The passage of the Hon. Justice Moronkeji Omotayo Onalaja has, deservedly, elicited an outpouring of tributes on the rich lessons his exit represents for Nigeria, the legal profession, the Church of Nigeria and humanity.
I first met him in 1985. I had gone to see his eldest child, Lawunmi. After being ushered into his Ikeja GRA sitting room, there, on a brown sofa, alone, was a bald, chubby man, wearing a pair of white vest on blue shorts. It was my first visit there. I wasn’t expecting to meet him so casually dressed. “Good evening sir”, I managed to greet him, accompanied with a bow. He looked at me sternly, toes to head, and answered “Good evening”. “I’m here to see Lawunmi sir”, I added. He kept looking at me and after a while, he waved me to a seat. He took a sip from a cup beside his seat, watching me as I lowered my gaze. Shortly after his daughter introduced us, Justice Onalaja excused himself and made for his study. He was to remain there until I took my leave an hour later. Soon after I learnt that the shorts and vest were his preferred uniform when writing judgments at home.
Over time as his son-in-law, I was to learn that whilst “Milord” may come across as stern, he was truly a warm soul, wonderful ally in worthy causes, and witty conversationalist whose face always brightened whenever the subject veered to law, the church or a new book he had just read or heard about. Indeed, his life was governed by four forces: the Church of God, his family, the rule of law and a deep notion of friendship.
All his life, the church loomed large in his socialisation, cementing the training he received at home. His spiritual foundation was laid at King’s Church, Enuwa where he attended Sunday School, nurtured further at Holy Trinity School and Christ Church Cathedral School Lagos where he had his primary education and at CMS Grammar School, where he received his secondary education. Throughout his stay in the United Kingdom for his law training, Onalaja deepened his knowledge of Christ. On return to Nigeria, he was one of the founding members of St. Anne’s Church, Ibadan in 1961, where he was available for laudable causes. Later he served the Diocese of Ibadan as Chancellor 2001-2011, and as Lay Deputy President, 2012-2017.
This joyful devotion to please and serve God Almighty and ask for his direction without counting the cost shaped a regimen of fasting which his children felt was injurious to his health and needed moderation. Six years ago, on observing a drastic weight loss, the children arranged for him to see a doctor in Lagos and moved him from Ibadan. Listening to his conversation with the doctor, you would think Justice Onalaja was the doctor and the doctor, his patient. He did not agree his fasting routine was injurious to his health or his workload was too heavy. If he needed any medical opinion, he would consult Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe, his friend. He had only agreed to see this Lagos doctor to humour his children. After much persuasion, he agreed to embark on the course of treatment, and to the glory of God he became much better.
Born July 24, 1933 to the family of Daniel Tekumo, a World War II veteran, and Susanna Onalaja of Ijebu Ode, Omotayo Onalaja studied Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, earning his LL.B and LL.M degrees in 1956 and 1958 respectively. He was called to the English Bar in Inner Temple on June 16, 1959, and enrolled as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on June 14, 1960. As a private practitioner, he was diligent. He was defence counsel to Prof. Soyanwo who was charged with obstructing the convoy of then Premier of Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola. Prof. Soyanwo was discharged on Onalaja’s ingenious defence that a moving vehicle could hardly constitute an obstruction. He was also part of the legal team that successfully defended Prof. Wole Soyinka in the Mystery Gunman case in 1965. While in private practice (1960-1980) he was a founding editor of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports, from 1964 to 1980.
His industry in practice earned him a seat on the Bench of the Lagos High Court in September 1980. As a High Court judge, he was a renowned judicial activist, whose guiding maxim was Fiat Justitia uat cælum: Let justice be done though the heavens fall. This principle underpinned his landmark ruling in the Constitutional Rights Project v. President of the Federal Republic suit of 1993. The CRP had approached the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights to restrain the government of General Ibrahim Babangida from executing Major General Zamani Lekwot (rtd.) and six others as the Judicial Tribunal on Civil and Communal Disturbances in Zango-Kataf had decided. The African Commission assumed jurisdiction and duly restrained the government. Since the trial was held under the Civil Disturbance (Special Tribunal) Amendment Decree 43 of 1992, which forbade any appeal to civil courts, save only a plea for mitigation to the Armed Forces Ruling Council, the government raised a preliminary objection at a Lagos High Court asking for a dismissal of the CRP’s action for lack of locus standi of the applicants. Justice Onalaja disagreed, holding that not only did CRP have locus standi but also that he had jurisdiction to entertain the substantive issues of the matter. He held that an international law to which Nigeria is a signatory is superior to a domestic law, which purports to oust the court’s jurisdiction. His courageous decision saved the lives of the Zango-Kataf seven and created a precedent in Nigerian judicial history.
In 1993, Justice Onalaja was elevated to the Court of Appeal where he served in the Port Harcourt, Lagos and Ibadan divisions. His erudition ensured that throughout his career on the Bench, none of his judgments was ever upturned by the Supreme Court. No wonder the respected Hon. Justice Kayode Esho, JSC, declared in 2004 that “The Hon. Justice Onalaja is, by any standard anywhere, a great judge. He has consistently been a pride to the Nigerian law, and would feature forever in our judicial history even yet to come.” With his judicial record untainted, he bowed out of the Court of Appeal on July 29, 2003 at age 70 with honour and dignity.
In another first for him, Justice Onalaja compiled his various speeches whilst serving on the Bench into four volumes of Commentaries from the Bench, a wellspring of legal scholarship, which further bolstered his scholarly credentials. Two books on Law (The Pursuit of Justice and Development and Legal Issues for Contemporary Justice in Nigeria) were published in his honour. A third, Oracle of the Bench: A Legalpaedia of Hon. Justice M. O. Onalaja’s Landmark Judgments, captures his landmark judgments. In 2006, he was honoured with the LL.D degree (Honoris Causa) of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye where he served on the Governing Board for 19 years. The university’s law faculty, to date, has organised three annual lectures in his honour. As Chairman of the Council of Legal Education 2003-2011, he received the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) award in 2004.
He saw in a free and responsible media a necessary partner for national development, which was why beyond filial consideration, he endowed in perpetuity the Judicial Reporting prize of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) in 2002. He was later named the first Independent Press Ombudsman by the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria in 2009.
He couldn’t have achieved all he did without God’s favour who blessed him with a good wife and a loving home. His marriage to Margaret Folasade Onalaja (nee Ogunsanya) provided the perfect vessel to bring into the world six delightful children. With her death on October 19, 2002, a part of him also died. As his remains are interred on Saturday, June 16 (the 58th anniversary of his call to bar), we pray his rich legacies would endure in the land he loved so much.
- Idowu, is a Trustee of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME).
