Despite daunting challenges, Nigeria won’t break up – Okunnu
Alhaji Abdullateef Olufemi Okunnu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was the federal commissioner of works and housing under the Gowon administration between 1967 and 1974. This legal luminary has been in the profession for the past 60 years. Of course, he has done many other things along the way. In this interview he spoke on how he got into the law profession instead of actualising his dream of becoming a professor of history, what he thinks about the future of Nigeria, and other important issues.
Everyone knows you as a lawyer, but it seems that law was competing with something else when you were young. From your biography, it seems you would have loved to be a professor of history rather than a senior advocate. How did law win over history?
That’s very interesting. My first love was to be a historian, and I am still a historian. But I also wanted to play a part in public life. I developed an interest in politics rather very young. My father bought the newspapers of the day in those days, West African Pilot and Daily Service. So my interest in history conflicted with this type of life I wanted for myself in future to play a role in public because like I said, young stars like me in those days loved reading the newspapers published in Lagos and followed political trends.
I used to watch Legislative Council sessions under the Richard Constitution. In the late 1940s I was still transiting from primary school to secondary. The leading figures in those days were the chief secretary to the government, one of the Foot brothers. They were about three or four famous in England then. The one who chose public service became the chief secretary to the government. The then governor was Sir Arthur Richards, the author of the 1946 Constitution. That’s why I finally landed to do law.
Was it difficult for a young man of your age to go to England to read Law?
There were three British colonies in Nigeria. The first colony was Lagos, which the British established in 1861. The other two colonies were established on the first day of January 1900 - the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. People misunderstand the place of Lagos and Lagos State as it is today.
I was born in Lagos. And as someone born in Lagos and within the Lagos Colony, I was a British citizen with all the rights to vote and be voted for in England until September 30, 1959. Those who were born in the Northern or Southern Protectorate were British protected persons, not British citizens. They had to apply for visa to travel to Britain, but I
didn’t need to. I could go anywhere. And I did go to many countries in Europe without a visa because I was a British citizen. So going to study in England was like what the westerner used to call going to the mother land.
Were you treated as a black man or discriminated against? How did you cope?
Oh yes, I experienced discrimination against blacks a
few times. I was looking for a new accommodation; you had seen a notice somewhere which stated that accommodation was available at a place. I would get there and knock, but when the landlady opened the door and saw a black face, she would say there was no accommodation. I experienced that two or three times. It was part of British life in those days. It has gone down considerably now, but in the 1950s when I went, discrimination was still at its height.
Did you continue your student activism and interest in politics in the United Kingdom?
Well, the student activism really started in Kings College, Lagos in 1948 when Mr Gerald Bunting, a very colourful man, was the principal. He was one of the two greatest principals at
Kings College, and I must say in Nigeria.
That led me to England to study Law in February 1956. When I got to London, I joined the Nigerian Union of Great Britain and Ireland (northern and southern Ireland). I and Bola Ige were joint assistant secretaries of the union.
Mr Akinfesile, who became a minister of communication, was president before me in the mid1950s. I became the secretarygeneral of the union in 1958 and president in 1959. The union had 33 branches in the United Kingdom and our office was in the basement of Number 9, Northumberland Avenue. That was the Nigeria House. As critical as we were of the Nigerian government at that time, they allowed us the use of the basement as our office. I think some of us spent more time politicking than studying.
I was born in Lagos. And as someone born in Lagos and within the Lagos Colony, I was a British citizen with all the rights to vote and be voted for in England until September 30, 1959. Those who were born in the Northern or Southern Protectorate were British protected persons, not British citizens. They had to apply for visa to travel to Britain, but I didn’t need to. I could go anywhere. And I did go to many countries in Europe without a visa because I was a British citizen.