Chief Chris Uche (SAN), has described Chief Richard Akinjide, the late former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice as a quintessential legal luminary who left invaluable footprints.
Uche spoke in an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that as a legal practitioner, he was a forensic advocate, who contributed tremendously to the expansion of the frontiers of the nation’s jurisprudence.
“Nigeria has lost a quintessential legal luminary. As Attorney-General of the Federation, he left remarkable footprints in the sands of legal reforms.
“ He is mostly remembered in the legal community for his role in propounding the twelve two-third theory, which was the basis of the victory of Shehu Shagari at the Supreme Court.
“As a politician, he was a nationalist and was passionate about Nigeria,’’ Uche said.
Uche said that Akinjide will be greatly missed, adding “I am sure history will be kind to him.’’
NAN reports that Akinjide who passed on Tuesday was 88-year-old.
Born in the city of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State in the southwest of the country on Nov. 4,1931, Akinjide attended Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife from where he passed out in Grade One (Distinction, Aggregate 6).
Akinjide travelled to the UK in 1951 for his higher education and was called to the English Bar in 1955 and later in Nigeria.
He established his practice of Akinjide & Co soon after.
He was a former Minister of Education in the government of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa during the First Republic and the Minister for Justice in the administration of President Shehu Shagari in the second republic.
He was a member of the judicial systems sub-committee of the Constitutional Drafting Committee of 1975-1977 and later joined the National Party of Nigeria in 1978.
He became the legal adviser for the party and was later appointed the Minister for Justice.
Akinjide was conferred with the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 1978.
He was number eight on the roll.
