Jaja Wachuku

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Jaja Anucha Wachuku (1 January 1918 – 7 November 1996), a Royal Prince of Ngwaland who was "descendant of 20 generations of African chiefs in the Igbo nation of Eastern Nigeria," was a Pan-Africanist, advocate, politician, and humanitarian.

He was the first Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, as well as the first Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations [2].

At a time when the US government had already designated Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, Jaja Wachuku was "widely respected" as Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister and saved Nelson Mandela and others from the death penalty at the 1963–64 Rivonia trial, Jaja Wachuku was also the first Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Nelson Mandela's 1962 diary, from Lagos: Nigeria, wrote: "Friday the 18th May 1962: 1 p.m. OR and I meet Mr. Jaja Wachuku and his staff and have a fruitful discussion."

We have lunch with Jaja Wachuku on Saturday 19 May 1962. "On Thursday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan received a posthumous Golden Jubilee Independence Award for his contribution to Nigeria's growth."

Also, on the 100th anniversary of Nigeria's independence from Great Britain and a Pioneer Political Leader by President Goodluck Jonathan, Wachuku was honoured on Friday 28 February 2014, being nominated for outstanding service by the Presidential Committee on the Centenary Celebrations.

Early education

Wachuku attended Infant School at St. Georges NDP Umuomainta, Nbawsi, Abia State, for his primary education. He served as the head of the school band and prefect at Government School Afikpo, Ebonyi State. He began working in 1930 and came first in the first school Leaving Certificate Examination in Ogoja Province. From 1931 to 1936, his first position earned him a scholarship for his secondary school education at Government College Umuahia, Abia State. Wachuku was a House Prefect. Wachuku gained vocational qualifications in carpentry, farming, and metal at Government College Umuahia. He enjoyed tennis and cricket and was in the first eleven of the college's football team.

Wachuku was on scholarship from 1936 to 1937 and Lagos, Yaba Higher College. He was estranged from Yaba by his father, Josaiah Ndubuisi Wachuku, and transferred to Adidome's Gold Coast People's College. He then transferred to Anloga, South Africa University College, in Anloga, to study further abroad. "How Can the People of the World Achieve Universal Disarmament?" while at New Africa University College and later won the First National Prize for the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the New History Society's New York (led by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab) on the subject: "How Can the People of the World Achieve Universal Disarmament." Wachuku left for Trinity College in Dublin, South Africa.

In the Oratory of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, Wachuku was the first African medalist laureate. He matriculated at Trinity College in 1939 and was elected Executive Member of the College Historical Society in 1941. During the 1943 Inter-University Debate at the University of Durham, Wachuku represented the University of Dublin. In November 1944, he was admitted to the Irish bar association, Kings Inn. He was heavily involved in Nigeria's constitutional assemblies and resistance against Britain's independence from the United Kingdom. Wachuku served in Dublin for three years before returning to Nigeria in 1947. He earned his first-class Bachelor's degree in law and was an LL.B. Prizeman in Roman Law, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Law. "The Juristic Status of Protectorates in International Law," he wrote a research fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. Wachuku served as both a barrister and solicitor for Nigeria's Supreme Court from 1947 to 1996. He also served at the West African Court of Appeal.

Wachuku served as an executive of the Student Christian Movement (SCM) in Dublin. He lectured at the SCM Summer Schools in Great Britain and Ireland; he also gave the last seven lectures at Swanwick, Hampshire, on the theme "Africa in the Postwar World." Wachuku was secretary of the Association of Students of African Descent (ASAD) in Ireland from 1939 to 1943. He was elected president of the ASAD in 1944. He represented ASAD at the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England, during 1945. Wachuku served as founder, organizer, and secretary of the Dublin International Club from 1943 to 1945. He was president of the club from 1945 to 1947, but resigned in 1947 to campaign for an end to colonial rule and independence of Nigeria from Great Britain. Wachuku was the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons for six weeks. (NCNC) Pan-Nigeria Delegation, which traveled to London to call for constitutional reforms in Nigeria in 1947. Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin, gave him LL.D. (Honoris Causa).

Wachuku returned to Nigeria in 1947, along with Nnamdi Azikiwe; and was on the same ship with Nnamdi Azikiwe at Takoradi, Gold Coast, where Azikiwe's founder Joseph B. Danquah, on the subject of Kwame Nkrumah's organizational capabilities. Joseph B. Danquah was then advised by Azikiwe to bring Nkrumah home from England. Wachuku joined the NCNC in the first year of his return to Nigeria in 1999 and was elected as the Party's Legal Advisor and Member of the National Executive Committee. He soon became active in the nationalist movement of the 1960s and was a favorite lecturer at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos. Wachuku declared Lagos a "no-man's land" in one of his lectures, implying that it was an all-Nigerian city, in which Nigerians were entitled to equal rights. Wachuku served as the Prime Minister of the Igbo State Union from 1948 to 1952, among other duties. In 1949, he founded the New Africa Party, a radical youth movement that was affiliated with the NCNC. The National Council of Nigerian Citizens was later named the NCNC. In a letter from London dated 29 May 1951, concerning Wachuku's New Africa Party, sent to W. E. B., a letter from London worried about Wachuku's New Africa Party. Du Bois, who was later identified in W. E. B.'s Correspondence, was included in his W. E. B.'s The Correspondence of W. E. B. "Enclosed are a few clippings from West Africa," Du Bois said. You will no doubt recall Jaja Wachuku, who was delegated to the Fifth Pan-African Congress. "You are the brave father," he says in Nigeria.

Wachuku was co-founder and first shareholder, with Nnamdi Azikiwe, the African Continental Bank's first regional director, from 1948 to 1952. He facilitated the opening of branches in Aba, Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Enugu. Wachuku began his political career from the grassroots. He was first elected village councillor and later to the Nsulu Group Council in 1948. He served with the Ngwa Native Authority, Okpile, Ngwa, from 1949 to 1952. In 1951, he began national politics and was elected Second Member of Aba Division in the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly. Wachuku was elected Deputy Chairman of the NCNC and Chairman of the Parliamentary Party from 1952 to 1953 when there was a crisis in Nigeria's Eastern Region, which culminated in the dissolution of the Eastern House of Assembly. He served as Chairman of the Eastern Regional Scholarship Board and Member of the Finance Committee in Nigeria's House of Representatives from 1952 to 1953. Wachuku was delegate and Adviser to the Nigerian Independence Party (NIP) in London, 1953 – a breakaway faction established following the NCNC's 1953 crisis.

Wachuku lost the Eastern Regional election in 1954 and ceased to serve as a member of the House of Representatives. He was re-elected first member of the Aba Division of the House of Representatives, as well as a member of the United Nigeria Independence Party, a mixture of NIP and another party in 1954, when the principle of direct election to the House of Representatives was introduced. Wachuku joined the NCNC in 1957 and became the Opposition Leader of the Opposition. He served as a Board member of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria from 1957 to 1959. He was also elected member of the Local Education Authority and chairman of the board of Education in the Eastern Region of Nigeria in 1957. Wachuku served as Chairman of the NCNC's Aba Divisional Committee during the same period.

Wachuku, the Chief of the Nigerian Federation Delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in 1957, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, was on display in India, Pakistan, and Ceylon. At the opening of the New Parliament Building in Monrovi producer, he also represented Nigeria in Liberia. Wachuku was Chairman of the Nigerian Business Committee from 1958 to 1959. He served on the Senate Committee on the Nigerianization of the Federal Civil Service. Michael O. Ani supported the committee in drafting his report. Wachuku was re-elected into the House of Representatives from Aba Division in 1959 and was, in turn, elected the first indigenous Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Wachuku married Rhoda Idu Onumonu (1920–1994), a Nigerian woman from 1951. "Anucha" was her husband's affectionately referred to by her mother. She attended primary school in Oguta, Imo State, and later transferred to Women Training College, Umuahia, as well as Achimota College, Gold Coast (Ghana). In addition, she attended Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science.

Wachuku and Rhoda had five children, including Chinedum, Nwabueze (married to Professor Chuka Nwokolo and now Mrs. Nwokolo), Ndubushi (married to Nwokolo), Emenuwa (married to Ijeoma, née Ekwulugo) and Idu. In addition, Wachuku adopted many orphanages, including John Ochiabuto, James Ikechukwu, Nwaobilor, Ebere, Nkemdilim, Sylvia Amama, Efuru, and others, following the horrific Nigerian–Biafran civil war.

Wachuku was Nigeria's first indigenous Speaker from 1959 to 1960. Sir Frederic Metcalfe of the United Kingdom, who served as Speaker of the House from 1955 to 1959, was "State Opening of Parliament" by her Majesty's Special Representative, Princess Alexandra of Kent on October 3, 1960. Wachuku, Nigeria's First Speaker of the House of Commons, received the Instrument of Independence – also known as Freedom Charter – on Saturday 1 October 1960 from Princess Alexandra of Kent – the British representative at allgemeine Nigeria's Independence ceremonies. Wachuku was honoured and presented with the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Blue Seal and Key to the City of Atlanta, Georgia, on a 1960 United States tour as the House of Representatives Speaker. The Speaker of the House and, later, Wachuku, during the civil rights movement, have unwaveringly favored African Americans and humankind of goodwill who saw the human race, enriching the need for true and respectful racial equality.

Notably, Wachuku forged the reputed friendship that he enjoyed with three Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson during his time as First Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister. Adlai Stevenson, Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Howard King Jr., Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, Stephen Ford II, Israel's Golda Meir, Nikita Khrushchev, and many others around the world made him great friends with Sam Rayburn, the country's 52nd Speaker, Bernard Anderson, Robert Stephen King Jr., and many other politicians and people from around the world.

Time magazine referred to him as "Nigeria's vibrant United Nations system." "Nigeria, less than two months after winning its independence, is on its way to becoming one of AfricaEnsuite, Ambassador" says describing his warm, vibrant, and vivacious diplomatic style with a lot of energy, wisdom, and determination.

Wachuku served as Nigeria's first Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, as well as the Federal Minister for Economic Development from 1960 to 1961. On October 7, 1960, he saluted Nigeria's flag as the 99th member of the United Nations. According to reports, Wachuku was instrumental in Nigeria's emergence as the 58th member state of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday. Wachuku was also First Ambassador of Nigeria to the United Nations, and he represented the country at the independence celebrations of Tanganyika, now known as the Republic of Tanzania. Wachuku became the first African to chair a United Nations Conciliation Commission from January to March 1961, with support from UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. "Wachuku responded favorably on the condition that U Thant, Cyrille Adoula, and Moshombe accept the initial plan and appointment of Wachuku as mediator in Congo," says Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium.

Wachuku was named Minister of Economic Development and Member of the First Nigerian Delegation on the admission of Nigeria to the United Nations by a cabinet reshuffle on Nigeria's independence. The Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa welcomed Wachuku to his hotel suite and told him that he was leaving him behind as the Delegation and Ambassador Plus Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations. Juliet cried out to Prime Minister Balewa, saying he did not join the Delegation with the intention of residing in New York and that he told his wife, Rhoda, that he would only be away for one week. "Never mind," Balewa said, "I will tell her when I land Lagos."

When he said: "I am losing faith in the great powers," he said at the United Nations Assembly, he soon stood out in service to humanity, with a speech to the General Assembly in which national and international media lauded his chastisation of the Eastern and Western Blocs for failing to resolve their differences and quarries. They are moving from the pedestal of power toucanism's pedestal. We want them to lead us; instead, they give us crucifixion. They want wisdom from them, but they don't have knowledge."

Both the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police Force made their first appearance with the UN peacekeeping mission under Wachuku's leadership at the United Nations. During his time at the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Congo, Nigeria's Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was appointed Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Congo. In addition, Mr. Francis Nwokedi, Nigeria's first Permanent Secretary, was retained by the United Nations to help with the reorganization of the Civil Service in the Congo. Wachuku also appointed Godfrey K. Amachree, Nigeria's Godfrey J. Amachree, as the UN Under Secretary General for Trusteeship and Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Wachuku was first appointed as Nigeria's inaugural Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations in 1961. Wachuku served in the role from 1965 to 1965. Prime Minister Balewa doubled as the country's foreign affairs advocate prior to Wachuku's tenure.

Sir James Wilson Robertson, Nigeria's last colonial Governor-General, sent a report to Iain Macleod, UK Secretary of State for the Colonies, concerning Wachuku's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations, fearing that the latter Governor-General.

Wachuku was presented with the Order of the Niger Republic's Commander in honor of "services to the People of the Republic of Niger" by President Hamani Diori on July 14th. Wachuku, the Foreign Affairs Minister, created the Afro/Asian group of States and campaigned to get Liberia to the United Nations Security Council and Ethiopia into the UN Economic and Social Council, as Liberia's Foreign Affairs Minister. He also worked on the revision of the United Nations Charter, raising the Security Council from eleven to fifteen, taking into account African nations.

Ambassador Owen W. Roberts, United States' 1964-1964 to 1965 Political Officer in Lagos, was worrying at a time in Nigeria's history

"Nigerians, regardless of their ethnic group, are a very strong, vocal group." Foreign Minister Jaja Wachuku was a surprise for many American diplomats because he believed himself to be a rank equivalent to British, French, German, or Russian Ministers. Wachuku demanded so much attention and admiration. The Nigerians were, and have been, very independent. Senior echelons in the United States weren't used to dealing with Africans who were both assertive and as steadminded as the Nigerians were. The Nigerians were completely open with you and would hit you over the head with whatever the issue was. They were entitled to their right of care and had a hand in the liberation of Africans. Ambassador Matthews was not the kind of person to come and tell Prime Minister Balewa or Foreign Minister Jaja Wachuku how to do it."

Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Wachuku, preferred quiet diplomacy, particularly with the two main Anglo-American powers: Great Britain and the United States, in search of solutions to continental and international challenges. For example, there was a lot of turbulence and cries following Walter Sisulu's detention of Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Denis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Lionel Bernstein, and others. They and Nelson Mandela, who was serving in jail on his 1962 conviction, were charged with "sabotage and... plot to overthrowrown the government by revolution and help support a militant invasion of South Africa by foreign forces." These allegations were treasonable and resulted in the death penalty. Wachuku quietly welcomed Lord Head, the British High Commissioner in Lagos, and also US Ambassador Joseph Palmer II, but also advised them to insist on the abhorrent regime in South Africa – not to use the death penalty against Nelson Mandela and others. Wachuku also retained the same private consultation with US Secretary of State Dean Rusk and British Foreign Secretary Lord Home on the subject. Lionel Bernstein was cleared, and Mandela and the rest were given life prison sentences.

The Riv Dinner Mandela and Others from the death penalty were discussed by University of North Carolina's Burke Hill, Robert S. Broun, in his book "Save Nelson Mandela: The Rivonia Trial and the Fate of South Africa. Professor Broun explains that Sir Hugh Stephenson, the United Kingdom's Ambassador to South Africa, spoke with Foreign Minister Hilgard Muller of South Africa, who said that Mandela and others should not be sentenced to death. Muller replied after Stephenson mentioned Wachuku's stand to Muller by saying that Wachuku's position was "very interesting." Muller went on to say that the South African government had the utmost respect for Wachuku and that Wachuku had made a "helpful speech" wherein Wachuku said that "white people were also Africans." Stephenson later told the British government and Wachuku that his impression was that "death sentences would not be carried out" on Nelson Mandela and others based on Wachuku's request.

Wachuku, like Hegel's historical figure, was able to stand outside the confines of his age, place, and intuiting history. He needed to be vindicated in historical fact. Wachuku's outstanding qualities were recognized and lauded by the Right Honourable Prime Minister, who used to inform him that he was ten or more years ahead of his Government cabinet colleagues. Wachuku's uncanny historical intuition was evident from the start, when he declared Lagos an All-Nigerian city long before the city was a federal territory. Wachuku also saw the danger of recognising military coups as a way to change government. After the first coup in Togo on January 13, 1963, he vehemently refused to honor the Nicolas Grunitzky Government. Wachuku believes that if the Togolese army's first African coup was recognized as a way to change government, coup-making in Africa would have spread.

Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia sat in Addis Ababa, during the Organization of African Unity (OAU)'s inaugural conference, urging Balewa to insist that the Togolese government be allowed to attend the first OAU Conference. President Haile Selassie and Prime Minister Balewa were both number three in the Nigerian government when he was first elected, and coup plotters feared for numbers one and two – President or Prime Minister and Prime Minister. Wachuku said that by the time coup leaders reached number three, he would be resting in his village.

Since the Togolese Government took power by coup, Wachuku refused to change his diplomatic position by refusing to allow Togo to participate. According to this, Togo became the only African nation not represented at the OAU's Inaugural Conference. We've already known whether Wachuku was correct or incorrect, as history has shown us. Even Kwame Nkrumah, one of the most vocal supporters of the coup regime in Togolese, was later exposed to the coup virus. He had resigned from Nigeria's parliament and government at midday on January 14, 1966, just six hours before Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu's first Nigerian military coup of January 1966, led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu.

Professor Bolaji Akinyemi (1985 to 1987) said in a public lecture titled "Nigeria: The Blackman's Burden" at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on the 28th Anniversary of the Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture and the 2005 Black History Month.

Wachuku, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the American Society of African Culture (AMSAC)'s third annual conference in Philadelphia, 1960. Wachuku's influence at the AMSAC conference was questioned by historian Michael Crowder later.

Wachuku went from 1965 to midday 14 January 1966, Nigeria's Minister of Aviation. Wachuku began training for Nigeria's first crop of Flight and Ground Officers, with the majority of the aviation legislation in Nigeria under his signature. During his tenure, the Aviation Training Centre in Zaria was established.

Wachuku's visionary and upright zeal, on the other hand, did not go well with his party, the NCNC, despite Mr. A. K. Blankson, chairman of Nigeria Airways and also chairman of the party's Central Working Committee, as a representative of NCNC's interest in the spoils system. Wachuku fired and fired Blankson, who was outside of ministerial jurisdiction, as a chairmanship of the Nigeria Airways Board. Blankson's party, the NCNC, has requested his reinstatement; otherwise, the group will withdraw its Ministers from the coalition government. Nigeria was therefore facing a potential disaster that could have exacerbated the country's already fragile state of emergency.

Sir Abubakar Balewa, the Prime Minister of Nigeria, had pleaded with Wachuku to reinstate the Nigeria Airways Board chairman and accept another ministry. Wachuku refused. Balewa even pleaded with him, but he refused and resigned from Parliament as an Executive Member of the Government on January 14, 1966. Balewa was yet to accept Wachuku's resignation when the army struck by mid-night; just 12 hours later, ushering in the country's military coups of the 1960s. Soldiers surrounded Wachuku's official residence, 7 Okoyi Street, Lagos, O.B. Wachuku's younger brother, Kennedy Madu Wachuku, was with him that day, questioned him by the window in the early hours of the morning and asked the soldiers, "What are you guys doing here?" "Good morning, Sir," one of the soldiers replied. However, haven't you heard what's going on in the world? "Yes," Wachuku replied. "You guys have taken over the government," says the narrator. "Do not be concerned, sir," the soldier said. We're here to shield you from being an honest government Minister." Wachuku survived the military coup.

Wachuku returned to his hometown town, first to Aba and then to Nbawsi, where he was killed during the Nigerian – Biafran war, which lasted from July 1967 to January 1970. He was instrumental in the struggle for his Igbo people's liberation and justice against a world that had failed to shield them from genocide and brutality by its marauding soldiers and civilians during the Biafran war. Wachuku dropped out with Chukwu's government later in the war because he protested child soldier recruitment. The Ojukwu government detained him and arrested him. And was, at the end of the Biafran war, a young Nigerian Army officer named Theophilus Danjuma was released.

The Nigerian soldiers were shocked and dismayed that their first Speaker of the House of Representatives, first Ambassador to the United Nations, and first Foreign Affairs Minister were detained for exercising their freedom of expression and basic human rights. Wachuku was given adequate cover and cover by Theophilus Danju thread and his military battalion. Nigerian soldiers led Wachuku home. He also managed to prevent the looting and destruction of his extraordinary, vast library in Nbawsi, Sudan. By regional fonction and national media, Wachuku's library had been dubbed the country's biggest one-man library. Wachuku was the most "bookish Minister" in Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa's name.

Wachuku was involved in Community development during his time in Biafranism, even though practising his law profession. He served as Chairman of Nbawsi and Umuomainta Town Council from 1970 to 1978, as well as chairman Nsulu Community Council. He was also a Founding Member of the Movement for the founding of Imo State and as the founder of the Movement for the establishment of Aba State, until his death.

Wachuku was a member of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), twice (1978 and 1983) elected Senator Senator Michael Bawa of Africa's most populated region during Nigeria's second republic (1979 to 1984). He served as NPP Leader and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During this time, he made several dangerous trips to South Africa in an attempt to put pressure on President Pieter Willem Botha for the demantling of the obnoxious imperialist model, which included unconditional pardon and the freeing of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners.

Wachuku made his famous joliet remark on the floor of the Nigerian Senate that the demise of apartheid in South Africa "would flow from the barrels of dialogue and contact, not from the barrels of loneliness and guns." He was later suspended from the Foreign Relations Committee after officially calling for talks with South Africa. When Nigeria first diplomatic relations with South Africa began in the 1990s, the country's most influential politicians and historians begged for an apology to Wachuku. He was re-elected to the Nigerian Senate in 1983, but not until the 1983 Muhammadu Buhari military coup.

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