The greatness of Justice Lawal Uwais, JSC, can be measured by the number of high-quality judgments he left behind.
Some of these landmark judgments have had a positive impact on the careers of lawyers—including mine.
I want to tell the story of just one such judgment.
The year was early 2007. I was in the conference room of one of Nigeria’s top ten law firms in Lagos State.
I had been specifically headhunted and recruited because I held a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in legislative drafting, to join the team drafting the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007.
In the room were the then Attorney-General of Lagos State—who would later become the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria—his Special Adviser (a professor of law at the University of Lagos), and partners from the firm, one of whom was Funke Adekoya, SAN.
There I was—a young lawyer, just three years post-call, and a very junior associate of the firm—making a presentation to this esteemed panel of senior legal minds.
The law firm was representing the Lagos State Government in a legal dispute.
The Federal Government of Nigeria had prohibited the Lagos State Government from undertaking a crucial infrastructure project, arguing that, under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the said infrastructure fell within the exclusive legislative competence of the National Assembly.
The partner in charge of infrastructure law challenged us, the junior associates, to conduct legal research and identify a possible solution.
Of all the junior associates, I was the one who managed to identify that solution.
Beyond online desktop legal research, I had gone to the law library at the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), University of Lagos campus, where I found the answer.
The solution lay in one of NIALS’ law books titled “Constitutional Judgments of Hon. Justice Lawal Uwais, JSC.” It is also captured in Chapter 3 of another book titled “Uwais Through the Cases” authored by Prof. Bayo Osipitan, SAN. The latter is available online at: https://www.bayoosipitanandco.com/assets/docs/Uwais_through_the_Cases.pdf
In a nutshell, the legal solution I identified came from the lead judgment of Uwais, JSC, in the case of Attorney-General of Lagos State v. Attorney-General of the Federation (2003) 12 NWLR (Pt. 833) 1.
In that case, the major issue was whether the provisions of the Urban and Regional Planning Act No. 88 of 1992 prevented the Lagos State Government from embarking on infrastructure projects in furtherance of the Lagos State master plan.
Uwais, JSC, held as follows:
“It then follows that the National Assembly has powers to protect and safeguard land. Therefore, in general, the 1992 Act is not inconsistent with the Constitution. The power to protect and safeguard land is concurrent with that of State Houses of Assembly. See Attorney-General of Ondo State v. Attorney-General of the Federation (2002) pp. 29, 306–307. As such, both the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly can legislate on ‘safeguarding land’ under Section 20 of the Constitution.”
Based on my reference to this Supreme Court judgment by Uwais, JSC, the Hon. Attorney-General of Lagos State and his delegation were able to convince the then Attorney-General of the Federation to grant Lagos State permission to proceed with the infrastructure project—since it did not violate the Nigerian Constitution.
After Lagos State, Rivers State followed suit!
As a direct consequence of my presentation on this matter, when I was leaving the firm to begin a PhD in Law at the University of London, one of the partners—who had witnessed my presentation—gave me a generous donation, both in cash and goodwill.
That letter and gesture were a huge boost—a shot in the arm—for my then fledgling career as a lawyer!
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