Thread by @Chxta

I want to add to this, just to point out how strategic the North has been in terms of positioning its children to become CJN…

There's a North-South dichotomy between the bar and the bench in #Nigeria, and it tends to give results as lawyers grow older. bit.ly/3n8j12S

https://twitter.com/OrjiUka/status/1311059474216554498

If you look at a list of CJNs from 1987, you’d find the following: Bello served 8 years, Uwais, his successor, served 11. Since Uwais was replaced by Belgore, no one has served more than two years, but the key to this strategy is in their age on appointment to @SupremeCourtNg,

Mohammed Bello got in at the age of 45 in 1975.
Muhammad Uwais got in at 45.
Alfa Belgore got in at 49.
Idris Kutigi got in at 53…

Most Southern justices would have hit 60 before getting on @SupremeCourtNg, so most never get a chance to be CJN.

Let me tell a story...

Back in 2002, the illustrious Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte reached the retirement age of 70.

In #Nigeria, we tend to appoint to the Supreme Court not by political leaning like #America, but by region.

Karibi-Whyte was from the South, his replacement had to be from the South.

The CJN at the time, Muhammad Uwais, nominated two judges, Niki Tobi, and Francis Tabai, and sent their names to President Obasanjo to consider.

This was where fate, and some strategy, stepped in.

The Attorney-General of Cross River called Donald Duke, the state governor at the time, and pointed out that their state had never produced a CJN, and that if they were able to get a young judge from Cross River into @SupremeCourtNg, with time he would likely become CJN.

Duke accepted the argument, and called President Obasanjo.

So, Niki Tobi was 62 at the time, Francis Tabai was 60, and Walter Onnoghen, the person that Duke recommended, was a 52-year old judge at the Court of Appeal.

Thing was Chief Justice Uwais was an institution on his own, so his nominations could not just be upturned.

But age was not on his side, and it was clear that another Justice from the South, Dennis Edozie, had three years left.

So a deal was struck. Obasanjo nominated Justice Tobi to @SupremeCourtNg, and he served 8 years, and never became CJN.

But crucially, because of Duke’s intervention, when Justice Edozie retired in 2005, Obasanjo nominated the then 55-year old Onnoghen to the Supreme Court.

The rest, is history.

By the time Mahmud Mohammed was retiring in 2016, Onnoghen was the most senior justice on @SupremeCourtNg, and became CJN despite a concerted attempt to thwart his elevation.

What happened to him after is beyond the scope of this thread.

The scope of this thread is to support what @OrjiUka has said in terms of strategy.

Had Duke not intervened in 2002, Francis Tabai would have replaced Dennis Edozie in 2005, and Onnoghen may never have become CJN.

To my limited legal knowledge, the administration of justice in #Nigeria is made up of two arms, the bar and the bench.

One thing that tends to happen is that when they finish law school, Southern lawyers tend to crowd the bar and go on to become SANs and rich.

The Northerners tend to go to the bench, and end up as very powerful magistrates.

So, who should the outcome surprise really?