The Proponent of 12 Two-Thirds Chief Richard Akinjide SAN, 1930-2020
Tribute of SEBASTINE. T. HON (SAN)
“Nigeria has indeed lost a great legal mind, father-figure and a leader. Chief Richard Akinjide was already Federal Attorney General when I was just transitioning from primary to secondary school. You can see the age disparity; but the beauty of our profession saw me representing some clients and he was representing their opponent before the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, two years ago. Even though he always sat while conducting his proceeding due to old age, you could notice that ubiquitous spark of brilliance, focus and refusal to succumb to dementia. He was such a great fellow. I will personally miss him, Nigeria will miss him, and the legal profession in particular will miss him. Our consolation, however, is that he left indelible marks on the sands of our time.”
Indelible Marks of the demised Learned Soul
He studied law in the UK and was called to the English Bar in 1955, and later in Nigeria. He established his law firm shortly after he returned to Nigeria, and also joined politics. He became a Federal Parliamentarian in 1959, and was Minister of Education in the first civilian government that was overthrown by the military in the country’s first coup in 1966.
He was a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee of 1975-1977 that produced the 1979 constitution, and joined the NPN in 1978 after the military government lifted the ban on politics. He was the party’s legal adviser. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1978, and was amongst the second set of recipients of the title after its introduction in 1975, which presented him as a lawyer of distinction.
He controversially won the argument about what constituted two-thirds of 19 states at the country’s Supreme Court, setting the stage for the Second Republic. His death at the age of 89, resurrected the debate about the legal victory that followed the electoral success of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, then Presidential Candidate of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), more than 40 years after when Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) had challenged the electoral commission’s decision on the grounds that the declared winner did not fulfill the requirement of winning “not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states within the federation.” Awolowo had argued that two-thirds of 19 ought to be 13. Akinjide’s response that it should be 12 two-thirds in the circumstances was indeed curious, yet he won the argument. According to him, “In order to get one-quarter of the total votes cast in the thirteenth state, the reckoning must not be the total votes but two-thirds of the total votes; meaning that once a candidate satisfied the requirement of obtaining one-quarter of the total votes cast in twelve states and in two-thirds of the thirteenth state, then he should be accepted as having satisfied the requirement of scoring at least one-quarter of the total votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the nineteen states of the federation.” See: AWOLOWO V. SHAGARI & ORS (1979) ALL N.L.R 120
As a member of the 2005 National Political Reform Conference, and a participant in the 2014 National Conference, Chief Richard Akinjide SAN moved the motion for the adoption of the final conference report at the age of 82, thus demonstrating that he had a passion for political improvement and national development. His death in Ibadan on April 21, 2020 has indeed shown that Baba planted trees of shades he will not live under.
ADIEU, BABA.
