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FIDELIS ODITAH: THE ANIOMA QUEEN'S COUNSEL GAIN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II

 FIDELIS ODITAH: THE ANIOMA QUEEN'S COUNSEL GAIN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II



- Emeka Esogbue


As the world mourns the passing away of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, by the special grace of God, the Queen of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Defender of the Faith, the Anioma people have a Queen's Counsel gain in Prof Fidelis Oditah, the only known Queen's Counsel from the Anioma Nation and possibly Delta State. 


In England and a few other Commonwealth nations, the "Queen's Counsel" with the post-nominal initials of QC, during the reign of a queen, is a barrister or advocate who is typically a senior trial lawyer. Although the Nigerian Government has changed its version to Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof Fidelis Oditah is both a Queen's Counsel (QC) and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)


Queen's Counsel is an office conferred by the Crown and recognized by the courts. Members have the privilege of sitting within the bar of the court and are usually known to wear silk gowns of a particular design. Appointments of the Queen's Counsel are based on experience other than particular years of experience. 


Born to Anioma parents from Ibusa, a community in Delta State, Prof Fidelis Oditah, aged 58, was called to the Bar in 1992 and he became Queen's Counsel in 2003. Quite typical of Ibusa, a community with human resources in abundance, Prof Oditah is regarded for his remarkable brilliance and intellectualism. Oditah, the President of the Nigerian Branch of the International Law Association graduated from the University of Lagos at the age of 20 with the first class in Law. By claiming 12 of the 13 prizes available in that year 1984, the highly intelligent Oditah had announced himself as one of the most brilliant law graduates in Nigeria. 


He was to graduate from the Nigerian Law School, the following year with first-class honours awarded him. In 1986, Prof Fidelis Oditah was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship that enabled him to further his studies at the University of Oxford. It is on record that Oditah would complete his DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) in just two years. It was in 1992 that he was called to the bar and he was to take up a lectureship at the Faculty of Law of Oxford University. He would return to Nigeria to try his hand in politics. 


Interestingly, on Thursday, February 10, 2022, Prof Fidelis Oditah, QC, SAN was at the J. F. Ade-Ajayi Auditorium of the University of Lagos to deliver a keynote address on the colloquium of the reunion event of the University of Lagos Law Alumni. As the honour of Queen's Counsel is expected to change to King's Counsel with the end of the Elizabethan era and the emergence of King Charles III, one cannot but imagine Prof Fidelis Oditah, the Queen's Counsel from the Ibusa community of Anioma.

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