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Nigeria has acquired another silk. The applause is deserved. The more difficult question is whether Nigerian citizens will get a little more justice.
On October 12, 2026, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Plateau State, Philemon Audu Daffi, joined the House Bar Association of the Supreme Court, Abuja. Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun has admitted 68 new senior lawyers to the SANs of Nigeria), including 67 lawyers and one academic. Daffi appeared ninth on the supporters’ seniority list. Congratulations are in order.
But in Nigeria, where ceremonies often receive better funding than institutions, congratulations can’t be the whole conversation.
I know Daffi beyond the headlines. We serve together in the MultiDoor Court of Plateau State Council. This shared institutional responsibility gives me reason to celebrate him, and perhaps greater reason to insist that the new rank must mean something beyond distinguished dress, because I know he is a distinguished gentleman and an esq in true speech.
The SAN rank began in 1975 with FRA Chief Williams and Dr. Nabo Graham Douglas. Folake Solanke broke the gender barrier in 1981. Over the course of fifty years, the Inner Bar has grown into a formidable community of supporters and scholars. Yet its expansion has not matched the speed with which an ordinary litigant can obtain justice. We multiplied the silks without shortening the tails sufficiently.
The irony is painfully Nigerian. It can take a citizen years to prove ownership of land occupied by an intruder in one afternoon. A widow may need more money to recover an inheritance than the value of the inheritance. An arrested youth without the means to hire a lawyer may find that constitutional rights are written down, but expensive to exercise. None of this is an argument against professional distinction. It is an argument against the confusion between distinction and transformation.
Daffi enters this chapter playing an important role. An attorney general is not simply the government’s lawyer when a politically inconvenient case comes along. It is a constitutional actor whose decisions help determine whether the law protects the weak, limits the powerful, and survives changes in administration. Its obligation to the public interest must outlast the political expediency of any government. This man did it!
And he did it, in a Plateau that makes that responsibility heavy. Here, land disputes are rarely just about land. Inherited disagreements can reopen family wounds. Violence displaces communities, fractures trust, and leaves questions of restitution unanswered. The law meets identity, pain, insecurity and memory at the same crowded crossroads. A technical victory in court can resolve a case without resolving a community.
This is exactly why our work at the Plateau State Multi-Port Court is important. Under the leadership of Justice Nafisah Lawal Musa, we seek to make mediation, arbitration, conciliation and other appropriate dispute resolution avenues credible alternatives to unnecessary litigation. I’ve seen how listening can prevent a disagreement from becoming a generational feud. Sometimes justice requires judgment. Sometimes you need a table, patient ears and the courage to apologize.
Let no one misunderstand me. Mediation is not a machine for laundering criminal offenses. Serious crimes require investigation, prosecution and accountability. Reconciliation without justice can become another name for impunity. The challenge is knowing which door a dispute is at and ensuring the person approaching isn’t knocked out before entering.
The Ministry of Justice is doing a lot to strengthen these connections. Improved court referrals, support for legal aid, collaboration with traditional institutions and transparent monitoring of cases to arrive at measurable consequences. We try to find out how many disputes are resolved, how long it takes, which conciliations resist and who is left out. The government cannot improve what it refuses to count.
Then there is legislative reform. Daffi has spoken publicly about the revision of 166 Plateau State laws, many of which reflect an older era. This exercise deserves attention. A statute that preserves obsolete penalties or language is not an ancient object to be admired; it is a governance problem that needs to be corrected. But reviewing the laws is the simplest title. Publishing revised texts, consulting affected communities, equipping implementing agencies and monitoring results are the most difficult chapters. This is a continuum and starting it in the first place is an A+.
A law that sleeps peacefully in the gazette while citizens suffer is not a reform. It is stationery with official ambition.
Nigeria’s broader judicial situation provides the warning. In May 2026, the National Judicial Council reported questioning 256 judicial officers on performance issues and suspending two judges without pay. These figures do not mean that all officers questioned were guilty of misconduct. They remind us that oversight, performance and public trust must be taken seriously. Justice delayed does not simply mean justice denied; sometimes justice is abandoned because the complainant dies, moves or runs out of money.
Plateau also witnessed the political consequences of judicial uncertainty. Litigation surrounding the election of Governor Caleb Mutfwang, ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court in January 2024, highlighted how dramatically court decisions can affect public trust. Citizens need more than winning and losing political sides. They need understandable reasoning, coherence and a judicial system that does not fear power and does not demand its favor.
For Daffi I therefore propose a modest but demanding public card.
Can prosecutors become more competent and less vulnerable to avoidable delays? Can defendants and indigent victims access representation? Can the Ministry publish data on justice delivery? Can survivors of violence pursue remedies without having to navigate a maze of offices? Can young lawyers find mentorship that prioritizes ethics over connections? Can our multi-door court receive the institutional support that will turn promises into practice?
These are not questions designed to belittle a friend. These are the questions that should bring serious congratulations. And I see the smile on his face as he assures me and millions of Plateau State citizens; he did it, he is doing it, he will continue to do it.
I would also like the new seti to collectively reconsider their social contract. Nigeria does not need an indoor bar that functions primarily as an exclusive seating arrangement at public events. We need senior advocates willing to defend a fair process when it is unpopular, to challenge executive excesses even when politically inconvenient, and to offer professional guidance to those who cannot pay the premium rates.
The CJN rightly warned new recipients that elevation does not confer immunity from liability. That’s right. Silk is fabric, not weave. It should make the wearer more aware of responsibility, not less open to criticism. If the toga becomes heavier than the conscience, we have completely missed the point.
Personally, I am proud of Daffi’s results. I congratulate him in the spirit of our shared service, our friendship, together with the leadership, management and colleagues of the Plateau State Multi-Port Court. I also congratulate the other recipients. Their professional journeys deserve recognition and the country deserves the benefit of their learning.
My expectation is simple: May Daffi’s influence grow without his accessibility diminishing. May his public office become a bridge between the statutes and ordinary life. May Plateau demonstrate that peacebuilding, legal accountability and accessible dispute resolution are not competing ambitions, but parts of a credible justice system.
There were photographs, receptions, speeches and enough congratulatory banners to constitute an environmental concern. They came. Celebration has its place. But eventually the music stops, the toga returns to the coat rack, and the citizen still waits outside the courtroom.
That citizen is the real test.
Congratulations, Philemon Audu Daffi, SAN. Silk is worthy of celebration. The greatest honor will be the injustices addressed, institutions strengthened, and lives changed because you wear it. I tell you my friend: you are capable and you have earned it, more grace and grit.
Nigeria’s unsolved case remains before us all: May Nigeria win
—
Prince Charles Dickson
