Henry Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, OFR
Called to the Nigerian Bar in 1979, Odein Ajumogobia is a former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice for Rivers State in 2003, Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources between 2007 and 2009 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 2010 to July 2011. A Harvard trained lawyer, he is highly regarded in alternative dispute resolution especially arbitration. He has served two (2) terms (2001 – 2006) as a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris, France.
Formation Years
Odein Ajumogobia, Ijaw by tribe, was born on 29 June, 1956 in Rivers, Nigeria. He attended the University of Lagos between 1975–1978 and obtained his degree in Law (LL.B), (Winning prizes for best graduating student, and subject prizes; Federal Government of Nigeria merit award for Academic Excellence at the University of Lagos), his BL from the Nigerian Law School and was called to bar in 1979 and proceeded to obtain his Master’s Degree in Law (LL.M) from Harvard Law School, Cambridge Massachusetts [LL.M], in 1988. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2003 and was appointed Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice for Rivers the same year.
Career Part
Mr. Ajumogobia is a founding partner of the Firm Ajumogobia and Okeke, established in 1984. He has been involved in numerous high value corporate and commercial transactions and specialized in the areas of Energy and Natural Resource law. His practice areas are Commercial litigation and arbitration; Environmental law and oil pollution litigation; Transportation law with a specific interest in Aviation law.
He was Chairman of Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (2005–2007); Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum) and Head of Nigeria’s Delegation to OPEC (July 2007–December 2008). He was appointed Minister of State of Petroleum Resources and Supervising Minister Ministry of Power and Head of Nigeria’s delegation to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) (January 2009–March 2010); Member National Economic Management Team; Member, Honorary Investment Council; Member, National Privatisation Council; Member, National Independent Power Programme; (2007–2010) Minister of Foreign Affairs (April 2010–May 2011): Member, National Security Council, President UN Security Council (2010) Chairman Council of Ministers of Ecowas States; Co-Chairman International Contact Group on Guinea Bissau at UNGA (September 2010).
As Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum he pushed for deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry. He said that deregulation would eliminate shortages of petroleum products while saving taxpayers over N687 billion in annual subsidies.
Institutional Affiliations
He has been a member of the Council of Legal Education; Body of Benchers (2003–2007), International Bar Association; American Society of International Law; American Bar Association; and Associate Member, Executive Committee of Nigerian Bar Association.
Academic Contributions
Ajumogobia has a number of books and publications in his name, some of which are Chapters on Nigeria in ‘Aircraft Finance (Registration, Security and Enforcement)’ Edited by Mcbain and Harmes. (Longman 1990); Enforcement of Foreign Judgments’ Edited by Louis Garb and Julian Lwe (Kluwer 1994); Aircraft Lien and Detention Rights (Longman 2002); and International Product Liability (Aspatore Inc. 2004).
Professional Affiliation/Honours
Mr. Ajumogobia is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN, 2003) and a member of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR, 2010).
Has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration (UK) since 1996.
Other Affiliations
He is currently Chairman of the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC).
Family
Mr Ajumogobia SAN is married to Awuneba Ajumogobia FCA also from Abonnema, Rivers State. Together they have a son and three daughters.
Mr Ajumogobia SAN is an exceptional Legal Luminary!