Elder Statesman Braithwaite Dies @ 82

One of the country’s elder statesmen, the founder Nigerian Advance Party (NAP) whose legal, political, social activism seeks to make governance to positively impact the citizens is dead.

Dr. Olatunji Akintunde Braithwaite passed on yesterday at
the St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island, during a brief illness at the age of 82 years. He would have been 83 on September 13.

Born in 1933 to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Adesoye Braithwaite, the social critic was educated at the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Grammar School, Lagos, where he completed his secondary education in 1953.

He sat for his Advanced Levels examinations at Kennington College of the London University in 1955 and enrolled, two years later, as a law student at the Council of Legal Education, London. He was admitted into Lincoln’s Inn in 1958 and graduated as a barrister in 1960.

He enrolled as a Barrister and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in March 1961 and in 1985, earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) Degree from Columbia Pacific University in the United States, and crowned it, shortly after, with a PhD from the same institution.

The seventh of his parent’s eight children, and the last of his mother’s three sons, Dr. Braithwaite, who authored the book, Jurisprudence of the Living Oracles, among others, was married to Dr. Grace Simisola Braithwaite, a consultant paediatrician, with whom he had five children.

One of Braithwaite's sons, Olumide Braithwaite, on behalf of the family, which was made available said: “The Braithwaite family wishes to announce the passing to glory of our husband, father and grandfather, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, which took place on the 28th of March, 2016. Burial rites will be announced in due course.”

Described by many as a leading light in Nigeria’s politics and his chosen legal profession, where he was variously referred to as “a walking encyclopaedia”, Braithwaite was the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Advance Party (NAP), a party he founded during the Second Republic and on which platform he contested the 1983 elections.

His opinions on issues, which often times were very critical, have helped in shaping the politics of Nigeria and finding solutions to the country’s myriad of problems.

Already, tributes have begun to pour in for the person, character and accomplishments of the late legal luminary by prominent public figures who described the death as a loss to the country.