You were born in Ghana, would you still remember your growing up years?

Yes, I was born in Ghana on September 11, 1932. I was brought to Ilorin when I was just about five years old. I came down here with my mother, Nana Aishat Akanbi. I went back to Ghana to start school in September at the age of seven. I went to African College Primary School in that year. The school was founded by Mr. Johnson, a Sierra Leonean and it was a very good school though more expensive than government schools. We had a very good foundation in that school. In fact, it made me what I am because the teachers were excellent and they showed keen interest in our wellbeing. When I reached Standard Four, I did not want to  leave African College, but my elderly brother said African College was not recognised by government and that they did not issue Standard Seven certificate. So, I  moved to Accra Royal School founded by  Mr. Kingston Mills and his brother, Mr. Blackson Mills. It was a very good school but it was not intellectually disposed as African College. But in terms of sports, such as football, athletics and others sports, it was one of the best in Accra in those days.

Some of the middle players in Ghana at that time came from that school. Many of the footballers went to that school like Wellington who was a goal keeper. I left there in 1950 and took my Cambridge certificate in 1953. I thank God that from there, I started work. 

In your days, education was not so fashionable, how were your parents able to train you in school?

My father, Bello Akanbi,  in terms of Western education was an illiterate. But he was an Islamic scholar. He lost his father when he was very young. He was born here in Ilorin and he stayed in Iponrin, a village because when his father died, he was left in the hands of an uncle who was making life difficult for him. So, he went to the village which was in the outskirts of Ilorin and took to farming.

He came to Ilorin and moved to Isale-Aluko here in Ilorin city to live with an aunt. He grew up there and it was there that he started business and moved to Lagos. In Lagos, he was doing business. When he was in Ilorin, he used to travel to Ede, Ogbomoso, Ibadan to trade in salt. That is why he was called Oniyo. When he then eventually decided to settle in Lagos at Oluwole in the house near the Lagudas, he started trading between Lagos, Kano and even went to Sierra Leone  but he settled down in Lagos. Whenever he ordered for goods and they had not arrived, he used to go to the court to watch court proceedings. And through that, he got to have a few friends and a teacher who was called Kazeem. Later, he became friends with people like the father of Rotimi Williams, the father of Fani-Kayode who were great lawyers at that time. He discovered that he learnt a lot from attending court and nursed the idea that the best thing was that his children must have  good education. The way the lawyers were treated in court, the way they bowed before young magistrates and the like inspired him. In fact, that was why he thought that I would either be a doctor or a lawyer. As God would have it, I had scholarship to read Law. And he was so strict that he would come to school and see whether I was attending school or roaming the street. If you missed school one day, when he had paid your school fees (because he used to give us money to pay our school fees), you then knew that you were in trouble at home.

He was a trader and an illiterate and so, he used the services of a letter writer. But after my father had ordered goods, the letter writer used to tell people that Akanbi had ordered for goods and he was selling. So my father felt if he gave us education, we would be his letter writers; so I was. By the time I was in Standard three in African College, I was writing letters for my father.

He had passion for Western education. In fact, he taught himself how to write in Yoruba, apart from his knowledge of Arabic. So I think this was what inspired him. The environment in which he lived in Lagos assisted him and when he went to Ghana, he took me along. He did not even wait for a moment before he sent me to school.

 You got scholarship to study at Ahmadu Bello University, how did you get the scholarship?

I got scholarship to study at the Institute of Administration, then it had not become ABU. I was very lucky I was appointed second class clerk and promoted assistant executive officer at Kaduna Training  Centre on the same date.  So I did very well at the training school. According to Papa Olajide, I topped the class. So when the advert came out for Law, Papa Olajide, an Egbeman who was living then at Constitutional Road in Kaduna, called me to his house and said that with my brain, the best thing was for me to apply for Law. In fact, I hesitated because I had already been summoned to the Premier Office to go and study Organisation and Method in Britain, I knew when I came back, I would  have a car and become a big man overnight. My heart was there. Then I consulted one of the lecturers at the Kaduna Training Centre. He said, ‘are you a mad man. Baba said you should apply for Law, why should you bother about Organisation and Method? Go and apply for that. Law will help you.’  So I applied and as God would have it, I attended an interview chaired by the same man who was the Chairman of the Executive Course Training that we attended.

Looking back, with the level you attained and the experience, are there times you wished you were not in the law profession?

No. When I was younger, I think I was inside the court once when I was in primary school in Ghana. I did not know what it was all about. Secondly, I had a wrong notion that a true Muslim should not read law. But it is amazing that my father who was an illiterate felt that I should read law. Also, when I entered for law, I found that I had a wrong notion of what it is all about. I am really grateful that I read Law because I used my knowledge of Law as an instrument of fighting the cause of the just, fighting hard to build a just and good country. So I have no regret whatsoever. I think the best thing that happened to me was that I read Law.

At 85, you have remained eloquent, dynamic and even in tune with current affairs, what could be the secret?

When I was in Ghana, I was an executive officer, I was the secretary of Convention Peoples Party in Ward 11. In my work place, I was a labour leader. I supervised elections. I was in the weekly council. I took part in the administration of Boxing Board of Control. I belonged to so many youth movements, I lectured and gave talks. That was why even when I went to read Law, appearing in court was no problem. If I am sitting in court, you see me as a different man. People believe I am gentle and quiet.

From my early days, I have learnt to be very outspoken even at school. Sometimes, some of my teachers did not like me because I was too outspoken or forward. But I believe in the rights of man. I believe in serving God and humanity. I am a voracious and avid reader. I read about lives of great men. Because they say that the lives of great men always remind us that we must live our lives sublime.  So the sublimity of my life, my commitment to make a mark encourage me to do all I did for humanity.

There are those who were appointed because of federal character. I remember one justice from Imo State, when they wanted to supersede him, I fought hard for him. He said, ‘what about you?’ I said my time has gone. Somebody had been appointed from my area. He was junior to me at the Bar and was also junior to me at the Bench. I knew it was not because of merit or competence but that was the situation I found myself. But as God would have it, I was the first to rise through the ranks because I was later appointed President, Court of Appeal. I thank God for that because by that appointment, I was able to touch many lives.

Also I became pioneer Chairman of ICPC, being picked out of so many people. The then President Olusegun Obasanjo kept saying that even if there were ten people, I was the one to be picked. It was the reputation I built on the bench. In private practice, I made a name in Kano. I was the one who started the Ministry of Justice here in Kwara when states were created. I am still not aware of any past judge who has built a school, set up a foundation like Mustapha Akabi Foundation, a library where people come and read.  All these were done through the instrumentality of God’s grace, who created the opportunity and the fora for me to use my brain to the fullest to the service of God and humanity.

 You eventually got a scholarship to study in England, how was life in a foreign land?

By the time I went to the United Kingdom, I was already a nationalist. I do not like imperialism. I was imbued with Nkrumah philosophy and I felt very happy that even before I left for the UK, Ghana had independence. When I was in Nigeria in 1960, Nigeria got independence, (in fact, the speech I gave during a public lecture on my 85th birthday talked of Africa of my years.) When I went to UK, I was conscious not to do anything to make  government withdraw my scholarship because all the years, my father had been paying my school fees. In the north, not many read Law that time. When they talk of Awolowo giving free education, but we had what I would call super free education because in Zaria, we were given houses and quarters and we were paid salaries and many things were given to us free. Books were bought for us free. I was lucky in all sense of the word for the opportunities that I had in Nigeria.

 You also passed the British Law School, was it by choice that you decided to come back home?

We were government scholars, we were being controlled. We even had course supervisors, expatriates, who wrote reports home about us, so you could not play hanky panky. So when I went there, some of my mates were already married and had children, I was a bachelor but because  I was determined that I would not marry unless I had a profession or qualified in a discipline, so I lived a humble life. I was serious and committed. I was able to finish my course, out of the 12 of us, who were in Zaria, four of us finished together. Justice Nwosu became the Chief Judge, the late Shehu Mohammed who died in a motor accident, a Supreme Court Judge, Anthony Ekundaro who ended up as a High Court judge and myself. We came home on schedule. We were the first four to come home.

 Would you have wished you became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria?

I had a SAN, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who is now 6th in the hierarchy of SANs; he was my junior in practice. He had produced many SANs. I started my chamber as Akanbi and Co, later it became Akanbi, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Co. I would have been a SAN long time ago. My father insisted that I should accept judgeship because he felt it was more honourable to become a judge from what he had seen of the lawyers in Lagos.

 You never joined politics, was it intentional?

It was intentional. When I came back to Nigeria, the opportunities that unfolded themselves to me favoured a lawyer. When I came, I discovered that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who had made a name in Ghana before coming to Nigeria, he was a newspaper editor, he influenced political appointment through write-ups he made. He even inspired Kwameh Nkrumah to get to America. I found that he was reasonably well off. I looked at Awolowo, who was also a lawyer, I found out that financially he was well off. I looked at Saduana of Sokoto, he was venerated in the North. Now, I had come, I had worked in the  Convention  Peoples Party in Ghana, Nkrumah had no money but he was the leader of the party and he broke away from the top class intellectuals to establish his party. I found out that if I did not seize the opportunity of what I had, I may not succeed in the context of Nigerian politics. I have no regret because it appears money is the god people worship in politics now. I am not made that way. It is a deliberate policy for which I have no regret. I believe that the path I am treading is the right path.

You were appointed a judge, just 10 years after you started practising, would you have wished to practise for a longer time moreso when lawyers make more money than judges?

On reflection, I thank God that what He had done for me is the best because my father asked me: ‘Why do you have to look for money and glory when honour and glory have been put at your footsteps? Go and take that. Forget about what you will give me and your mother.’ And they were those that mattered more to me if I got money. Even in Ghana, where I worked in the Ministry of Works, if I wanted to make money even at a tender age, I could have made it because I was in charge of opening contract for building road from Takwa. But I never did. If I had money, I would go after education. I left there and I came here and I had education free of charge.

 As the pioneer chairman of ICPC, how was the experience?

It was a good experience in the sense that when we started it, most of the people did not believe in the anti-corruption work. In fact, it was Obasanjo’s ideas and efforts that pushed me to accept it. He pleaded with me. That was why I left when I did five years, because it was rough. Sometimes we had no money to run the place and then we were inundated with cases in court. People like Chief Rotimi Williams, Chief Ben Nwabueze were against us and the states were against us and we had to fight the battle in court. Sometimes, I sat with the lawyers and worked out what to do because those who we took on said that the Federal Government had no jurisdiction to establish an anti-corruption body. And we had to go to court for almost three years out of five years that I was to spend there. Eventually we won. Chief Afe Babalola was brought in as amicus curiae (a friend of the court) when the CJ tried to bring Rotimi Williams and others to face them. We were working together hand in glove. We were able to get a decent house but financially when the criminals got the services of a good lawyer, they paid SANs huge sums of money and we had to look for lawyers who had to assist us because of my personal relationship with them like Lateef Fagbemi, John Bayeishea, the late Niyi Oshe (SAN). I had to get them and paid whatever we could and make sure they represented us. So it was not easy for us but then we were making a breakthrough. That was why after five years, I decided not to go a second term. The reason is this: I had the notion that there are things I can do for Nigeria on my own and to make a name.  When Obasanjo pleaded with me for second term, I begged him and reminded him that on the first day I was to take up the appointment, I told him that I would not do more than one term.

 Some people would have tried to bribe you to drop their cases, how did you handle such?

I know when I was a judge, nobody ever approached me to bribe me in a case because as you make your bed, so you lie on it. If you keep an open door for corrupt people to visit you and are friendly with them, they will come but once they know that if they come, there won’t be a headway for them, they would not come. In spite of that, I know a minister who came to see me about a case when we arrested two SANs, I asked him: ‘You people made the law, I am only operating the law, is it fair for you to come to me?  Are you being fair to me? I have taken the oath that I will do justice to all manners of people without  fear, favour, affection or ill-will.’  That was why when I was appointed, I challenged any one who had given me anything before to come forward and say it. Those who tried to corrupt people, they are always afraid, even if they are your boss, they become more afraid when you talk to them boldly and let them know that what they are doing is bad, they will never repeat it. They will go and tell other people not to come to that man.

 Can you remember your most memorable day in your career?

One of the memorable moments was a case I did which others were afraid to do. I remember a murder case I did in Benue State. At that time, my junior was to prosecute the accused but he made a deliberate effort to leave the case for me to do. I asked for adjournment in order to amend the charges. I had to prosecute eight of the accused. They were 12 but I stayed proceedings on four. The eight of them were all sentenced to death but I later learnt that they got pardon.

I also did a case in a magistrate court before Justice Kawu in Kano. The case involved the brother of the late Emir of Kano. He was a junior minister in government and people thought he could not be prosecuted because his boss who was Pakistani reserved the case when I was on leave. It was a case which brought problem between administrative officers and government. So  they thought they could influence me but it never worked. I prosecuted the case till the end.

There was also the case of Kano treasury fire case against the Maji of Kano, who was a high office holder and three administrative officers, I was their counsel.  I was able to get them out of the problem. There was also the case of Dr. Kumah who later became the Head of Medical Services, they did not like him. He trained in Russia and they wanted him to go to jail during Audu Bako’s time but I stood my ground, I fought for him and he got out of it. Before his appeal to the Supreme Court, I had been appointed to the bench but the appeal was dismissed in the Supreme Court. There are many. We did our best. Whether as a prosecutor or a counsel, I fought like a bulldog with tenacity of purpose.

 It appears that Law runs in your family as many of your family either read law. Can you tell us about your children?

Every child of mine who stayed in my house as I stayed in my father’s house, I taught him one of two lessons. Whenever I was travelling to Kano and I was in the car, I would be constructing poems and they would be listening to them. Therefore, maybe that fired their imagination to become a lawyer like me. I remember Justice Suleyman Akanbi when he represented the CJ of Kwara State at a ceremony in University of Ife, he mentioned it that this was the way I was bringing them up. All my nephews, I brought them up. When it came to my own children, I would lecture them, teach them when they were going to do common entrance exams. I took it that if my illiterate father could bring me up to this level, why should I fail not to do more.

 How many children do you have and how many went through the Law course?

I have six children, four of them are lawyers. I have a professor in Law, Mohammed; another son of mine is Dr. Shehu Usman Oladipo Akanbi who read Agriculture; I have Abdulhakeem who has a Master’s degree in English. I have Ahmed Akanbi, who is in Lagos practising; I have a daughter, Asmau who is a lawyer and she is currently a magistrate in Abuja.

You are believed to have only one wife. Is that true?

It is not true. I had one wife and she is dead now. In the course of my life, I married another wife who spent just about three years in my house. The reason is quite obvious: we were incompatible but there were challenges which made me marry her. But my first wife, who will be remembered as my only wife till I die, Hajia Munfa’atu Akanbi, we were inseparable. She was very disciplined. If I said, do not make friends with this woman, she would never do so. If they were doing something in the house and I said, I do not allow you to go, she would not go. It was not because I was dictatorial. She was a princess, the father was the Chief of the Yorubas in Asante District in Ghana. The mother, I knew very well. The maternal grandfather, I knew very well. The brothers, I knew very well. I told her my discipline the very moment she came in. Yes, she was very also helpful in the upbringing of the children. Where I went was where she would go. Where I did not want her to go, she would not go there. Nobody  ever tried to settle any dispute between us. An attempt was made by my brothers at one time, especially when I took the second wife, to settle a dispute. I told my father that it would be a shame if I was a judge and I could not settle dispute in my own house. So I told him he should tell them to dismiss since I had never interfered in their own marriages.

My father was bold to a fault. People knew that no matter who you were, my father would tell you the truth.  I did not do anything without the permission of my father. My father was the one who called me and said, “With all your faith in Almighty Allah, how can it be heard that your wife is involved in retailing beer. I said, ‘Papa, do not talk, you made me to marry her for the reason you gave and I did not ask any question. So if I am going to leave her, I do not want them to mention your name. I will handle it. I just told her to leave the job, she did not and that was the end of my marriage with her. I had heard it but I pretended not to know. But once my father had mentioned it, I did not want anything that would make him unhappy. I also found that we were incompatible.

Can you relive the memory of how you met your first wife?

I met her only one day, you will not believe it. I knew all the family but I met her only one day. I was determined not to marry in England, I did not want to marry an Oyinbo woman, I did not want to marry a Nigerian woman whose background I did not know. So I decided to come home. When I was in Accra, I met one girl and I spoke with her and another lady who was fairly also close to her family. I interviewed her, incidentally, I lodged with her brother and I told a friend that I did not want any piece of advice. It had to be my decision. By the time I interviewed her, I found she was intelligent. She was a prefect in the school she went and she had the background of decency of mind to appreciate the values which my mother appreciated in my father.

So I went back to Accra. My father said, ‘Have you now seen your wife?’ because at that time, they used to give us wives for free in Ilorin tradition. So I told my father that I had met one but I would not say anything until I got to Lagos; I said he would get my letter. Luckily for me, our result in the Law School had been published in the Daily Times, so I knew I passed. So after my call to the Bar, I went to Marina Post Office in Lagos and bought a paper and I wrote to my father that they should go and ask of her hand in marriage for me. That is my wife that died. My father was delighted because her father was also his friend. Her maternal grandfather was my father’s friend too. That was how I married her. When she came, I gave her a lecture of my style and pattern of life; home discipline is paramount and I have a commitment to the society and she appreciated all these things. In fact, when people came here and praised her, you would think they were living with us in the same room.

You reached the peak of your career as a judge and became the President, Court of Appeal and later, pioneer Chairman, ICPC, would you have asked for more given the chance?

When I became President of the Court of Appeal, it was the year I resolved that I was going to retire but God had his own way of handling his own. Most of those in the Supreme Court by then, some of them even were junior to me. They worked under me but I became a victim of federal character.

Justice Mustapha Akanbi, 85-year-old is a former President of the Court of Appeal. He is also a pioneer Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission. 

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