Who is Bola Ajibola?

From: "ptsc" <ptsc@my-deja.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 02:24:31 -0400
Message-ID: <8kjmvg08bo@news2.newsguy.com>

He is the dude who filed charges against Minton in Switzerland. This is a smattering of articles about him in English--many searches turn up court proceedings in French.

Posted for background --- http://www.kilima.com/mediamonitor/mm-04-21.html
Nigeria Media Monitor
Media Monitor Update:
#04-21 Monday, 31 May, 1999
From a "Quotable Quotes" section "First, is the issue of freedom, people must be free to express themselves openly and uninhibited without fear or favour. Individuals as well as our mass media must not be muzzled at any time in a given democracy."

- Mr. Bola Ajibola, Former Attorney-General of the federation speaking at a lecture on "Interfaces of law, freedom and sanity in the society:

Challenge to the political leadership in the next millennium" recently.

--- http://www.strategiesdirect.com/current4.htm Why Jubril Aminu and Prince Bola Ajibola should be recalled Obasanjo has the right to feel secure in his position. He has the right to send emissaries that best represent his personal interest to important external powers. Nobody is begrudging him this right.

But why must he send people who worked hand in gloves with past dictatorships? Out of 120 million people, can't he find another set?

Assume a Yoruba must represent him in Britain and an Hausa in Washington, can he find another Yoruba or Hausa who is untainted by the recent political past? It is hard to understand the logic of what is going on in Nigeria. The only people I know who are not in Obasanjo's government are the people who made it possible for him to be the president, the opposition. Look at the National Assembly, look at his cabinet, look at his statutory appointments, the conclusion one arrives at is that it is not of any moment espousing political convictions in Nigeria, that politicians whether of the white or of the black stripe are all the same. But are they?

If they are, then there are also other unforeseen alternatives.

--- http://www.africanews.org/pana/sports/20000109/feat1.html
High Commissioner Intervenes In Kanu Row
January 9, 2000 LONDON, UK (PANA) - The Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Bola Ajibola, has intervened in the row between the Nigerian Football Association and Arsenal Football Club over striker Nwankwo Kanu.

The move allowed Kanu to play for Arsenal in an English FA Cup match Sunday before flying off to Spain to join a training camp for Nigeria's squad for the African Nations Cup competition.

The continental tournament, which begins 22 January, is being co-hosted by Nigeria and Ghana.

The NFA had insisted that Kanu should join his international colleagues instead of play for his north London club.

The Nigerians had threatened to ask the world football governing body, FIFA, to take action against Arsenal if the club refused to release Kanu.

But in a last minute move, High Commissioner Ajibola stepped in to ease the tension.

John Fashanu, the former footballer who is now Nigeria's Sporting Ambassador, revealed the decision on a BBC radio sports programme in London.

He said: "His Excellency wants to promote Nigeria. We obviously want to bring Nigeria closer to Great Britain."

The Kanu issue raises the question of the club- versus-country dilemma facing European teams that employ African internationals.

FIFA has insisted that international assignments should take precedence over club matches. But European sides are not happy at losing their African stars called for international duty in their respective countries of origin.

For instance, if Nigeria reaches the final of the Nations Cup on 13 February, Arsenal would lose the services of Kanu for up to six matches.

Discussions are underway to harmonise the European and African football calendar to avoid clashing.

--- http://www.icj.law.gla.ac.uk/icjwww/ipresscom/1991-1995/ipr9203.html
[Quite an impressive resume] New Member of the Court to make his solemn declaration Hearings in new cases submitted by Libya Further to Press Communiqué No. 92/2 dated 6 March 1992, the following information is communicated to the Press by the Registry of the International Court of Justice:

On Thursday 26 March 1992, at 10 a.m. the Court will hold a public sitting for the purpose of enabling Judge Bola A. Ajibola (Nigeria), who was elected to be a Member of the Court by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations on 5 December 1991, to make the solemn declaration provided for in Article 20 of the Statute of the Court.

After a short break the hearings on the Libyan requests for the indication of provisional measures in the cases it brought against the United Kingdom and the United States will begin.

* Judge Ajibola has been elected to fill the vacancy left by the death on 14 August 1991 of Judge Taslim Olawale Elias (Nigeria). His term of office thus extends until 5 February 1994.

A biography of the new Member of the Court is annexed hereto.

* Following the election of Judge Ajibola, the composition of the Court is now as follows:

President: Sir Robert Yewdall Jennings (United Kingdom) Vice-President: Shigeru Oda (Japan) Judges: Manfred Lachs (Poland) Roberto Ago (Italy) Stephen M. Schwebel (United States of America) Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria) Ni Zhengyu (China) Jens Evensen (Norway) Nikolaï K. Tarassov (USSR) Gilbert Guillaume (France) Mohamed Shahabuddeen (Guyana) Andrés Aguilar Mawdsley (Venezuela) Christopher G. Weeramantry (Sri Lanka) Raymond Ranjeva (Madagascar) Bola A. Ajibola (Nigeria) Annex to Press Communiqué No. 92/3 Judge Bola A. Ajibola (Member of the Court as of 5 December 1991) Born on 22 March 1934.

Called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, 1962 (Barrister-at-Law); Legal practitioner for 23 years, mostly in Lagos and also in all other parts of Nigeria; Principal Partner of Bola Ajibola & Co., with offices in Lagos, Ikeja, Abeokuta and Kaduna (Specialization:

commercial law practice with particular bias for international arbitration).

President of the Nigerian Bar Association (1984-1985);

Chairman of the Body of Benchers (1989-1990); Chairman of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (1986 to date);

President of the Association of Arbitrators of Nigeria; Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar; Chairman of the General Council of the Bar; Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy; Member of the Nigeria Police Council;

Member of the Advisory Judicial Committee; Member of the Judicial Service Committee (Abuja); Chairman of the Task Force for the Revision of the Laws of the Federation (1990);

Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Member of the Nigerian Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly (1986); Temporary President of the United Nations General Assembly at its seventeenth special session on narcotic drugs (1990); Member of the International Law Commission.

Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (The Hague);

Member of the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration; Member of the International Maritime Arbitration Commission, Paris; Member of the Panel of International Arbitrators of the London Institute of Arbitrators; Member of the International Advisory Committee of the World Arbitration Institute, U.S.A.

Initiated the first ever African Law Ministers Conference, Abuja (1989) (attended by 32 African countries); Chairman of Meeting of ECOWAS Council of Law Ministers, Lagos, Nigeria (1990), where the Treaty Establishing the Court for the Economic Community of West African States was drafted, and agreed to by ECOWAS Law Ministers; Member, ECOWAS Steering Committee for the review of the ECOWAS Charter; Leader of the Nigerian Delegation to the Ethiopian All-Party Conference on Peaceful and Democratic Transition; Chairman of the First Meeting of the Working Committee, All-Africa Law Ministers Conference, Cairo (1991).

Vice-President of the International Contractual Relations Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce;

Vice-President of the Institute of International Business Law and Practice, Paris; National Chairman of the World Peace Through Law Centre; Represented Africa in the demonstration trial on the law of the sea at the World Peace Through Law Conference (Manila, 1970); Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; Friend of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London.

Member of the African Bar Association; the International Bar Association; the Association of World Lawyers; the International Chamber of Commerce; the Commonwealth Law Association;

the World Arbitration Institute; and the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law.

Editor, Nigeria's Treaties in Force, 1970-1990; Editor, All Nigeria Law Reports, 1961-1990; Editor-in-chief, Justice (a monthly journal of contemporary legal problems); General Editor of the Federal Ministry of Justice Law Review Series (FMJLRS) (now in seven volumes).

Publications include:

Principles of Arbitration, 1980; New Concepts in the Resolution of Disputes in International Construction Contracts, 1981; Work Paper on International Commercial Arbitration, 1982; Arbitration and State Enterprises - Case Study of Nigerian Cement Transactions, 1983; Modernization of National Arbitration Laws in Aid of International Commercial Arbitration, 1984; The Law and Settlement of Commercial Disputes, 1984; Law Development and Administration in Nigeria, 1987; Towards a Better Administration of Justice System in Nigeria, 1988;

Integration of the African Continent Through Law, 1988;

Narcotics: Law and Policy in Nigeria, 1989; Compensation and Remedies for Victims of Crime, 1989; Banking Frauds and Other Financial Malpractices in Nigeria, 1989; Women and Children under Nigerian Law, 1990; Scheme relating to Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and the Control of Criminal Activities within Africa, 1990; Human Rights in Africa (awaiting publication in the Mélanges in Honour of Judge T.O. Elias).

1987 World Jurist Award (under the auspices of World Peace through Law at Seoul); Senior Advocate of Nigeria; Recipient of 1986 Ogun State of Nigeria Outstanding Citizen Merit Award;

Life Member, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs; Life Member, Body of Benchers, Nigeria.

No. 92/3 corr.

16 March 1992 --- http://www.igc.org/disarm/icjpanel.html THE WORLD COURT ADVISORY OPINION ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Excertps from a panel discussion at the United Nations,
23 October 1996
Panelists:

Merav Datan, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, Moderator Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, President of the 51st U.N. General Assembly Commander Ronald Neubauer, Assoc. Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Department of Defense Peter Weiss, Co-President, International Assoc. of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms Judge Bola Ajibola, formerly with the International Court of Justice Anabel Dwyer, IALANA and Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy MERAV DATAN: Our next speaker is Judge Bola Ajibola, a former member of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994. He is currently a judge-at-large, and that includes, among others, the constitutional court on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the past he served as attorney general and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has been a member of the Nigerian delegation to the United Nations and a member of the International Law Commission; he s a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Judge Ajibola also initiated the first ever African law ministers conference, which brought together thirty-two African countries; he's the President of the World Association of Judges. His publications have been in a number of areas including arbitration, resolution of disputes, development of law and justice and human rights.

JUDGE BOLA AJIBOLA: ...First, to divorce the issue of the use of nuclear weapons from their effect beats my imagination.

How do you use a nuclear weapon without having Nagasaki?

Without having Hiroshima? Without having nuclear winter?

How do you do so? Either you have not used it or perhaps it did not detonate.

In the League of Nations Covenant in cases of any disputes between and among nations, these should be peacefully resolved. But that provision did not rule out war. It did not rule it out but it says first and foremost try to settle. If it is impossible to do anything about it, then you can take the law into your own hand. In Article 2, paragraph 4 of the United Nations Charter the provision is clear: disputes should be resolved peacefully and the use of force in effect was abolished. But in Article 51 there is the right of self-defense...

The Court said a threat or use of nuclear weapons should (why use the word should -- that wears or waters it down?) - be compatible with the requirements of international law applicable in armed conflicts, particularly those of the principles and rules of international humanitarian law, as well as specific obligations under treaties. They found within the ambit of international humanitarian law the use or threat of such weapons are not compatible.

It is very confusing and difficult to understand why the Court determined that the use of nuclear weapons was generally contrary to international law with its decision that it was unable to determine whether "use or threat of use would be unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self- defense in which the very survival of a state would be at stake." Why should these two ideas be lumped together? Why not just have them separated?

...I agree with Peter that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament...I hope that the Members of the United Nations, the Security Council, the General Assembly will heed this decision and do something to insure that the nuclear threat is no longer hanging over anyone in this world...

It has always been said that the opinion of the Court is not binding. That to me looks a little bit artificial. It is binding. It is authoritative. The reason some argue otherwise is, if you look at Article 59 of the statute, it says the decision of the Court is only binding on the parties to it. There are no parties here, and therefore some argue it is not binding, that it is an advisory opinion. Many advisory opinions have been taken to the General Assembly and resolutions passed and pronouncements made. This is a positive decision of the Court. We are all going to in one way or another participate in supporting the resolution in the General Assembly. It may also find its way to the Security Council.