Lawyer wears Native Doctor regalia to Court

By Chimezie UcheAgbo

Photo credit: Everyman Eleanya

Nigerian Human Rights lawyer, Malcolm Omirhobo shocked onlookers and showed up to attend a proceeding at the Supreme Court in Abuja dressed as a traditionalist in a court robe. He wore two layers of clothes: his white shirt with a red wrapper as that of a traditional witch doctor and then a court robe with white chalk around his eyes. He also adorned his wig with some feathers.

This left people in shock as they wondered what the legal luminary was up to as he walked barefooted with yellow bell anklets around his two ankles. 

In an interview with newsmen, Omirhobo described himself as a traditionalist, saying he was motivated to show up in court in the regalia by the ruling of the Supreme Court last week that gives the right to female Muslim pupils to attend school in hijab in public schools in Lagos.

According to him: “I have been missing all along until the Supreme Court gave the judgment on Friday. I interpreted the judgement as a decision that guarantees our rights under Section 38 of the constitution." 

Malcolm Omirhobo affirmed that going forward, he will appear in court in the traditional worshipper’s attire adding that if the school pupils are allowed to wear hijab to school, any attempts to stop him from appearing in his faith’s attire would amount to a violation of his fundamental right.

Photos and videos of Omirhobo trended online eliciting various reactions from Nigerians about his actions.

However, he seemed unperturbed, saying that the Supreme Court Justices were pleased by his outfits.

He expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Court and encouraged the police, those in the Army, the Navy, doctors and others to also dress in their mode of religion in their places of work.

The Supreme Court delivered a judgement on the 17th of June 2022 and granted the use of hijab by female Muslim students in government-owned schools in Lagos.

The case involved the Lagos State Government as the appellant and Asiyat AbdulKareem (through her father), Moriam Oyeniyi, and the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria as the respondents.

According to Omirhobo, the decision of the Apex Court can be applied to every other religion.

For all wants and purposes, uniforms were made to ensure there's equality and uniformity amongst pupils and studetns to avoid any form of discriminations of class, religion and status. However, asking a particular religion to identify themselves surely defeats the purpose of uniforms and further drives division in the country accross religious line.