New CJN:The Aminu Kano/PRP Dimension  By Adagbo Onoja  Newsdiaryonline  Mon Sep 26,2011    12:01am

By the theology of predestination, Justice Dahiru Musdapher would still have become Chief Justice of Nigeria today. But without Aminu Kano, his route might have been different. In 1979 when the Rimi administration was to appoint a Chief Judge for the state, there was a ready made material in someone who is now a retired Justice of the Supreme Court. But he had to be bypassed because he happened to be a relation of Mallam Aminu Kano and Mallam did not want any of his relations to be given any high profile appointment in the PRP governments in Kano and Kaduna states. So, that judge was bypassed for no other blemish than being a nephew of Mallam Aminu Kano.

The government wasn’t quite sure if the state could absorb the gender implication if it appointed the next available person. It was then that the dragnet was extended to Kaduna where it fished out Justice Dahiru Musdapher who was already the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice under the late Group Captain Usman Jibrin.  Since then, there has been no looking back in growing up in the system, serving in Benin, Jos and Abuja judicial divisions, among others, before emptying into the Supreme Court. Today, he is CJN and, thus, head of the Judicial arm of the government of Nigeria. Occupants of the office are powerful in a dignified way, without the exhibitionism of the politicians.

For a man in this position and one who never severed his contact with the roots, there must be the home dimension to his appointment. It is not chauvinism. It is not unwarranted emotionalism. It is fellow feeling and it happens everywhere. Appointment as Chief Justice is bound to excite the folks back home. Such a communal attachment is not transactional or prebendal or mercantile in nature but symbolic. Children around his neighbourhood may want to grow up and be like him. Elders who saw him sprout would certainly be proud of him. Leaders in the state would naturally solidarise. Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, in particular because the CJN, as the highest federal operative from the state, enhances his gwagwagwa politics in Abuja in the interest of the state. It would, therefore, not be surprising if Lamido were to turn out in his Sunday best this morning at the Presidential Villa for the swearing-in ceremony of the CJN.

Musdapher, the son of a one time District Head in Babura LGA in Ringim Emirate of Jigawa State is one of those who embraced early education from this part of the country. He attended Birnin Kudu Boarding Primary School at Birnin Kudu and then Rumfa College, Kano. He then trained as a lawyer in UK, hence his Queens English.

Because Nigeria is replicating the British judicial ideology in which the judge is supposed to live a near hermit life so that s/he will never be beholden to strange forces, it is difficult to unveil the justices in terms of whether a particular one is of the left or right ideological leaning. Though, things have been changing drastically from the conservatism of the British doctrines of socializing in the Bench and judges attending parties or organizing a thanksgiving may no longer be unheard of, it can still be difficult knowing their thinking unless you read their judgments in the law reports.  For the new CJN, however, there is an easy point of reference.  

He was the Justice in whose court the military’s tactic of amending the Constitution to oust the jurisdiction of the courts on any area on which they did not want to be challenged met its Waterloo. This caused quite a stir for a hyperactive military which had become used to having its way through the strategy of ouster clauses.

Interestingly, this happened in the case of Gani Fawehinmi v. General Abacha, during the most repressive days of the regime of Gen Abacha whom Musdapher was perceived to be close because they all attended Rumfa College, Kano. Abacha might have been infuriated to no end but Musdapher had his way at a time it was dangerous to say what the court said which was that, “While the Decrees of the Federal Military Government may over-ride other municipal laws, they cannot oust the jurisdiction of the court whenever properly called upon to do so in relation to matters pertaining to human rights under the African Charter. They are protected by the International law and the Federal Military Government is not legally permitted to legislate out of its obligations”. Based on this reasoning, the court held that the arrest and detention of the Appellant (Gani Fawehinmi) on the facts adduced clearly breached the provisions of the Charter and his rights could be enforced under the provisions of the Charter

It could also be recalled that Justice Musdapher's lead judgment in a case brought by Balarabe Musa led to the liberalization of the registration of political parties. The judgment was to the effect that for political associations to become political parties, all they needed do is comply with sections 222-229 of the Constitution. That is how we came to have that mass registration of political parties from 2003. In a country of solid Lilliputians as far as performance in public office is concerned, these are nice references to his credit though he would need more of that to be the CJN at a very difficult time like this. May his road be rough, as they say!

To the extent that s/he is involved in authoritative allocation of values such as these cases, any CJN is a politician. But CJNs are politicians of a different type, pulling the strings from behind to protect the Nigerian State from the recklessness of a very unmanageable power elite like Nigeria’s. His roasting of Abacha regime’s ouster clause suggests that he can be trusted to protect the system even as he joins that uppermost layer of power in the club of the first five citizens in whose palms lie the destiny of Nigerians as far as today is concerned.

 Mr. Onoja wrote in from Dutse, Jigawa State

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