AUWALU YADUDU THROUGH HIS THOUGHTS

Adamu Usman reviews ‘Jurisprudence of Nigerian Constitution: Essays in honour of Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu

My chief difficulty in this assignment is keeping to my brief i.e reviewing the book, and not drifting to what I know of the subject of the book, Professor Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu. I am a protégé of the subject of the book. Indeed, one of his disciples in the field of law. As his student, I am well acquainted with his mind-processes, mental precocity and intensity.  As a teacher in class, he had a towering intellectual and human presence that engulfed everyone. He was a master simplifier of complex legal issues that any student paying attention must understand his explanations. He was a reductionist before being an inductionist. He was a teacher that taught by examples believing that an example is the thing and nothing explains the thing like the thing. He was a teacher that divided the class into two: The lighted part he stood to deliver his lectures and the dark part the students were sitting. His effort in every class was to bring as many students as were willing to the lighted part he was. He often succeeded doing so. He was a teacher who when we leave his class, we will be carrying bright faces: The light of his explanations had just shone on us. In future, we will have Yadudu Lectures in addition to his jurisprudence. His lectures, luminous, eloquent, gripping and classic, are as much his high-watermark as his thoughts on the jurisprudence of the Nigerian constitution.

Now, if the question were to be put in future and even today: in what did Yadudu achieve fame? It would be said: In the jurisprudence of the constitution. It would also be said: In his enduring capacity to generate intellectual moments in and out of class. I was taught jurisprudence and legal system by Yadudu and so can talk authoritatively on his mental acuity, quickness of mind and genius. This event is another intellectual moment the legal philosopher has generated. As my lecturer, he was the jar of oil my grandmother in her tales always said never runs dry. Simple, Unassuming, Brilliant and Eloquent (SUBE), Yadudu the oil in the jar is one lecturer a serious student can NEVER forget.  

Yadudu is fair and free of ethnic and religious bias. My dissertation was not submitted by my supervisor to whom I submitted it for scoring. When asked, my supervisor said I did not submit it. Yadudu said: ‘Adamu of all people? This cannot be.’ As Dean of Law, he asked a messenger to search the supervisor’s office where my dissertation was found under a pile of books. Another lecturer wanted to victimize me in a given Islamic law subject. When I protested, Yadudu as Dean of Law again ordered that my paper be remarked. It was remarked and I was scored 4 over 5 against the one and a half I was scored by the lecturer.

The first question that loomed large in my mind when I received this book was: Do the essays in the book really honour Yadudu by their quality or they only purport to do so? Going through the essays, I could see they actually honour the erudite jurist and legal philosopher both by their brilliance and reach. The essays in the book are wide-ranging and rigorous in their analyses of their subject-matters. Though diverging on subject-matter, the essays converge on the constitution. They have this refreshing quality of springing from the constitution like a water fountain only to return to the constitution. The constitution the source of these articles in the circumstance is a vortex that delivers the articles only to receive them back again. Over and above the articles, Yadudu’s jurisprudential mind hovers like a cloud attaching here and there. 

The essays in the book in the main are by seminal academics and seasoned legal practitioners who have interacted with the Nigerian constitution so intimately as to know both its letter and spirit. Some of the authors of these articles are oracles of the law in their own right. The table of contents shows the editors were faithful to the title of the book: The Jurisprudence of Nigerian Constitution: Essays in Honour of Professor Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu. No article strays out of line. Faithful to the title, editors of the essays gave effect to the 5Ds of research: definition, discipline, discrimination, direction and destination.

In my review, while looking out for the 5Ds, I was also looking out for the 5-canons of a good book, namely: Unity and integrity of the book, Knowledge on display, Clarity of expression, Elegance of expression and Utility of the work. Essentially what I would do is a panorama over what the essayists did. My duty as a town-crier and time would not allow me to do more than this. Jurisprudence is the science of law. Science is thinking as art is doing. Jurisprudence of the Nigerian constitution therefore can be reduced to thoughts on the Nigerian constitution – in this case, Yadudu’s thoughts on the Nigerian constitution. This book has 17 chapters of well-researched papers. Each chapter begins with an abstract and an introduction and ends with a conclusion. Heads and subheads are numbered according to chapters and placement. All these show order. If order is the first law in heaven, it is the first law in understanding. Order is a Yadudu virtue and therefore the book honours him on this score.   

Those who packaged this book of essays presented Yadudu as a blend of the naturalist, positivist and historical school of jurisprudence. I agree, with the only qualification that I see him less of a positivist, more of a naturalist and much more of a historical jurist. The essayists maintain Yadudu’s views and comments on the Nigerian constitution are shaped by the jurisprudential school he belongs. Naturally.

As an exponent of the historical school, the erudite jurist and legal philosopher believes that the Nigerian constitution should reflect our historical experience as a people. Our past should speak to us through our constitution. Thus, shariah law, customary laws of indigenous communities should be accommodated in the nation’s constitution within the realm of possibilities. This, in his view, is what makes the constitution pragmatic, effective and workable. We should be our constitution and our constitution should be us. Perhaps the reason the British don’t have issues with their constitution is because they are their constitution and their constitution is them. The English constitution is so much part of them that it does not need to be written on a piece of paper. It is already written in the hearts of the British people. Failure to accommodate our peculiarities in the constitution is perhaps the reason we keep having issues with our constitution. Inclusivity is the word for Yadudu on the matter of the Nigerian constitution.

The book under review contains 17 chapters. There is Yadudu’s presence in all the 17 chapters of the book. In some chapters, he speaks directly to readers; in others indirectly. The real value of this collection of essays in honour of Yadudu is that it is not a mere assembly or a reportage of constitutional issues but a synthesis of well-researched articles with well-defined positions on the issues they canvass. My interrogation of the papers in the book shows the papers are position papers. There can be no credible review of the Nigerian constitution without reference to this book. Why? Because the book is about the constitutional journey of Nigeria from colonial time to date. It is an odyssey of the constitutional journey of the nation yet to berth.  

Excerpts from the review of ‘Jurisprudence of Nigerian Constitution: Essays in honour of Professor Yadudu, by his former student at BUK, Kano, now a Professor of Law at ABU, Zaria