Akinola Aguda

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Akinola Aguda (born June 10, 1923 in Akure , † September 5, 2001 ) was a Nigerian lawyer and Chief Justice (Attorney General) of Botswana . Prior to becoming Chief Justice, he was an attorney and judge in a Nigerian High Court in the western region of Nigeria. He was the first native African to fill the position of Chief Justice in Botswana.

During his legal career, he was known as a lawyer and attorney who promoted radicalism during the military rule in Nigeria. It is believed that this led to his expulsion from the Nigerian Supreme Court.

Life

Judge Aguda was born in Akure to Elijah Aguda and Deborah Fasu, who were a prominent Anglican couple in Akure. He completed his elementary school at St David's Primary School, Akure, and then moved to a high school, Government College, Ibadan. Originally, he wanted to become a doctor, but chemistry, which was a crucial subject for being a doctor, was not his thing, so he left medical school after the first year. He tried it as a teacher, but switched to law school on the advice of Obafemi Awolowo . He studied law at the University of London and graduated as a barrister in 1952.

Aguda married his first wife in 1952 and had a lover from 1954.

Career

After completing his studies, Aguda worked for a Nigerian attorney, Ayo Rosiji , but later moved to the Legal Department of the Western Region of Nigeria, where he became a trainee Crown Counsel. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Crown Counsel . In 1955 and 1968 he became an active general solicitor of the western region of Nigeria. On February 3, 1972, he was appointed the first African Chief Justice of Botswana, at the same time he was a judge on the Court of Appeal of Swaziland , Botswana and Lesotho . After leaving the Supreme Court in 1975, he returned to Nigeria and continued his legal career as Chief Justice of Ondo State . In 1976 he was a leading member of the committee that recommended Abuja as the capital of Nigeria. He retired from the legal system in 1978 and became director of the newly formed Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

As head of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Aguda took on a new role as a critic of corruption and government in Nigeria and Africa. According to Aguda, ordinary Africans know too little about legal norms and precedents, which leads to important human rights being abused by the government. This situation can be enhanced by poverty. Many people are held in jail with no trial or indictment because they do not have the money to go through a lawyer or the connections to change their situation. His defense of the rights of suspects was a key issue that stood out during his tenure as a judge. In 1968 he wrote a commentary on the Agbaje v. Government of the Western Region of Nigeria that is still relevant to Nigeria's legal system today.

“In a democracy like ours, even in spite of the national emergency in which we have been for the past three years, I hold the view that it is, to say the least, high-handed for the police to hold a citizen of this country in custody in various places for over ten days without showing him the authority under which he is being held or at least informing him verbally of such authority. "

“Despite the national emergency we have had over the past three years, I believe that in a democracy like ours, to put it mildly, it is autocratic for the police to detain a citizen of this country in various locations for ten days without showing him the authorization under which he is being held, or at least informing him verbally about the authorization. "

He also tried to remove the economic barriers of the criminal justice system through an express trial to place the omnipotent leaders below, not above, the law.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Man In The News . In: The News, October 26, 1998
  3. ^ A b Aguda: Burying the Dead, Honoring the Living . In: Thisday, October 19, 2001
  4. ↑ Brendalyn P. Ambrose: Democratization and the Protection of Human Rights in Africa: Problems and Prospects . Praeger Publishers, 1995
  5. ↑ Nigeria: Human rights groups welcome UN spotlight on police torture . Reuters AlertNet
  6. ↑ The Human Rights Philosophy of Honorable Dr. Akinola Aguda . In: Journal of Human Rights Law and Practice , 2
personal data
SURNAME Aguda, Akinola
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian lawyer and Chief Justice (Attorney General) of Botswana
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Akure
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 2001