It was a foremost American basketball coach and player, John Robert Wooden Nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood” that opined that “there is a choice you make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make, makes you.”
The Hon. President of the National Industrial Court, Hon. Justice Benedict Kanyip, Ph.D., FNIALS will be the lead speaker at the first historic Hon. Justice Niki Tobi biennial symposium scheduled for Thursday 2nd December 2021, organized by A.T. Socio-Judicial Consulting at the National Judicial Institute, Abuja.
The historic event will assemble judicial titans and legal stakeholders under the same roof to celebrate the legacy of one of the finest judicial ancestors, Late Justice Niki Tobi on the theme “The Nigerian Judge and Society: Hon. Justice Niki Tobi’s impact on the development of Law and Society.”
The late Hon. Justice Niki Tobi is no doubt a jurist who has left his footprints on the sands of time and whose legacies are so indelible and will not be forgotten for generations to come.
Late Justice Niki Tobi sojourned through academics, the bench of the High Court of Rivers State, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, left no one in doubt that he was a Jurist for the ages.
The Nigerian Judiciary, even from pre-independence, has had its shining stars and Niki Tobi of blessed memory was one of them. Today, the legal community can look back on his legacy and the many erudite pages of sparkling legal insight which reverberated in many chambers of justice.
Justice Niki Tobi was born on July 14, 1940, in the riverine community of Esanma in what is now Delta State. He was called to the Bar in 1970. His stint in practice was short but allowed for his engagement with a variety of legal issues as he was counseled at the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Customs and Excise between 1971 and 1976.
Upon his return to academia, he took on the role of Don at the University of Maiduguri and in that vantage position groomed several world-class legal practitioners who are still active. The manifestation of his mastery of the law was not in doubt and his erudition to ascertain the proper construction of issues presented to the courts was peerless and matchless.
Justice Niki Tobi found prominence in an age of economy in the use of words- a practice which is advocated by every coach on legal style in common law jurisdictions. Justice Niki Tobi passed on, June 19, 2016, at the age of 76 years.
Lastly, Chief Joe- Kyari Gadzama, SAN will discuss Judicial Precedent in Nigeria along with Prof. Chioma Kanu Agomo (Emeritus) and Hon. Justice Olajumoke Olusola Pedro.
