Adiu Bamidele Aturu

TRAGEDY hit Nigeria’s human rights community on Wednesday, July 9, when one of the nation’s brightest legal practitioners and an ublemished human rights activist, Mr Bamidele Aturu, died in a Lagos hospital during the proverbial brief illness. As is usual during the transition of notable figures in the polity, a torrent of elegies poured in from across the country, but these were made the more remarkable by

the fact of the huge imprints that the late Aturu left on the Nigerian political space in so short a time.

Aturu was born on 16 October, 1964 to Mr and Mrs Aturu of Ogbagi in Ondo State, Nigeria. He attended Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo, where he studied Physics and was the student union president, graduating with a First Class degree. He taught Mathematics and Physics at the Holy Child Girls Secondary School and the Federal Government College between 1987 and 1989 before he went to study Law at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), graduating with LL.B in 1994. At Ife, he was Vice President of the former National Association of Nigerian Students. He proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was called to the Bar in 1995. He did postgraduate studies at the University of Lagos and graduated with LL.M in 1996. 

Nicknamed “Gentle Tiger” for his remarkable brilliance and outstanding personality, Aturu shot into national limelight in 1988 during the passing-out parade of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), when he refused to shake hands with the then Military Governor of Niger State, Colonel Lawan Gwadabe. He had cited the military as having caused great harm to the democratic aspirations of Nigerians as the reason for his action. On completion of his mandatory NYSC, he joined the Democratic Alternative (DA) to pursue the institution of democratic principles in Nigeria.

He was one of the founders of Youths Against Misguided Youths (YAMY) that stood in opposition to the government-sponsored Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA) group led by Daniel Kalu, reputed for organising the ill-fated one million man march in support of the then military dictator. He was part of those who fought for the institutionalisation of the Freedom of Information Act and proceeded to test the law in 2012 when he wrote to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, asking him to disclose his salary, allowances and other entitlements, to which the latter reluctantly responded.

Aturu devoted much of his legal practice to representing marginalised or oppressed individuals and groups. With a broad experience in litigation and code drafting, he was committed to simplifying and demystifying the law in order to make it accessible to the people. He was the author of a number of law books, including A Handbook of Nigerian Labour Laws, Nigerian Labour Laws and Elections and the Law. He was a columnist with national newspapers in Nigeria at various times. His mission was to serve God by defending the poor, promoting the cause of social justice, using the law to defend the underprivileged, the dispossessed, the oppressed and the abused against the rich and the powerful, and to be a leading voice in the struggle against all forms of discrimination and undue privileges.

In 2010, he dragged the Council for Legal Education to court, asking for the reduction in the cut-throat fees that made it impossible for indigent Law students to make it to the Law School. He had consistently called for the compression of wage differentials, arguing that a situation in which a human being earned N7,500 and another earned N3,000,000 was simply atrocious and evil. He believed that this injustice fuelled corruption, robbery, kidnapping and other crimes. He believed in economic democracy, insisting that it was pivotal in making all Nigerians to hold government to account.

Aturu turned down his nomination, as a representative of the civil society, in the ongoing National Conference on the ground that the conference, as designed, could not meet the expectations of Nigerians. Before his demise, he had turned full circle from being an atheist to being a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where he distinguished himself as a radical pastor who stood by the people and continued his crusade for the poor. Aturu did not live long, but his few years were a shining example of service to humanity. 

May his soul rest in perfect peace!