Dr Tunji Braithwaite

The 82-year-old lawyer died earlier today at St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos.

Reports quoted his son, Olumide, confirming the death of the colourful politician after a short illness.

Braithwaite a Lagos lawyer founded the Nigeria Advanced Party in 1979 for the Second Republic politics , with the aim of wiping out the ‘cockroaches and mosquitoes’ in Nigeria’s politics.

In the 1983 election, the party failed to win any seat in the legislature either at state or Federal level. Braithwaite as the presidential candidate also failed to make any impact.

Since then he had been a big critic of government policies, either under the military or the civilian administration.

According to his mini autobiography, he was born in 1933, the youngest son of eight children.

He was educated at C.M.S Grammar School, entering the school’s Preparatory Section in 1946 and completing his education there in 1953. He went for his A Levels at the London University at Kennington College in 1955 and enrolled in 1957/58 as a Law student at the Council of Legal Education, London.

He was admitted into Lincoln’s Inn that same year and graduated as a barrister in 1960.

He married his childhood sweetheart; Grace S. Falade in 1956 while they were undergraduates. They had five children and many grandchildren.

On his return to Nigeria in March 1961, he was enrolled as a Barrister and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Before he diverted his attention to the socio-political malaises plaguing Nigeria, he held the legal retainers of over 20 national and international corporate organisations and foreign missions and embassies in Nigeria. These included Swiss Airline (he got their landing rights increased to 3 during the period 1968-74); BASF; Hoechst; Witt Busch and Co; Universal Co. (Nig) Ltd; The Oro Development Company; Schroeder Electronics; and Julius Berger.