That the Honourable Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa, Jsc rtd, CFR, D.Litt, Kt. Css, kt CsGG, ksm has gone the way of all men is now public knowledge. I was driving within Festac Town in Lagos on that Sunday evening when my telephone rang. I answered the caller at the other end and the bad news was delivered: My own revered Honourable Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa has passed on. I pulled off the road to be sure I heard right. Trying to be very sure I put a call to Bar. George Oputa( Justice Oputa’s son) who gave the confirmation that the inevitable is here. In a split second, my mind ran to the first day I met him as an undergraduate law student in the university. That was the 2nd Nebo Graham Douglas memorial Lecture in the amphitheatre of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology Port Harcourt. From my seat, I asked God to give me another opportunity to hear him. That opportunity came during my Law School in Lagos when he came to speak to us. I was so taken in by his scholarship and erudition that I wondered if I will ever become ‘learned.’ He became my yardstick for measuring learning, scholarship and erudition. At the end of the lecture I prayed that God would give me an opportunity of meeting and shaking hands with him. That opportunity came in 2004 when he appointed me to become his biographer. I was to start by collating all his lectures and writings post Supreme Court and publish same as a book.
His letter conveying this task to me ended by saying “I hope you make the utmost of this assignment.” I promised God and myself not to disappoint, even if to demonstrate my gratitude that God answered my prayers of bringing me in contact with this person I thought was immortal. Commenting on him in that book, I described him as having ‘stamped his feet most forcefully on the sands of time. He proved himself a great intellectual, ranking unarguably with the great Lord Alfred Denning of the English jurisprudence and Earl Warren of the American Supreme Court. Certainly, it will not be an over statement to say that the Hon. Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa represents one of the greatest that our judiciary, nay, legal profession has produced in this continent and age. To say that his mind is most articulate and profound is stating the common knowledge. This is whether in or out of the bench.’ While commenting on him, the York University Canada described him as “the renowned, brilliant and courageous jurist ‘ On his contributions in the Supreme Court, the University wrote: Justice Oputa was recognised and honoured for the many brilliant,
Scholarly and wise decisions that he wrote on behalf of the court; for his unparalleled integrity, for his defence of human rights and for the marked contribution he made to the development of Nigeria, Africa and indeed world jurisprudence. While on the bench of the Supreme Court he delivered 50 lead judgments and 217 concurring judgments. This is in addition to the many judgments he delivered as a High Court Judge of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, East Central State and the old Imo state now comprising of Imo, Abia and part of Ebonyi states. Each of these judgments has become the locus classicus in any department of law it addressed. Within this same period also he delivered 90 scholarly papers. Post Supreme Court he delivered 20 scholarly papers. This is in addition to serving as chairman and member of various panels and committees. This included the one man panel that recommended the setting up of the atlas cove jetty in Lagos as an answer to perennial fuel shortage in Lagos. This is without forgetting the Human Rights Violation and investigation Panel popularly called the Oputa panel. As the world stands still on the 27th of June 2014 to say good bye to this law persona, I can’t but remember the cry sounds of King Joash of ancient Israel, when the great Israeli Prophet Elisha lay dying: “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” Before he conquered law, he had conquered the Kalabari National College where he was a teacher and Principal. The great Hon. Justice Adolphus Karibi -White was his illustrious student. While I join multitudes to bade papa (as I have come to always call him) goodbye, I cannot but promise to keep to the ideals of Oputa…the ideals of excellence, the ideals of learning, the ideals of integrity. Papa la nke OOH!
Chris Okeke is a Lagos-based attorney, scholar and author. He was Papa’s biographer.
