Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor, is dead. He died Thursday night at 85.
A retired justice of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Nsofor assumed office as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States on November 13, 2017 when he succeeded Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, who died towards the end of his tenure as Nigeria’s ambassador to US.
A graduate of from London’s now-defunct Holborn College of Law in 1962, Nsofor capped his legal studies with an LL.M from the London School of Economics in 1964.
Nsofor was appointed a judge in 1977 and he spent 28 years on the bench, 13 of which were as a Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA). He also taught Law at the Holborn College of Law in London.
In 2003, Nsofor was reportedly the dissenting vote in a three-justice panel that heard the 2003 appeal by Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), against incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nsofor took a position that indicted the PDP, when he said “I find that the substantial non-compliance with the mandatory electoral law amounts to no election. I also find that there was violence perpetuated by President Obasanjo…May Nigeria never and never again see a black Saturday like April 19, 2003.”
In 2017, fourteen years later and twelve years later, when Buhari was elected president of Nigeria, Nsofor was nominated for an ambassadorial position.
Buhari first appointed Nsofor an ambassador in 2017 and when the Senate refused to confirm his nomination during screening, reappointed him again.
He was confirmed to be an ambassador on June 7. Nsofor is married and has three children.
He was born on March 17, 1935, in Oguta, Imo State, married with three children.
