Human rights activists, friends and associates of the late Comrade Chima Ubani converged in Lagos on Sunday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of one of Nigeria’s most prominent human rights activists, student unionists, leftist revolutionaries and pro-democracy fighters.
The memorial event, held at the Textile Labour House in Ogba, Lagos, brought together prominent activists and unionists including Lanre Orogundade, Prof. Laja Odukoya of the University of Lagos, and Ochuwa Ubani, Chima’s widow.
Comrade Chima Ubani, who died in a motor accident on September 21, 2005, at the age of 42, was a towering figure in Nigeria’s pro-democracy movement and a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. At the time of his death, he served as executive director of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Nigeria’s premier human rights organization.
Ubani gained national prominence as General Secretary of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) during the historic “military-must-go” struggle that followed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Born in Abia State, eastern Nigeria, to a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor, Ubani was described as charismatic and intelligent. He emerged as a student leader in the 1980s and graduated with a degree in crop science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1988. He later earned a master’s degree in mass communication from Leicester University in 2002.
After completing his national youth service, Ubani joined the Civil Liberties Organisation in Lagos as a researcher in 1990, eventually rising to the position of Executive Director in 2003.
According to a tribute by The Guardian, Ubani came into the limelight in 1993 when General Ibrahim Babangida’s military regime annulled the presidential election meant to return Nigeria to civilian rule. He played a crucial role in uniting various human rights organizations under the Campaign for Democracy (CD) umbrella, serving as the group’s General Secretary.
Ubani also championed the cause of activists in the Niger Delta, supporting figures like writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995.
In February 1994, security agents raided Ubani’s house and office, confiscating a report he had co-authored on women and children in Nigerian prisons. He went underground but was eventually arrested and imprisoned in 1995. His case was subsequently taken up by Amnesty International.
Released the following year, Ubani traveled to Britain for medical treatment before returning to Nigeria. After General Sani Abacha’s death in 1998, he worked tirelessly to ensure a return to civilian rule. However, he refused to accept President Olusegun Obasanjo’s election in 1999 as a genuine return to democracy, consistently criticizing what he viewed as a corrupt government that disregarded human rights.
In July 2000, Ubani achieved a significant legal victory when a case he brought against the Nigerian police led to the abrogation of a decree that allowed state security agents to detain people indefinitely. He also campaigned vigorously against extrajudicial killings by Nigerian police and the use of capital punishment.
On September 21, 2005, Ubani traveled to Maiduguri to join rallies protesting the government’s increase in petroleum product prices. Tragically, he lost his life the following day in an automobile accident along Potiskum Road.
He is survived by his wife, Ochuwa, and four children.
