Emeka Ngige @ 60: Seeks revitalization of law school campuses, calls for restoration of ethics in legal profession

By Lillian Okenwa

Chief Nnaemeka Ngige, SAN, has a calm and even-tempered mien, with eyes that are gentle, yet probing and introspective. And yet, his ultra-calm exterior conceals a highly extroverted and gregarious nature. Many are more familiar with that focused and very determined side. Driven by an unwavering sprit, Chief Ngige determined long ago to make a mark in his chosen profession. That he did and much more. No surprises there for one whose father taught the value of hard work and aspiring beyond preconceived limits.

As a Youth Corps member in 1986, he was a prosecutor for the Nigerian Police Force, State CID, Akure, Ondo State. Between 1995 and 1999 he was also a prosecutor at the Failed Bank Tribunals in Enugu and Lagos. Today with offices in Abuja, Lagos and a correspondence office in Awka, Chief Emeka Ngige, Notary Public, Senor Advocate of Nigeria, Chairman Council of Legal Education, Member Body of Benchers, Non-Executive Director-Air Peace Ltd, Member, Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee has left his imprint on the annals of legal profession in Nigeria.

In this interview with Lillian Okenwa, the Learned Senior Advocate who turned 60 years on July 11, 2021 shared his thoughts on the state of legal practice and legal education in Nigeria, while calling on stakeholders to give attention to the infrastructural deficit at the Nigerian Law School campuses across the country. He also related tales about some courtroom drama in the early days.

His desire was to study Law or Mass Communications. But the attraction for law was stronger as his immediate elder sister, MaryRose Nwadike nee Ngige, who greatly influenced him was then a law undergraduate at the University of Ife. Besides, he would inherit her textbooks and other materials. But there were other motivations too.

In his younger days, Hon. Justice Phillip Nnaemeka Agu, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court now of blessed memory was a popular lawyer and politician in Coal City where he grew up. When his father named him ‘Nnaemeka’, people started calling him ‘Nnaemeka Agu’, which stuck like a nickname. Then seeing that Nnaemeka Agu the famous lawyer became Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, in the old East Central State and later High Court Judge, the young Nnaemeka Ngige became strengthened in his resolve to study law. In 1980 he was admitted to study law at the great citadel of learning, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu Campus (UNEC) and in 1985 he was called to the Nigerian Bar.

Under the watchful eyes of Chief G.N. Uwechue, SAN, Principal Partner G.N. Uwechue & Co, Barristers & Solicitors & Notaries Public in 1986, he honed his legal skills and eventually struck out to commence solo practice after 5 years of tutelage. And long before Chief Gani Fawhinmi, SAN introduced Index to his law reports, Ngige would photocopy the covers of each part of Nigerian Weekly Law Reports and keep them in a file. He only needed to look up any topic he’s researching to get the relevant authorities.

 “What Gani was using for Index is an accumulation of what is contained on the covers Nigerian Weekly Law Report and the extract. If it’s Evidence I’m researching on for instance, I will go to my Index file and search for the authorities. And I knew most of the cases by heart. If someone cites an authority, search and confirm if the authority is relevant or whether he was misquoting the authority. Today, we have moved on as my laptop contains three electronic law reports; Nigerian Weekly Law Report, Law Pavilion and Electronic Law Companion. I can stay in my remote village at Alor, and write a brief of argument without looking for any law report or statute book in hard copies. Anywhere you are, you can do your work. Besides, our profession requires a lot of reading. One needs to be updated because every day the law is changing either by new decisions, new legislations or change of case law.”

Indeed from the daysofmanual typewriters, landline telephones, and fax machines, legal practice in Nigeria has evolved from tedious in 1986 when Emeka Ngige began legal practice to information blitz at the click of a button. But he would tell you that ethics at the Bar and on the Bench were taken more seriously in “the good old days.” He insists that the glory of the profession when judges and lawyers conducted themselves with utmost integrity and professionalism must be restored. Calling for an overhaul of the regulatory provision for sanction of lawyers as contained in the Legal Practitioners Act (LPA), he stressed that the system as it is will yield little or no results. He provided some insights.

“The procedure is that you write a petition to the NBA and they consider whether there is a case to answer or not, i.e. a prima facie case. If they check and hear from the person petitioned against, and there is prima facie case established, the accused legal practitioner will be arraigned before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) and the matter would drag on and on for maybe 2 years, 3 to 4 years before it is determined. In the process the petitioners lose interest or are pressurised or intimidated into withdrawing the petition. Some petitioners because of logistic challenges could not travel to Abuja, the venue of hearing. They are unable to fly all the way from Warri or travel by road from Maiduguri to come and testify in Abuja. I have been canvassing that if we fail to reform the process of disciplining lawyers, then the impunity will continue. Even when I ran for NBA Presidency in 2012, I harped on this matter as part of my manifesto.”

What then is the solution and how can it be reformed? He was asked.

Decentralise LPDC, retired Justices should head panels

“The LPDC should be decentralised”, he insists. “When you amend the Legal Practitioners Act (LPA) allow several panels of LPDC to sit in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano so that they can handle cases from different parts of the country. Instead of the petitioners coming to Abuja and are told there is no quorum, they can go to the committees in their nearest zones.

“Another suggestion I made is that the LPDC should be constituted of retired judicial officers. Presently the LPDC comprises of heads of courts that are very busy. You have in their membership President Court of Appeal, Chief Judges (CJs) of either the Federal High Court, Federal Capital Territory or of some States High Courts, Attorneys General of some states and some Senior Advocates who are life benchers. All these people are very busy. No head of court has time to leave administrative duties in his state to come to Abuja and handle petitions against legal practitioners. As far as they are concerned it is secondary to their responsibilities or schedules. That’s why it’s always almost impossible to form a quorum or some members that participated at the first hearing would not be around for the next sitting. So you have inconsistent panels hearing matters against the lawyers.

“As a result, most of the appeals by legal practitioners who have been sanctioned are allowed. Their grounds of appeal on lack of fair hearing that one of panellists who sat in his matter maybe on the day for adoption of written addresses didn’t participate when one of the witnesses testified will succeed. When the appeal succeeds and court for instance rules that the matter starts de novo, where will you find the witnesses who had earlier testified? So I canvassed that retired justices of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, most of who are still healthy should head these disciplinary panels for two year or three years and another set takes over. They are retirees and have plenty of time. It will be hard for heads of courts to leave their membership of National Judicial Council (NJC,) National Judicial Institute (NJI), Federal or State Judicial Service Commission, Body of Benchers (BOB) and a host of administrative matters to be trying erring lawyers. Don’t forget they still sit as judges in their various courts. They simply don’t have the time.

“But all these suggestions were not accepted. Some of our colleagues have argued the retired judges are too tired and weak but I still maintain that many of them are very healthy for the assignment. For instance Hon. Justice George Adesola Oguntade when he retired at 70 in 2010 was so healthy that you will think he was just 60. Ditto for Hon. Justice Kumai Akaahs who retired in 2019. If all these great minds are brought in to handle petitions there will be consistent quorum or panelling and speedy determination of most the petitions. When lawyers see that petitions are now dealt with swiftly, they will sit up. Indiscipline and impunity will go down.”

Yet these suggestions will require amending the LPA with stakeholders including NBA initiating amendments at the National Assembly. Already, Body of Benchers has sent a reviewed LPA to the National Assembly but the points Ngige raised were not included. He offered more explanations.

“They said it’s a matter of detail and that when the BOB wants to constitute a disciplinary panel to hear petitions, they can pick any of the Life Benchers. So we are stuck with one panel hearing petitions against almost over one hundred thousand lawyers in the country. We are supposed to have different panels like you have high courts divisions. Let panel one sit in Abuja, one in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Kano and Port Harcourt. Most of the petitions against lawyers are frivolous. Some are serious but as they say, the earlier you determine a matter the better for the profession.”

On indiscipline among judicial officers, he disclosed that while NJC is reviewing the process ameliorating the subject, the presumption is: “Judges are deemed to have done the right thing until the contrary is proved.” On account of that he said: “Most of the petitions against judges are dismissed. What I discovered is that the only case they pay attention to are those that exceeded 90 days in delivering judgment. They don’t spare judges who breach Section 294(1) of the Constitution.Concerning other weighty allegations, it depends on the way the petition is presented and the defence presented by the judges. There are many worrisome aspects but I won’t go into details now.”

Toughest moments in legal practice

Ngige revealed that his toughest moments in legal practice was during the 32 months legal battle in the celebrated Peter Obi .v. Chris Ngige election petition. The rspondents called about 392 witnesses while Peter Obi as petitioner called about 45. At that time, hearing in election petitions was almost endless. It was after this case that clamours for a time frame for hearing election petitions arose. The case of Buhari v. Obasanjo that came in the wake of 2003 presidential elections was another matter that took unduly long. It lasted for about 18 months drawing public outcry because Obasanjo was virtually concluding his second year of office when Buhari’s petition was concluded in the Supreme Court. The decision also informed the recommendation of Uwais’ Electoral Reform Committee on Electoral Reforms that there should be timeline for initiating, hearing and determination of election matters.

“Obi v. Ngige was my toughest case as I had to leave my young family in Lagos and came to stay in Anambra for almost three years. Then there was an attempt to kidnap me in my hotel room. A man came to Choice Hotel where I was lodging and the reception called to inform me that I had a guest. This was around 8.00 or 9.00 am. I requested to speak with the so called guest who told me he’s Sam Nwanti from American FBI. I asked him his mission in Nigeria as FBI does not operate in Nigeria and he said had a warrant to arrest me. I then invited him to my room. Before then I called the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sale Tanko, in charge of the Area Command in Awka who was lodging in the hotel and informed him of the development. The DCP swiftly got his men and they hid in a part of the room.

“When the gentleman came in,  I asked him again what the arrest was for and he said I’ll find out when we get to the place he was taking me. At that point, the Policemen came out and arrested him. He was subsequently charged before the Magistrate Court in Awka. They recovered a taser and a fake FBI Identity Card on him. There were many other threats to my life and other challenges but in all, I thank God that I came out of the case alive.”

Most rewarding cases

The most rewarding period he could easily recall was during the 1996 Failed Bank Tribunal cases.

“The prosecutors were being paid about N250, 000 per case. Later it was raised to about N700, 000. At that time it was a big money. By the time you finish the case, you will present your transport, feeding, and lodging expenses, you will get a refund. It was a lot of money in those days. Besides, we were in the news making the headlines and it was attracting other briefs. When people see you appearing against a legal giant like Chief Rotimi Williams, SAN and other top lawyers, the perception is that you have reached the level where they could entrust you with their own briefs.”

How I was nearly handcuffed by a Court Martial

Between 1996 and 1997, we were at the Armed Forces General Court Martial, defending some Air force men who were alleged to have misappropriated about 60 Million Naira from the finance section of Nigerian Air force in Lagos. We had Group Captains and Squadron leaders as accused persons. The Chairman of the panel was somebody called Air Commodore Akwiti. I’m not sure if he was a Commodore or Vice Marshall then but he was very strict and too hard as the Chairman of the General Court Martial. He would not tolerate any Preliminary Objections from Defense Counsel. Once he had delivered a ruling, you must obey without complaint as they do in the military. In this particular case – Nigerian Air Force vs some Air Force Officers, we discovered that the instrument which set up the Court Martial, i.e. the Convening Order or C.O as they call it, was flawed. The instrument was meant to be properly issued by a competent officer of the Nigerian Army or the Air Force of a rank above the persons to be court-martialled but we discovered that the person who issued this particular CO was below the rank of the people that were being tried and the dates were also conflicting.

In a General Court Martial, the chairman and all the members need not be lawyers because they are trying their peers in the military. But the Prosecutor, Defence Counsel and Judge Advocate who advises them on knotty legal issues, must be legal practitioners.. When there are legal issues the Judge Advocate advises the panel.

On the day of our client’s arraignment, I was given the case file as Mr. Clement Akpamgbo, SAN who was to lead me was otherwise engaged. I held his brief and told the Court Martial that we have a Preliminary Objection to the charge; that the accused person (our client) would not take his plea because the court martial was not properly constituted. The Chairman will have none of it and warned me – ‘This is the last time you will raise a Preliminary Objection in this Court Martial.’ I thought it was a joke

We allowed the accused to take his plea and at the address stage, I raised once again the issue of jurisdiction, that the General Court Martial had not been properly constituted as there was an incompetent CO. As I was marshaling out my reasons, the Chairman interjected stating something like: ‘Mr Ngige I told you this issue must not be raised again and you raised it. Please take him out of this Court and handcuff him until he purges himself of the contempt of court.’  He directed that I should be handcuffed and taken away from the tribunal for being contemptuous of his standing order

He didn’t even allow the judge advocate (who later became a Military Governor in Benue State) to advice on whether I was precluded from raising a jurisdictional point at address stage. As he was not given a chance to advice, the judge advocate sat down and was smiling. When the officers brought the handcuff and made to take me away, other lawyers present started pleading on my behalf. I was left alone but at the end of the trial, they sentenced my client and other Air Force men to various terms of imprisonment. Through another team of lawyers, they appealed against their conviction and were subsequently acquitted on grounds of lack of fair hearing.

The hostile witness

Between 2003 and 2004 when we were conducting the Obi v. Ngige case, some of the witnesses fielded by the petitioner were giving the same pattern of evidence. They testified there was no election in some polling units and that some people shot in the air, ballot boxes were snatched and the next day somebody was declared winner. Along the line one of their witnesses turned against them. I was not part of the plot but the witness came to testify and stated how he was allegedly tutored to give false testimony. After this incident, our opponents decided to revenge and so got one of our own witnesses to say he’s been tutored. Immediately we noticed where he was heading, we quickly applied that he be declared a hostile witness.

That was the first time in my professional practice that I saw a witness turn against his lawyer. Generally, you must have had a session with your witness to prepare him on how to answer questions and address the court. You tell him to speak slowly because the judge would be writing in long hand and not to be angry when a lawyer is asking questions. As soon as this particular witness entered the witness box, we asked the usual introductory questions- name, address, occupation. Thereafter he turned round to say the election he was called to defend was not free and fair; so we knew that he must have been approached by the other side. Quickly we applied for him to be declared a hostile witness. We drew his attention to an earlier document where he stated that the election was free and fair, drew his attention to the relevant paragraphs, turned to the Chairman of the tribunal, Hon Justice G.M. Nabaruma and his members, and said:  ‘My lords we apply under the relevant section of the Evidence Act for this witness to be declared a hostile witness’. The petitioners opposed the application and the Tribunal in its ruling declared the witness a hostile witness, and so everything he said became irrelevant to the person who called him and to the other side.

The rare privilege of appearing against Chief Rotimi Williams, SAN

In 1997 at the Failed Banks Tribunal, Enugu in the case of FRN v. Disun Odebode, I appeared against the revered Chief Rotimi Williams, SAN. He was representing the accused person and I was the prosecutor. That was where I got the confidence to apply for the Inner Bar because at the end of that case, his client was convicted and jailed. When we came out of the court hall, Chief Williams shook hands with me privately and said: ‘Mr. Ngige the future will be great for you. Keep it up.’

Thereafter whenever we met in court and Chief Williams sat in the front row as a SAN, he would beckon on me and say, ‘Mr Ngige come and sit with me.’ I would hesitate and say sir, I am not a SAN. He would reply: ‘Equity regards as done that which ought to be done’ meaning I should be regarded as an SAN. In that same court, some lawyers, including his juniors who were not SANs at that time would be seated at the back with some perching on side stools. That was the type of encouragement I had which propelled me to apply for elevation to the Inner Bar.

Gani Fawehinmi, SAN

In one of the Femi Adekanye cases, I represented NDIC. They were so many of them at that time. In one of them, Chief Gani Fawehinmi appeared against me. When we finished the case, Chief Gani like Chief Williams called me, shook hands with me and said Keep it up.’ We won the case.

Subsequently, I was also prosecuting another Adekanye matter with Mr. Fidelis Nwadialo, and appearing against us were Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN, Professor Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, and Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, the incumbent Vice President who represented six other accused persons. It was a tough case and was presided over by Late Hon Justice Mike Edokpayi.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t finish before the return to civilian rule in 1999. The accused persons were playing delay tactics until the tribunals were wound up; and the matter was transferred to the Federal High Court. They learnt from me and I learnt from them too. They knew that I was not a soft nut to crack. We learnt a lot from these experiences because one thing about law practice is that every day you are in court, you will be learning new things whether good or bad.” 

Growing up

Last child of the family, his father was a carpenter while his mother sold charcoal and firewood. But the old man believed in education and invested in it. He was a carpenter with PWD- Post Works Department of those days. Having mixed with civil servants in Enugu and worked in their homes, he appreciated the advantages of his children getting education. Beyond that, Chief Pius Ngige (Akunnia) taught his children the value of hard work by example.

Never resting, he was always trying his hands on something. In spite of his social status, he got allocation from the government and eventually built a residential home in Coal Camp Enugu. “He built a 3 bedroom Boys Quarters first and the main building he later completed,” Emeka Ngige recalled. “That’s why I believe you can achieve anything you set your mind on to achieve. He was going to the homes of expatriates and other ‘senior service’ persons to work and he learnt about the value of education. All of us in my family are graduates. My mother’s brother, our uncle was a Civil Engineer and so she also wanted her children to go to school.”

The Learned Silk spoke more about his family and childhood: “We were originally seven. We lost our eldest sister about 28 years ago. She died in her late 50s then. She was the first graduate in our family. She first went to Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri for her NCE. Thereafter she went to UNN to get her BA in Education and was teaching in a Secondary School in Enugu. She passed on in 1992.

Like other kids who grew up in Enugu, I was part of the youth masquerade that entertained people during festivities. We gyrated from our Coal Camp area to Uwani and to Asata. I had my primary school at St. Patrick’s Primary School, Ogbete in Enugu. Secondary school education was in my village at St. John’s Secondary School, Alor.

The school still ranks as one of the best schools run by the missionaries till date in Anambra State.I was the Labour Prefect and I graduated with Division One in 1979.”

The Palmwine Drinkers Klub

Undergraduate school did not happen immediately as he was not successful with the all mighty JAMB at first attempt; hence his stint as a Clerical Officer with Federal Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity in Enugu. But a year after, he was admitted to study law at UNEC.

“I enjoyed every inch of my stay there. I was a member of Palm Wine Drinkers Club or Kegites. We were the noise makers in the University.

I also participated in the school politics. I was part of the Student Union Senate and also belonged to many other clubs like Rotaract Club, the students’ version of Rotary, Grand Ivy League Club and others.”

Lawyers in my family

Described as a brilliant lawyer by her brother, Mrs. Mary-Rose Ozoemena Nwadike nee Ngige, immediate elder sister of Emeka Ngige was the first lawyer in the family. This former Magistrate with Anambra State Judiciary got married to a gentleman based in Maryland, USA and relocated in 1990. There she got her license as an attorney in the states of Maryland, Washington DC and New York. She was earlier called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982 and had her LLM from University of Lagos (UNILAG). “As I mentioned before, she is one of my mentors and counsellors,” Ngige said.

Next is their eldest sister, Chief (Mrs.) Bernedette Nwachukwu. A former Matron at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, she did part time law at UNEC while working in the hospital and she made a 2.1 in her degree exam. After a brief legal practice in Enugu, she relocated to England and continued her nursing profession while at the same time also doing her LLM at University College of London. Called to the Bar in 1987, she is currently the Pro Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, University of Uyo. 

Infrastructural decay at Nigerian Law School

Chief Ngige said he is dedicating his 60th birthday to create awareness among stakeholders about the dire infrastructural state of Nigerian Law School (NLS) campuses. “The facilities have gone down. The best facility we had was the Lagos campus which was set up in 1963. They were in Igbosere but later moved to Victoria Island. Most of the structures were built at the end of the civil war. The auditorium was built when we were about to be called to bar in 1985. Then they moved to Abuja and inherited a Centre for Democratic Studies facilities in Bwari. The buildings are in terrible shape today. I have done two years as Chairman of the Council so I am dedicating the next 2 years of my tenure to see what impact I could make in infrastructural development. The subvention received from the government is very paltry. The Nigerian Law School gets about N1.6 billion for capital expenditure in a year for all the 6 campuses but how much would go round? So you will have to praise the Director General and his Deputy Directors General who are managing with the little funds they receive to keep the School afloat.

“I will use the occasion of my birthday to appeal to my brothers at the Inner Bar to donate in cash and in kind to the Nigerian Law School. Till date Abuja and Enugu are yet to equip their medical centres because they don’t have the funds to buy the equipment. With the challenges we are facing now, Covid-19 and other challenges, there’s urgent need to get the medical centres functional. The medical centres which were built around 2009 or 2008 are grossly inadequate for the growing students population.

“And I’m not necessary calling for cash donations but the School needs text books, mattresses, beds, chairs, Air conditioners, CCTV cameras in all the lecture halls and hostels. Apart from security reasons, the CCTV cameras would be needed for monitoring of students taking examinations.

“The Council is just the policy decision making organ of the Nigerian Law School, different from the management. We are involved in changes in curriculum, recruitment, discipline of staff and accreditation of new faculties of law. The Council is not involved in the day to day management of the school.” 

Increase in First Class Law Graduates from Nigerian Law School

“In my time two people made first class but then we were only 1,200. Now we have 6000 students. In our days there was no internet. Once you missed lectures, you’ve missed out unless you copy from your colleague’s notes. We laboriously took lecture notes but now the students have computers. They can play back the lectures they received over and over. Learning process is much easier now.

“The generation of children we have now are fast learners. We were not taught half of what my children are being taught in Corona School, Lagos for instance. So the foundation is there for them to explore and achieve the highest score in any examination. They have been prepared intellectually. In our days, some of us who were brilliant were just good at cramming the notes. But now it has gone beyond cramming; they give you a case scenario that you must provide legal advice.

“If you check closely, many of those with first class are still doing well abroad. If you follow or track some of them, you will see that they are now in Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and other Ivy League institutions for their post graduate education. They have gone far! Those who didn’t travel out have been head-hunted by the big law firms here. So I don’t believe that he standard has gone down as being claimed by some stakeholders. 

If someone scores 70% and you give him 50% I don’t think it’s fair. It’s a different environment now with Google and other search engines where you will get answers to every inquiry in a jiffy. In our own time before you get any information you have to search from one book to another.”

How he would like to be remembered

Chief Emeka Ngige would like to be remembered as a Barman per excellence, a firm believer in one Nigeria and as someone who contributed to the growth of the legal education in the country.

 “I remain grateful to Governor Nyesom Wike who in my own tenure as the Chairman of the Council of Legal Education by God’s grace commenced the building of Port Harcourt Campus of the Law School. The Federal Government has since given approval for its commencement. For me there is no honour more than this. The governor has promised to complete the project in six or eight months’ time which is well within our tenure. It will be a thing of joy for that project to be commissioned under my watch.

So in all we pray for the gift of life, good health, unity, progress, for prosperity and cessation of insecurity in our fatherland.”