Tanko Muhammad stepped out on Monday as the 17th head of Nigeria’s judiciary after serving as Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) for about two and a half years. He was immediately succeeded by Olukayode Ariwoola, a native of Oyo State.
Muhammad, who will officially retire when he turns 70 in December 2023, abruptly left the post on Monday 18 months early, citing health reasons.
As per rule, Mr. Muhammad’s resignation paved the way for Mr. Ariwoola, the next highest ranking Supreme Court Justice, to be sworn in by President Muhammadu Buhari as interim CJN.
Mr. Ariwoola is expected to remain as the interim CJN until the process of his appointment in a substantive capacity is completed.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, being the head of several key judicial institutions and having the power to make key appointments to the bodies, has commanding influence in the Nigerian judiciary.
Thus, the personality of the CJN generally determines the direction facing the Nigerian judiciary during their time in office.
There have been controversies over his age with his Wikipedia page stating his year of birth as 1958 compared to what is listed in his official records.
Below are six important things, including your date of birth, that you should know about the new CJN.
1. 17th Chief Justice since Nigerian independence
Since the northern and southern protectorates were merged into the Nigerian entity, 22 judges, including the newly appointed acting CJN, Mr. Ariwoola, have presided over the affairs of the Nigerian judiciary.
Five of the 22 Chief Justices presided over the Nigerian judiciary under colonial rule until the first indigenous Chief Justice, then known as Chief Justice of the Federation, Adetokunbo Ademola, was appointed in 1958.
In 1963, three years after Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960, Nigeria became a republic and the Supreme Court of Nigeria Was proclaimed.
Appeals to the British Federal Committee of the Privy Council ceased, and the Supreme Court became the highest court in Nigeria.
Since the late Mr. Ademola’s appointment as Chief Justice in 1958 until Sunday, a total of 16 other Chief Justices have presided over the Nigerian Supreme Court and, by extension, the Nigerian judiciary.
Ariwoola became the 17th chief justice of the Supreme Court on Monday.
Referring to Ariwola as the 17th Chief Justice of the Indigenous Supreme Court of Nigeria would imply a long-time Caribbean resident of Nigeria, Darnley Alexander, who was appointed in 1975 as a Nigerian.
Mr. Alexander, then serving as Chief Justice of the South East State (now Cross River State), was appointed by the military regime of Murtala Muhammed to replace Teslim Elias, who was controversially removed from office . But if the late Alexander is excluded from the list of former Nigerian Chief Justices, Ariwoola will be 16th on the roll call.
The new chief justice, a Muslim from Iseyin in Oyo state, is the seventh person from the south of the country to hold the post since independence, while the other nine were from northern Nigeria.
2. Serve two years in office
Mr. Ariwoola, his resume obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, was born on August 22, 1954. This means he will be 68 years old on August 22.
If ultimately confirmed as the next substantive CJN, Ariwoola will serve in the role for approximately two years and two months, ending on August 22, 2024, the day he is expected to reach the mandatory retirement age of 70.
3. Legal education and training
According to his profile published on the Supreme Court website, Mr. Ariwoola began his primary education at the Local Authority Demonstration School, Oluwole in Iseyin in 1959. He graduated from the school in 1966.
He attended Muslim Modern School in the same city from 1967 to 1969 and then proceeded to Ansar-Ud-Deen Saki High School, Oyo State, in 1970. He completed his high school at Ansar-Ud-Deen High School, Saki , in 1974.
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He was admitted to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife) to study Law in 1977.
He graduated from college with an LLB in 1980.
He was called to the bar of Nigeria and registered as a barrister and advocate for the Supreme Court of Nigeria in July 1981.
4. Teacher turned judge
Before his training as a lawyer, Mr. Ariwoola taught at Ansar-ud Deen Society Primary School, Atori, Iseyin in 1974.
After graduating as a lawyer and practicing in private law firms, Mr. Ariwoola took a part-time teaching job at the Civil Service Training School Clerk (now Simeon Adebo), Ibadan, Oyo State, in 1988 .
He also taught part-time in Extra Moral Studies (Advanced Level) at the University of Ibadan’s College of Education, between 1984 and 1988.
Similarly, he taught part-time at the Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration, The Polytechnic Ibadan, between 1989 and 1992.
5. 40 years of legal career, 30 years on the bench
In all, Mr. Ariwoola has devoted some 40 years to his legal career, which began as a state attorney during his national youth service at the Ondo State Ministry of Justice, Akure, between 1981 and 1982.
He later served as a legal officer in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice between 1982 and 1988.
From October 1988 to August 1988, the new Chief Justice worked at a private law firm, Chief Ladosu Ladipo, SAN & Co. Legal Practitioners, as a court attorney.
He later served as Senior Partner of Olu Ariwoola & Co Mako Allah Chambers in Iseyin from 1989 to 1992.
Mr. Ariwoola continued his legal profession in court when he was appointed as a judge of the Oyo State High Court in 1992.
After three years on the high court, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 1995.
He sat on the Court of Appeals bench until he was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2011. He is currently the longest-serving Supreme Court Justice, having spent a total of 11 years on the court bench.
This marks the 30th year of his judicial career, which began with his appointment as a High Court judge in 1992.
6. Important decisions
Ariwoola was part of the seven-man Supreme Court panel led by now-retired Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, which provided judicial backing for the virtual court hearing on July 14, 2020.
He was also on the seven-judge bench headed by his predecessor, Tanko Muhammad, who affirmed President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the 2019 general election.
The panel, in its decision issued on October 30, 2019, dismissed the lawsuit of then and now Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, challenging Mr. Buhari’s victory in the February 23 presidential election. of 2019.
He was also part of the seven-man panel led by Muhammad that delivered the controversial Supreme Court majority ruling that sacked Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP as Governor of Imo State and replaced him with Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC). on January 14, 2020.
The same panel that Mr. Ariwoola was a part of issued the Supreme Court ruling on January 20, 2020, affirming the victories of Governors Abdullahi Gantuve of Kano State and Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in the gubernatorial elections of 2019.