Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu [1941-2018]
This country lost yet another statesman and legal luminary with the death on July 18, 2018 of retired Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Aloysius KatsinaAlu. He died at an orthopaedic hospital in Abuja at the age of 77. He was born on August 28, 1941 in Benue State and he started his early education at St Anne’s Primary School Tarungwa and St. Patricks Primary School Taraku, before he went to Mount St. Michaels Secondary School Aliede, in Benue State. He studied Law at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria before proceeding to the Inns of Court School of Law and the Gibson Weldon College of Law, University of London. The late CJN was called to the English Bar in October 1967 and the Nigerian Bar on June 28, 1968. He began his legal career in July 1968 as a private lawyer in Lagos. He then he became a Legal Officer at the Nigeria Ports Authority NPA, Lagos between 1969 and 1977.
After leaving NPA, Katsina-Alu became the AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice of Benue State in 1978, a position he held until 1979 when he was appointed a judge of the Benue State High Court. From the High Court in Benue, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 1985, where he served until November 1998, when he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court. He was sworn in as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on 25th November 1998 and after spending 11 years on the Bench he became the 11th Chief Justice of Nigeria on December 30, 2009. He retired from this exalted position on August 26, 2011.
Katsina-Alu was indeed a quintessential judge who left indelible marks in the nation’s legal jurisprudence through his contributions to justice administration in Nigeria and to the reshaping of the Electoral Act 2010 and several incisive judgments emanating from several suits and litigations. The late CJN also contributed immensely to the development of the legal profession in Nigeria through reasoned pronouncements, decisions and administrative acumen as head of nation’s highest court. He it was who resolved the thorny constitutional issue of the pre-conditions for the removal of the governor of a state under Section 188 of the 1999 constitution and his pronouncements ended the reckless impeachment of state governors by the presidency.
It is true that his tenure as Chief Justice was enveloped in controversy over what became known as the KatsinaAlu/Isa Ayo Salami saga. The then President of the Court of Appeal Justice Salami went public with allegations of corrupt interference against the Chief Justice. Katsina-Alu had tried to promote Salami to be a justice of the Supreme Court, which the latter saw as being kicked upstairs. Even though most of the news media took sides with Salami and convicted KatsinaAlu on their pages, the issue was not as straight forward as that because the CJN asked the Election Petition Tribunal not to deliver a ruling on case that was already before the Supreme Court as a pre-election matter. Historians who re-examine this matter will be kinder to Chief Justice Katsina-Alu.
That controversy should however not overshadow his enduring legacies and distinguished service to the nation and the legal profession. In his condolence message, President Muhammadu Buhari said Katsina-Alu’s knowledge, experience and diligence impacted greatly on governance in Nigeria as he featured prominently in landmark cases and expressed belief that “the late CJN left behind a legacy of discipline, brilliance and diligence that younger jurists should emulate.”
The man Katsina-Alu was an erudite jurist, a man of few words, a passionate and courageous jurist of uncommon pedigree and deeply imbued with humility who left giant steps on the sands of judicial time. He served Nigeria diligently and will be remembered in the annals of our national history as the defender of democracy, the pillar of the rule of law, the sacred defender of the constitution and due process.