AS a young man, Onyeabo Chukwunedum Obi was too sure of what he wanted to be in life. Even when some of his fellow youth and contemporaries were not certain where the career pendulum would swing them to, he already knew his. He was for law. Therefore, his love for law knew no bounds and was developed very early in life.Obi was exposed to notable lawyers whose conduct, appearance and candour he admired to no end. As a result, he decided to be a lawyer and never brood the idea of becoming something else. This is how he captured the circumstances that spurred him on. 'I love the profession. Also, I was exposed to certain lawyers. When I was growing up in Port Harcourt, there was Oputa, now Justice Oputa, there was A.C. Nwapa, there was Napoleon Graham Douglas, there was also a court registrar known as Okwusogu. I grew in that environment. I loved their books, their appearances, how they went to court and all others. It was that exposure that made me want to read law. I never considered any other course of study at all. I thought I would be a lawyer like them.'Though at some point, he was persuaded to apply for medicine, he complied but insisted that it was not his choice. He said: 'At some point after my school certificate, I went to post-secondary school, one of my uncles persuaded me to apply for medicine at the University of Ibadan. I did the common entrance. At the end of the paper, I wrote to them, saying: 'I think I would do better in Arts than the Sciences, please consider me for the Arts.' But they didn't consider me for either.'But he eventually realised his dreams and since then, the law profession has been better for it. Obi, who began as a private legal practitioner since April 1963, is a specialist in the fields of Commercial and Corporate Law, Arbitration and Litigation.Between 1988 and 1992, he served as the vice chairman, Committee D (Arbitration) of the Section on Business Law of the International Bar Association (NBA).Because of his dexterity in arbitration, he was elected a member of the Advisory Board of the Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, Lagos since January 2006. At the same time, he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Maritime Arbitrators' Association of Nigeria.Obi is also serving as a member of the Panel of Arbitrators, International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank), Washington, since August 2009. His professional commitment and diligence earned him an election as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London in May 1991.Between 1977 and 1979, he was appointed the director, Nigerian Rubber Board, a parastatal of the Federal Government. He was alsolater appointed the director, Nigerian Petroleum Development Co. Limited, a subsidiary of the NNPC. He was there from 1989 to 1991. Prior to his further studies, Obi was employed as a third-class clerk in the Federal Ministry of Labour. He was in that position for two years from 1956 to 1958.He explained that when he studied law in the late 50s, there was no Law of Faculty in Nigeria, necessitating him to travel abroad for his studies.He was born on November 20, 1938, to the prominent family of late Senator Zik. C. Obi, Eze-Onunekwulu-Igbo and Okemili-Nnewi, president-general of Igbo State Union in 1947, and from 1951 to 1966. His father was a distinguished member of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 1959 and 1964, a special member of the Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs from 1964 to 1966 and chairman, Nnewi Royal Cabinet from 1970 to 1987. 'My father started off as a teacher but later worked in UAC. We were brought up under strict rules. He, at an early stage filed us out to various people to inculcate discipline in us. So we lived with people for two or three years where you would be taught how to behave', he recalled.Obi began his primary education at St. Cyprian's School, Port Harcourt, between 1943 and 1950. He later proceeded to the prestigious Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar, for his secondary education between 1951 and 1955.At the end of his sojourn in Calabar, young Obi traveled to London for greener academic pastures. His first port of call was the North-Western Polytechnic, London, where he obtained his A- Levels between 1958 and 1959.Later in 1959, he got admission into the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) for his law degree and left the school in August 1962 with a Bachelor of Law. He enrolled in the Society of Gray's Inn, London in 1959 and left in 1962. Called to the English Bar in the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn in November 27, 1962, Obi, a year after enrolled as a legal practitioner in the Supreme Court of Nigeria on March 21 1963 precisely.'When I finished law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I was called to the Bar in the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. I didn't practise in England when I was called to the Bar. In fact, I was called to the Bar in my absence. That was because the Nigerian government had just introduced the Legal Practitioners' Act of 1962 for lawyers who qualified abroad to go to the Nigerian Law School. So as soon as I passed the Bar examinations, I asked for a waiver and I came back hoping to enroll.'But I went back to England to do my pupilage, which is mandatory if you want to practise there. After a short while, I returned. I did my pupilage in the chambers of George Newman QC. He is now a High Court judge', he stated.When he returned to Nigeria, he practised in the chambers of H.B.O Coker SAN, the younger brother of late Justice G.B.A Coker of the Supreme Court. 'I was there just for one year before I set up my own practice as Onyeabo Obi and Company', he recalled.Apart from running a successful legal practice, Obi is also a political juggernaut, having been elected as a senator representing Anambra-West Senatorial District in the First Republic. He was there from 1979 to 1983 when the military interrupted their tenure. He was elected on the platform of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP). And he was a founding member of the party in 1978. A signatory to the G-34 Charter against Gen. Sani Abacha's self-succession plan 1998, Obi went ahead to be one of the founding members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and subsequently, a member of its Board of Trustees (BoT).How was he able to make a success of his two choice careers - law and politics' Here is his answer: 'I was born into politics. By the time I came back from England, my father was a senator. Then, they were not elected. They were nominated from the various regions and he was one of those nominated from the East. He was a senator from 1960 to 1964. He was in the Senate together with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Nwafor Orizu. Zik was the first Senate President. When he left, Orizu succeeded him. So I used to accompany my father to political meetings if I was not in school.'He relished on one of his memorable cases as a young lawyer in court. He said: 'As a young lawyer, I had the task of defending someone in a small offence that had to do with parking of car. After the prosecution gave all the evidence, I made a no-case submission. I said if you look at the law, the law says 'against the notice put there by the local authority' and I submitted that the Nigeria Police that put the notice there is not a local authority but copied the thing from England where the police are under the local authority except the Scotland Yard. I insisted that since the local authority did not put this notice there, he could not have committed offence against the law. The magistrate was shocked. He rose to go and give a ruling and asked the registrar to call me. He said: 'Young man! You have impressed me. Your point is valid, I have been thinking about it. But if I accept it, all the convictions made since the law was made would become nullified.'And we cannot afford that otherwise, we have to go and amend the law. So I am going to caution him and discharge him so that you don't go on appeal. If I convict him and sentence him, you will go on appeal. What I am saying to you is what I am going to write, but I can't say that in the open court.' From there, he introduced me to some senior lawyers and work started coming.'Obi noted that his first court appearance was in the Supreme Court where, according to him, one of his mentors, Mr. Okwusiogu, who was a Supreme Court registrar, facilitated a holding brief for him after his call to Bar.'I was nervous that day because of the intimidating presence of those justices and those senior lawyers. Somehow, I summoned courage and got over it. And from there, more briefs started coming', he stated.He got married in 1967 to his heart-throb, Evelyn (nee Obioha), with whom they both got five children.
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