Tribute to late Justice A. N. Aniagolu {rtd} {1922 – 2011}

There are a plethora of legacies that will remain everlasting in ones memory anchored on the lives and times of Justice Aniagolu; one is his emergence to eminence from rags to riches and the others are some uncommon decisions he took at different times. In the course of this brief treatise, one will attempt to […]

There are a plethora of legacies that will remain everlasting in ones memory anchored on the lives and times of Justice Aniagolu; one is his emergence to eminence from rags to riches and the others are some uncommon decisions he took at different times. In the course of this brief treatise, one will attempt to narrate some of them.

One recalls vividly in the ‘60s how Justice Charles Dadi Onyeama, who retired as a judge at the International Court at the Hague, Justice Aniagolu, then a vibrant and popular lawyer, Barrister Byron Onyeama also a popular Enugu based lawyer and Thomas Chigboh a veteran journalist, were our reference and flag-points as kids at our town Eke.

My late father, Benjamin Onyegbuna Okechukwu, who incidentally belonged to the same Okwukwe-buike- age-grade with late Justice Aniagolu,{that is grouping of male children born between one to four years}; will always with delight each time, narrate his emergence from humble beginnings to eminence. He will with relish, narrate how poor the father of the ebullient lawyer was, how he defied the obstacle of poverty and used the power of education to attain great heights. He will always admonish us that if you want to own a Pontiac car like Aniagolu or Chevrolet like Byron you must study hard.

Then, they were few cars at Enugu or indeed Eastern region as a whole and the most prominent were Pontiac, Chevrolet, American cars and Citron, a French car.

On how Justice Aniagolu defied poverty, my father will tell you that his route to education was rough and tasking; for not only was his father poor, but that he lost his father at two, from thence it was as if all hopes were lost.

He was picked up by his late uncle, Chief Onyeama Onwusinkata, the paramount ruler of Agbaja kingdom, a kingdom which spanned the length and breadth of the present Enugu State to Oturkpo in Benue State and the recipient of a Catholic Church; who unfortunately died in a tragic accident in 1933.

With the death of Chief Onyeama, the hopes of Justice Aniagolu continuing elementary education was dimmed, as schools had been fee paying in that part of the country to this day, which gave birth to the school song which goes thus, ‘education is sweet, hard to learn and useful; provided that your parents have the money’.

Justice Aniagolu, once more from groveling subservience scrambled to continue education from then till 1939 when his brilliance won him the one slot annual, District Officer, E. R. Chadwick, Udi Native Authority Scholarship, to Government College, Umuahia. At that time, Udi Native Authority, unlike today was offering one scholarship annually to one Udi indigene who not only passed entrance examination to Government College, Umuahia, but came top.

As if the rough route was not enough, the World War 11 disrupted his education as Government College, Umuahia, which was commandeered by the British for war operations and the students were dispersed to other schools.  The college became the camp for Italian prisoners of war.

Justice Aniagolu was transferred to Christ the King College, Onitsha with some of his school mates and in 1944, he passed the Cambridge School Certificate Examinations with distinction.

While other brilliant students with the wherewithal proceeded immediately to universities abroad, Justice Aniagolu at home enrolled as external student. In 1947, one of his uncles Sir Joe Nwankwo, then Divisional Clerk, called a village meeting lamenting how the brilliant Aniagolu’s brain was being wasted and challenged them to contribute money to send him to England to study law.

They agreed to the proposal and in July 1947, Aniagolu having gained admission at Kings College, Cambridge University, left the shores of his native Nigeria for England aboard the troop ship SS Almanzora.   He was enrolled in the Gray’s Inn, London on 2 July 1952 as a Barrister-at-Law.

As one cannot end my father’s often repeated and much cherished oral biography of his iconic age mate in this brief tribute; kindly join me in recalling few of the inedible decisions and uncommon legacies left behind by Justice Aniagolu.

One of these decisions was  his outright refusal to be made the Chief Justice of Nigeria, after the 31 December 1983 military coup’ d tat, which brought Major General Muhammadu Buhari {rtd} to power on January 1, 1984. In this occasion, his family unlike previous years did not go home during the Christmas celebrations and he was one of the few, if not the only Justice of the Supreme Court in Lagos.  He was approached at his then residence, Bedwell Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos to dress up and act as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, in order to swear-in the new Head of State. The then Chief Justice of Nigeria {CJN} was out of the country. Justice Aniagolu was persuaded that once the announcement of his investiture as Chief Justice is made, the two senior justices will be retired. He bluntly refused to be sworn-in, telling them in clear terms that he was third in the hierarchy and that the judiciary is hierarchical and stickler to order of protocol and rule of law, unlike the military.

One remembers vividly how one of those influential people mandated to lobby him went as far as cajoling and taunting him that this is a golden opportunity of a life time, arguing that there is nothing sacrosanct about the seniority or hierarchy in the bench. One lobbyist went as far as raising the alibi that since Nigerian airspace was closed, it was practically impossible for the then CJN, Justice Atanda Williams, to be flown back. Therefore, nobody will blame him as being an opportunist. Still he refused.

As the Chairman of the 1988/89  Constituent Assembly, a prelude to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he brought to bear, his wealth of experience as the Chairman, Kano Religious Riots of Inquiry, commonly known as Maitatsine Religious Riots to navigate safely the Shari’a controversy at the Constituent Assembly.

Finally, on the different occasions especially in very serious cases, lobbyists will dispatch emissaries on behalf of either the plaintiffs or the defendants and one will remember him rebuffing all entreaties and maintaining his position that for any judge to serve the cause of justice, the judge must see himself as presiding on behalf of God.

Osita Okechukwu, Obodo Amankwo, Eke, Enugu State.