Boss Of The Week
Justice Amina Augie: Nigeria’s Lady of Law
By Eric Elezuo
When prolific and detailed academics and legal luminaries in Nigeria are counted, a detailed mention will be reserved for a quintessential achiever, Justice Amina Adamu Augie, whose landmarks in the academic and legal systems of Nigeria have a scripted monumental success, giving her a pride of place in the body polity. Her story is an avalanche of quantum leaps.
Born in Lagos, South West, Nigeria, as Anne Eva Graham on September 3, 1953, Amina, hails from Kebbi State, North West Nigeria. Her origin and birth place did not in any way limit her quest for Nigerianism, but rather highlighted it. In her efforts to amass the best of knowledge and education, Amina practically traversed the length and breadth of the nation dipping hands into pockets full of knowledge, and coming out more refined than ever.
Kickstarting her academic pursuit at the age of five in 1958, beautiful, intelligent and classy Amina attended Abadina School, in the then University College, Ibadan, where she spent two prolific years before leaving for Hope Waddell Primary School, Calabar, and spent another two years between 1960 and 1962.
As a result of the constant movement of her family, in 1966, she again, attended Holy Rosary Primary School, Enugu, where she completed her primary education, She thereafter, was admitted into the Queen Amina College, Kaduna in 1968, and graduated in 1971.
After her secondary education, Amina secured admission into the prestigious University of Ife, Ile-Ife from where she graduated with a LLB law degree in 1977, and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos in the same year, finishing in 1978, and called to the Bar in the same year, July 8, 1978 to be precise, becoming a barrister and solicitor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
After her call to the bar in 1978, she began her professional career by first embarking on the one year compulsory service to fatherland for her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. She served as a Legal Aid Counsel at the Legal Aid Council, Sokoto, and rose to become the Head of Department of Legal Aid Council, Sokoto State. Afterwards, she ventured into the classroom at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and had a stint with teaching as an Assistant Lecturer between 1980.
Her brief stay in the ivory tower ended in 1982 when she returned to the legal profession to serve in the administration of late former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, serving as a Senior State Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel to the then President. At the twilight of the government in 1984, she was again appointed a Lecturer by the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.
With a detailed commitment to grab the greener pastures, Amina had earlier returned to school in 1980, joining the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for a Masters degree in Law, and graduating in 1981. She also attended the University of Lagos between 1986 and 1987 where she obtained her LLM in Criminology
In 1988, she returned to full time legal career, and was appointed Chief Magistrate in the Sokoto State Judiciary, but the passion and love for teaching did not end with the appointment as even while serving at the Bench, she accepted a part-time employment as Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Uthman Danfodio University, Sokoto, and functioned satisfactorily in the position from 1989 to 1992. She also served as an Associate Lecturer in the same University from September 1999 – September 2002, spanning a gracious three years of stewardship.
Hon. Justice Augie, as she is professionally referred to, was in the same 2002 elevated to the Court of Appeal Bench. While at the Appellate Court, she exhibited level of professionalism, serving in various Divisions and rising to become among other high level positions the Presiding Justice, Benin Division from July 2009 to September 2010; Presiding Justice, Enugu Division from September 2010 – September 2011; Presiding Justice, Kaduna Division from September 2011 – September 2012 and Presiding Justice, Lagos Division from September 2012 – November 2016.
And to cap her professional endeavours in legal matters, Hon. Justice Amina Adamu Augie was elevated as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on November 7, 2016.
HONOURS AND AWARDS
Justice Amina Augie is not a stranger to honours and awards as they trail her every move. She had been winning awards right from her school day, and some of her several awards and recognitions are, but not limited to Faculty Prize for Best Overall Student of University of Ife (1977), Phoebe Chiadikobi Ajayi Prize for Best Female Student, Ife, (1977), and Amicable Assurance Prize for Best Student (Ife), (1977).
She has also received Merit Awards, from The Law Students’ Society, University of Ibadan, (2006), International Association of Women Judges, Africa Region, (2005), Federation of Muslim Women (FOMWAN), Edo State Chapter, (2005), National Association of Democratic Lawyers with the Ford Foundation, (2005), Nigerian Law School Graduating Class of 1988, (2003), Sokoto State Students, (2001), Gamji Club, Sokoto, (1992), Faculty of Law Students, Uthman Danfodio University, Sokoto, (1991), Lagos State Judiciary, (2016), Kebbi State, (2016) and Court of Appeal, (2014).
In September, 2014, she was conferred with the prestigious National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration as well as a recipient of the honour Fellowship of Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, November 2016.
OTHER NOTABLE APPOINTMENTS
Apart from serving as education officer and various categories of legal assignment, Justice Augie has also held major adhoc positions such as Chairman, Recovery of Public Properties Tribunal, Sokoto State (1995 – 1996). She was also the Chairman, Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Tribunal, Lagos from March 1996 to May 29, 1999, Chairman, National Assembly, Governorship and Legislative Houses Election Tribunal from 2000 to 2002 and Chairman, Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Nigerdock, from September 2001 to July, 2002.
Other duties attached to Augie are as part of national assignments she has participated in are:
Member, National Swimming Team, 1973 – 1976
Federal Government Delegate, United Nations Decade for Women Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, July 1985
Member, National Committee on Prisons Reforms, 1992
International Director, National Association of Women Judges, 1997 – 2000
Member, National Working Group on Juvenile Justice Administration, July 2002
Chairman, Experts Consultative Meeting – Passage of Child Rights Bill, March 2003
Member, National Child Rights Implementation Committee, September 2003
Chairman, National Facilitators of the Child Rights Act, April 2004
Member, Board of Trustees, Human Development Initiatives (HDI) and Child Rights Education Centre, 2007 to date
Member, Kebbi State Pilgrims Welfare Board, 2007 – 2016
Member, Board of Directors, Institute of Human Rights and Development in Africa, Banjul, The Gambia, 2008 – 2014.
WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS AND PUBLICATIONS
Hon. Justice Augie has participated in several Workshops, Seminars and Conferences locally and internationally. Among the Workshops, Seminars and Conferences she had attended are:: The 4th Biennial International Conference of International Association of Women Judges, Ottawa, Canada, May 1998; Judicial Colloquium on the Application of International Human Rights Law at the Domestic Level, Vienna, Austria, October 1999; African Development Forum (ADF III and IV), Addis Ababa, March 2002 and October 2004; Judicial Colloquium on the Death Penalty, Lake Naivasha, Kenya, 2005; International Conference of International Association of Women Judges, Sydney, Australia, 2006 and Washington DC, USA, 2016.
She has a penchant for writing, and has to her credit 15 publications in various Books and Seminar/Workshop Publications.
FAMILY
Hon. Justice Augie is blessed with four children, and will be celebrating her 70th birthday on September 3. Yes, her story is an avalanche of quantum leaps!
Congratulations ma!
By Eric Elezuo
African originality is not in contest. It is evidenced in the prodigious achievements of the rank and file of citizens, who on a daily basis continue to churn out one great after another. Among the list of prolific achievers of Africa is the undisputable Eric Onyango Gumbo; a true African son of Kenyan origin.
Masterful, focused, determined and an all round goal-getter, Gumbo is a legal egghead, who is an Advocate of the Court of Kenya, with over 20 years of legal and advisory experience across Africa, in addition to being an entrepreneurial genius, whose chain of businesses and endeavours speak volume of the mettle he is made of.
Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Moi University, and a Post graduate Diploma in Law fro the Kenyan School of Law, Gumbo has added a lot of feathers to his cap of merit, including the Commissioner for Oaths, Notary Public and being a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is one man, who knows his onions in the legal profession, and has used his skills to project the Kenyan justice system as well as project the African continent in the positive legal limelight.
Gumbo is the Managing Partner of G & A (Gumbo and Associates) Advocates LLP, which he founded in 2006, and later established as a Limited Liability Partnership, G&A Advocates LLP, in 2017. And as a visionary leader, he was to expand the firm further to operate in both Nairobi and Eldoret with solid partnerships and collaboration with other leading law firms across Africa.
Beyond his qualification in the normative training of Law, Eric Gumbo has over the years, also enhanced and focused his practice of law in Dispute Resolution and Commercial Law. Towards deepening his training and experience within the two areas of practice, he has also undertaken and completed programs on Financial Markets from Yale University, Arbitration from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Kenya Branch) and Fintech Law and Policy from Duke University. He is currently undertaking a course in Green Business strategy from the Hongkong University of Science and Technology.
Gumbo is not the regular run-off-the-mill Advocate. In his career of over two decades, as an Advocate, he has successfully handled numerous highly sensitive matters according to the G and A website. Some of these include as copiously re-presented:
- As part of the team selected to advise and represent Kenya’s elections management body in all the three (3) Presidential Election Petitions filed in in the Supreme Court of Kenya. Acted as legal counsel for one of the state corporations in relation to a claim presented against the state corporation by a downstream affiliate of one of the multinational oil and gas companies where the value of the subject matter was in excess of US$ 45 Million.
- Advised and represented a leading electric power producer in a ground breaking transaction between it and the Government of Djibouti for drilling of three geothermal wells in Djibouti.
- Provided legal advisory and contracting support to a transport-sector state corporation which involved reviewing and drafting of commercial agreements, and negotiating of diverse aspects with various contracting parties in relation to one of the country’s flagship infrastructure projects.
- In the Public Private Partnership space, Gumbo is currently part of a team that is advising and representing one of the energy sector state corporations in relation to a claim filed before the Public-Private Partnership Petitions Committee in relation to a project valued in excess of US$ 320 Million.
- Gumbo also continues to act for diverse entities entrusted with the carrying out of various regulatory and independent constitutional mandates in sectors such as health, energy, telecommunication, education, trade, aviation, procurement, environment and natural resources, capital markets and financial services.
Gumbo is involved in numerous other activities beyond engaging in the actual practice of law.
In the first place, he currently serves as a Non-Executive Chairperson of the Legal Aid Centre for Eldoret (LACE), and also a Council Member representing the Law Society of Kenya in the Council for Legal Education (C.L.E). This is not excluding the fact that he is also a Board Member of the Kenya Re-Insurance Company Limited (Kenya Re), a public listed company.
Larger than life itself, Gumbo’s profile keeps expanding with mouthwatering appointments, requiring zeal, experience, gusto and can-do-attitude. Recently, he was appointed by His Excellency the President of Kenya, Willam Ruto, to serve as a member of the panel mandated to recruit the Auditor General for the Republic of Kenya, and has affiliations that enhance his proclivity to meritorious practice of law. Such affiliations include memberships of the Law Society of Kenya, the East Africa Law Society, Chartered Institute of Administrators and the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret.
A seasoned legal counsel with over 20 years of experience across Africa, Gumbo has built a strong reputation in the legal industry, specializing in financial services, regulatory matters, advisory roles, commercial transactions, and dispute resolution. He is highly sought after as a consultant, and provides advisory services to both private and public sectors on high-stakes transactions and regulatory frameworks in banking, infrastructure development, energy, and ICT.
His website also described him as “A seasoned public speaker and thought leader, he actively contributes to legal reforms and policy discussions, particularly in financial engineering, electoral law, and governance,” and “has successfully led legal teams in significant sovereign finance transactions and complex cross-border projects, showcasing his expertise and commitment to advancing the legal landscape in Africa.”
Beyond consulting for the Kenyan government, Gumbo has proved his trans-border billing by offering generous consultations to the governments of Somaliland and Tanzania as well as corporate entities such as Rasmala Trade Finance Fund, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa and Ardmore Capital Management LLC among others.
In addition to his many endeavours, which include advocacy and consultancy among others, Gumbo find time to engage in speaking Engagements as captured below:
● Presented a seminal paper on the recent developments in electoral law in Kenya to the Faculty of law Mount Kenya University of Kenya on 31st January, 2024.
● Presented a paper on the art of persuasion and legal drafting in a symposium organized by the Law Society of Kenya for advocates in private practice on the 9th June, 2023.
● Presented a paper on trial advocacy in a seminar for advocates in dispute resolution practice in Kenya on the 15th September, 2023.
● Presented a paper on employment law and practice in commercial banking institutions on the 29th November,2023.
Married with an enviable family of adorable children, Gumbo is a great sports enthusiast, with special bias to golf, which he plays voraciously. Golf, to him, is the next big time.
Africa needs Africans. African needs prolific Africans. Africa needs Eric Onyango Gumbo!
By Eric Elezuo
Beyond ancestral qualification, the newly crowned Owa Obokun of Ijeshaland, the 49th in the series, Oba Clement Adesuyi Haastrup, is a man of many parts; focused, capable, disciplined, fulfilled and down to earth. He is typically the product of what patience can produce, as his emergence was via the efforts of respected kingmakers of Ìjẹ̀ṣàland with a seal of approval by the State Governor, Ademola Adeleke. The process of emergence was grounded in the deep rooted traditions and values of the Yoruba culture.
Named as the paramount ruler in December, 2024, and crown substantive royal father on January 5, 2025, the former Deputy Governor of Osun State, has proved to be a good choice, bringing to bear his years of entrepreneurship and political sagacity to bring development and all round growth to his kingdom.
Addressed as His Imperial Majesty, Oba Looja Clement Adesuyi Haastrup, Owa Ajimoko III, the Owa Obokun Adimula and Paramount Ruler of Ìjẹ̀ṣàland, the oba launches into leadership with a combined flair of experience, vision, and dedication to service, which has steadily elevated the kingdom within a short period.
The Oba, by every standard, is not a run-of-the-mill monarch, he well trained and ground in not a few sectors of human endeavours. Not only was a former number two man of his state, he is a distinguished entrepreneur, and founder of ENL Consortium, one of the leading terminal operators in Nigeria, which under his stewardship, the company played crucial roles in the nation’s trade and logistics renewal. Beyond these, Haastrup is also a trained Pharmacist.
The new oba, who is celebrated for his academic excellence and dynamic leadership, replaced Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran II, who passed on recently.
With a legacy of public service, entrepreneurial success, and philanthropic dedication, Oba Haastrup’s enthronement heralds a new era for Ijesaland. As the Owa Obokun, his vision and leadership promise to transform Ijesaland into a beacon of unity, innovation, and prosperity. The people of Ijesaland eagerly anticipate the dawn of a brighter future under his reign.
Oba Haastrup’s reign is poised to deliver unity, prosperity, and a thriving future for the kingdom, ensuring that Ijeshaland remains a beacon of cultural heritage and progress in Nigeria and beyond.
The Dawn Commission, on its website, captures the trajectory of the disciplined oba as follows:
Prince Clement Adesuyi Haastrup was born on September 19, 1948, into the illustrious Ajimoko royal family of Ijesaland in Osun State, Nigeria. His upbringing was steeped in the values of service, discipline, and leadership that are hallmarks of his royal lineage. From an early age, he exhibited the qualities of a visionary, a trait further nurtured by his family’s deep cultural heritage and Christian faith.
Oba Haastrup’s academic journey laid the groundwork for his remarkable career. He attended Eko Boys’ High School in Lagos from 1963 to 1967, where he demonstrated an exceptional commitment to learning and leadership. He furthered his education at the Federal School of Science and later pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy at Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1974. Determined to expand his horizons, he spent several years in the United States, where he not only gained academic knowledge but also developed a global perspective and the discipline required for success.
Returning to Nigeria in 1981, Prince Haastrup immersed himself in public service. His political career gained prominence in 1990, when he was elected as the Deputy Governor of Osun State, serving under Governor Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke during the Third Republic.
In his capacity as Deputy Governor, Oba Haastrup championed significant reforms and spearheaded key initiatives that enhanced governance and public administration. His tenure saw him secure impactful public-private partnerships with federal agencies such as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). These achievements solidified his reputation as a pragmatic and results-oriented leader, earning him widespread admiration and paving the way for his transition into the private sector.
After leaving public office in 1992, Prince Haastrup turned his attention to the business world, where he continued to make significant contributions to Nigeria’s economic development. In 2002, he founded ENL Consortium Limited, initially focusing on utility management. Recognizing opportunities in Nigeria’s maritime sector, he expanded ENL’s operations to include port management and infrastructure development.
In 2006, ENL Consortium, under his visionary leadership, secured the concession for Terminals C and D at the Apapa Port Complex in Lagos. These terminals, which handle both general and containerized cargoes, have set benchmarks for efficiency in port operations.
The company’s innovative approach included:
- Extensive rehabilitation of port infrastructure
- Deployment of cutting-edge equipment
- Introduction of labor reforms, which improved productivity and industrial harmony
Today, ENL Consortium operates one of the largest seaport facilities in West Africa, with 11 berths capable of handling between 9.7 and 11 meters of draft. The company has diversified into power generation, estate development, and hospitality, contributing to job creation and industrial growth in Nigeria.
Prince Haastrup’s contributions have earned him recognition as one of Nigeria’s foremost maritime magnates. His leadership in transforming port operations and enhancing transparency has positioned Nigerian ports as competitive global players. His efforts have not only improved Nigeria’s standing in the maritime industry but also generated significant revenue and fostered economic growth.
Through the Clement Adesuyi Haastrup Foundation (CAH Foundation), Oba Haastrup has impacted lives by awarding scholarships to over 500 students, enabling them to access higher education locally and internationally. His philanthropic initiatives extend to feeding the hungry and empowering the underprivileged, solidifying his reputation as a compassionate and community-orientated leader.
Oba Clement Adesuyi Haastrup emerged as the Owa Obokun of Ijeshaland following a meticulous selection process by the kingdom’s esteemed kingmakers. His selection was officially approved by Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State on December 27, 2024, after the passing of Oba Adekunle Aromolaran II on September 11, 2023.
The coronation ceremony, a grand and historic event graced by dignitaries from across Nigeria and beyond, included the presentation of the Staff of Office and Instrument of Appointment. This event marked the official commencement of his reign, accompanied by traditional rites, festivities, and cultural displays that highlighted the rich heritage of Ijesaland.
Oba Haastrup’s enthronement is a powerful blend of tradition and modernity. Building on the legacy of Oba Aromolaran II, who was renowned as the first Nigerian monarch to hold a Ph.D., Oba Haastrup brings a global perspective shaped by his illustrious career in governance and business. His leadership is underpinned by a vision to bring unity, prosperity, and innovation to Ijesaland.
Oba Haastrup’s reign is poised to usher in transformative change across the kingdom. Guided by decades of experience in governance and business, his priorities include:
- Agricultural Modernization: Promoting mechanized farming to enhance food production and create jobs.
- Infrastructure Development: Collaborating with stakeholders to improve roads, healthcare facilities, and schools.
- Economic Empowerment: Encouraging investment and entrepreneurship to drive local economic growth.
- Social Harmony: Fostering unity and resolving communal disputes to strengthen bonds within the community.
Oba Haastrup is married to Olori Vicky Haastrup, the Chairperson of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN). The oba and his olori are blessed with wonderful children.
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