Mohammed Bello (jurist)

Mohammed Bello was born into a titled Fulani family in Katsina, his father Muhammadu Gidado was the Mufti of the Katsina Emirate (chief Muslim legal adviser to the Emir)[2]; and descendant of Mallam Isyaka Daura, a contemporary of Uthman dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate.[3] He started his education at the Katsina Elementary School in 1938, and moved to Katsina Middle School in 1942. He attended Barewa College from 1945 to 1948.[4]

He then proceeded to the University College Ibadan where he studied Latin alongside childhood friend Justice Mamman Nasir. Between 1953 and 1956, he received legal training and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in London. He returned to Nigeria in 1956, and was appointed a Crown counsel to the Government of Northern Nigeria in Kaduna. In this role, he served the Crown as a colonial civil servant and prosecuted in the name of the Queen until Nigerian Independence in 1960.[5]

In 1961, he became the first chief magistrate in Northern Nigeria. In 1962, he spent a year at the Harvard Law School. He became Director of Public Prosecution in Northern Nigeria, in 1964, a position he held until the 1966 Nigerian coup d'état.[6]

The fall of the First Republic and the military incursion into politics led to the Nigerian Civil War, Bello was appointed a high court judge in Kaduna, in 1966, and was acting and later Chief Justice of Northern Nigeria between 1969 and 1975. In 1975, after over nine years as a judge in the high court of Northern Nigeria, Bello was appointed by General Murtala Mohammed to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.[7]

At the Supreme Court, he gained respect amongst his peers for his judicial activism and protecting the court against the excesses of the military regimes in judicial matters.[8] Bello was awarded the Order of the Niger in two classes – Commander of the Order of the Nigeria; and, in 1987, Grand Commander of the Order of Niger. He won an award from the World Jurist Association in Montreal. He was also given honorary doctorates from the University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, and Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria.

In 1987, Bello became the first Chief Justice of Nigeria from Northern Nigeria. As chief justice, he steered the wheels of the judiciary towards the rule of law and largely attempted to check the military's use of force in the administration of justice. He nonetheless, viewed the supremacy of power as legitimate an action which drew him criticism as a military apologist.[9]

In 1995, he retired from the bench and became a statuory member of the Council of State. He was involved as either patron, trustee or adviser to several associations including chairman of Katsina Foundation, Gamji Members’ Association, Barewa Old Boys Association, and the Nigerian Bar Association. Mohammed Bello died on 4 November 2004.[10]

• Justice Kuti, Mohammed Bello: Honorauble Gentleman, Eminent Jurist, GLJ Press
• Nigerian Vanguard, Nov 5, 2004, Justice Bello
• Xinhua News Agency, September 28, 1994, Concord Journalists
• Thisday, Nigeria November 23, 2004, Justice Bello