INAUGURAL SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF COURT OF APPEAL, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY SRC-COURT

Waking up in the early hours of Monday, preoccupied by the thought of my inaugural speech, came to me with great astonishment. The announcement of my swearing-in as the President, Court of Appeal, ABU Judiciary, sounded to me like a fairy tale. This remarkable step in my journey at the Faculty of Law, ABU, Zaria would not have materialised without the approval of the Lord of their lordships, the Creator of the universe. To Him be the glory!

The copacetic effort of the Council of Principal Partners, Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, must not go unappreciated for an impressive display of expertise, resilience and wisdom from the period of rigorous screening to the period of a colourful inauguration. This milestone would not have been reached without the supervision of our dogged, patient and supportive lecturers. Thank you immensely.

I am using this medium to offer my sincere congratulations to the newly appointed Chief Justice of ABU SRC-Court, Justices of Supreme Court, Justices of Court of Appeal, Grand Kadi and Kadis of the Sharia Court of Appeal, Chief Judge and Judges of High Court, Chief Registrar, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecution and Commissioner for Oath. With people of high calibre in the system, it is my fervent hope that posterity will not frown upon reading about the newly inaugurated judiciary.

History has shown that ABU’s Court of Appeal has been, for many years, as busy as a beaver because of the heavy flow of appeals from High Court and Sharia Court of Appeal. My experience as a Justice of Court of Appeal revealed to me how torrent of appeals were filed before the court. It will only be a reiteration of the truth to say Court of Appeal is the pumping organ of ABU’s Judiciary. It is in view of the above, I deem it necessary to call on the newly appointed Justices of Court of Appeal to be fully ready for a strenuous judicial exercise.

At this juncture, I must express my sheer admiration and gratitude to the past Presidents of Court of Appeal, whom, without any scintilla of doubt, injected glory and honour to the Court. They were heroes of their generations and that is the primary reason history is fair to them, by making them judicial demigods, genuflected by posterity. Their Lordships, Hon. Sadiq Ma’aji, Hon. Uthman Jibril, Hon. Bello Abubakar Sholadoye, Hon. Ogah Sunday Ochiedo, Hon. Nurudeen Baba Bukar and other Honourable Justices of the Court. Thank you so much! In any situation or circumstance where the court is in need of their judicial wisdom, I strongly believe, my lords, out of their generosity and humility, will extend their hands of assistance.

My inaugural speech will be robbed of full flavour if I fail to appreciate my boss, S.M. Danlami Esq, Principal Partner, S.M. Danlami & Co., M.M. Sambo Esq., U.H. Haruna Esq., C.I. Okeke Esq., R.D. Usman Esq. and N.B. Salama Esq., for moulding me to bear both internal and external posture of a legal practitioner. Thank you so much. I must also express my great appreciation to my lecturer, his lordship, M.K. Abdullahi Esq. My senior colleagues, Hon. Sulaiman Jipan Esq., Ruqayya Bello Esq., Nuruddeen Baba Bukar Esq., Balogun Sofiyullahi Esq., O.G. Chukkol Esq., etc. To all my friends inside and outside the Faculty of Law, I am honestly thankful to you all.

My Lord, the Honourable Chief Justice of Ahmadu Bello University’s SRC Court, Mustapha Abubakar, raised significant legal and judicial issues in his enormously rich and eloquently presented speech. Some of them are: code of conduct for justices and judges, courteous attitude of the bench to the bar, utmost respect between the judges and implementation of the innovations brought by his Lordship. In my candid opinion, The Learned Chief Justice has properly and competently set up the machinery in arriving at the destination of justice. In view of this, I humbly adopt His Lordship’s words in toto and urge the Justices of Court of Appeal to observe and enforce same.

Finally, I urge all the students in the prestigious Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to engage in moot activities and mock trials. Bryant Cameron, while stressing the importance of the above said, “I use my moot court experience all the time, in the way I frame an argument, engage folks, and get them to see my perspective.”

Thank you so very much!

Abdul Mutallib Muktar

President, Court of Appeal

abdulmutallib.muktar@gmail.com