Tunji Braithwaite: A gadfly would have been 90 – Guardian Nigeria

“I believe if Nigeria has a minimum of 10 fearless personalities who are fighting for the masses like my father did all his life, Nigeria would have been a better country today.

“My father stood for integrity, steadfastness, uprightness, courage, bravery and the voice for the masses of Nigeria. In his early 40’s, he contested against the known names in the political annals of this country which include, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the great Zik and Shehu Shagari. I can say without being immodest that his name also opened a lot of goodwill for the children and family anywhere we found ourselves.

“My father… was an enigmatic personality and he had so much hope for this country and that was why he sacrificed all he had and was never seen being bought over throughout his entire struggles.

“His greatest regret in life was that after fighting all the battles, the masses in Nigeria are yet to be free and emancipated from the political shackles of this country.”

These were profound words of Olumide Braithwaite as he spoke fondly of his late father, legal icon, pro-democracy activist, politician and author,‎ Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, when he passed on to glory some seven years ago.

Today, these words, yet, ring true of the virtues and values Dr. Braithwaite stood for and espoused through his life. Indeed, Nigeria may never have another selfless patriot like the late Braithwaite.

From his early career as a brilliant young lawyer through to his old age, Braithwaite constantly confronted with numerous social ills and the pervading corruption which have become entrenched hallmarks of Nigeria.

Early Years
BORN in Lagos on September 17, 1933 to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Adesoye Braithwaite, his grandfather, Rev. I. Braithwaite, was the first missionary to open-up Ijebu-Epe axis of Western Nigeria to Christianity. Working with the Church Mission Society (CMS), he founded and built the first Anglican Parish, indeed the first-ever Christian Congregation in Epe, the St. Michaels Anglican Church in 1840.

Rev Braithwaite’s mission journals have been archived at the University of Brimingham, United Kingdom. Rev. Braithwaite married Princess Haastrup of the royal family of Ijesha. His maternal Grandfather, Abrio Martins, arrived from Bahia, Brazil and settled in Lagos in 1866. His extended family included Sapara Williams and Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony. His eldest brother was Talabi Adebayo Braithwaite, the first President of the Insurance Institute of Nigeria. Tunji was the last born child of his parents’ seven children.

The Braithwaite family estates were situated along the Marina end of Olowogbowo, Williams Street, Broad Street and the Campos Areas of Lagos Island and his maternal family estate was largely in the Okesuna/Lafiaji area of Lagos.

The late Braithwaite had his primary education at St. David’s Primary School, Lagos and at St. Paul’s Breadfruit School, his secondary education at CMS Grammar School, Lagos, and later went to Kennington College, London between 1956 and 1958.

He joined Lincoln’s Inn London, Autumn 1958 and graduated, was called to the English Bar and signed the Roll of Barristers, London February 1961. He was enrolled as Barrister & Solicitor, Supreme Court of Nigeria in March 1961.

Legal Career
He began his legal career in 1961 with the establishment of the law firm Tunji Braithwaite & Co and quickly earned himself a reputation of being one of the brightest and best lawyers of his day. With an impressive clientele base comprising the likes of multinational giants Swissair, BASF, Hoescht and Julius Berger, he built up an enviable law practice and carved a niche for himself as a leading litigation lawyer.

Consequently, he successfully handled several landmark cases, including the celebrated Treasonable Felony trials of 1962/1963 and State vs Eyo, which brought further acclaim to the firm and later in 1974, remarking on his conduct of State vs Olabisi Ajala, Chief Obafemi Awolowo said, “I think Tunji is a brave lawyer of whom our profession should be proud.”

For young Braithwaite whose professional profile was rising steadily, the future was very bright. Then came Fela’s case in February 1977. This marked a turning point for Braithwaite. The State’s flagrant disregard for the rule of law in one of the worst atrocities on innocent and unarmed civilians ever heard of in peace-time led to a significant paradigm shift in the life and career of the lawyer.

Political Career
He went back to the drawing board and resolved to commit the rest of his life to the fight for social justice and the fight against corruption and executive lawlessness.

In 1978, this new course saw him form and single-handedly fund the Nigeria Advance Party (NAP), the first truly socialist political party Nigeria had ever seen. The party’s motto was, ‘together we take the destiny of Nigeria in our hands’.

Commenting on his foray into politics in his book, ‘Emancipation of Africa,’ renowned professor of political science, Eme Awa decribed Braithwaite “as a lawyer and multi-millionaire who carried out a considerable amount of social mobilisation among the middle and lower classes….and put so much energy and his personal wealth into the quest for a new social order in Nigeria.”

Braithwaite went on to contest the Presidential elections in 1983 alongside Nnamdi Azikiwe, Shehu Shagari, Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano and Waziri Ibrahim within what Awa described as “the framework of the decayed political system.” Expectedly, that system ensured that he did not win.

During the Buhari-Idiagbon regime, at a time when several Second Republic politicians were tried for various embezzlement and corruption charges and put behind bars, Braithwaite’s passport was unlawfully confiscated by the authorities in their bid to restrict his international travels. Not one to be discouraged by setbacks, he threw himself into intellectual work, enrolling as a long-distance PhD student of the Columbia Pacific University, California to produce a doctoral thesis which resulted in his authorship of the classic book, ‘The Jurisprudence of The Living Oracles.’

The second edition of the book has received widespread attention as well as several notable reviews at home and abroad since its publication in 2011 and is under considerable demand from leading universities around the world most of them Ivy League institutions.

An Uncompromising Voice
Braithwaite remained a powerful and uncompromising voice against socio-political ills plaguing the nation from the 70s till he breathed his last.

In 1990, in the immediate aftermath of the April 22 Gideon Orkar-led coup, he publicly denounced the imposition of the death sentence on the coup suspects by the Ibrahim Babangida-led junta. Days later, his home was besieged by battalions of soldiers who, in his own words, ‘abducted’ him and imprisoned him under inhumane conditions at three different locations, namely, the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) Apapa, Abalti Barracks and finally, the Creek Military Hospital, Ikoyi, over a period of two months.

In 1997, during the dark days of Abacha’s transformation agenda from Military Dictator to Civilian President, there was an unspoken declaration that there was no vacancy at Aso Rock, which compelled presidential hopefuls to drop their ambition in order to concede to the undemocratic and absurd notion of a consensus presidency in favour of Abacha. Braithwaite challenged the dictator’s obnoxious plan on the platform of the Grassroots Democratic Movement, the very platform from which the dictator had chosen to emerge.

The party Presidential Primary elections were rigged amid heavy military presence at the Maiduguri convention ground. But undeterred, Braithwaite continued the fight to stop the military dictator’s transmutation plot in the law courts. Days after the Court of Appeal held that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case, Abacha died.

The death of the military dictator ushered in a new dawn for Nigeria as the Abubakar Abdulsalami military Government pledged to conduct credible elections, which would return the country to democratic civilian rule. Braithwaite formed a new political party – the Democratic Advance Movement (DAM) whose motto was: “Righteousness exalts a nation”.

The party’s manifesto proposed Devolution of Power to the regions as the bulwark for simultaneous rapid economic and sustainable development for the country’s six Geo-political regions thereby destroying the current monolithic economic system, bane of corruption.

Under this programme, power would devolve to the regions with each region harnessing all its human and natural resources, creating prosperity and bringing infrastructural development. In turn, the Centre would focus on territorial military defence, general policy formulation and implementation of fiscal and monetary policies. Furthermore, under this system, the regions contribute tax to the Central Government whilst maintaining autonomy over their own resources.

Subsequently, Braithwaite’s Devolution of Power as the panacea for the nation’s ills has been variously renamed ‘Resource Control’ by other political groups and has since been bandied as indeed the only way forward for Nigeria.

Even in his old age and until he departed this world, Braithwaite continued to be dogged in the fight against social injustice, corruption and all forms of national malaise, actively participating in protest marches, rallies and national debates of public interest and calling for revolutionary reforms in all sectors. His last public assignment was as Delegate at the 2014 National Conference.

Personal Life
DR. Braithwaite was married to Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Simisola Braithwaite, a medical practitioner and their union was blessed with five children.

The late Braithwaite was always very active in the Church. A diocesan Lay Reader, he was, together with his wife, elected a lay-reader in the early sixties. He represented the Parish of St. Paul’s at Synod, since 1968 when he was the Vicar’s Warden.

In 1997, he was chosen the Chairman of the Organising Committee for the First-ever Carnival for Christ by the then entire single Diocese of Lagos (Anglican Communion).