'Help! Judges Are Thrilling Me' By Adesina Ogunlana

THE LEARNED SQUIB

Help! Judges are thrilling me. I think I should be more specific. Help! Lagos State High Court Judges are thrilling me. May be I should be more elaborate – please help me, come to my aid, render assistance to me, bail me out, offer me comfort, afford me your support, because lo and behold, I am beginning to experience, serial, continuous and continuing and I hope perpetual enjoyment in the hands of Judges of Lagos State High Court, my primary – constituency.

Why you may need to help me is because if the enjoyment becomes persistent, perpetual and permanent, this columnist, a.k.a the First Gecko may be out of job, fully or substantially.
Am I speaking in riddles? May be I am not even making much sense. Pardon me. I suspect that my brain or at least the fraction or faction of it known and called the medulla oblongata, and which is situate, lying and being at the southern most part of my occipital cylinder is intoxicated and consequently flabbergasted with the heady fumes of the commendable actions of our said judges.

From my personal experience and from what I gather from colleagues, the chances that you will smile out of a Lagos State High Court, than frown are about the chances of an orangutan humming Handel’s Hallelujah! It is either the judges are not there, or when there, many are impatient or rude or down right irritable with counsel. It is a well known fact that most lawyers, at least the senior ones, know law much more than most judges, with the perplexing situation of having the initiates being wiser than the chief priest of the goddess Justice.

But last week was special and different, at least for me. On Monday I had a splendid time in court. The court of Honourable Justice Oyefeso. Everybody knows this is one sweet, polite and perspicacious judge. At the end of my matter, I requested for cost to be paid by the absentee other party. When the honourable judge heard me out, His Lordship adjourned the matter without any reference to my request for cost.

Trust me to remind the judge. The judge’s reaction was to wear an earnest look after saying an apologetic ‘Oh’. Then the judicial pen scribbled rapidly away and I was happy that I’d be getting the cost. But you know what the judge said? “Cause shall be in cost.” The joke was on me. But it was pleasant and so adroitly delivered.

On Tuesday, the 10th June 2008, duty and destiny (if you believe it exists) brought me to the court of Justice Kayode - Ogunmekan. Now Kayode Ogunmekan J is your harsh exterior, soft interior, the kind but rather no-nonsense aunty type. If you want to get Kayode – Ogunmekan J’s goat, go to His Lordship’s court unprepared and top it with lame excuses. You can be sure you’ll get it. Ask State Counsel, who have plied their trade in that territory.

But on Tuesday 10th June, it was the angelic side of the honourable judge all those present in court saw. It was so touching seeing Ogunmekan J consoling, comforting and advising a lady litigant on how best to cope with the terrible challenges her troubled marriage had thrown up. I don’t think a certified Christian marriage counselor could have been done any better! What I found significant was the ease with which the judge dumped law ad legalism to embrace Christian theology, personal experience and home-spun philosophy to tackle the human angle factors of the case.

On Wednesday 11th June 2008, the happy day that saw the passing away of Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the Pro-chancellor of the Ibadan based Amala and Igbati University of Garrison Politics, I was opportuned to be at Honourable Justice Dada’s court at the Ikeja High Court.
Many of the lawyers who have appeared before Dada J told me, His Lordship reminded them in some ways of Kudirat Kekere –Ekun J.C.A.

In her years as Kekere - Ekun J in the Lagos State High Court, His Lordship was a hardworking but strict, narrow and unsmiling judge. Kekere-Ekun J was always business-like in her court, permanently expression less.
It was easy then for such a judge to be labelled “hard” or even “wicked! The same reputation Dada J, rather unfairly, is gathering. But on Wednesday 11th June 2008, what the judge displayed in the case of a bank worker she convicted of failure to prevent a felony or such like offence was nothing but sheer kindness. The honourable judge could have hauled the fellow straight away to two year stay at the Government Resort Centre Kirikiri, as his case deserved, but rather the judge ordered him to pay a million naira as fine instead. And that is not all – the judge gave the fellow a 14 day grace to raise the funds before the gates of the resort centre should be made to close against him if he defaults. I thought that was beautiful of the judge, but you don’t praise Dada J to His Lordship’s face in court.

I think from all the above stories, you’ll agree with me that if our judges, or at least 80% of them should do like their learned siblings aforementioned I’ll soon be out of job or at least almost out of job-: there won’t be much of anything worth complaining about in the Judiciary and legal profession, at least in Lagos State.

Well, I hope the day will come. The day, geckos will no longer be on duty and my pen will rest. But is that the way of the world?