JAJA ANUCHA NDUBUISI WACHUKU, NIGERIA'S FIRST AMBASSADOR AND PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS 

Did you know that Jaja Wachuku was the first Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, the first Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and the first Nigerian Minister for Foreign Affairs?

Jaja Anucha Ndubuisi Wachuku, a Royal Prince of Ngwaland and "descendant of 20 generations of African chiefs in the Igbo country of Eastern Nigeria" was born on 1 January 1918. He attended Infant School at St. Georges NDP Umuomainta, Nbawsi, Abia State, and Government School Afikpo, Ebonyi State. He got an automatic scholarship for his secondary school education at Government College Umuahia, Abia State, from 1931 to 1936.

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 He was withdrawn from Yaba by his father Josaiah Ndubuisi Wachuku and sent to Gold Coast People's College, Adidome, after which he attended New Africa University College, Anloga, in preparation for further studies abroad. While there 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. From there he left for the University of Dublin's Trinity College in Ireland. He matriculated 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, and was called to the Irish bar association – Kings Inn – in November 1944. 

Wachuku was fully involved in Nigeria's constitutional conferences and struggle for independence from Great Britain. He 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. From 1947 to 1996, Wachuku served as barrister and solicitor of The Supreme Court of Nigeria, and also practised at the West African Court of Appeal.

While in Dublin, Wachuku was an executive member of the Student Christian Movement (SCM). 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.

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.

Wachukwu 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 from 1959 to 1960. He replaced Sir Frederic Metcalfe of Great Britain, who was Speaker of the House from 1955 to 1959.

Notably, as First Speaker of the House, Wachuku received Nigeria's Instrument of Independence – also known as Freedom Charter, on Saturday 1 October 1960 from Princess Alexandra of Kent – Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain's representative at the Nigerian Independence ceremonies. On a 1960 United States tour as the House of Representatives Speaker, Wachuku was honoured and presented with the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Blue Seal and Key to the City of Atlanta, Georgia. It was during this period and during his years as First Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister that Wachuku forged the reputed friendship that he had with three Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was also good friends with Sam Rayburn: 48th, 50th and 52nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Adlai Stevenson, Martin Luther King Jr., Marian Anderson, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, Henry Ford II, Israel's Golda Meir, Nikita Khrushchev, plus numerous leaders and people around the world.

From 1960 to 1961, Wachuku served as first Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York, as well as Federal Minister for Economic Development. He hoisted Nigeria's flag as the 99th member of the UN on 7 October 1960. Accordingly, Wachuku was instrumental to Nigeria becoming the 58th Member State of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday 14 November 1960. Also, as First Ambassador of Nigeria to the UN, Wachuku represented the country at the independence celebrations of Tanganyika – now known as United Republic of Tanzania. At the UN, with support from UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, the member nations elected Wachuku the first African to chair a UN Conciliation Commission, making him Chairman of the Conciliation Commission for the Congo from January to March 1961.

Following a cabinet reshuffle at Nigeria's independence, Wachuku was appointed Minister of Economic Development and Member of the First Nigerian Delegation on the admission of Nigeria to the UN. On the eve of his departure from New York, the Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa invited Wachuku to his hotel suite and told him that he was leaving him behind as Leader of the Delegation and Ambassador plus Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN. Wachuku protested to Prime Minister Balewa – saying that he did not join the Delegation with the intention of staying in New York, and that he told his wife, Rhoda, that he would be away for only one week. Balewa replied: "Never mind, I will tell her when I arrive Lagos."

At the UN, under Wachuku's leadership, both the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police Force made their début with the UN peacekeeping effort. During his time at the UN, Nigeria's Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was appointed Commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force in the Congo. Also, the first Nigerian Permanent Secretary, Mr. Francis Nwokedi, was retained by the UN to help in the reorganisation of the Civil Service in the Congo. Wachuku also secured the appointment of the first African Under-Secretary-General of the UN – Nigeria's Godfrey K. J. Amachree – who became UN Under Secretary-General for Trusteeship and Non-Self-Governing Territories.

In 1961, Wachuku was appointed as Nigeria's inaugural Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations. He served in the role until 1965. Prior to Wachuku's tenure, Prime Minister Balewa doubled as the country's foreign affairs advocate. Wachuku, like Hegel's historical individual, had the capacity to stand outside the confines of his time, place and intuiting history.

Wachuku's uncanny historical intuition was evident from the start when, in 1947, he proclaimed Lagos an All-Nigerian city – long before that city became a federal territory. Wachuku also foresaw the danger of recognising military coup as a way to change government. In Ethiopia, he strongly refused to accord recognition to the Nicolas Grunitzky Government in Togo after 13 January 1963 first coup in that country. Wachuku believed that if that first African coup by the Togolese army was recognised as a way to change government, then, coup-making would spread in Africa. Togo became the only independent African country that was not represented at the Inaugural Conference of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). 

History has already told us whether Wachuku was right or wrong. Even Kwame Nkrumah who was one of the most vocal supporters of the Togolese government of coup makers, later fell victim of the coup contagion. As for Wachuku, he had resigned from the Nigerian parliament and government at midday of 14 January 1966 – twelve hours before the first Nigerian military coup of 15 January 1966 led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.

In 1951, Wachuku married fellow Nigerian: Rhoda Idu Oona Onumonu (1920–1994). Wachuku and Rhoda had five children, namely: Chinedum, Nwabueze (married to Professor Chuka Nwokolo and now Mrs. Nwabueze Nwokolo), 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. Wachuku was 78 years on his death at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu, during the late morning of Thursday, 7 November 1996.