN; Jiti Ogunye and Tokunbo Mumuni, both senior lawyers; and I wrote to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, inviting it to “to investigate the allegations of fraud detailed by the two committees set up by President Goodluck Jonathan in […]

It is, of course, important that judges are provided for so that they have no excuses to fall prey to bribery or material importuning.

PRECISELY 22.5 kilometres south-west of Sokoto, there used to exist a community called Satiru. In March 1906, it was extinguished from the face of the earth. Three years earlier, in July 1903, the British had massacred Muhammadu Attahiru, the 11th Sultan of Sokoto together with over 1,000 of his followers, decapitating him in Burmi (near Bajoga […]

It requires no original insight to understand that this kind of outcome is hardly compatible with the requirements of Federal Character; sadly, the senior judges who are supposed to protect this high constitutional value are the people willfully endangering it

Tactical options must always be on the table, but for durable solutions, the country and the region must dispense with the myths and govern their way out of the disease

By Chidi Odinkalu ON Sunday, 24 February 2024, the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, concluded an extraordinary summit in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, precipitated by the announcement on 28 January 2024 by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger Republic of their joint decision to denounce the […]