Justice Rhodes Vivour Valedictory Speech

Just-retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, on Monday, amended his previous pronouncement that human rights can be suspended whenever national security is threatened. Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who bowed out as a Justice of the Supreme Court after clocking the mandatory retirement age of 70, on Monday, had expressed the opinion as a judge of the Court of Appeal in the case involving the former leader of Niger Delta militant groups, Asari Dokubo, in 2006. The retired jurist who spent a total of 27 years as a judge of three levels of court, including the Supreme Court, delivered the lead judgment of a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal which denied bail to Mr Dokubo on the grounds that he constituted a threat to national security. The Supreme Court, in a decision delivered on June 6, 2007, upheld the judgment by also denying Mr Dokubo, bail. Incidentally, the judge who delivered the lead judgment of the apex court over 12 years ago is now the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad. The Muhammadu Buhari administration has adopted the judgment as justification for the continued detention of even persons that have been granted bail by courts. Mr Rhodes-Vivour was seated to the righthand side of Mr Muhammad, while reviewing his opinion about the judgment on Monday. The retired judge said on Monday that no one’s right should be denied unless national security “is visibly threatened”, a departure from his previously held view that such rights can be threatened even with “real likelihood” of a threat to national security. He argued that no one should be deprived of his rights on the whims and fancy of anyone on authority.