A report by Premium Times indicates that President Bola Tinubu is considering recalling a 71-year-old former Justice of the Supreme Court from retirement to serve as the chairperson of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Abdu Aboki, who hails from Kano state, exited the Supreme Court bench after clocking the mandatory retirement age 70 on 5 August 2022.
Presidency sources quoted in the report said Tinubu has penned down Aboki’s name to replace the incumbent ICPC chair, Bolaji Owasanoye, whose five-year tenure remains about six months.
Aboki’s appointment will deviate from the new trend of showing a preference for the relatively younger generation to head the anti-corruption agency.
Some observers have shared their concerns about his age, saying appointing a relatively older person from retirement to head a key anti-corruption agency like the ICPC is out of sync in an era of fast-changing dynamics of corruption trends that require innovative strategies to tackle.
Some also argue that Aboki’s age and experience across the hierarchy of the Nigerian judiciary would be an asset for an ICPC chairperson, who has to contend with legal issues and difficulties of prosecution of corruption suspects, especially the high-profile ones, in court.
Aboki, whose wife, Dije, is the chief judge of Kano state, began his journey on the bench 38 years ago when he was appointed a High Court judge in the state judiciary in 1987.
Before his judicial roles, Aboki, a graduate of Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, partook in the compulsory NYSC programme in old Gongola State between 1977 and 1978.
He attended the Nigerian Law School in Victoria Island, Lagos, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1977.
In November 2020, Aboki, after serving on the Court of Appeal bench for 14 years, was appointed to the Supreme Court bench alongside five others.
