ETIGWE, NOW HALL OF FAMER
By The Evangelist edition, September 14, 2022.
Famous Nigerian Politician and Legal Luminary is one of the few Eminent Nigerians admitted into the First Ever INTEGRITY HALL OF FAME penutimate weekend by Nigerian Association of Christian Journalists (NACJ). The INDUCTION took place during the 10th Anniversary of the Association at Sheraton Hotel in Lagos.
The President of the Association, Dr Charles Okhai, explained that the 10 prominent Nigerians selected for the pricey honor were the first 10 outstanding past recipients of the prestigious NACJ ANNUAL INTEGRITY AWARD. He further explained that not less than 187 prominent Nigerians have received the Award in the past 10 years and that the Association found it expedient to commemorate her 10th Anniversary by rewarding the first top10 past recipients of the Award as Hall of famers.
Etigwe Uwa SAN is a legal practitioner and Senior Partner at the Commercial Law Firm of Streamsowers & Kohn where he heads the firm’s litigation and Arbitration departments. He attended Methodist Boys’ High School and King’s College, both in Lagos and he is a Law Graduate of the University of Lagos. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK, and was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria during the 2009 conferments. He holds a Masters Degree in International Relations and Finance from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of the Tufts University Boston. He also holds a second Masters Degree in Taxation at the University of Oxford.
He is the Chairman of Lumos Nigeria which in partnership with MTN provides mobile electricity through solar panels to over 120 thousand customers in Nigeria. He is also the Chairman of NOI Polls Limited a company which pioneered opinion polling in Nigeria in partnership with Gallup Polls of the US. He is a Director of Mara Phones Nigeria, the first African company to embark on the manufacture of smartphones having ultra Morden smartphones factories in Rwanda, South Africa and in the process of setting up one in Nigeria.
He has variously served
as Chairman of the Aviation Committee of the Nigeria Bar Association Section on Business Law; Co-Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Human Rights Committee between 2012 and 2014. He is currently the Acting Chairman of the Board of the African University for Science and Technology Abuja. He served as Chairman of TrustBond Mortgage Bank Plc between 2013 and 2019.
He drafted The Civil Aviation Bill 2003 which has been passed as the Civil Aviation Act 2006. Etigwe Uwa led the team of lawyers who represented the victims of the Pfizer Trovan Drug clinical trial in Kano. 11 of the children who were involved in the trial died on the spot and 189 others had varying degrees of deformity. The case was fought in Kano, Abuja and New York and went up to the United States Supreme Court before a settlement was achieved. The settlement led to the building of a $30 Million ultra Morden diagnostic hospital in Kano and payment of compensation to all the victims of the drug trial.
He also pioneered securities class actions in Nigeria when in 2007 he filed a class action against a first generation bank to obtain compensation by way of interests for subscribers to the the bank’s Hybrid public offer whose monies were kept for almost 9 months and whose application for shares were rejected without payment of reasonable interests on the monies paid as deposit for shares.
He is currently leading NNPC’s team of lawyers in the defence of a multi-billion Production Sharing Contracts dispute between the NNPC and many of the international oil companies. He is an Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria and served as Chairman of the Lekki Parish Board for 5 years. He is the immediate past National Legal Adviser of the Christian Council of Nigeria. He is happily married to Thelma Etigwe Uwa and the marriage is blessed with wonderful children.
Henceforth, according to the President, Dr Charles Okhai, admission into the INTEGRITY HALL OF FAME, will only hold every five years interval, even though it took 10 years the first time.
Barr. Etiqwe Uwa is currently one of the foremost and most formidable contenders for the Governorship seat of Abia State.
