•35 years after, eminent Nigerians pay tribute to foremost jurist, Justice Augustine Nnamani
When the story of Nigeria’s judiciary is told, the name Justice Augustine Nnamani commands a central place. Few jurists have combined intellectual breadth, moral courage, and institutional foresight as he did.
From midwifing the Land Use Act of 1978 to delivering judgments that balanced brilliance with humanity, Nnamani’s career was a testament to law as a tool for justice rather than abstraction.
Born on 8 August 1934 in Agbani, Enugu State, Nnamani’s beginnings were modest. His education took him from Methodist Central School, Agbani, to Methodist College, Uzuakoli, and later Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha.
Initially, law was not his calling. He trained as a pharmacist at the School of Pharmacy, Yaba, between 1953 and 1957, graduating with distinction. Yet his restless brilliance demanded wider horizons.
In 1959 he crossed to the London School of Economics, earning a Second-Class Upper in Law, followed by an LL.M. and a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law.
By 1976, he had risen to become Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, serving until 1979, before his elevation directly to the Supreme Court of Nigeria—an extraordinary leap bypassing the High Court and Court of Appeal. He died in 1990 at just 56, but not before cementing his place in Nigeria’s legal pantheon.
It was this legacy that drew scholars, jurists, politicians, and admirers to Enugu for the presentation of a new book- ‘Essays in Honour of an Oracle at the Pinnacle of Justice,’ edited by Professor Gab Agu Gab and published by Renaissance Law Publications Ltd. The volume, containing 22 essays, probes not only Nnamani’s life and times but also the national policies and philosophies that bore his mark.
Enugu State Governor, Ndubuisi Mbah, led the tributes. He described the Avangard of justice as “an intellectual giant and a philosophy in robes,” whose era symbolised the golden age of Nigeria’s judiciary.
He reflected on the Supreme Court of the 1970s and 1980s: “When people pine for that glorious era, it is not a mere idolising of the ‘good old days.’ It is essentially because the judiciary captured the public’s imagination, neither cowering to authority nor pandering to populism. Justice Augustine Nnamani was a member of that eminent body of jurists whose brilliance defined that heyday.”
Mbah recalled some defining national policies that had Nnamani’s imprints including the Legal Aid Council, the declaration of assets by public officers, and the Land Use Decree of 1978: “When we speak of Justice Nnamani, we speak of excellence without compromise; we speak of brilliance harnessed for the common good; we speak of courage in the service of justice. Justice Nnamani understood something that speaks to us even today – that the purpose of law is not to exist in abstraction but in an environment where people can flourish.”
Eminent lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, declared that Nnamani’s achievements bordered on the extraordinary: “To say he is an iconic jurist is when you want to be modest. He was like only one other Nigerian, Teslim Elias, who went straight from the Bar to the Bench. It has never happened before. He 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 urged that Nnamani should also be remembered for his nation-shaping role as Attorney-General stating that the foremost jurist midwifed the Land Use Act, the entire framework and content in 1978.
Before that landmark legislation, Ozekhome recalled that Nigeria’s land tenure system was chaotic: “Chiefs and royals acted like Louis XIV of France who declared, ‘I am the state.’ Land was controlled to the detriment of ordinary people.
“The East, West and Midwest applied customary systems; the North practised English Common Law; the FCT combined both. There was confusion. It was Nnamani who stepped in to birth that brave piece of legislation, declaring in section one that ‘all land in the state belongs to the state governor to hold in trust for the people.’ In other words, the governor is a conduit pipe for the people to enjoy land. That has made land available to everybody.”
Ozekhome emphasised that this was only part of what Nnamani represented. “The incorruptibility of the Bench, the scholarly statements made through the law, his belief that law should only be used to deliver justice, all these stood him out as a rare judge and lawyer.”
For Secretary of the Police Service Commission, Chief Onyemuche Nnamani, the late jurist’s legacy was captured in one word-justice: “We are celebrating a former Justice of the Supreme Court who was not just a justice. He was an oracle of the Bench. His legacy is justice – both for those who cannot afford it and those who can.
“I once asked him how he considered impartiality in cases placed before him, and he laughed. But he was raised in a tradition where justice was natural. A father giving judgement between his sons had to be fair. That was what they carried to the Bench.
“They grew up knowing justice. About how we lost it and where we lost it, I don’t know. It’s a different matter.”
In his welcome address, editor-in-chief of the book, Prof. Gab Agu Gab placed Nnamani within a distinguished but under-celebrated lineage of Nigerian jurists: “Justice Nnamani particularly deserves accolade. He was the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria from this part of the country and one of only two persons in Nigerian history who ascended to the Supreme Court directly from the Bar.
He added that the book is not just to honour Nnamani but also part of a larger project to honour jurists of stellar qualities whose contributions remain under-acknowledged.
The book launch, coming just after the Nigerian Bar Association conference in Enugu, felt like a bridge between generations. By celebrating Justice Augustine Nnamani, participants were recalling a jurist of extraordinary gifts while confronting what has been lost in the decades since.
In an era when public confidence in Nigeria’s justice system often feels fragile, that reminder may be Justice Nnamani’s most enduring gift.
