Jaja Wachuku

Who was Jaja Wachuku?

Jaja Anucha Wachuku, a Royal Prince of Ngwaland, "descendant of 20 generations of African chiefs in the Igbo country of Eastern Nigeria" - was a Pan-Africanist; and a globally distinguished Nigerian statesman, lawyer, politician, diplomat and humanitarian. He was the first Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, as well as first Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Wachuku was also the first Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

At a time when the United States government had already listed Nelson Mandela as a terrorist in their security books, Jaja Wachuku was a "widely respected" and humane global foreign affairs colossus, whose empathic diplomacy and wise, oneness-of-humanity intervention with the South African government, saved Nelson Mandela and others from death penalty at the 1963-64 Rivonia Trial.

On Thursday 30 September 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria conferred on Wachuku a posthumous special Golden Jubilee Independence Anniversary Award for his outstanding contributions towards the development of Nigeria.