07/11/2018
CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU Memorial Lecture 2018.
Topic: BETWEEN FORCE OF REASON AND REASON FOR FORCE: LEGACY OF CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU.
The topic of the first Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Lecture to be delivered by Professor Chidi Anselem Odinkalu, a renowned human rights lawyer, activist, and academic, who until November 2015 was the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission.
Born to the family of late Augustine Sochukwuma Odinkalu, in Umuhu-Okabia, in Orsu LGA, Imo State, he was admitted to the Bar, November 3, 1988 along with Babatunde Fashola, Godswill Akpabio, Pius Anyim, Liyel Imoke, Nnia Nwodo, and other notable individuals.
Chidi Odinkalu holds a PhD in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Prior to joining the staff of Open Society Justice Initiative, Odinkalu was a lecturer at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, one time Senior Legal Officer responsible for Africa and Middle East at the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights in London, Human Rights Advisor to the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone, and Brandeis International Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, of the Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
Odinkalu is widely published on diverse subjects of international law, international economic and human rights law, public policy and political economy affecting African countries.
He is frequently called upon to advise multilateral and bilateral institutions on Africa-related policy, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the World Economic Forum.
Odinkalu has extensive networks across Africa, built up over several years of working for human rights and social justice on the continent.
He is associated with several nongovernmental and academic institutions within and outside Africa.
Among other affiliations, Odinkalu is a member of the Human Rights Advisory Council of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, of the Boards of the Fund for Global Human Rights and of the International Refugee Rights Initiative. He is also the Founder of the Section on Public Interest and Development Law at the Nigerian Bar, and member of the Nigerian Bar Association.
Odinkalu almost singlehandedly raised the profile of Nigeria's human rights body, daring to confront the same government that appointed him, standing still on the side of the civil society, even at risk to life.
After observing for four years as the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, a man known for going where many before him wouldn't dare has a lot to say:
~> There are no perfect societies. In Nigeria, I continue to be shocked by two things: our tolerance for extra judicial executions and the scope of domestic and sexual violence. Both are epidemic that we clothe with denial.
~> The fundamental issues with the Nigerian State are not a matter of laws, but a matter of the men to make the laws work.
This is the man we shall be privileged to listen to as he dwells on the topic " Between Force of Reason and Reason for Force: Legacy of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
It promises to be an intellectual harvest.
Do not miss it.
Date is Monday, November 5, 2018 at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus. Time~ 11am.