Ratio Decidendi

Even in the Supreme Court, an obiter dictum is clearly not binding on us or indeed on the Lower Courts, for obiter dicta, though they may have considerable weight, are not rationes decidendi and are therefore not conclusive authority and are not appealable.

Even in the Supreme Court, an obiter dictum is clearly not binding on us or indeed on the Lower Courts, for obiter dicta, though they may have considerable weight, are not rationes decidendi and are therefore not conclusive authority and are not appealable.

An obiter dictum does not have the status of a ratio decidendi in a judgment of a Court. It does not decide the live issues in the matter. Put differently, an obiter dictum is a statement made in passing which does not reflect the ratio decidendi, that is, the reasoning or ground upon which the case is decided

The ratio decidendi of a case is the principle or rule of law upon which a Court's decision is founded. See: A.I.C Ltd Vs. NNPC (2005) 11 NWLR (Pt. 937) 563; Ajibola vs. Ajadi (2004) 14 NWLR (Pt. 892) 14.

This Court had in the case of Agbanelo v. U.B.N. (2000) 7 NWLR (Pt. 666) 534 at 557 per Karibi-Whyte, JSC stated that it is an elementary and essential ingredient of the judicial function that reasons are to be given for decisions. That it is crucial or important where appeals lie from the decisions and it is to be said that the reasons for decisions enable the determination on appeal whether the decision was merely initiative and arbitrary or whether it is consistent with established applicable principles. It has to be stated and emphatically too that if a judgment is delivered without supporting reasons it is an irritation or arbitrariness, a rule akin to tossing the coin and whatever side shows up is the decision, a situation that would likely produce in judicially anarchy. The point has to be made that a judgment will not set aside just because the reasons given were bad if the judgment itself is right.