Foremost Nigeria’s Constitutional lawyer and erstwhile Secretary- General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, Professor Ben Nwabueze (SAN), is dead.
Late Nwabueze, who had reportedly been ill for sometime, died in his Lagos home on Sunday, aged 94.
The spokesperson for the family, Eni Nwabueze, confirmed his demise in a statement released yesterday.
The statement said: “With great sadness, we announce the passing on to celestial glory of our patriarch, Professor B. O. Nwabueze SAN, NNOM, CON, pioneer Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Oduah Afo-na-isagba, of Atani, Anambra State, on Sunday, October 29, 2023, aged 94. He lived an exemplary life of consequence. Burial arrangements will be announced in due course”..
Ben Nwabueze was born in 1931. Hailed from Atani in Ogbaru local government area of Anambra State, he was the pioneer Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN).
Considered to be of the leading experts on Constitutional law in Africa, Nwabueze studied in London and became a lecturer in 1962, first at the University of Lagos and later at the University of Nigeria. From November 1970, he was a professor at the law faculty of the University of Zambia. In 1976, he became a Board member of the United Bank for Africa (UBA).
Nwabueze, who is also author of several books, was also involved in drafting Nigeria’s 1979 Constitution. The following year he received the Nigerian National Merit Award.
In the 1990s, he supported Ibrahim Babangida, and was Minister of Education in his interim government in 1993.
