On 12 May 2022, His Lordship, Dame Honourable Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili, JSC, CFR, will gracefully retire from the Nigerian Supreme Court Bench. My Lord was in the judicial service of the country for 44 years.She is one of the truest, rarest, best, and finest jurists the country has ever had.

His Lordship is a spectacular personality with admirable urbanity, a voracious appetite for hard work, a firm believer in fidelity to law, a judicial officer with unquestionable integrity, and an angelic, graceful lady.

Despite Justice Mary Peter-Odili’s privileged pedigree and accomplishments, she is impressively modest and graciously humble. Unfortunately, these qualities are in deficit in public life in our country.Exalted positions and offices remove good human qualities from many Nigerians. However, My Lord is never condescending or supercilious. On the contrary, she has authentic judicial comportment.

His Lordshipis profoundly committed to judicialism and constitutionalism. When My Lord writes a lead, concurring or minority judgment, she deploys courage and superb intellect. Reading any of her decisions will interest and command and arrest the reader’s attention. My Lord’s judgments were guided by realism and pragmatism rather than conservatism or excessive legalism.

See, for example, His Lordship’s lead judgment in OKE v MIMIKO & ORS (2013) LPELR-21368(SC), where she expounds the preference for substantial justicerather than technical justice. See also JEGEDE v INEC & ORS (2021) LPELR-55481(SC). In JEGEDE’s case, Justice Peter-Odili’s minority judgment did a masterful and incisive jurisprudential excursion into constitutionalism and electoral jurisprudence while interpreting section 183 of the CFRN 1999.

My Lord discharges her judicial duties consistent with the sanctitude and immaculateness of the Temple of Justice as entreated in the Book of Deuteronomy Ch. 16: 19-20. Expectedly, her integrity is impeccable.

Hon. Justice Peter-Odili has a splendid gift of being relaxed and calm, deliberate and measured in her speech. She is the epitome of womanhood, motherhood, and parenthood.

Although she is 70 years old, age has not diminished her beauty and elegance. She looks under 60 years! She remains pulchritudinous.

My Lord spices her modest and respectful carriage with her trademark smiles. She treats people with genuine dignity and civility regardless of their status. When you call my Lord on the phone for the first time, the polite and disarming manner His Lordship answers will prompt you to seek reassurance that she is indeed the one that picked the call. She is a welcoming personality with an elevating spirit.

To say that my Lord is highly respected in the country is just apparent. When an armed gang violated the quietude of their Abuja residence in a Gestapo manner, it filtered into the public domain. Consequently, the Judiciary, National Assembly, Nigerian Bar Association, the Inspector General of Police, DSS, and Nigerian Human Rights Commission, among others, unequivocally condemned the assault.

Hon. Justice Peter-Odili,JSC, is deeply committed to Christianity nay Catholicism. She is married to His Excellency, Dr Peter-Odili, former Governor of Rivers State. They are blessed with talented and resourceful children, including two Honourable Judges of the Federal High Court and the Rivers State High Court.

Reflecting on her career, Hon Justice Mary Peter-Odili can rightly say bonum certamen certavi. I wish His Lordship continued good health and long life in retirement.

Dr Livy Uzoukwu, OON, SAN, LLM, LLD, FCArb.