I almost became a rascal — 80-year-old retired judge

pioneer Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Justice Mustapha Akanbi

A former president, Court of Appeal and pioneer Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, shares some of his life experiences in this interview with SUCCESS NWOGU

When were you born?

According to my mother, I was born in Accra, September 11, 1932 on a Sunday. My mother had seven children in all, three died but four of us survived. When I was five years, I was brought to Ilorin and I started Arabic school here in the same quarters where my family house is now. After some time, my father came home. In fact, he came to get married and also give his daughter in marriage.  At that time, most of the houses in Ilorin were thatched roofs. Regularly you could see fire from some homes and people will be shouting and running.  But our house was zinc-roofed. Compared to Ghana, where you had zinc roofs all over, it was strange to me. When I was brought from Ghana to Ilorin to stay with my mother, I wept that I could not live in Ilorin.  After some time, my father took me back to Ghana, in September 1939, during the World War years.

Where did you continue your education in Ghana?

I continued with the Arabic school and enrolled in African College the same year. I was in standard five by then and knew English History, from the Britain to the reign of the Henry VIII, because the man who established the African College was good.  We had elderly and brilliant people who taught us. Many of the quotations I quote today, I learnt them there. I really appreciate my father, an illiterate, who sent me to a good school. From there I went to another school in Accra in 1946. That year my mother returned to Ghana. I finished standard seven there. After that, I went to another school, where some other chaps who later became prominent jurists, schooled. I later worked briefly in Ghana. I was a teacher in New Era Secondary School and Kings’ College Commercial Secondary School.  I also left the school. I got admission to the Kumasi College of Technology to do Estate Management. Although I thought I would get a scholarship, I was not given because I was not an indigene. Luckily, I had scholarship to go to the University of Cairo in 1957. But my father did not welcome the idea.  He said that I should go and read either Law or Medicine.

What happened afterwards?

Unfortunately he took ill for two years. At that state, I was beginning to lose hope. My intention was that since I was not going to marry until I was qualified, I should move back home.  So, I applied to the Northern Civil Service and, luckily, I was sent on a course.  We were 29; 17 from the South and 12 from the North. Among my classmates was S.K. Daggogo-Jack, who once headed the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria. I topped the class and was invited to apply for scholarship to read Law. When I graduated, I was one of the 12 candidates appointed to sit in the Institute of Administration which later became Ahmadu Bello University to do Part One.  I was one of the five who had the required papers to go to England to continue. Eventually four of us made the finals in record times.  Nwosu, who later became Chief Justice; Shehu Mohammed, Justice of the Supreme Court, he died in an accident; the late Justice Ekundayo, and myself were the four in our batch. From there, I was appointed the state counsel and served in Kaduna, Kano, Makurdi, Ilorin. I was then sent to Law Officers Course again in Britain to do International Law and Legal Drafting. When I came back, I was schemed out of Ilorin and posted to Jos. I should have been the number two here in Ilorin. But I do not beg or bootlick for anybody. I was posted to Jos, where I foresaw all these settler problems and tribal issues.  I resigned and went into private practice in Kano. I set up a branch in Ilorin and later became Attorney-General in Kano.  When I was in practice, I was invited to the bench, but I resented it, I thought I would do better for myself in private practice. But my dad had a different view. When I told him that they wanted me to be a judge in a high court, he asked me to accept it. He said: ‘Do not worry about what you will give me or your mother.’

Did you heed your father’s advice?

Yes. That is how I became a judge. He felt that the greatest honour that he could have was for his son to be a judge of the high court in his life time.  When you see an illiterate thinking this way, I cannot but honour his opinion.  I have been a loyal son to my father.  I have never said ‘no’ to him. After graduation, I became and retired as President of the Court of Appeal.

Can you remember some of your childhood experiences?

During my childhood days, Accra was much more advanced. You cannot compare Ilorin with Accra at that time. Besides, Accra was a capital and Ghana was then called Gold Coast. There was money. Everything was there.  We ate corned beef, sardines, and had many good things. Then, we used to go to the beach and played all sorts of pranks. We even fought with people. At the area that I lived then, you must be tough and be able to fight. We also learnt and practised some boxing here and there.  We were always running up and down creating problems. But the luck I had was that my father was a strict disciplinarian.  If you ever got caught, you would be well disciplined. I remember when I was in standard six; we almost became rascals of the highest order because we had a weak teacher.  We, however, had a headmaster, Mr. J.N. Asante, who was tough and one of the best. He was a brilliant teacher; one of those who I can say made me. If he taught you and you failed, then nobody could teach you how to pass. I enjoyed his class.

I remember in standard four, whenever he came to the class, he called out pupils to be disciplined. He became our class teacher in standard seven. I was torn between either leaving the school or staying.  I remember I had only four lashes from him and that was when all the class members were punished. I remember the day I went to tell my father that my teacher did not like me and that they wanted to expel me from the school.  Nobody wanted to; I simply said so out of fear. But my father so trusted my performance.  He appreciated me and believed that I had the ability to do well.  I was his letter writer.  Then, he would ask me to go to the bank to do some transactions for him, so I was closer to him than any of my brothers.

How many children did you father have?

My father, an avowed polygamist, had 16 children. I was the ninth. At the time of his death, there were 11 children left, including me. But since his death on December 21, 1984, 10 more had died, leaving six of us. By Islamic law, you cannot marry more than four wives at a time. Even at the time of his death, he was left with two wives, my mother and my step-mother. There were three other women he married. None of them bore him a child. But you might say in between, all in all, he had married about seven wives.

You don’t use eyeglasses and still looks agile despite the fact that you will be 81 in September. What is the secret?

At a time I was using glasses but I found out that I didn’t really need it, although doctors recommended that I used it. I can read without glasses, even at night, except if the light is dim. But in the day time when the light is bright and everything is clear, I do not have to bother myself.

Is there any special food or lifestyle that keeps you graceful?

I do not have any special food.  For health reasons, doctors advised me to avoid taking sugar, so I do not take anything sugary.  I also try as much as possible to eat less food.  Sometimes, there is a lot of food for me to eat but because they have advised me to cut down my food intake because of my weight, I reduce it. But, if I am hungry, I may go against the rule sometimes. I can eat at any time. For some people, they do not eat once it is 7pm or 8pm, for me, I can eat at 10pm or after.

You must have had many female admirers when you were much younger? How many girlfriends did you keep?

When I was young, I was the darling of a lot of ladies in our quarters. But I had a focus; I knew I will never be married unless I had the qualification, professional qualification or a degree. My brothers married in their 20s and I married in my 30s.  This was after I had qualified as a lawyer. I did everything in moderation and I made friends. There were people who wanted to marry me.  In our custom, if you come from a good family and you are well-behaved, a lady will be betrothed to you. But I rejected all until I went to England and I finished my studies. I went to the Law School and passed. Then at that time, I decided who I should marry.

Have you ever felt threatened by people who may not be happy with your position and judgments as a prosecutor and judge in the past or that they may kill you or harm your children?

No, I am a great believer in God.  Like I used to tell people, supposing somebody is sent to kill me, if God’s protection is with me, I may not cross his path. He will not even come my way.  I received letters of threat recently; I suspected that some of the letters came from Accra, Ghana because of a certain property I fought over for the owners. I just came back from Accra. I confronted them. I even wrote to the police here in Ilorin.  But I still do not believe they can remove one hair from my head without God’s permission. I do not allow such a thing to worry me. In some of the cases I handled, if I persecuted people instead of prosecuting them, then my conscience will prick me that I have done something wrong.  If I convicted an innocent person, then I will have problem.  But if I did the work with fear of God and in accordance with the law, and in my judicial oath, I do not have anything to worry.

There was a case of a man I prosecuted for pouring acid on his wife in Kano.  He was jailed 10 years; everybody I prosecuted was convicted. Justice Michael Holden, who later retired as Chief Judge of Rivers State, was the person who convicted him. Holden left Kano for Rivers State. In subsequent years, I met the man who was jailed for 10 years. I was then in private practice. He recognised me when he saw me, although I did not. I thought he would be bitter against me but he was not. I suppose, he did not finish his 10-year jail term, probably he was granted a reprieve for good conduct at the prisons. I was financially more buoyant than in government job.  So, I gave him some money and he thanked me.  If I had been hard on him, he would have been bitter. The most difficult case in which I subjected somebody to a rigorous cross-examination was a case involving one Vincent.

When we met in subsequent years in Benue, he treated me very well. They drove a nail in the forehead of a political opponent. They were politically influential; they had big names behind them but the work was that I must prosecute them.  And I did not shy away from doing so.  In fact the person whose relation was killed tried to offer me protection but I refused. I told them, ‘If you offer me protection, it would seem as if I am working for you. Let me do it. God will take care of me,’ and He did.

In all honesty, would you say you never jailed an innocent person as a judge?

Luckily for me, when I was prosecuting, I was prosecuting as a state counsel.  I remember one man, Ikoku, who was sentenced to death. I did not sentence him to death; the judge did, so that is not my problem. As a defence counsel, there was no single person that was tried for murder that I defended that did not get away. It was only an armed robber who was sentenced. It was towards the end of the case that I had information that he was involved. But I started with the Federal Revenue court so I was not concerned with murder cases. I did not sentence anybody to death as a judge but at the Court of Appeal, appeals came before me.  It was a court of three.  And if I presided, especially when I became the presiding justice, or the President of the Court of Appeal, I either confirmed what had been done by the lower court or allow the appeal and get the man off.  But where you have been convicted at the lower court, like the man that killed the late popular musician, Ayinla Omowura. He used a mug and struck him (Omowura) dead. The appeal came and I was the one who read the lead judgment. I dismissed the appeal and confirmed the death sentence. I do not have any guilty conscience.  The evidence was quite clear.  Your playmate and your boss, you killed him.  I do not have any cause to look back and feel that I had done something wrong. I swore an oath to do justice to all manners of people without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.  So, if you cannot do the job, you leave it. At every stage of my life when I got fed up with the work that I was doing, I resigned. We are accountable to God, when we die, we will account for what we have done in this world. God has not sent down angels to come and judge people.  Human beings like us will judge.  So if we do not do it, maybe the wicked ones will do it.  I do not have any feeling that I wrongly convicted anybody. I believe that if you do justice, you will get the grace of God in abundance.