By Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN
INTRODUCTION
My attention has just been drawn to a raw viral diatribe, not a scholarly intervention or conversation, by one Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo. It is allegedly based on an interview I granted to Kayla Megwa on her Hardcopy programme. He made his evil intention known from the very beginning of his write-up which was to go after me (the messenger) and not the message (substance of my interview). My first reaction was to ignore his diatribe maximally as the rantings and lachrymal effusion from the tired eyes of an obviously envious and jealous warped soul who cannot contemplate the heights Almighty God has taken me to from my very humble beginnings. I did not want to swim in the gutters with him so as to prevent him from using me to gain traction and unearned presence. I later decided to respond to him lest his false rantings be mistaken for substance and truth. Truth be told, I have never heard of that fellow called Mutalabi Ojo Adebayo prior to today. And I will tell you how anon.
THE UNPROVOKED DIATRIBE
In no portion of my 25 minutes interview with HARD COPY anchored by Kayla Megwa did he tell the world one single thing he claimed I did wrong. Wearing the garb of a social media blogger who peddles cheap fake news like a drama Queen, Mutalubi, without touching the issues I discussed, simply engaged only in vicious insults, abuses, expletives, vituperations, all aimed at tarnishing my hard-earned and God-given image and reputation. This he also did to Mr. Peter Obi who did not even feature in the said interview. What manner of a character will simply attack people who did no wrong to him? If he thought I was going to sue him to court for defamation and thereby put him in undeserved limelight, he has woefully failed in his invidious mission of narcissism and ego-trip.
A SOUL THAT CAN NOT INTERROGATE ISSUES WITHOUT RESORT TO DIATRIBE
I am not surprised Mutalabi could not speak to the critical issues I raised. Afterall, going by his own words in his outing, his television set is “always and permanently” glued to Channels television and no more. He does not read widely (if he ever does at all); does not watch other major news outlets such as CNN, Fox, BBC, Al Jazeerah and the likes. He is thus limited in his warped circumscribed world view as he is ossified in his own small cocoon of ignorance. It is obvious that Mutalubi was merely out to settle scores with perceived or assumed enemies.
I never knew him before now. He was only mentioned to me by a friend after my attention was drawn to his uncouth and indecent outing. That was when I asked who exactly he was. I have never heard about him as a known contributor to issues concerning democracy, law, governance, human rights or national discourse. And he says he is a Senator and Senior Advocate?. Ha! I was also informed he is one of the ‘boys’ of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN. Did he do what he did to impress the learned Silk? I am not too sure his boss with whom I am quite friendly and have mutual respect for each other having crossed swords in many legal battles over the years will not disapprove of the unprovoked vitriol and fulmination of an angry soul that he is. A cerebral mind would have dwelt on the critical issues I raised in my interview (message), not on the messenger (me as a person).
THE CRITICAL ISSUES I RAISED IN MY INTERVIEW
ONE-PARTY STATE
Mutalubi could not fault me on my fears of a possible impending one-party state in Nigeria based on the various defections we are currently witnessing. I argued that a one-party state may lead to dictatorship, unbridled corruption, lack of checks and balances; and later implosion. I gave the example of the PDP which in 16 years became so powerful and so comfortable that it boasted it would rule for 60 years. It even engaged in deregistering members rather than driving for membership .I argued that if the fractured opposition does not put its act together, Tinubu may have only himself to beat in a race in which he will simply run against himself. Mutalubi did not and could not fault me. I believe he does not even understand the issue. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsIfiuUqRqs > accessed on 10th June, 2025).
OIL SUBSIDY REMOVAL
In my interview, I queried what the oil subsidy extra money was being used for in the last two years to improve the lives of the average Nigerian. I never even condemned the subsidy removal itself as the pseudo-critic brazenly lied about. I even encouraged President Tinubu in my interview to seize the momentous opportunity offered him by destiny to write his name in gold by putting the nation on a prosperous track. I advised him that great leaders are known when their countries are in deep crisis, citing historical figures such as Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, etc, who squared up to challenges when their countries were troubled. Mutalubi probably did not hear this.
LAGOS-CALABAR COASTAL ROAD AND THE FLOATATION OF THE NAIRA
I also in my interview questioned the immediate relevance of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road costing over 11-12 Billion Dollars at a time Nigerians are dying of hunger, starvation and destitution. Mutalubi, the self-appointed economist, did not and could not fault me. He simply talked glibly about the necessity for floatation of the naira (an issue I did not even dwell on). For a man who narcissistically boasted of A1 in Economics at his Advanced level examination, I expected a rational discourse. He had none.
THE JUDICIARY
In the interview, I defended the Judiciary against its continued age-long marginalization and called for better welfare and salaries for Judges as a way of making corruption unattractive. On the JUSUN strike action, I wondered what value even the unpaid N70,000 minimum wage would add to its members’ lives having regard to the present high inflationary trend. He said nothing about these.
NASS, LOANS, ETC
I pointed out how 11,122 projects were infused into the 2025 budget (according to BudgIT, a Civil Society Organization), costing a whopping N6.93 trillion which represents 12.6 % of the total budget of N54.99 trillion. The self-assumed backyard economist said nothing. I lamented Nigeria’s staggering debt burden of about N150 trillion. Mutalubi only praised his paymasters as redeemers of Nigeria, even while contradictorily lamenting the near collapse of his wife’s rice business. On floatation of the naira which he invented as I did not discuss it, I thought I would hear him interrogate how our country that mostly relies on imports for survival and does not produce export-oriented goods, nor invest heavily in education, technology and skilled labour with added government incentives and tax holiday would leap forward like the Asian Tigers did.
Why would Nigeria which depends largely on a mono-product of oil and with multiple taxation, slow disputes-resolution mechanism, etc, float her helpless Naira currency against major ones? He said nothing about it other than to simply deploy defamatory words against me. What do we earn from exports as against imports to float the Naira, he did not say. I can understand him perfectly as a partisan card-carrying politician given to perks from the Master’s tables in the corridors of power and must therefore nurture be seen to his means of livelihood by trumpeting his paymasters’ perceived achievements. I am not like him.
Nigeria has been borrowing trillions of Naira on the head of generations yet unborn without stating how we will pay back, a point I clearly made in my interview. I am sure president Tinubu (I doubt if Mutalubi knows we are friends and have been so since the military locust years of the early 90s) whom I had good words for in some areas in my interview where I believed he has done well will be embarrassed reading this fawner and bootlicker’s lame defence of his government. I believe he does not need a Mutalubi. He has better media handlers. I wonder why, instead of exercising his right of freedom of expression by contradicting me through contribution to plurality of ideas, all that Mutalubi could do was to use acerbic expletives on me without provocation. His was nothing but the Shakespearean “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing” (Macbeth, Act V, Scene V, lines 17-28).
I CANNOT BE PSEUDO IN ANYTHING I HAVE TOUCHED
Without meaning to descend into Mutalubi’s nadir of vain-glorious egocentricism and opportunism (what he falsely accused me of), the bad news for Mutalubi is that I had made A1 in Economics in my WAEC’s WASC in the 70s. I read authoritative books on economics authored by great Nigerian economists such as Areoye Ayebola and Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran (later Owa Obokun of Ijesha land). I was already reading Economics as one of my majors in my A Levels at Baptist Academy, Lagos, before I was offered three consecutive admissions in the then Concessional Entrance Examination (as it was then called), to UNN, Nsukka, University of Ibadan and the University of Ife (now OAU), Ile-Ife. I chose Ife. I finished Law at Ife and also lectured there.
I am happy to announce to Mutalubi that some of my constitutional law and Nigerian Legal System classes students at that time (without mentioning their names) are today some of the best Justices of the Court of Appeal and Judges of the Federal High Court and High Courts across Nigeria. I also taught constitutional law at the Benson Idahosa University (BIU), Benin City and some of my then students are already nearly 20 years at the Bar. In case the non- reading Mutalubi does not know, I am an author of over 75 books (I launched a whole 50 books on a single occasion to mark my 67th birthday in October, 2024). Some of my earliest law books are the Nigerian Law of Locus Standi, the Nigerian Law of Contract and Nigerian Company and Partnership Law and Practice, all written in 1988 when I was barely 7 years at the Bar and when Mutalubi was struggling with his HSC ).
Thus, by 1988 when he was still writing his A Level papers, I had already authored my first three law books as a young lawyer and researcher. He can easily find many of my books on Amazon and other international outlets. Indeed, one of my books, Commercial and Economic Law in Nigeria has since been published as Volume 91 (2021) in the International Encyclopedia of Laws. And Mutalubi questions my professorship? I have always been a scholar and law teacher aside being a courtroom lawyer and rights activist. I have visiting professorship in constitutional law from some first rate Universities, including the Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), Ado Ekiti; Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State, Philomath University, Abuja; and Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State; etc.
I write columns for 8 newspapers every week and I have done this since 2014. With a view to strengthening and widening the depth and breadth of democracy and good governance in Nigeria, I have been a public speaker and social critic, delivering tons of lectures every year at major intellectual gatherings that seek to build a just nation driven by egalitarianism, religious and ethnic tolerance and respect for human rights, human dignity and the rule of law. I was a Federal Government delegate at the 2005 National Political Conference, the Vision 2020 Conference and the 2014 National Conference where, with all humility, I was pronounced “THE CICERO OF THE 2014 NATIONALCONFERENCE” by the conference leadership of late Hon Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi (JSC, of blessed memory) (Chairman) and distinguished elderstatesman, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi (Vice Chairman).
So, there is nothing pseudo about me. I am real, legit and genuine. As a trail blazer in human rights activism in Nigeria, I co-founded the first human rights organization in Nigeria-the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) – which was birthed on 15th October, 1998. Some Nigerian patriots and I fought against military incursion, dictatorship and occupation of Nigeria, using the CLO and the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria, JACON (which I also co-founded with legendary Chief Gani Fawehinmi, with me as its national Vice Chairman, publicity and publications).
I also used the platform of my solely founded Universal Defenders of Democracy, UDD (now Universal Defenders of Justice Initiative (UDJI) to fight military dictatorship. I do not know where Mutalubi was at that time. I was one of the founding Assistant Editors of the Nigerian Weekly Law Report (NWLR). Indeed, I suggested its name and colour to its founder, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, GCON. We launched it on Tuesday, 1st October, 1985, while I was Chief Gani’s Deputy Head of Chambers.
A mere Google search will show these and more. I have never heard about one Mutalubi contributing to our country’s development, growth and re-engineering. He is obviously one of the docile Nigerians I referred to into my interview who withdraws into their comfort zones and eat crumbs from their political masters’ tables.
EMEFIELE’S CASE
Mutalubi accused me of handling the case of Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the former Governor of Central Bank and claimed I later left him in limbo during jis criminal trial. Satanic verse. A life from the pit of hell!
Mr. Emefiele had revealed his interest to run for the 2023 presidential election and addressed the issue following reports that a group had purchased the ₦100 million presidential nomination and expression of interest forms of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on his behalf. The news was that some opponents were working hard to prevent him from running because at that time, he was still the Governor of CBN and had not resigned his appointment. He then desired to sue the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney-General of the Federation, asking for the determination of certain questions and with a request for the court to restrain them from compelling him to resign as the CBN Governor in order to contest the 2023 elections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-00omOUZNuQ > accessed on 10th June, 2025).
Emefiele’s briefing to me through our mutual friend was simple and straightforward: the question was whether the 1999 Constitution, Emefiele was qualified to run for the office of the president. And yes, he was. I analysed all the relevant provisions of the Constitution and found that he was so qualified to run (https://punchng.com/emefiele-heads-for-court-as-anger-spreads-over-presidential-ambition/> accessed on 10th June, 2025). We held a meeting with the mutual friend and then went to court. While the case was progressing, he later instructed me to withdraw the matter as the then President, Buhari had instructed him to discontinue with his presidential ambition. He did not pay me one kobo himself. The mutual friend of ours (name withheld) had actually briefed me on his behalf before we met. It was this mutual friend who paid me an agreed fee. I am not aware he or Emefiele paid me ‘tons of millions of naira” or that I extorted same from Emefiele as falsely claimed by Mutalubi. Mutalubi’s recklessness drove him to accuse me of champerty and or extorting money from Emefiele as professional fees. I challenge him to provide proof of those vile and false allegations. When Emefiele was later arrested and detained, I was one of the very first few Nigerians to publicly condemn his detention without trial (https://www.thisdaylive.com/2023/08/15/ozekhome-emefiele-bawa-victims-of-executive-lawlessness/?amp> accessed on 10th June, 2025). I could not have briefed myself or urged Emefiele to brief me to handle his subsequent criminal matters when he was eventually charged to court I have never in my 44 years of legal practice asked a client for any brief. His right to a counsel of his own choice is constitutionally guaranteed (see section 36 of the 1999 Constitution). How then could I have abandoned him? Has Mutalubi ever heard of the CAB-RANK RULE, or the 22nd November, 1967 decision in Rondel v Worsely (1967) 3 WLR 1666 and the immortal dictum of Lord Denning in it? I very much doubt, as he does not read. He is more of a politician and a Channels television addict than a serious lawyer. I heard he was an Attorney General of Oyo State? Gosh!!! Not even a roadside vulcanizer would be that irresponsible.
Did Mutalabi have to insult me simply because he disagrees with my views in favour of his paymasters? Do I have to agree with the situation of the mass suffering that is currently ravaging Nigeria and not comment on it when even under the military Tinubu and I could fiercely interrogate governmental actions? Let him tell us how much his wife is selling rice whose price he claims has crashed? If she can sell a bag of rice for between N50,000 and N70,000 (minimum wage) my foundation – Mike Ozekhome Foundation (MOF) – will immediately order 100 bags from her. His jealous streak actually ran riotous when he rolled out a list of his preferred lawyer- idols which list he claimed I do not belong to. The small list is only as far as his little mind could go. I am not in any competition with anybody. So, I do not begrudge him. He also rolled out a list of his favorite television personalities. I also do not begrudge him, though many will not agree with it, having deliberately left out some celebrated stars who may not be in his vindictive books.
SOME OF MY WORKS
My numerous works are visible on marble for all to see – activism, pro-democracy works, human rights, social critic, the academia, researcher and author of law and sundry books on different thematic areas; writer and contributor to national discourse; frequent guest and the keynote lecturer; advocate of traditional institution; defender of the masses, music and movie industry; law, governance, church, community, family, etc. Truth is that I wear so many caps which Mutalubi in his little warped mind cannot simply fathom. He cannot understand how one man can combine all these things aside his normal rigorous legal practice and daily court appearances. He erroneously sees me only from the prism of the usual lawyer, in which, with all humility), I have equally excelled – SAN, Life Bencher, FCIArb, NEC member for many years; handler of numerous jurisprudentially-defining cases in Nigerian courts, up to the apex court; and Counsel at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Hague, Netherlands.
Thus, because of my coats of many colours (thanks, Dolly Parton), I am entitled to “adorn and embellish” my chambers (he did not say in the public) “various photographs and personalities” (where else would I keep them?) of my idols in many fields, such as Lord Denning, Justice J.I.C Taylor, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Mahatma Gandhi; some select traditional rulers; statesmen and women, et al. It is in the same way he was free to list his pet idol-lawyers. I do not begrudge him at all, even if I do not agree with his subjective list. Mutalubi surely reasons “ad absurdum”. I pity him. It strains reason and sense for him to suggest that I would be advertising myself in my own personal office to “unsuspecting members of the public who are gullible”. I pity this man. He sure deserves pity.
Nowhere is it stated in our law books that a chambers office, should contain only law books and nothing more. I am happy to note that he was merely a bag-carrier for late Governor Akerodolu (Aketi; my good friend of many decades right from Ife days in the 70s). So, Mutalabi was just an adult carrying Aketi’s bag at a time Aketi already considered me important and fit enough as a stake holder whose voice mattered for the realization of his NBA presidency. And we worked very hard for him and he won. And Mutalubi now thinks he can diminish this? He cannot, even as an historical revisionist that he is.
DRAWING THE CURTAINS
Mutalubi gleefully signed off his nonsensical writeup with eclat, by listing his traditional chieftaincy titles obtained in two communities in two local Governments Areas of Oyo State. Congratulations! The bad news for Mutalubi is that I hold dozens of major traditional chieftaincy titles across the length and breadth of Nigeria (North, South, East and West), including his own Yoruba land. For the record, I am the Ba’Loro of Igando, Lagos (1995); the Bamofin of Ijaniki Kingdom, Lagos (2014); and the Maiyegun Baamofin of Ido-Osun, Osun State (2016). By the grace of Almighty God and Jesus Christ of Nazareth, no man (least Mutalubi) can pull me down from God’s height through puerile writeups.
He should grow up and let go of his pent-up grievances, envy and “bad belle” that are fiercely eating him up over someone else’s progress. Let him stay on his own lane, and I, mine. He should allow “Oga Mike continue to interrogate governments and speak truth to power as I have done for well over 40 years. He is also very free to carry out his own defence of his pet government that he christens “divine” and bootlick it till eternity. It is his right to do so. The two are mutually exclusive. But he must eschew personal attacks on contributors to our national resurgimento like me. He is not one of them.
Watch the video that began it all below.
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
