PEOPLES GAZETTE
“Nothing is to be done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper interference with the course of justice.” Lord Hewart, 9 Nov, 1923 in R v. Sussex Justices, [1924] 1 KB 256
Something extraordinary happened in Ikere-Ekiti in Ekiti State, southwest Nigeria, on January 19, 2023. On that day, the governor of the state, Abiodun Oyebanji, received and commissioned a new courthouse built by a senior lawyer, Chief Oluwole Oladapo Olanipekun. Luminaries from various walks such as politics, faith, business, and the professions graced the event. ThisDay newspaper led in describing the project as an act of “selfless philanthropy”. Governor Oyebanji himself invited the state’s “indigenes all over the world to emulate this act of generous giving back.”
Chief Olanipekun, who built the courthouse, is a proud son of Ikere, where the new courthouse is located. His credentials in the universe of Nigerian philanthropy are not in dispute. He is a benefactor of leading universities in the country, including the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos, as well as the Ajayi Crowther University. He gave generously to alleviate suffering during the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For decades, Chief Olanipekun has run a scholarship scheme to support the tuition and stipends of indigent students in various levels of education in Nigeria up to graduate studies as well as vocational studies in the Nigerian Law School. With some justification, philanthropy has been described as his way of life.
Chief Olanipekun is arguably the most successful Nigerian lawyer of his generation. He runs one of the biggest law firms in the country and is the lawyer of choice to presidents, politicians, and profitable companies. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1991 before being elected President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), eleven years later. He has served as Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Governing Council of several universities around the country. He also now leads the Body of Benchers, the statutory body responsible for admitting new lawyers into the legal profession. He is himself a father of two SANs.
The construction of this courthouse was not done in secret. As Chief Olanipekun made plain at the commissioning ceremony, the project “was initiated with the consent and permission of the Honourable Chief Judge of Ekiti State, who also approved and modified the drawings appropriately.”
This is where the problems begin: what exactly was the Chief Judge thinking when he gave consent for a lawyer in active private practice to build and “donate” a courthouse to the judiciary? Despite everything that can be said in favour of well-appointed courthouses, the idea of any person building and “donating” one to the judiciary anywhere is so staggering in its implications that it must be rejected out of hand as a model for addressing the manifest challenges of Nigeria’s judicial system. Of the many reasons that can be adduced for this, five stand out.
Let us begin with the most basic. Courthouses go to the very essence of statehood. The state exists for the well-being of all who live within it. To protect them, it enjoys certain basic monopolies. One is a presumptive monopoly on the legitimate use of violence; the other is a monopoly of legitimate adjudication.
