In
Praise of Dr. Mudiaga Odje,
SAN, OFR
By Amos Agbe Utuama, SAN
Attorney-General & Commissioner For
Justice, Delta State,
Nigeria
Being Text of a Speech
Delivered at A Special Court Session in Honour of the Late Dr. Mudiaga Odje, SAN, OFR at the Nigerian Bar
Association Law Centre,
Warri, on Friday, the 27th Day of January 2006
PROTOCOL:
My Lords,
The Chief judge of Delta
State,
the Hon. justice R. P. I. Bozimo (Mrs.); The
President of the Customary Court of Appeal, the Hon. justice Stella Ogene (Mrs.); Serving and retired
judges of
the State High Court and of the Customary Court of Appeal; Members
of the Body of Benchers; The Hon Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister for justice: Learned Senior
Advocates of
Nigeria; The President of the NBA, Chairmen of the
various
branches and members in and outside the State The Magistry; Gentlemen of the Press; Ladies
and Gentlemen.
Introduction:
We are honoured
to
be invited by the Hon. the Chief Judge of Delta State, Hon. Justice Roseline P. I. Bozimo
to deliver
a speech at today's Special Court Session in honour
of the late Dr. Mudiaga Odje
SAN, OFR. The man we have all gathered to honour
was
larger than life, indeed a legend. One therefore feels inadequate to
find words
strong enough to express one's grief on the death of this great all
rounder of
rare distinction. But for the duty imposed on me by the office of
Attorney
General, which I hold, I would just have asked to be led by an older
Senior
Advocate of Nigeria. Be that as it may, permit me to seek leave to
deliver this
speech entitled The Book of Life of the Legendary Dr. Mudiaga
Odje SAN, OFR.
The
Book of
Life of the Legendary Dr. Mudiaga Odje.
SAN. OFR,
Fellow, International
Academy of Trial
Lawyers,
Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
Member. Hon. Society of the Inner Temple,
former President Nigerian Bar Association. Nationalist.
Philanthropist, loving husband and father In
our
country, I believe the year 2005 could, from the viewpoint of human
calamity,
be called the Year of the Flight of the Great Ones.
The Law family was not
spared.
The first quarter of the year saw Chief F.R.A. Williams SAN, CFR bowing
out gracefully
from this terrestrial world for the greater beyond. In the second
quarter,
Chief Phillip Umeadi SAN, followed. In the
last
quarter, we received the breaking news that our own Dr. Mudiaga
Odje SAN, OFR, on 9th December 2005 also
took his
glorious exit from the terrestrial to the extraterrestrial, from the
temporary
to the eternal, from the finite to the infinite.
As humans and for the
love we
shared together with him, his demise has painful afflictions on us.
Nonetheless, we ought to be saying "Glory be to God," given all his
great achievements and values as an outstanding family man, legal
scholar and
practitioner and a patriot. Dr. Odje, like
the
Pharaohs of Egypt, impressed his years of four scores and two. With
bold and indellible pyramids in his
passage through the earth. That
however is as far as the semblance goes. Whilst the Pharoahs
had their pyramids and edifices built with the forced labour
of slaves who toiled day and night in their sweat and blood, Dr. Mudiaga Odje's
edifices, on the
other hand, were rewards for his legitimate self-endeavours,
sacrifices, diligence, commitment, brilliance, integrity, erudition and
perfectionism. Yet, he was very humane and a person of good humour
who was easily acknowledged as a legal icon and a role model par
excellence.
As A Legal Icon:
3.
Dr. Odje's
career in the legal profession is an extraordinary one. Indeed, it is a
legal
odyssey. The journey started from his humble beginning as a classroom
teacher
at the Native Authority Schools in Uzere
and Ughelli between 1946 and 1947. By dint
of hard work and
brilliance, he rose to the position of headmaster and was posted to Salvation Army School,
Sapele where he remained from 1950 to 1952.
Not done
with, Dr, Odje became a tutor at Urhobo College,
Effurun between 1953 and 1954. Thereafter,
he
proceeded to the University
of London to
pursue the
Golden Fleece, the Bachelor of Laws degree that he obtained in 1958. He
took
time off to return to Nigeria
to attend the Nigeria Law School
and after being called to the Bar, returned to University of London
and obtained his Masters of Law in 1960.
4.
As a scholar, Dr. Odje
was not satisfied with obtaining the Masters degree,
he enrolled for the third degree programme
in which
he researched into the customary law of succession of Mid-Western
region. His
work was adjudged by the University
of London as a
scholarly
contribution and accordingly confered on
him the Ph.D degree, the crown of
scholarship.
5.
With this scholarly accomplishment, Dr. Odje was
eminently qualified to pursue
a career in academics. However, his greater love for advocacy made him
to
channel his outstanding intellectual energy into private legal
practice. He
easily distinguished and proved himself an oracle. Dr. Odje
mesmerized opposing counsel and even judges with his brilliant
submissions on
the issue at hand, remarkable power to recall and cite offhand relevant
authorities to demolish opposing arguments. He was an advocate of rare
distinction.
6.
Dr. Odje's
doctrinal scholarship was deep and diverse. It was not enough for a judge to have
awarded him judgment in any
case. He would still complain if the judgment were not based on the
right
reasons. In this regard, Dr. Odje made no
exception
to the Court. Dr. Odje would appeal to his
power of
doctrinal research and writing by way of an article addressing the
knotty issue
with a view of identifying the basic legal principle and providing
exposition
of the relevant legal rules. In this Regard, his doctrinal scholarship
was of great
value in serving the practical needs of the legal profession such as
judges,
lawyers and also Students who will need to learn the relevant "black
letter law" in most of the courses they take.
Such was Dr. Odje's
reaction to the Supreme Court judgment in Oke
vs Oke {19747}NSCC
Vol 9 in his contribution entitled "Making
a
Will, Testamentary Capacity and Reform to the book, Law of Wills
in Nigeria
eds Prof. A. A. Utuama
and Mr. G.
M. Ibru. 200 I where Dr. Odje
reproduced the ratio decidendi as
reflected in the
reported judgment of Hon. Justice Obaseki
(as he then
was) as follows:�
'�The customary law I
have
accepted makes it unlawful to deprive the eldest son of the house where
his
father lived and died and as such, tbe
devise of that
house to any other person or child and in this case to the 1st
Defendant
Thompson Oke by will cannot stand. The
provision in
the Will of the deceased dated 11th April, 1957 devising the house No.
53
Warri/Sapele Road, Warri to Thompson Oke, the 1st Defendant, is contrary to Urhobo
and Itsekiri customary laws and as such
invalid and of no
effect."
Against this background,
Dr. Odje thought that the Supreme Court
went too far when he
said of the Supreme Court that:� "From the portion of judgment of the
learned trial judge reproduced above, the issue of the devise of unpartitioned family land was, strictly
speaking, not
necessary for the decision of both the trial and the appellate courts.
With
profound respect, it was absolutely unnecessary for the Supreme Court
to rely
on the cases of Taylor
vs. Williams & anor, Page 5 of 14 Ogumefun vs. Ogumefun
and Davies
vs. Davies which were decided with
reference to the
rule bearing on the indispensability of unpartitioned
family Property by will. In other words, the gloss of family property
put on
the facts of the case by the Supreme Court was, with respect obiter
dictum.
7.
Dr. Odje was both a national and
international legal
icon. Through his dint of
hard work
and dedication to practice, he was easily one of the best Senior
Advocates this
nation ever produced in my reckoning. From the reported cases, it is
easily
seen that where a party to a case had engaged Chief FRA Williams, SAN,
CFR, Dr. Odje
was one of the obvious
choices for the other party for the legal duel. Dr. Odje
was at home with any subject or discipline of law in his practice,
ranging from
constitutional law to law of succession. Instructive in this regard are
the
following cases of Sam Obi v Mbakwe [1984]
I NMLR 132
or [1984] NSCC Vol 15 at 127, NPA v Panalpina [1973] NSCC Vol
5 at
77, Idehen v Idehen
[1991]
6 NWLR Part 198 382; Abiegbe vs.Ugbodome
& Ors [1973] NSCC Vol 8;
8.
In Sam Obi vs. Mbakwe,
the issue was whether an incumbent Governor is immune from election
petition
proceedings by virtue of section 267 of the 1979 Constitution. Acting
for the
Appellant in the case, Dr. Odje submitted
that an
election petition was not a 'civil proceeding' and a Governor whose
election
into office was being questioned was not covered by the immunity
accorded to a
governor under the Constitution while Chief Williams argued otherwise.
The
Supreme Court found for the appellant and Dr. Odje
had the day. In Idehen vs. Idehen,
the issue was whether the phrase "subject to any customary law relating
thereto" in section 3(1) of the Wills Law of Bendel
State is a qualification of the testator's testamentary capacity or of
the
subject matter of the devise or bequest under the Will.
Dr. Odje
submitted that the phrase qualified the testamentary capacity whilst
Chief
Williams submitted that the phrase was limited to the subject matter of
the
devise or bequest. The Court held that the qualification was limited to
the
subject matter of the devise or bequest and Chief Williams also had his
day. In
Abiegbe vs. Ogbodome,
the
issue was whether it was justifiable to dismiss an action for want of
diligent
prosecution when there was an application for extension of time to take
steps
that would save it. Dr. Odje argued that
it was not
judicious to dismiss the Plaintiff's case in this circumstance. At the
Supreme
Court, Chief Williams did not contest the justness of Dr. Odje's
submissions and they both had the day.
9
It was also not uncommon to find both Chief Williams and Dr. Odje on the same side. This was the situation in
Tidex (Nig) Ltd vs. Maskew
[1998]
3 NWLR Part 542 and Opia vs. Ibru
[1992] 3 NWLR Part 321 in which they represented the respective
appellants in
the cases. It would therefore appear that they both had mutual respect
for each
other. Little wonder that they departed in the same year.
10.
Dr. Mudiaga
Odje was a man of great diversity in
strength and
excellence in his chosen career. Dr. Odje
was a super
active bar man whose integrity and brilliance earned him the respect of
his
peers throughout the length and breadth of the country for he was not
only the
Chairman of the NBA Warri Branch but later led the entire NBA as
President from
1974 to 1976. Expectedly, in 1978, Dr. Odje
was
conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in recognition of
his
contribution to the development of law. From the records available to
us at the
Supreme Court, he was in the second batch of legal practitioners
appointed to
the prestigious rank of SANs and occupied
the 12th position
on the list. This is no mean achievement. He was the third Ph.D
holder ever elevated to the rank and interestingly, the first in the
then Bendel
State.
11.
Dr. Odje's
contributions, as a member of the Body of Benchers,
the highest decision-making organ regulating the legal profession in Nigeria,
were
enormous; thus becoming a life bencher in 1989; Chairman of the Body in
1996
and had the duty to call the new wigs that year.
As A
Role Model:
12.
Dr, Odje
was a role
model as a person and as a family man.
Whatever mode of dressing he wore, he appeared elegant. Dr. Odje
took Chief Mrs. Paulina o. Odje JP for his
wife with
whom he shared the rest of his life. They were very close and loving.
In public
functions, they were often together and complemented one another in
every way.
Demonstrably, they were named the Best Couple of the Year by the Delta
State
Government in 1997. Inspite of his busy
legal
schedules, he found time to spend with Mama and with whom he went
abroad for hisUsual annual
vacations.
13.
Dr. Odje is
survived
by seven male children.
Biologically
speaking, he had reproduced himself directly in seven different
varieties. The
first son, Professor Omokere M. Odje,
has a Ph.D like the father. Four of Dr. Odje's children, Okiemute,
Eretare, Emuobo
and Akpo Odje,
took after their
father as qualified legal practitioners; two of these four have in
addition a B.Sc degree. The third son, Nyerhovwo
is a Chartered Accountant and the last born, Ofuoma,
obtained a I st
class
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, USA.
As can be seen from the above,
Dr. Odje gave attention to the education
and training
of his children, which prepared them for a successful life.
Dr. Odje
used to say with pride to me that while others invested their time and
resources in building property estates, he expended his resources on
developing
his seven human estates. That is Dr. Odje
in his
elements. He also believed that a life that is fulfilled goes beyond
his
immediate family to impact upon others. Driven by this philosophy, he
was a
philanthropist and extended his hand beyond his immediate family to the
larger
family and even non-members.
14.
He
had great regard for the family institution and its values such that he
raised
a family nurtured in love and care. He believed that the duty of
maintenance of
the family should continue even after death. He therefore frowned at
the
provisions of the Wills Law that enabled parents to disinherit their
children.
He was of the firm view that there is no reason why a fixed portion of
a
person's estate should not be left to the members of the family,
especially the
immediate or biological family, towards whom the person had the duty of
maintenance while he or she was alive and kicking. Dr. Odje's
reasons were that:
�the increasing mobility
of the
population, sometimes resulting in the virtual break-up of the family
as known
to the African; the rising standard of education and general
enlightenment of
the people, together with the effects that these have on the process of
the 'individualisation' of property, are
factors likely to
encourage rather than discourage the tendency on the part of a testator
to
dispose of their estates to the detriment of their families. Secondly,
the
injustice and hardship that may be caused to disabled and yet
disinherited
dependants may well be imagined, when it is realized that there is at
present
an almost complete lack of social and welfare service catering for such
luckless and less privileged members of the society." Thus Dr. Odje was a very consistent person and this he
exhibited
both in his writings and family life.
Personal Interactions:
15.
My first interraction
with
Dr. Odje's family was about 34 years ago
when Okiemute Odje
and I were classmates
at the University
of Lagos from
1974 to
1977. Dr. Odje was then the President of
the Nigerian
Bar Association. Most of the times he was in Lagos for either NBA meetings or
attending to
matters in the Supreme Court, he would find time to visit Okiemute
in the University. On one such occasion, I was with Okiemute
who introduced me to him. From then on, anytime Okiemute
had notice that the father was visiting, I would always try and be
around for a
joint reception in the course of which Dr. Odje
would
give us encouragement and advice. This was the beginning of what turned
out to
be my invaluable relationship with the Odje
family.
16.
In
1989 when my first book, Nigerian Law of Real Property, was to be
launched, I
came to Warri to invite Dr. Odje to the
event and
pleaded with him to grace the occasion because I considered that his
presence
would give me robust home support I badly needed. He put everything
aside and
to my amazement, appeared at the venue, the Nigerian Institute of
International
Affairs, where he commended my effort and bought 10 copies of the book.
Each
time we met thereafter, he would refer to the book as a sweet handbook
in the
Law of Property.
17.
In the 1990s, our
relationship became
even closer. Whenever I had important cases in Delta State,
I requested him to lead me, which he graciously did. One of such cases
was
Union Commercial Company Ltd vs. Pan Ocean
in the High Court, Oghara
and Asaba
before Hon. Justice M. Umukoro.
18.
I
gained a lot from his advocacy skills as he taught me several
unforgettable
lessons, one of which has particularly guided me in practice, that is -
cases
are won or lost in chambers and not in court. A corollary to this was
his
lessons in brief writing that briefs are not written in vacuum, the
authorities
being the matrix of a good brief. Dr. Odje
was one of
the best brief writers in terms of clarity and brevity. Thus, he was
appointed
visiting guest lecturer by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal
Studies for
their annual training programmes for
judges and legal
practitioners. In recognition of his brilliant lectures and skills in
brief
writing, he was subsequently appointed a Fellow of the Institute.
19.
At the social level, I was
always
welcome anytime anyway by the Odjes not as
a visitor
but as a child of the family, so also my wife and children. Whenever I
indicated interest in eating, before my arrival, Papa would always wait
for me
so I could eat with him. If he had taken his meal, he would still find
time to
sit at table with me. In health or sickness, his warmness towards me
was
unchanged. It is on record that in his state of ill-health, it was only
once
that Papa did not come down to receive me and I had to go to the
bedroom to see
him. Permit me to recall that on 18th November, 2005 when I last saw
Papa
alive, he managed to come down to receive me and we took photographs
together.
Thus, the death of Dr. Mudiaga Odje
is a personal loss to me and my immediate family.
As A National Figure:
20.
Dr. Odje, a man
of humble
beginning and background, like a mustard seed, rose
skywards through his exploits in the field of law to become a national
legal
celebrity, a man who set the highest standard in everything to which he
put his
hand, a man of intellectual acclaim. He soon caught the attention of
the
Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which conferred on him
the
enviable national honour of Order of the Federal Republic, OFR in 1982.
He was Chairman of the
Federal
Government Commission for In-Depth Study of the Nigeria-Benin
International
Boundary, Including the Maritime Sector from 1989 to 1990, member of
the
Mid-Western Region Delegation to the Ad-Hoc Constitutional Conference
of
1966/67, elected representative of the Ughelli
and Isoko Local Government Areas in the
1977/78 Constituent
Assembly which drafted the 1979 Constitution and member of the Human
Rights
Violation and Conciliation Commission, otherwise known as the Oputa Panel. He had deep concerns for Nigeria
and
believed in the equitable distribution of her resources. He continually
expressed the view that "There is enough in Nigeria
to take care of the needs
of all her peoples but not enough for the greed of one person."
Conclusion:
21.
In conclusion, we thank God for
the gift
of the life of Dr. Mudiaga Odje,
SAN, OFR, Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, Fellow
of the
Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, member of the Hon.
Society of the
Inner Temple, former President Nigerian Bar Association, Senior
Advocate of
Nigeria, Nationalist, philanthropist, loving husband and father. All we
can do
is pray the Almighty God in His infinite mercy to admit Dr. Mudiaga
Odje into life eternal and shine His
perpetual light
upon his soul and send His Comforter to comfort Mama, the children my
brothers,
the Nigerian Bar Association, the Government and people of Delta State
and of the Federation. Amen. Thank you and God bless.
PROF.
AMOS AGBE
UTUAMA, SAN
Attorney-General
&
Commissioner For Justice
Friday 27th
January. 2006
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