Abdulmumini Adebayo Oba

@unilorin.edu.ng

Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law
University of Ilorin

Abdulmumini Adebayo Oba


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EDUCATION

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
International Islamic University of Malaysia
14

Scopus Publications

649

Scholar Citations

13

Scholar h-index

13

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • Disputes Relating to the Appointment of Imams in Nigeria: Jurisdictional Competition Between Islamic Courts and the High Court
    Abdulmumini A Oba, Ismael Saka Ismael
    Journal of African Law, 2025
    Nigeria’s legal system is pluralistic with the common law, Islamic law and customary law as the main legal traditions. These legal traditions have their courts within a unified judiciary. Disputes relating to the appointment of imams often end in the English-style courts rather than Islamic courts. This paper examines the controversies regarding which courts within the Nigerian plural courts system have or should have the original and appellate jurisdiction in such disputes. The paper argues that mosques are waqf properties and thus should come within the ambit of Islamic personal law as defined by the Constitution. The paper concludes, inter alia, that in all instances, the courts vested with jurisdiction to hear disputes relating to the appointment of imams should be operated by judges who are learned in Islamic law and where this is not possible, the courts should use assessors who are experts in Islamic law to assist the judges.
  • Nigeria
    Abdulmumini A Oba
    Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3, 2023
  • Coping with otherness in a globalized world: Lessons from islamic, african, and western perspectives
    ابدول مومینی اوبا
    Human Rights, 2019
    One of the major challenges for a civilization - and a parameter for assessing it - is how it treats those who do not belong to that civilization. The dichotomy between “we” and “them” is made variously across civilizations. In the past, interactions across civilizations are less voluminous and less intense. But things have changed. The world has become a global village. Yet, it remains very pluralistic in terms of religion, culture, ethnicity, and language. The diversity of the contemporary world is due to the existence of concurrent civilizations on the world, each with its distinct culture, world view and values. Western culture, Islamic culture, oriental culture and African culture are some of the more prominent cultures today. Globalization is not without its problems. For one thing, the world is being pressurized into become a mono-cultural environment patterned after western culture.
  • Islamic law as customary law: The changing perspective in Nigeria
    Mashood A. Baderin
    Islamic Law in Practice, 2017
  • Female circumcision as female genital mutilation: Human rights or cultural imperialism?
    Readings in the International Relations of Africa, 2016
  • Judicial Practice in Islamic Family Law and Its Relation to 'Urf (Custom) in Northern Nigeria
    Abdulmumini A. Oba
    Islamic Law and Society, 2013
    Although northern Nigeria is known for its extensive enforcement of Islamic law, the region has been heavily influenced by local custom and traditions. The dominant and now official school (madhhab) is the Maliki school which, arguably more than any other madhhab, recognizes ʿurf or custom as a source of Islamic law. This essay looks at local customs as they affect Islamic family law, specifically marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance, and the judicial responses to these customs in con­temporary courts in northern Nigeria.
  • New Muslim perspectives in the human rights debate
    Abdulmumini A. Oba
    Brill S Arab and Islamic Laws Series, 2013
    This chapter articulates Muslim perspectives in the “Islam and human rights debate”. It analyzes the perspectives of Muslims who advocate for “Islamic human rights”, Muslims who want to harmonize Islam and Western human rights, and Muslims who place the debate in the context of an inter-civilizational dialogue between Islamic and Western civilizations (rather than the narrower cultural pluralism paradigm) and who call for Islamic alternatives to Western human rights. The chapter questions Western representations of Muslim voices and, as a preliminary matter, interrogates the concepts and terminologies used in the debate. Islam has its peculiar mechanisms for the protection of rights, dignity, and welfare, even though modern Muslim nations do not always adhere to them the way they should. Muslims should do more to articulate and enforce these Islamic norms, and to insert them into the global human rights discourse. Keywords:islamic human rights; Muslim; Western human rights
  • The future of customary law in Africa
    Abdulmumini A. Oba
    Future of African Customary Law, 2011
    Introduction African customary law was the dominant legal system in much of pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa. With the advent of colonialism in Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century, customary law gradually lost its primacy to the European-style legal systems and laws brought by the colonizing nations. The common law, civil law, and, to some extent, Roman-Dutch law became the general law and the primary legal system in many African countries in the colonial and post-colonial eras. In addition, Islamic law had emerged as the dominant law in some places in the continent prior to colonialism. Islamic law is different from customary law, even though the British colonial authorities decreed in some of their colonies that Islamic law is a customary law. With these developments, customary law lost and never regained its status as a full-fledged legal system in modern African nation states.
  • Towards rethinking legal education in Nigeria
    Abdulmumini A. Oba
    Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, 2008
    Legal education in Nigeria derived inspiration from England but the legal terrain in Nigeria is very different from that of England. Law in Nigeria is a pluralistic affair; not only the imported common law but also Islamic law and a large host of ethnic‐based customary laws play important roles. What emerges from this is a fertile ground for conflicts and tensions which have characterised law and legal education in Nigeria. This paper addresses some of the problems relating to legal education in the country and focuses essentially on the problems arising from legal pluralism, the competition between the academic and vocational aspects of legal education, the process of accreditation of law faculties, the issues of qualifications of law teachers, and the need to decolonise law and legal practice in Nigeria.
  • Female circumcision as female genital mutilation: Human rights or cultural imperialism?
    Abdulmumini A Oba
    Global Jurist, 2008
    Many have discussed female circumcision from the perspective of cultural relativism. This paper places the discourse in the context of Western cultural imperialism. The definition of female genital mutilation (FGM) by the World Health Organization (WHO) is questioned as being partial and amounting to cultural profiling. The paper interrogates the case against female circumcision and reviews anti-female circumcision treaties and legislations at international and domestic levels across the world.A case of cultural imperialism against the West is argued by questioning the non-inclusion by WHO of some western practices such as `female genital surgeries' or `female genital cuttings' in its definition of FGM. Other female bodily mutilations such as breast augmentation should be indicted too. Again, the failed Seattle compromise emphatically illustrates the cultural imperialism inherent in the campaign against female circumcision. The campaign against female circumcision is diverting focus from third world's pressing social and economical travails which arise from the exploitation and manipulation of its economy by the West. Criminalization of female circumcision is counter-productive - the fight against FGM must be based on credible facts and enlightenment.
  • Juju oaths in customary law arbitration and their legal validity in Nigerian courts
    Abdulmumini A Oba
    Journal of African Law, 2008
  • ‘Neither fish nor fowl’: Area courts in the ilorin emirate in northern Nigeria
    Abdulmumini A. Oba
    Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 2008
  • The Sharia Court of Appeal in Northern Nigeria: The continuing crises of jurisdiction
    Abdulmumini Adebayo Oba
    American Journal of Comparative Law, 2004
  • Lawyers, legal education and the shari’ah courts in Nigeria
    Abdulmumini A. Oba
    Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 2004

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Disputes Relating to the Appointment of Imams in Nigeria: Jurisdictional Competition Between Islamic Courts and the High Court
    AA Oba, IS Ismael
    Journal of African Law 69 (3), 423-439 , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 2
  • LAWYERS, LAW REPORTING AND THE SHARIA COURTS OF APPEAL IN NIGERIA
    AA Oba
    Jurnal Syariah 31 (1), 122-159 , 2023
    2023
  • Revisiting the causes of delay in the adjudication of Islamic personal law cases in Nigerian jurisprudence
    AA Oba, IS Ismael
    Nnamdi Azikiwe University Journal of International Law and Jurisprudence 11 … , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 3
  • Administration of Mosques and Appointment of Imams in Nigeria: Between Islamic Law, Customs, and State Law
    IS Ismael, AA Oba
    Islamabad Law Review 4 (1/2), 12-0_8 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 2
  • Coping With Otherness in a Globalized World: Lessons from Islamic, African, and Western Perspectives
    AA Oba
    Hum. Rts. 14, 221 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 1
  • Judicial Practice in Distribution of Inheritance (mīrāth) in Islamic Courts in Nigeria
    I Ismael, AA Oba
    De Jure: Jurnal Hukum dan Syari’ah 11 (1), 1-22 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 2
  • Challenges in the Judicial Administration of Muslim Estates in the Sharia Courts of Appeal in Nigeria
    AA Oba, IS Ismael
    Elec. J. Islamic & Middle EL 5, 81 , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 5
  • Legal challenges concerning some beneficiaries of estates governed by Islamic law in Nigeria
    IS Ismael, AA Oba
    IIUM Law Journal 25, 63 , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 7
  • Between willingness and unwillingness: Christians as litigants and accused persons in Islamic courts in northern Nigeria
    AA Oba
    Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa: Prospects and … , 2016
    2016
  • Female Circumcision as Female Genital Mutilation: Human Rights or Cultural Imperialism?
    AA Oba
    Readings in the International Relations of Africa, 252-262 , 2015
    2015
    Citations: 59
  • Untying the Knots of Immunity Clause and the Fight against Corruption in Nigeria
    Oba, A. A, I. A. Abdulqadir, Hakeem Ijaiya, Ibrahim Imam, O. A. Olatunji
    Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law … , 2013
    2013
  • Judicial Practice in Islamic Family Law and Its Relation to'Urf (Custom) in Northern Nigeria
    AA Oba
    Islamic L. & Soc'y 20, 272 , 2013
    2013
    Citations: 17
  • New Muslim perspectives in the human rights debate
    AA Oba
    Islam and International Law, 215-243 , 2013
    2013
    Citations: 8
  • Human Rights and Beyond: Some Conceptual Differences between Islamic and Western Perspectives of Human Rights
    AA Oba
    Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization 2 (2), 35-50 , 2012
    2012
    Citations: 3
  • The Judicial Machinery for Administration of Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria with Particular Reference to Kwara and Kaduna States
    AA Oba
    Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, IIUM , 2012
    2012
    Citations: 1
  • Religious and customary laws in Nigeria
    AA Oba
    Emory Int'l L. Rev. 25, 881 , 2011
    2011
    Citations: 64
  • The future of customary law in Africa
    AA Oba
    The future of African customary law, 79 , 2011
    2011
    Citations: 27
  • Uniform Interpretation of Human Rights Law in Africa and the Challenges of Gender Rights and Sexual Orientation.
    AA Oba
    University of Jos Law Journal 9 (2), 17-33 , 2010
    2010
  • The hijab in educational institutions and human rights: Perspectives from Nigeria and beyond
    AA Oba
    Identity, Culture & Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue 10 (1), 51-74 , 2009
    2009
    Citations: 24
  • Eurocentric Theories as Obstacles to Intercultural Human Rights Dialogue Between the West and Africa’
    AA Oba
    Paper presented at the International Society for Universal Dialogue (ISUD … , 2009
    2009

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Islamic law as customary law: The changing perspective in Nigeria
    AA Oba
    International & Comparative Law Quarterly 51 (4), 817-850 , 2002
    2002.0
    Citations: 146
  • Religious and customary laws in Nigeria
    AA Oba
    Emory Int'l L. Rev. 25, 881 , 2011
    2011.0
    Citations: 64
  • Female Circumcision as Female Genital Mutilation: Human Rights or Cultural Imperialism?
    AA Oba
    Readings in the International Relations of Africa, 252-262 , 2015
    2015.0
    Citations: 59
  • Juju oaths in customary law arbitration and their legal validity in Nigerian courts
    AA Oba
    Journal of African Law 52 (1), 139-158 , 2008
    2008.0
    Citations: 58
  • The sharia court of appeal in Northern Nigeria: The continuing crises of jurisdiction
    AA Oba
    The American Journal of Comparative Law 52 (4), 859-900 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 45
  • Lawyers, Legal Education and the Shari’ah courts in Nigeria
    AA Oba
    The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 36 (49), 113-161 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 41
  • The future of customary law in Africa
    AA Oba
    The future of African customary law, 79 , 2011
    2011.0
    Citations: 27
  • The administration of customary law in a post-colonial Nigerian state
    AA Oba
    Cambrian L. Rev. 37, 95 , 2006
    2006.0
    Citations: 25
  • The hijab in educational institutions and human rights: Perspectives from Nigeria and beyond
    AA Oba
    Identity, Culture & Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue 10 (1), 51-74 , 2009
    2009.0
    Citations: 24
  • Judicial Practice in Islamic Family Law and Its Relation to'Urf (Custom) in Northern Nigeria
    AA Oba
    Islamic L. & Soc'y 20, 272 , 2013
    2013.0
    Citations: 17
  • Islamic Law as Customary Law: The Changing Perspective in Nigeria'(2002)
    AA Oba
    International and Comparative Law Quarterly 51 (4) , 0
    Citations: 16
  • ‘Neither Fish Nor Fowl’: Area Courts in the Ilorin Emirate in Northern Nigeria
    AA Oba
    The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 40 (58), 69-92 , 2008
    2008.0
    Citations: 15
  • The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and ouster clauses under the military regimes in Nigeria: before and after September 11
    AA Oba
    African Human Rights Law Journal 4 (2), 275-302 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 14
  • New Muslim perspectives in the human rights debate
    AA Oba
    Islam and International Law, 215-243 , 2013
    2013.0
    Citations: 8
  • Improving Women’s Access to Justice and the Quality of Administration of Islamic Justice in Nigeria
    A Oba
    Women’s Aid Collective and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre , 2003
    2003.0
    Citations: 8
  • Legal challenges concerning some beneficiaries of estates governed by Islamic law in Nigeria
    IS Ismael, AA Oba
    IIUM Law Journal 25, 63 , 2017
    2017.0
    Citations: 7
  • Towards Rethinking legal education in Nigeria
    AA Oba
    Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education 6 (1), 97-114 , 2008
    2008.0
    Citations: 7
  • Towards regaining learning and correcting leanings in the legal profession in Nigeria
    AA Oba
    CALS Review of Nigerian Law and Practice 1 (1), 13-27 , 2007
    2007.0
    Citations: 7
  • Kadis (Judges) of the Sharia Court of Appeal: The Problems of Identity, Relevance, and Marginalisation within the Nigerian Legal System
    AA Oba
    Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education 2 (2), 49-71 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 7
  • Religious rights and the corporate world in Nigeria: Products and personnel perspectives
    AA Oba
    Recht in Afrika 7 (2), 195-216 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 6