The demise of legal luminary and inspirational politician, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, is eliciting eulogies across the country. The erudite lawyer and social crusader passed on in a Lagos hospital on March 28. He was 82.
Dr. Braithwaite came to national consciousness when he registered the Nigerian Advance Party (NAP) in 1983 and contested that year’s presidential election on its platform. He brought candour and a breath of fresh air to political campaigns in the country, promising to eliminate the ‘rats and cockroaches’ of Nigerian politics, in apparent reference to the endemic corruption in the polity. He was a nationalist to the core.
Though he came last in a strong field of six presidential candidates then, the country will not forget his impact on elections and politics generally. His austere outlook and penchant for dressing in African prints held him out as a man with a mission; as someone intent on correcting some of the vulgarities and other excesses of public officers at that period in Nigeria’s history.
Braithwaite did not just spring into national prominence from nowhere. His unrelenting advocacy for ethics in politics, and his unwavering patriotism, had earned him a following that propelled his quest for the presidency.
The late politician attended the famous CMS Grammar School. He began at the Preparatory School in 1946 and finished in 1953. He enrolled as a law student at the Council of Legal Education in London in 1957 and obtained the LL.B in 1960 when Nigeria attained independence. He returned to the country in 1961 and enrolled as a Barrister and Advocate of the Supreme Court.
Braithwaite was a brilliant lawyer and legal adviser to many organisations, trade unions and international companies. At the height of his illustrious practice, he held the retainership of over 20 national and international corporate organisations, foreign missions and embassies, among which are Swiss Airline, BASF, Hoechst, Witt Busch and Co. and Julius Berger.
He was an activist-lawyer who had no regrets standing up to the state whenever the fundamental rights and civil liberties of citizens were threatened. Among the celebrated cases he handled were State versus Fashoyin; State Versus Obafemi Awolowo and others (the celebrated treasonable felony case of 1963); State versus Eyo, and State versus Olabisi Ajala.
Perhaps, the biggest of his civil rights cases was when he got the brief to defend his two younger brothers, maverick musician, Fela and activist doctor, Beko against the then General Olusegun Obasanjo-led Military Government in February 1977. He fought all the way to the Supreme Court and got reprieve for the much-abused brothers.
Braithwaite was also a very devout Christian, as attested to by his family. That is hardly surprising, given his rich family antecedents in missionary work which dates back to the 1880s when Reverend I. Braithwaite led the first Anglican missionary expedition to Ijebuland. His illustrious forebear also built the first church in Epe, in the present Lagos State, in 1894. That church is still standing. Another church named Reverend Braithwaite Memorial Anglican Church was built in commemoration of that pioneering feat, in Papa Epe.
The late legal luminary was a successful entrepreneur, long before he went into politics. Apart from his very successful and lucrative law practice, he ventured into a number of other businesses, which ranked him among the wealthiest persons in the country at that time.
Tunji Braithwaite was a prolific writer and author. Among his best known works is The Jurisprudence of the Living Oracles, a 530-page book on his understanding of the connection between law, justice and religion, published in 1989.The book was serialised in a national newspaper to the great acclaim and admiration of many Nigerians.
We urge Nigerian politicians to emulate the selflessness, patriotism and ethical orientation of Braithwaite’s politics. We commiserate with his family, professional colleagues and the entire nation on his passage. May God grant his soul eternal repose.