What Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, called him a counter-statesman, captured the elite enigma that was Dr. Tunji Braithwaite; senior barrister-at-law and scion of one of Lagos’ aristocratic families. He died in Lagos at 82, not of frailty as could be expected of old age, but tripped in his gym, exercising to stay young and keep decrepitude at bay.
With his legal scholarship, long practice and vast social network, he probably would have taken the silk, as Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). But his distaste for preferment, so common among the Nigerian elite he manifestly belonged to, ensured he never applied for it. He was no radical iconoclast in the mould of the great Gani Fawehinmi, arguably the most socially conscious lawyer of his generation. Yet, social consciousness was never too far from his mind.
His penchant for opposing the status quo, without necessarily tearing it down, was apparent in his politics. In 1978, at the lifting of ban on partisan politics, the old titans of the First Republic revved their formidable political engines. But instead of joining any of them, Dr Braithwaite founded a new party, the Nigeria Advance Party (NAP).
To be sure, NAP stood on suspect ideological grounds. It wasn’t right-wing, as the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which eventually became the Second Republic ruling party. But it was left-of-centre, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the entrenched political formation in the Yoruba part of the country against which NAP had to contend. But while UPN offered simple but concrete four cardinal programmes, plus the Awo mystique, NAP only offered what seemed like youth radicalism.
Still, NAP never really fulfilled its potentials, as a formidable, youth-fired social mobilisation organ for public good. Aside from its sensational debut declaration of going after “roaches, rats and mosquitoes”, NAP as a vote-harvesting machine, was a damp squib.
Yet, it is tribute to Dr. Braithwaite’s tenacity (though not a few considered him the Don Quixote of Nigerian politics) that not only did the party secure registration in 1983, after failing in 1978, it stayed alive till its founder’s death — if not as a mass movement, then as the founder’s fond totem.
But despite Braithwaite’s politics never really taking off, his penchant for distinctness and originality came with his sartorial contribution to the game. His unique skimpy and sleeveless garb, with his NAP cadre in tow, caused quite a stir. Even the great Awo, not the most flippant of men, could not resist throwing a few barbs at “Braithwaite and his boys”! As it would turn out, that costume was well thought out and specially designed to align the aristocratic lawyer with the masses, yet retain some patrician grandeur and mystique.
Outside politics, Dr. Braithwaite never shied from any cause he thought worthy and noble. Even at old age, he was part of the Occupy Lagos anti-fuel pump price increase protest of January 2012. And even virtually navigating his last bend in life, he was still in court, as attorney for disadvantaged citizens, against some powerful banking interests.
Dr. Braithwaite was no predictable pro or anti-establishment voice. He spoke up, for or against, depending on his own cherished values; and his vision of a decent and upright society. That way, he wore his quiet integrity like a proud badge — and the last of the eight Braithwaite siblings held aloft the family banner without stain till he breathed his last.
A proud son of Lagos and quintessential Nigerian patriot has gone home. But he left a good name. There is no greater legacy.
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