Jaja Wachuku was a great man. He was a Pan-Africanist – they believe in the unity and self-reliance of the African people. He was the first speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, the first Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations and the first Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Jaja’s Family and Education
His father was the king of Ngwa and his mother was a pioneer women’s rights advocate and humane royal land owner.

He was well educated in different schools up to the tertiary education. He went further to attain skills in carpentry, farming and metal works as well as an avid tennis, football and cricket player.

Jaja in Dublin
Jaja went on to study in Dublin, Ireland. There, he achieved great success becoming a lawyer and joining several organizations. One such organization was the Association of Students of African Descent. He was secretary and then president as well as the founder of other organizations before he came back to Nigeria to fight for the end of colonial rule and the independence from the British.

Jaja: Back in Nigeria – Politics
Jaja came back to Nigeria in the same ship as Nnamdi Azikiwe. He was present at Gold Coast (present day Ghana) when Nnamdi Azikiwe spoke to Joseph B. Danquah about Kwame Nkrumah.

He joined the NCNC and became the party’s legal advisor. Jaja got involved in the agitation at that time, famously giving a controversial lecture where he called Lagos a “no man’s land”.

In 1949, Jaja founded a youth movement called New African Party and he affiliated it with the NCNC. This even got the attention of the people of London who sent a letter.

Jaja Wachukwu with Nnamdi Azikiwe founded the African Continental Bank. As the bank’s regional director, he facilitated the launch of branches in Aba, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Calabar.

He became very heavily involved with politics beginning from the grassroots. First, he became the village councilor and later becoming a member of the Ngwa Native Authority.

Jaja was elected as the second member of the Eastern House of Assembly. From 1952 to 1953, Wachuku was elected Deputy Leader of the NCNC and Chairman of the Parliamentary Party when there was crisis in Nigeria’s Eastern Region – resulting in the dissolution of the Eastern House of Assembly.

In 1954, Jaja lost the Eastern Regional election and left the House of Representatives. Later on in 1954, when the principle of direct election to the House of Representatives was introduced, he was re-elected first member for the Aba Division; as well as member of United Nigeria Independence.

In 1957, for the following three years, he was appointed member of the Local Education Authority and chairman of the board of Education in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. During the same period, Wachuku was also Chairman of Aba Divisional Committee of the NCNC.

From 1958 to 1959, Jaja was Chairman of the Business Committee in the House of Representatives of Nigeria. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on the Nigerianization of the Federal Civil Service. He wrote the Committee’s Report assisted by Michael O. Ani.

In 1959, Wachuku was re-elected into the House of Representatives from Aba Division; and was, subsequently, elected the first indigenous Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.
Ambassador Owen W. Roberts, United States’ 1964 to 1965 Political Officer in Lagos, Nigeria strikingly said:

“The Nigerians, whatever their tribe, are a very strong, very assertive group. Foreign Minister Jaja Wachuku was a surprise for many American diplomats because he considered himself as having a status equivalent to the British, French, German,or Russian Ministers. Wachuku demanded that much attention and respect. The Nigerians were, and have been, very independent. Senior U.S. echelons weren’t used to dealing with Africans as assertive and as strong minded as the Nigerians were. I found this nice because the Nigerians were absolutely always open with you, and would hit you over the head with whatever the problem was. They were entitled to respect and helped gain it for Africans. Ambassador Matthews was not the kind of person to go in and tell Prime Minister Balewa or Foreign Minister Jaja Wachuku how to do things….”
Jaja foresaw the danger of recognising military coup as a way to change government.
http://www.myvirtualorbit.com/547-2/

Great and influential family in Abia State... I was privileged to register the other Wachuku who was the head of National Directorate of Employment on Inec's Voter's Registration during my service year in Isiala Ngwa North at his home town in Nbawsi... I cut cap for them...

pictures

Reading through,it is obvious the man was born to be a leader.