My lord, the Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria Olukayode Ariwoola GCON permit me to adopt and rely on the protocols you earlier established at this event.
With your leave having been sought and obtained, let me outrightly make one confession to this distinguished audience.
VDO.AI
Initially it was not my desire that a valedictory be held to mark my exit from the nation’s judiciary. I had wanted to leave quietly on attaining 70 years from which age our Constitution prescribes a judicial officer shall cease to be one.
Why, then, the subsequent reconsideration and the fact of today’s event? This is indeed a pertinent and legitimate question to ask.
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It was my view that valedictory sessions only provide honorees the platforms to tell their stories and, informed by experience in the course of service ,make suggestions as to how to improve the institutions they had served. I was, however, unable to appreciate the extent to which previous suggestions had been exploited to effect the desired reforms.
Members of my family and close friends prevailed upon me to reconsider my position. They insisted that it is defeatist to allow failure in utilizing suggestions proffered at previous occasions to deter subsequent contributions. The quest for institutional improvement, particularly in the judiciary, they insisted, must, rather, be intensified to avoid hastening the demise of our society. A society, they significantly reasoned, rots too easily when institutional defects are ignored.
VDO.AI
Initially it was not my desire that a valedictory be held to mark my exit from the nation’s judiciary. I had wanted to leave quietly on attaining 70 years from which age our Constitution prescribes a judicial officer shall cease to be one.
Why, then, the subsequent reconsideration and the fact of today’s event? This is indeed a pertinent and legitimate question to ask.
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It was my view that valedictory sessions only provide honorees the platforms to tell their stories and, informed by experience in the course of service ,make suggestions as to how to improve the institutions they had served. I was, however, unable to appreciate the extent to which previous suggestions had been exploited to effect the desired reforms.
Members of my family and close friends prevailed upon me to reconsider my position. They insisted that it is defeatist to allow failure in utilizing suggestions proffered at previous occasions to deter subsequent contributions. The quest for institutional improvement, particularly in the judiciary, they insisted, must, rather, be intensified to avoid hastening the demise of our society. A society, they significantly reasoned, rots too easily when institutional defects are ignored.
I capitulated and thus the unfolding event today.
I am also here to say good-bye particularly to the attendees of today’s event, the public and indeed the country at large for giving me the privilege and honour of serving the judiciary for 47 years. The valedictory, again, is a thanks giving exercise for the good health one enjoyed in the course of service. Glory be to the Almighty Allah the lord of the universe.
Because I would eventually write a book to tell my story, including the experience gathered while serving in the judiciary, it is incumbent to be very brief in my address this morning.
Appreciable efforts have been made by earlier speakers in telling you who I am. May it please you to hear it from the horse’s mouth!
I was born and bred in Limawa, a ward in Minna, now the capital of Niger State, then, in 1953, a relatively small and quiet provincial headquarters. I was named after my paternal like his deceased siblings, would also die if they went back home to Kumurya.
Hafsatu remarried subsequently and had a daughter, Gogo Saidatu, Kumurya’s uterine sister. Not quite long, she lost her second husband. Incessant pressure from Musa’s uncles back in Kumurya made her to relocate to Paiko and hence to Minna. Musa, then a young man, joined the labour force engaged in the construction of the rail line passing through the town to Baro, a nearby village, as well as southward to Lagos.
With the successful completion of the construction of the rail line, Musa Kumurya settled in Minna into grain trade. He married Hadiza, a young Hausa lady from Tawa in Niger Republic. They were blessed with three children. My father, Muhammad Najume, the second male child, was the youngest. Usman and Aishatu were his seniors.
My maternal grandparents were of the Fulani stock that accompanied the Dan Fodio Jihadists to Nupe land. Muhammadu Maigari was my maternal grandfather. Rukayya, Inna Lalemi,his wife, gave birth to two children: Abdullahi and Aishatu Baiwa, my mother. Dr.Mahmud Tabo Minna,of blessed memory, was their sibling from a different mother. Fatima, Halima and Abdullahi, are my much younger aunties and uncle from my grandfather’s fourth wife. My mother and these three are still alive.
Muhammadu Maigari was learned in the Shari’a and served as a judge of that court for many years before he retired. Mallam, what we called him, was a very stern and incorruptible judge. I was his first grandchild whom he adored, trained, cherished and jealously protected.
Inna Lalemi worked as the head cook, the uwar tuwo in the Local Authority Primary School I attended in Minna. She was a very hardworking, resourceful, patient, affectionate and extremely kind lady.
I shall return to these themes, Insha Allah, in my book.
I graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in June 1976 with an LLB (Hons) and two weeks thereafter was employed a Registrar on grade level 8 step Il in the Niger State High Court. I became the Chief Registrar of the Court in 1986. I was appointed a judge of the court the next year along with Honourable Justices Fati Lami Abubakar, Dalhatu Adamu and Sadeeq Abubakar Abuja. My lord Fati Lami Abubakar has remained a true sister in every sense of the word including supporting my marriage to Rabi, the junior sister she brought up. We lost their lordships Dalhatu Adamu and Sadeeq Abubakar Abuja, the former while serving at the Court of Appeal where, at one time, he rose to become the acting President of the court. My lord Sadeeq Abubakar Abuja died not quite long after I had been elevated, along with twenty four others, to the Court of Appeal in 1998. We were tagged the “Rushians” by our seniors in the court. Out of the lot, by Allah’s grace nine, including my humble self, made it to the Supreme Court. I was elevated to the Supreme Court in July 2012.
VDO.AI
Initially it was not my desire that a valedictory be held to mark my exit from the nation’s judiciary. I had wanted to leave quietly on attaining 70 years from which age our Constitution prescribes a judicial officer shall cease to be one.
Why, then, the subsequent reconsideration and the fact of today’s event? This is indeed a pertinent and legitimate question to ask.
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It was my view that valedictory sessions only provide honorees the platforms to tell their stories and, informed by experience in the course of service ,make suggestions as to how to improve the institutions they had served. I was, however, unable to appreciate the extent to which previous suggestions had been exploited to effect the desired reforms.
Members of my family and close friends prevailed upon me to reconsider my position. They insisted that it is defeatist to allow failure in utilizing suggestions proffered at previous occasions to deter subsequent contributions. The quest for institutional improvement, particularly in the judiciary, they insisted, must, rather, be intensified to avoid hastening the demise of our society. A society, they significantly reasoned, rots too easily when institutional defects are ignored.
I capitulated and thus the unfolding event today.
I am also here to say good-bye particularly to the attendees of today’s event, the public and indeed the country at large for giving me the privilege and honour of serving the judiciary for 47 years. The valedictory, again, is a thanks giving exercise for the good health one enjoyed in the course of service. Glory be to the Almighty Allah the lord of the universe.
Because I would eventually write a book to tell my story, including the experience gathered while serving in the judiciary, it is incumbent to be very brief in my address this morning.
Appreciable efforts have been made by earlier speakers in telling you who I am. May it please you to hear it from the horse’s mouth!
I was born and bred in Limawa, a ward in Minna, now the capital of Niger State, then, in 1953, a relatively small and quiet provincial headquarters. I was named after my paternal like his deceased siblings, would also die if they went back home to Kumurya.
Hafsatu remarried subsequently and had a daughter, Gogo Saidatu, Kumurya’s uterine sister. Not quite long, she lost her second husband. Incessant pressure from Musa’s uncles back in Kumurya made her to relocate to Paiko and hence to Minna. Musa, then a young man, joined the labour force engaged in the construction of the rail line passing through the town to Baro, a nearby village, as well as southward to Lagos.
With the successful completion of the construction of the rail line, Musa Kumurya settled in Minna into grain trade. He married Hadiza, a young Hausa lady from Tawa in Niger Republic. They were blessed with three children. My father, Muhammad