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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo will on Friday, August 29, chair the presentation of a book in honour of late Justice Augustine Nnamani in Enugu. He is also the keynote speaker.
The event, billed to be held at the International Conference Centre, Enugu, is being hosted by Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah. Prof. Agu Gab Agu is the editor-in-chief of the book.
Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Mike Ozekhome, will be the guest lecturer while the Rector, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, Prof Gozie Ogbodo, will review the book.
Several other high-profile Nigerians have confirmed their attendance. They include the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Mr Uche Nnaji; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Senator Osita Ngwu, representing Enugu West and Senator Kevin Chukwu, representing Enugu East, among others.
The highlight of the event will be a panel discussion on the Nigerian question.
The legal trajectory of Justice Nnamani was phenomenal, just as his imprint, input and contributions to the development of the country’s jurisprudence. He was born on August 8, 1934, in his hometown, Agbani.
After his secondary education, he went to England to study law at London School of Economics and Political Science. He made a Second Class Upper Division in Law, did his masters (LLM) and capped it up with a Ph.D in Constitutional Law. He was, thereafter, called to the Gray’s Inn in 1962 and in 1966 enrolled as a legal practitioner in Nigeria.
On December 1, 1976, he was appointed Attorney General of the Federation and Commissioner for Justice. This followed his satisfactory service as Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development in the East Central State, and later, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Anambra State.
On August 15, 1979, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Interestingly, both appointments to the office of Attorney General of the Federation and to the Supreme Court were facilitated by Chief Obasanjo.
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He became one of the only two Nigerians that were appointed from the Bar to the Supreme Court, side stepping the High Court and the Court of Appeal, the first being Judge Teslim Elias, who eventually made it to the International Court of Justice (World Court) at The Hague.
Justice Nnamani had before this elevation and in clear attestation to his mastery of his profession, been conferred the ultimate attainment for practising lawyers, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1978. He was the first from Enugu State.
Nnamani, who had a stint in the chambers of Nwakamma Okoro, SAN, was married to his adorable wife Gloria, with whom they were blessed with three great Nigerians, including Nwakaego Boyo, one of the most sought after Nigerian actresses and film producers in Nigeria.
Nnamani’s footprint in Nigeria’s legal firmament and contribution globally include being one of the architects in the promulgation by the United Nations of the law of the Sea, which defines the rights and obligations of all the states and countries of the world in the use of the Sea.
He established the Legal Aid Council, to provide legal assistance to the poor and defenceless in both criminal and civil matters. His legal dexterity is evident in the invocation of the Constitution Drafting Committee and the Constituent Assembly and other legal framework for the transition from military rule to civil government in 1979.
He was behind the promulgation of the Corrupt Practices Decree. He initiated the declaration of assets by public officers.
Perhaps, what defined him as a deep thinking legal avatar remains the Land Use Decree 1978 (now Land Use Act). It is on this piece of legislation and his adjudication on issues relating to the same that many scholars have doffed their caps. Late Prince Bola Ajibola had this to say about him: “Dr. Augustine Nnamani was obviously a great constitutional jurist. I have again looked at his powerful dissent in Chief R.O Nkwocha V. Governor of Anambra State and two others (1984) 1 S.C.N.L 634, a case which turned on the nature and status of the Land Use Act, 1978. I have also had another look at the facts and decisions in Sken Consult V. Sekondy Ukey; Obayuwana V. Governor of Bendel State and Peenock Investment Ltd V. Hotek Presidential Ltd & Anor and discovered that his footprints on the sands of the law are indelible. Whenever he wrote a lead judgement, his reasoning and conclusion were clothed with deep learning and impeccable logic.”
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, at the time of his death Justice Mohammed Bello, stated: “His judgements are rich gold mines for excellence in the knowledge of the law and legal scholarship. He was a great jurist, an erudite scholar, a sober and human judge. He combined all these qualities with his broad appreciation of the Nigerian societies in his judgments, which have always earned the admiration of judges, legal practitioners, scholars and other members of the legal profession. They inspire the appetite for learning among law students.”
By convention, he would have ascended to the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria on December 18, 1995 on the retirement of Justice Bello but like all mortals, he died on September 22, 1990.
