By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze

The judgment that closed Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu will long be remembered, not for its legal brilliance, but for its timidity. What unfolded in Justice James Kolawole Omotosho’s courtroom was not an act of judicial conviction but an exhibition of caution masquerading as law. The ruling did not silence controversy; it amplified the question every democracy must face: when the Constitution stands against power, who defends the Constitution?

Omotosho’s decision was the perfect study in restraint turned into abdication. It carried the syntax of legality but none of its substance. The courtroom decorum …

How Nigeria’s Bench Became the Quiet Hand of Power

By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze

Every nation eventually confronts a moment when its courts must choose between constitutional fidelity and political survival. Nigeria’s judiciary met that moment in the trial of Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu. What should have been a test of evidence became a test of courage. And courage, tragically, was in short supply.

The Federal High Court, presided over by Justice James Kolawole Omotosho, did not simply decide a case; it revealed a system. His courtroom became the looking glass through which Nigerians saw the quiet …

When Procedure Became Politics in the Trial of Nnamdi Kanu

By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze

There are moments in a nation’s judicial history when a single courtroom crystallizes the tension between law, power, and when the bench becomes not merely a place of adjudication, but a mirror reflecting the state of justice itself. The case of Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu, as presided over by Justice James Kolawole Omotosho, was one such moment. It was less a trial about guilt or innocence and more a referendum on the resilience of Nigeria’s constitutional order under political heat.

At its …

By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze

The courtroom delivered its sentence; history received a rebuttal. When the gavel fell in Abuja, it was not a lawyer who spoke next, but a woman who understood that silence, too, can be cross-examined. Uchechi Okwu-Kanu, wife of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, stepped forward and turned private pain into a constitutional argument.

A Voice That Spoke the Law

Her words carried no theatrics. They were measured, almost prosecutorial. She asked the single question that underpins every system of justice: By what law was he convicted? In those few syllables lay …

From “How Justice Omotosho Goofed in Kanu’s Trial”

A Seven-Day Legal Exposé

By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze
Investigative Journalist | Public Intellectual | Global Governance Analyst | Health & Social Care Expert | International Business/Immigration Law Professional |Strategic & Management Economist

A courtroom is supposed to be a sanctuary for reason. Its oxygen is procedure; its heartbeat, the written record. When either fails, justice begins to imitate theatre.

In the trial of Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu, Justice James Kolawole Omotosho’s bench ceased to function as an instrument of law and began to perform as an …

From “How Justice Omotosho Goofed in Kanu’s Trial”

A Seven-Day Legal Exposé

By
Prof. MarkAnthony Nze
Investigative Journalist | Public Intellectual | Global Governance Analyst | Health & Social Care Expert | International Business/Immigration Law Professional |Strategic & Management Economist

Justice James Kolawole Omotosho’s ruling in Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu has already entered the annals of Nigerian jurisprudence—not as a triumph of clarity, but as a cautionary example of how constitutional fidelity can yield to political convenience. It was a moment when the bench seemed to satisfy the yearnings of power rather than the precision …