Guardian

MALACHY Ugwummadu, a Lagos-based rights lawyer, falls within the personality captured by an American comic book artist and writer, Mike Norton, who wrote in one of his works: “Master yourself, and become king of the world around you. Let no odds, chastisement, exile, doubt, fear, or any mental virii prevent you from accomplishing your dreams. Never be a victim of life; be its conqueror.”

This aphorism aptly represents the resilience and doggedness Ugwummadu weathered through in his quest to become a legal practitioner of note.

He had also deepened the Nigerian legal space through constructive criticisms of government policies considered inimical to the rights of the citizens.

These actions came with a cost as he was made at a point to pay dearly for having the effrontery to confront the powers that be.

But today, Ugwummadu’s resilience in the fight against injustice and his brand of advocacy had not only provided inspiration to many young Nigerians but also endeared him to the heart of the human rights community.

Incidentally, Ugwummadu’s desire to study law was greatly inspired by the selflessness, patriotism, strength of character, depth of knowledge and sheer determination of leading progressive and radical lawyers like the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), Femi Falana (SAN) and Olisa Agbakoba (SAN).

He had admired these lawyers several years before he met them in person.

“I saw and met several people who were victims of oppression and intimidation perhaps because I come from a very small village in Delta State. I hate injustice naturally and I already saw the efficacy of the instrumentalities of law as deployed by the great progressive. So I needed to arm myself with the same tool to effectively engage this decadent society”, he recalled.

He also owed his father, Chief Augustine Ugwummadu, a community leader and retired school principal, a great deal for remaining the actual provenance of what he has turned to be.

As a young man, he was very stubborn, courting trouble particularly in his secondary school days.

In fact, he would have ended up a roadside motor mechanic because it caught his attention at a time, but his father rescued him.

He said: “Invariably my wife doesn’t like to hear this aspect of my story although I have always managed to convince her that the same providence that brought us together as lawyers would have also conspired to enable us meet as mechanic and garri seller somewhere”.

Interestingly, he has a highly cerebral twin brother who is the direct opposite of him. So bad was his case that his father withdrew him from school and enrolled him in his own school for close supervision where, as the principal of the school, he literally became the gate-keeper for the first one month after his admission into the school.

That worked! In less than three months, he was a completely changed person with better focus, determination and discipline. That led to his successfully passing his examinations in flying colours in 1988.

But Ugwummadu’s ambition of becoming a lawyer came under serious threats during his days at the University of Nigeria.

Although he and his twin brother gained admission to study law and pharmacy respectively in the same university, the same year, his twin graduated with a degree at the end of his programme, while his own degree lingered. He had dragged the University of Nigeria to the Federal High Court Enugu twice before graduation. Consequently, his certificate was withheld.

The cases involved the student’s union over the increase in school fees and a personal matter against the school over the seizure of his certificate. Team of eight lawyers carefully put together from all parts of the country and led by Mr. Femi Falana, who was then the National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), handled the matter and he got judgment in year 2000.

The case Malachy Ugwummadu & Anor v University of Nigeria& 2Ors later became a reference case and was reported in (2000) 13 WRN P.181, among several other reports and both on human rights.

He said: “ I thought I was completely cured of my radicalism at the secondary school until I arrived the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, during the heady days of military rule in Nigeria. It was a fertile ground for the duo of Generals Badamosi Babangida and the late Sani Abacha to ride roughshod and run amok with dangerous policies that set the stage for the total collapse of tertiary institution and education in Nigeria.

“I had on several occasions mobilised students both at the Enugu and at Nsukka campuses against the obnoxious policies of the university administration, which earned me about a dozen arrests from both the university’s security operatives and Enugu Police Command. None of those occasions, however, were they able to take me away from the institution owing to the highly effective structure of the students’ movement”.

Born on December 29, 1971, to Ugwummadu’s family of Ashaka, Ndokwa-West, Delta State, Ugwummadu attended St. Charles’ College, Abavo, Delta State, between 1983 and 1985 and Ogbagu-Ogume Secondary School from 1986 to 88. Thereafter, he proceeded to University of Nigeria, (Enugu Campus) for his law degree between 1991/92 and 1998/99; and attended the Nigerian Law School, 2001/2002. He was called to the Nigerian Bar and became a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2002.

Afterwards, Ugwummadu was posted to Dutse in Jigawa State but was redeployed to Lagos, where he completed his service in Falana Chambers.

Before then, Ugwummadu during his crisis period at the university, was recruited into the national secretariat of the CDHR as a research officer and later became a senior research officer during which he had the privilege of working with other colleagues.

During this time, he gained a lot of exposure that enabled him to properly discover himself.

For instance, he prepared and presented high profile lectures on behalf of Falana in four different universities that include Abia State University, Uturu 1999; Faculty of Law, Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma; LASU and University of Lagos before he was called to the Bar between 2008-2001.

In 1999, he emerged the national deputy secretary of the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON), a coalition of over 70 civil society pro-democracy organisations in Nigeria led by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Mr. Falana, Prof. Toyo Olorode, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, Onitiri Abiola, Shehu Sani, Ayotallamo, Femi Aborishade, Nike Ransome Kuti-Nedum were in that team.

Although Ugwummadu had several interface with the courts even as an undergraduate, it was in Falana and Falana Chambers that he cut his legal teeth, where he spent about two years (2002-2004).

Ugwummadu later went into a private legal practice in 2005 by establishing a chamber at Surulere.

Ugwummadu’s first major case in court was before Justice Awokwulehi of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

He was assigned to a senior colleague in Falana Chambers but before the matter was to be called, his colleague simply walked out of the court pretending to visit the rest room but he never come back.

When the matter was called, Ugwummadu summoned courage and informed the court that his colleague, who was leading him in the matter, had just stepped out and that he would like to call him to deal with the matter.

The judge looked at him, and apparently realising that he was a new wig, urged Ugwummadu to move the motion for extension of time to regularise their processes. He simply falls back on his numerous court experiences and moved in terms of the motion papers. Immediately afterwards his senior colleague walked into the court and asked “how did it go”?

When he sought to know why he behaved that way, Ugwummadu was simply told, “That was how I started too”.

Afterwards, he gained exposure and made some indelible marks in the legal practice, handling many matters against the state or agencies of the state in defence of the downtrodden and powerless.

For instance, in 2010, he instituted a matter against the Federal Government for the full implementation of the year’s Appropriation Act with little or no cooperation from the National Assembly, who refused to certify and supply him certain documents he needed to move the court to grant the order of mandamus.

The matter was then before Justice Mohammed Liman, who declined to grant the application for want of jurisdiction. He is also on legal battle with the police over the ban on the use of tinted glasses at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

Apart from these public interest matters, his chamber is also actively involved in a lot of insolvency and recovery matters.

Only recently, he got a ruling from the Benin Division of the Federal High Court, which upheld his preliminary objection and striking out the suit against the plaintiffs.

He is also involved in the Coroner Inquest into the in the ill-fated Dana Air Crash, that killed his client’s benefactor, Chief Stanford Obrutse, in Lagos.

His love for writing has made him write several articles in the Nigerian media. Ugwummadu, at the moment, has a renewed urge to write on how he spent a decade in the university and the Law School between 1991/92 -2001/2002.

According to him, it was a significant aspect and content of his history, which he wishes to proudly document.

He is currently the legal adviser to the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, Lagos branch and a very active member of the national body. He is also a member of Nigerian Bar Association.

He is also of the opinion that the delay in the dispensation of justice both in criminal and civil cases has remained a major issue in the legal profession. He is also not happy that the judiciary has recently come under immense pressure from the general pervasive corruption in the Nigerian society with incredible cases of corruption capable of undermining the integrity of the profession and thereby eroding the confidence of the Nigerian people.

The problem, he said, is sensitive because the judiciary remains the hope of the common man. He is also happy with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, for her courageous efforts to rid the profession of the bad eggs because more than ever before, more judges and lawyers are facing disciplinary actions for various cases of professional misconduct and abuse of power, although some of them feel that it is coming rather too late when the more devastating culture of impunity has also crept into the legal profession.

Ugwummadu is happily married to a lawyer, Abiola, and the marriage is blessed with children.