Jaja Anucha Ndubuisi Wachuku (1 January 1918 – 7 November 1996) was a Pan-Africanist and a Nigerian statesman, lawyer, politician, diplomat 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. Also, Wachuku was the first Nigerian Minister for Foreign Affairs. Notably, Wachuku was a Royal Prince of Ngwaland, "descendant of 20 generations of African chiefs in the Igbo country of Eastern Nigeria".
Wachuku, who was "widely respected" as Foreign Affairs Minister, intervened with the South African government and helped save Nelson Mandela and others from the death penalty at the 1963–64 Rivonia Trial. A year earlier, in his 1962 diary, from Lagos: Nigeria, Nelson Mandela wrote: "Friday 18 May 1962: 1pm: We meet Mr Jaja Wachuku and his staff and have a profitable discussion. Saturday 19 May 1962: We have lunch with Jaja Wachuku."
In 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan conferred on Wachuku a posthumous special Golden Jubilee Independence Anniversary Award;"FG Honours Azikiwe, Balewa, Obasanjo, Adenuga, 47 Others" , ThisDay Live, 28 September 2010. Wachuku was honoured by Jonathan again in 2014 as a Hero of the Struggle for Nigeria's Independence from Great Britain and a Pioneer Political Leader for the 100-year anniversary of Nigeria."Centenary: Jonathan To Honour Queen Elizabeth II, Lugard, Abacha, IBB, Buhari, OBJ & Many More" , The Niger Times.List of Centenary Honours Award Recipients , Nigeria Centenary Blog, 24 February 2014.
Biography Family
Jaja Anucha Wachuku's father, King Josaiah Ndubuisi Wachuku, was the Eze, Paramount Chief, Servant Leader and Head of all Ngwa of the then Aba Division of Eastern Nigeria.Emmanuel Nwaobilor Akwaranwa, A Politico-cultural History of Ngwa and Ukwa People of Imo State of Nigeria: From Pre-colonial Times to 1984, 1998. Jaja's mother, Queen Rebecca Ngwanchiwa Wachuku (née Nwaogwugwu), was a pioneer women's rights advocate and humane royal land-owner.
His apical ancestor Mgbawa had moved from Umulolo, Eziama Ntigha, in Nigeria's present-day Abia State, in about the last quarter of the 17th century to settle in their present Nbawsi homeland. His paternal grandfather Wachuku Ogbaraegbe, a distinguished statesman and Merchant Prince, was involved in the palm oil trade of that time with King Jaja of Opobo. It was in memory of the friendship, partnership and association of the Wachuku family with King Jaja of Opobo that he was named Jaja. His second name, Anucha, in full in the Igbo language, is Anucha mba agaa n'ama ha, meaning "after celebrating victory over a people, you parade through their town or village main square."
Early education
For his primary education, Wachuku attended Infant School at St. Georges NDP Umuomainta, Nbawsi, Abia State. He was school band leader and prefect at Government School Afikpo, Ebonyi State. He left there in 1930, having come first in the whole of Ogoja Province in the First School Leaving Certificate Examination. This first position got him an automatic scholarship for his secondary school education at Government College Umuahia, Abia State, from 1931 to 1936. Wachuku was a House Prefect. He played tennis and cricket, and was in the first eleven of the college's football team: Also, Wachuku acquired vocational skills in carpentry, farming and metal works at Government College Umuahia.
From 1936 to 1937, Wachuku was on scholarship to Yaba Higher College, Lagos. He was withdrawn from Yaba by his father Josaiah Ndubuisi Wachuku and sent to Gold Coast People's College, Adidome. From there, he went to New Africa University College, Anloga, in preparation for further studies abroad. While at New Africa University College, he won a Foundation Scholarship and also won the First National Prize for the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the World Essay Competition offered by the New History Society of New York (led by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab), on the subject: "How Can the People of the World Achieve Universal Disarmament?" From New Africa University College, Wachuku left for the University of Dublin's Trinity College in Ireland.
Dublin years Wachuku was the first African medallist, laureate in Oratory of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.Ken Post, George D. Jenkins, The Price of Liberty: Personality and Politics in Colonial Nigeria, Cambridge University Press, 1973, p. 251. He matriculated at Trinity College in 1939, and was, in 1941, elected Executive Member of the College Historical Society. Wachuku represented University of Dublin during the 1943 Inter-University Debate held at University of Durham. He was called to the Irish bar association – Kings Inn – in November 1944. He was fully involved in Nigeria's constitutional conferences and struggle for independence from Great Britain. Wachuku practised law in Dublin for three years, before returning to Nigeria in 1947. He graduated first-class BA legal science and was LL.B Prizeman in Roman Law, Constitutional Law and Criminal Law. He was also a research fellow at the Department of International Law, Trinity College Dublin – with the topic: "The Juristic Status of Protectorates in International Law." From 1947 to 1996, Wachuku served as barrister and solicitor of The Supreme Court of Nigeria. He also practised at the West African Court of Appeal.
While in Dublin, Wachuku was an executive member of the Student Christian Movement (SCM). He lectured on various subjects at the SCM Summer Schools in Great Britain and Ireland; and delivered the last seven lectures at Swanwick, Hampshire, on the subject: "Africa in the Post-War World." From 1939 to 1943, Wachuku was secretary of the Association of Students of African Descent (ASAD) in Ireland. 1944 saw him elected president of the ASAD. In 1945, he represented ASAD at the fifth Pan-African Congress held in Manchester, UK; the event was partly organised by Kwame Nkrumah and attended by names such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Jomo Kenyatta and Hastings Banda to name just a few.
From 1943 to 1945, Wachuku was founder, organiser and secretary of the Dublin International Club. He was president of the club from 1945 to 1947 and resigned when he returned to Nigeria in 1947 to fight for an end to colonial rule and independence of Nigeria from Great Britain. In 1947 also, Wachuku was, for six weeks, Legal and Constitutional Adviser to the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) Pan-Nigeria Delegation that went to London to press for constitutional reforms in Nigeria. He was awarded LL.D (Honoris Causa) by Trinity College Dublin.
Return to Nigeria and politics
Wachuku returned to Nigeria in 1947, travelling in the same ship with Nnamdi Azikiwe; and was present at Takoradi, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) when Azikiwe spoke to Joseph B. Danquah, leader of the United Gold Coast Convention – concerning the organizational ability of Kwame Nkrumah. Azikiwe then urged Joseph B. Danquah to invite Nkrumah back home from England. In the same year of his return to Nigeria, Wachuku joined the NCNC, and was elected the Party's Legal Adviser and Member of the National Executive Committee. He soon got involved in the nationalist agitation of that period and was a favoured lecturer at the Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos. Among other responsibilities, Wachuku was Principal Secretary of the Igbo State Union from 1948 to 1952. In 1949, he founded a radical youth movement, the New Africa Party, and affiliated it to the NCNC in 1950. NCNC was later called: National Council of Nigerian Citizens. Concerning Wachuku's New Africa Party, in a letter from London, dated 29 May 1951, sent to W. E. B. Du Bois, and later included in The Correspondence of W. E. B. Du Bois, George Padmore said: "Enclosed are a few clippings from West Africa. You will no doubt remember Jaja Wachuku who was a delegate to the Fifth Pan-African Congress. He has recently started a Pan-African Party in Nigeria to spread the ideas of which you are the worthy father...."
Wachuku was co-founder and original shareholder, with Nnamdi Azikiwe, of the African Continental Bank (ACB), and first regional director of the bank, from 1948 to 1952. As ACB Director, he facilitated the opening of branches in Aba, Calabar, Port Harcourt and Enugu. Wachuku started his political career from the grassroots. In 1948, he was first nominated village councillor and later to the Nsulu Group Council. From 1949 to 1952, he was a Member of the Ngwa Native Authority, Okpuala Ngwa. In 1951, he entered regional politics and was elected Second Member for Aba Division in the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly. From 1952 to 1953, Wachuku was elected Deputy Leader of the NCNC and Chairman of the Parliamentary Party when there was crisis in Nigeria's Eastern Region – resulting in the dissolution of the Eastern House of Assembly. Also, from 1952 to 1953, he was Chairman of the Eastern Regional Scholarship Board and Member of the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives of Nigeria. Wachuku went to the 1953 Constitutional Conference in London as Alternate Delegate and Adviser to the Nigerian Independence Party (NIP) – a break-away faction that was formed following the NCNC crisis of 1953.
In 1954, Wachuku lost the Eastern Regional election and ceased to be a member of the House of Representatives. Later on in 1954, when the principle of direct election to the House of Representatives was introduced, he was re-elected first member for the Aba Division in the House of Representatives; as well as member of United Nigeria Independence Party – amalgamation of NIP and another party. In 1957, Wachuku became Deputy Leader of opposition when he joined the NCNC. From 1957 to 1959, he was a board member of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria. Also, in 1957, for the following three years, he was appointed member of the Local Education Authority and chairman of the board of Education in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. During the same period, Wachuku was also Chairman of Aba Divisional Committee of the NCNC.
Accordingly, in 1957, Wachuku was the Leader of the Nigerian Federation Delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Meeting held in India, Pakistan and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. He also represented Nigeria in Liberia during the opening of the New Parliament Building in Monrovia. From 1958 to 1959, Wachuku was chairman of the Business Committee in the House of Representatives of Nigeria. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on the Nigerianization of the Federal Civil Service. He wrote the committee's Report assisted by Michael O. Ani. In 1959, Wachuku was re-elected into the House of Representatives from Aba Division; and was, subsequently, elected the first indigenous Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.
Marriage
In 1951, Wachuku married fellow Nigerian: Rhoda Idu Oona Onumonu (1920–1994). She fondly called her husband "Anucha." She attended primary school in Oguta, Imo State; and, later, went to Women Training College, Umuahia; as well as Achimota College, Gold Coast (Ghana). Also, she studied at Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science.
Wachuku and Rhoda had five children, namely: Chinedum, Nwabueze (married to Professor Chuka NwokoloProfiles: ChukaNwokolo, GastroHep.com; "Prof Chuka Nwokolo, Gastroenterology", UKCW. and now Mrs. Nwabueze Nwokolo),Nwabueze Nwokolo at Black Letter Law; "Nwabueze Nwokolo, Chair" Black Solicitors Network. Ndubuisi (married to Ukachi, née Offurum), Emenuwa (married to Ijeoma, née Ekwulugo) and Idu. Also, after the devastating Nigerian–Biafran civil war, Wachuku adopted numerous orphans, including: John Ochiabuto, James Ikechukwu, Nwaobilor, Ebere, Nkemdilim, Sylvia Amama, Efuru, etc.
First Speaker of the House