WALTER SAMUEL NKANU ONNOGHEN, CJN is the new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), following the retirement of Justice Mahmud Mohammed who clocked 70 on Thursday, November 10.
Onnoghen is remarkably the first southerner to be CJN since 1987 when Ayo Irikefe retired.
The new CJN was born on December 22, 1950 in Biase, Cross River state. He went to Presbyterian Primary School, Okurike, Biase, from 1959 to 1965 and moved to Ghana for his secondary education from 1967 to 1972. He did his A’Level at the Accra Academy in 1972 and studied law at the University of Ghana, Legon, from 1974 to 1977.
He came back to Lagos to enroll in the Nigerian Law School between 1977 and 1978, thereafter worked as pupil state counsel, ministry of justice, in Ikeja, Lagos and Ogun states between 1978 and 1979.
A Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Hon. Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen has attended several conferences and seminars around the world. He is a member of the Body of Benchers and also a Life Bencher.
Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen was appointed chairman of the Failed Bank Tribunal, Ibadan zone, in 1998, from where he moved on to become a justice of the court of appeal. In the year 2005, Onnoghen was elevated to the Nigerian Supreme Court as one of the justices.
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS/POSITIONS HELD
- PUPIL STATE COUNSEL: Ministry of Justice, Ikeja, Lagos, Ogun State. Started: 1978. Ended: 1979
- PARTNER: Effiom Ekong & Company Law Firm, Calabar . Started: 1979. Ended: 1988
- PRINCIPAL PARTNER/HEAD OF CHAMBER: Onnoghen & Associates, Calabar. Started: 1988. Ended: 1989
- JUDGE: High Court, Cross River State. Started: 1989. Ended: 1998
- CHAIRMAN: Cross Rivers State Armed Robbery and Fire Arms Tribunal. Started: 1990. Ended: 1993
- CHAIRMAN: Judicial Enquiry into the Crisis between Student of the University of Calabar and Obufa Esuk Orok Community, Calabar. Started: 1996. Ended: 1996
- CHAIRMAN: Failed Bank Tribunal, Ibadan Zone. Started: 1998
- JUDGE: High Court, Rivers State. Started: 1992. Ended: 2004
- JUSTICE: Court of Appeal. Started: 1998. Ended: 2004
- JUSTICE: Supreme Court of Nigeria. Started: 2005
WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT WALTER ONNOGHEN
- Read the lead judgment directing Senate President, Bukola Saraki to face trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal
- Served on the dreadful state Armed Robbery and Firearms Tribunal
- Survived a fatal gun attack in 1981 when the vehicle in which he was travelling to Ogoja, Cross River State for a case involving then Mercantile Bank; was stopped by some unknown gunmen, who opened fire on him and his travel companions. His principal, Effiom Ekong, SAN, died in this attack.
- Still as a young lawyer, he established an extremely good law office well stocked with law books along Edibe Edibe Street in Calabar. He however donated the chambers to his friend, Francis Esu, now deceased, when he had to go to the bench.
- When in 1988, the then Chief Justice of Cross River State, Justice Edem Kufre requested the best lawyers from the state to be elevated to the bench. Onnoghen, who was among the lawyers recommended, rejected the offer.
- Justice Onnoghen is a d evout Presbyterian.
AGENDA-SETTING
Some stakeholders in the justice sector have attempted to set an agenda for the CJN. They want him to focus on the following:
- The restoration of public confidence in the judiciary
- The need to spear-head reforms in the appointment and discipline of judges
- To focus on tackling the rot in the system by paying special attention to corruption in the judiciary
- Ensure efficient justice delivery at all times
