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From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Prominent human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has paid glowing tributes to the late Justice Augustine Nnamani, describing him as one of the brightest stars ever to grace Nigeria’s legal firmament.
Speaking in Enugu at the presentation of a book in recognition of the late Supreme Court justice, titled ‘Essays in honour of an oracle at the pinnacle of justice’, Ozekhome said Nnamani’s brilliance on the bench and his lasting contributions to governance placed him in a class of his own.
He said: “I think Justice Augustine Nnamani stood tall like the colossus that he was. He was like only one other Nigerian, Teslim Elias, who went straight from the Bar to the Bench.
“Nnamani was going to become the next Chief Justice, just about two years before death snatched him from us. His performance at the Supreme Court was top notch. It was second to none.”
Ozekhome said Nnamani would be remembered for spearheading the Land Use Act of 1978 as Attorney General of the Federation under General Olusegun Obasanjo.
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“Before then, land was treated by local chiefs and royals as their fiefdoms. There was chaos everywhere — the East, the West, the Midwest applied customary tenure, the North practiced English common law, and the FCT had a mix of both.
“It was in the midst of this confusion that Nnamani birthed that brave legislation declaring that all land in a state belongs to the governor to hold in trust for the people. The governor was made a mere vessel, a conduit pipe for the people to enjoy land. That made land available to everybody,” he explained.
He further praised Nnamani’s “incorruptibility, scholarly statements of the law, and deep belief that law should only be used to deliver justice.”
Prof. Agu Gab Agu, Editor-in-Chief of the book, said “Nnamani was the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria from this part of the country and one of only two persons in Nigeria’s history to ascend directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court, bypassing the High Court and Court of Appeal.”
On his part, Onyemuche Nnamani, Secretary of the Police Service Commission, described the late jurist as “an oracle of the bench whose legacy was justice itself.”
