Egbert Udo Udoma

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Sir Egbert Udo Udoma (June 21, 1917-1998) was an eminent lawyer and justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court. He was Chief Justice of Uganda from 1963-1969. He spent 13 years as a judge on the Supreme Court of Nigeria and was chairman of the Constituent Assembly from 1977 to 1978.

[edit] Life

He was born in the Ibibio area of Akwa Ibom State and attended Methodist College, Uzuakoli. After completing his secondary education, he proceeded abroad to study at Trinity College, Dublin with the support of his community and the Ibibio Union, an organization which he later led. At TCD, he served as President of the University Philosophical Society, the student debating society. He later earned a post graduate degree at Oxford University.

He returned to Nigeria to practice law in the mid 1940's, but became intrigued and moved by the nationalistic politics of the time. At the time, Nigeria was attracting returning emigrants who had left previously.^[1] He joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons early on, but left the party following a crisis. From 1953 to 1959, he was a member of the federal House of Representatives, under the platform of the United National Independence Party, then he was a leading proponent for the creation of a Calabar/Ogoja/Rivers state. However, his failure to succeed in the creation of an independent region or state in southeastern Nigeria, and the triumph of the three major regions at a constitutional conference in 1958, led Egbert Udoma to concede politics to the dominant parties.^[1] He spent four years as a high court judge before he was appointed Chief Justice in Uganda.

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