Background
lias was born into the traditional aristocracy of Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, on 11 November 1914.
lias was born into the traditional aristocracy of Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, on 11 November 1914.
He received his secondary education at the Church Missionary Society Grammar School and Igbobi College in Lagos. After passing the Cambridge School Certificate examination, he worked as an assistant in the Government Audit Department.
Worked for 10 years in the Audit Department and with Nigerian Railways before travelling to University College, London to read law in 1944. Called to the Bar with an LLB (London) in April 1947. The first Nigerian to get a PhD in law at London University. He taught law at Manchester University from 1951 to 1953 and had a succession of research fellowships at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Queen Elizabeth House and Nuffield College.
After a visiting professorship to Delhi University, where he established a Department of African Studies, he returned to London in 1957 and was appointed Governor of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
On Nigeria's independence he became Attorney General and Minister of Justice and he revised and modernised Nigerian law besides advising the Federal government in the constitutional crises of the mid-sixties.
In 1963 he was the first African to be awarded the LLD degree at London University and a number of his books became prescribed reading for the LLB degree at London University.
Dropped from the Nigerian government on the military coup of January 15, 1966, following a newspaper attack, he became head of the law faculty at Lagos University, but was recalled as Attorney General in October. He was twice Chairman of the UN Conference on Law of Treaties, in 1968 and 1969, and Chairman of the African Institute of International Law in the same year. He became Nigeria’s Chief Justice in February 1972.
Elias died on 14 August 1991, in Lagos, Nigeria. The names of his five children are Gbolahan, Femi, Soji, Yeside and Folake Elias.
He married Ganiat Yetunde Fowosere, and the couple would have five children together (three sons, two daughters).