A retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Ibrahim Musa Saulawa, has warned politicians to stop sending cows, rams and other gifts to judges, describing the practice as demeaning to the Bench and a threat to the neutrality of the judiciary.
Justice Saulawa spoke on Tuesday at a valedictory court session held in his honour at the Supreme Court in Abuja, as he bowed out of the apex court on reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. According to accounts of the proceedings, the session drew to a close a 44-year career in the legal profession.
He told the gathering that he had previously raised the matter with the Chief Justice of Nigeria and called for action. “Why should a politician send a ram, cow or other items to a Supreme Court Justice? It is unheard of in other countries,” he said, describing the practice as demeaning and frustrating.
He also noted that the gifts, often distributed during festive periods, were sometimes inflated in value, with a ram bought for about N200,000 presented as though it cost N2 million.
Justice Saulawa recalled a case involving an influential man he later convicted, who he said had tried to sway him before judgment. He said the individual had given him a brand new Peugeot vehicle, which he rejected, and then sought the intervention of prominent figures, including an Emir and a District Head, to press him to accept it.
The retiring Justice urged judicial officers across the country to hold to integrity, honesty and morality, and to guard the independence of the judicial office. He said he had turned down several invitations to social gatherings during his years in service in order to protect his principles.
Born on 29 September 1956 in Katsina, Justice Saulawa rose through the High Court to the Court of Appeal, to which he was elevated in June 2006, and joined the Supreme Court in November 2020, according to biographical records circulated at the session.
His remarks land at a period of heightened scrutiny of the Nigerian judiciary. In a joint report issued in 2024, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the National Bureau of Statistics ranked the judiciary among the country’s institutions most associated with bribery, second to the police. The National Judicial Council rejected that assessment as speculative.
The Council has, however, moved against a growing number of judicial officers. At a meeting in May 2026, chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the NJC queried 256 judicial officers over various issues and suspended two judges for one year without pay. That followed action at its 109th meeting in June 2025, when it recommended the compulsory retirement of 10 judges, including several from Imo State accused of age falsification.
President Bola Tinubu has also weighed in on the question of judicial integrity. At the opening of the 2025 All Nigerian Judges Conference in Abuja in November 2025, he said corruption in the judiciary destroys the nation at its core and warned that justice must never be for sale.
The Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers restricts the acceptance of gifts that could reasonably be seen as intended to influence a judge in the discharge of duty. Concerns about lobbying and undue influence in the judiciary are not new. A former Chief Justice, Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, had as far back as 2014 warned about a rising culture of lobbying and godfatherism in the sector.
Justice Saulawa used part of the session to revisit his role in the crisis that followed the annulment of the 12 June 1993 presidential election. He said that, as Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal at the time, he flew to Kaduna to take control of the appellate court’s registry amid conflicting orders from different courts, which he attributed to interference by the military.
He said he acted on the directive of the then President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, and that efforts by the military to infiltrate the judiciary were frustrated. In his account, the annulment by the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, came only after those efforts failed.
The valedictory session also drew comment for its sparse turnout. A representative of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Damien Dodo, said he was embarrassed by the attendance, which he attributed to miscommunication rather than any reflection on Justice Saulawa. Accounts of the session put the number of lawyers present at six Senior Advocates of Nigeria and 13 others, though two former Chief Justices of Nigeria, Mahmoud Mohammed and Olukayode Ariwoola, and the Deputy Governor of Katsina State were also in attendance.
In her tribute, Justice Kekere-Ekun described Justice Saulawa as a man whose life had been defined by service, and recalled an instance during his time as Presiding Justice of the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal when, she said, both of them resisted an attempt to place a matter of personal benefit in the path of judicial duty.