The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies recently launched two books in honour of Justice Cecilia Mojisola Olatoregun who retired last month after 19 years as a judge of the Federal High Court. ROBERT EGBE was there.
If, like me, the first time you observed Justice Cecilia Mojisola Olatoregun was halfway through a court session, you may not understand what she and many other judicial officers like her represent in the Nigerian legal system.
But those who understand– Justices, judges, senior and junior members of the inner and outer Bar, among others – gathered recently at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos to celebrate that “spirit of judicial diligence.”
The event was the launch of two books published in her honour by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS), Abuja.
The first book, Cases, Judgment and Rulings of Honorable Justice C. M. A. Olatoregun, was edited by CSLS President Professor Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN). The second, Trends in Law and Justice (Essays in honour of Hon Justice CMA Olatoregun), was edited by Justice Adedotun Onibokun of the Osun State High Court.
40 years of Law
The launch coincided with Justice Olatoregun’s retirement from the Bench after 19 years at the Federal High Court.
Forty years ago, the young Cecilia Mojisola Olatoregun bagged her L.L.B Degree from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and participated in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme immediately after. Her work career began in 1981, as a state counsel in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice. Soon after, she went into private practice.
In 1986, Mrs. Olatoregun joined the Oyo State Judiciary as a Senior Magistrate ll where she served for five years. Her career progressed from Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court and the Admiralty Marshal of Nigeria, to her elevation to the Federal High Court Bench in 2000.
In the course of her 19 years’ sojourn at the court, Justice Olatoregun delivered several landmark judgments, some of which formed the basis of the first book.
‘I didn’t know the future, but I knew diligence’
A judge, a wife, a mother, a grandmother: but that’s not all there is to Justice Olatoregun. This was apparent when she broke into a song soon after she stepped up to the rostrum.
She said: “I belong to the National Choir, I have a lot of solos. One of my songs at that time, one of the songs I sang very well was Doris Day’s Que Sera Sera (Starts singing): When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, what will I be. Will I be pretty, Will I be rich? Here’s what she said to me: Que será, sera, whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see, Que será, sera.
“I think that song encapsulates the story of my life. What I’m going to be at one point or the other, I never knew, but what I knew always was to be diligent. I worked extremely hard, I had no other choice, I was trained to work hard, I was trained to ask for hard work towards whatever I want and that is what I’ve always known and done all my life: work hard, be diligent, every other thing will be added.
“Unfortunately in Nigeria, you work hard and nothing is added, but I’ve never been discouraged, I keep working hard, all to the end of my career. I have been very truthful to myself, I’ve been truthful to God and I’ve not stopped working hard. I tell my children, hard work does not kill.”
Caught by surprise
The judge explained that she wasn’t aware outsiders were taking note of her judicial performance and of the surprise that awaited her at the end of her career.
She said: “I never knew what my future would be, I never knew what to expect, that my work, my judgments and rulings would be combined or brought together as a book, I never imagined it, I only did my best, or that essays would be written in my honor, that was never within my contemplation, I never imagined it. If you had told me last year, ‘a book would be written to honour you, or compilations of your judgment would be presented,’ I’d have said no, because I am not that kind of person; I like to stay on my lane. But one afternoon, Mr. Kehinde came to my office around 3 or 4pm, it was a very busy day and he said they wanted to compile my judgments. I was surprised. To start with, I don’t encourage lawyers coming to my chamber. That was a big surprise to me, so I felt ‘I’m not of the Court of Appeal, I’m not of the Supreme Court, what you would do with a high court judgment and ruling? I don’t think there is anything to it.’ But he stood his ground.
“Eventually, a few weeks down the line, he sent me some books, and said ‘These are books we have done in the past, maybe when you look at the books, you’d be encouraged to give us an ear.’ So, I said yes and I told our legal assistant to start compiling my judgments and rulings. I had heard a lot about Prof. Akinseye-George and, eventually, I met him, and he said to me, ‘Those papers are a masterpiece; they are so good, we have so many, we don’t know what to do. Maybe we ’ll have two volumes.’ But I said I really have to thank you.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Is the money coming to you?’, I said ‘I don’t know because I’m not looking for money, I’ve been honoured and I think that is enough for me. If there is any money coming from that, I’m giving that money to an NGO. Period.”
Akinseye-George: Why we published books on Justice Olatoregun
Since its 2006 launch, CSLS has published over a hundred papers, articles and books and it was not going to let this opportunity pass it by.
For Akinseye-George, CSLS, among other things, identifies and celebrates excellence. It was this excellence that interested the Centre about the retiring judge.
Akinseye-George said: “The judgments were written by Justice Olatoregun but we compiled them, we edited them, we published them.
“The reason we did that is because She is an excellent judge and we want her and her works to be an encouragement; the fact that we are celebrating her should be an encouragement to other judges, to show that, in our society, excellence still counts and merit still counts.
“You heard her when she said hard work, hard work, hard work, compassion, substantial justice; those were her watchwords. The reason we decided to honor her is to encourage other people to pursue excellence, to show that even though there are challenges, judges not well paid, there are difficulties, they have too much work, their docket is heavy, yet many of them are applying themselves to their work so as to promote the course of justice. This is the reason why we put this course of justice together.
“In the past we honoured prominent judges, but this is the first time we are honouring a judge of the high Court.”
Roll
Guests at the event included The President of the Court of Appeal Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa represented by Justice Mohammed Garba, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court Justice John Tsoho, former Chief Judge of Lagos State Justice Ayotunde Phillips, former Presidents of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Nigeria’s first female Silk, Chief Folake Solanke SAN, Wale Babalakin SAN Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN, Ade Adedeji SAN, Kemi Pinheiro SAN.
Others were chairman of Caverton Group, Chief Remi Makanjuola, the chairman of the Honeywell Group, Oba Otudeko, a former Oyo State Governor Alao Akala, and many others.
Olanipekun: Do not forget high court judgments
Olanipekun, who congratulated the judge for her strides, urged stakeholders to immortalise judgments of the high court.
He said: “We appreciate my lord, your contribution to our profession, you have done well. I want to commend those who have put the books together. We have a lot of problems in this country regarding the judgments of high court judges. We are forgetting them at our own peril. The judgments are no longer reported. We forget that when we talk of the High Tree cases, Kufeji v Kogbe, on injunction and some of the cases we cite, even at the Supreme Court, they are judgments of the high court. Lord Denning wrote a good number of his judgments when he was at the high court. Coker wrote that judgment when he was at the high court. Nobody reports the judgments of high court judges. And I daresay that these judgments will stand the test of time. My lord, you are one of them (whose judgments will stand the test of time). Your erudition is in a class of its own. You are sui generis.”
Adedeji: Justice Olatoregun, an unblemished judge
For Adedeji, Justice Olatoregun is one of the foremost judges the Federal High Court has produced.
“She is one that you can trust to always be on top of her cases. We are here today to honour a lady who spent almost 20 years at the Federal High Court in an unblemished career and that is very important in the Nigerian Judiciary of these days. We can only wish her well. I must say that one thing that is very clear about her performance while at the Bench of the Federal High Court is the fact that she was always in charge, in control of her court, and nobody can take that away from her, we respect her a lot for that and we are going to miss her.”