Honourable Justice Professor Innocent Azubike Umezulike, OFR, FCIArb, FIIAN lived a full 64-year life, achieving the peak of all he wanted to be, passed-on remarkably and has continued to resonate in the consciousness of the living with the bestriding human and materials resources he produced and left behind.

Apart from his 23 legal books, Justice Umezulike produced offspring of abundant human resources. Replica of him is his first son who recently carried the intellectual touch to Westminster London, on Evidence Week 2025.

Dr Victor Azubike Umezulike of CIRUU Energy London and an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at the University of Huddersfield, is the son of the Late Chief Judge of Enugu State, who recently attended and presented an energy policy brief to the British government’s MPs, Peers and Parliamentary staff on the UK’s Energy Security and Energy Transition Goals.

His policy brief was titled ‘Can Energy Transition Co-exist with Energy security: Strategies for the United Kingdom to Ensure Energy Security and Facilitate the Energy Transition.’

A Consultant at CIRUU Energy London and author of a key article on the topic, Victor discussed with parliamentarians the urgent need for strategic planning to resolve the policy challenge of balancing immediate energy security concerns and the imperative of systematic decarbonization.

Victor said that Energy is the bedrock of modern society; that cuts across all sectors and contributes to the development of economies around the world and is therefore vital that policy in the area is based on research evidence.

“It is important for policymakers to realize that energy security and the transition to cleaner energy sources are mutually reinforcing, rather than competing priorities. My analysis has found that comprehensive pragmatic policy strategies are required to effectively pursue both goals simultaneously,” Dr Azubike delivered.

Unlike his father, who was a Professor of Property Law, and his mother, a Professor of Education, Victor has started to establish himself as a global energy and natural resources expert. He is the co-chair and Trustee of the Hon. Justice Innocent Umezulike Foundation and has continued to develop his expertise in the global energy sector.

Some of his recent works focus on two African energy giants, Libya and Nigeria. Published by the Edinburgh University Press, the peer-reviewed journal with Dr Akinwale Awe is titled, ‘Nigeria’s New National Oil Company and the Significant Role of Democratic Institutions in Determining its Success’ (2024) Global Energy Law and Sustainability Vol. 5. 2. Also, interdisciplinary co-authored research article ‘The Intricate Goal of Energy Security and Energy Transition: Considerations for Libya’ (2023), raised energy security reawakening for the Libyan government in its goal for net zero and climate actions.

Victor Umezulike also published the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law. He gained an expert feature by Taylor & Francis Group which published an expert insight where Victor Umezulike’s opinion was one of the three selected to celebrate World Environment Day.

Victor, a son of the longest serving Chief Judge in south-eastern Nigeria comes from a line of men who have contributed positively to the nation. His grandfather was a policeman and orderly to colonial Judges in the 1920s, bequeathing Justice Umezulike who apart from being a Chief Judge was also a professor of law. Dr Victor Umezulike is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. He is a recognized global expert in energy and natural resources law, specializing in energy security, oil and gas, mineral contractual arrangements, and energy transition strategies.

With over a decade of experience in the global energy industry, Victor has established himself as a leading authority on international energy issues. His expertise extends to market development, policy formulation, governance, regulation, and fiscal frameworks within the energy sector. His deep understanding of the complexities of global energy challenges enables him to provide valuable insights and solutions in navigating the rapidly evolving energy landscape. Publications in peer-reviewed journals document his significant contributions to global energy. His work with Dr Omo Abe on Africa’s energy transition was widely disseminated in English, French and Dutch. Covered in The Conversation’s, ‘600 million Africans don’t have electricity’ – the green energy transition must start with them.

Seven years ago, his father Hon. Justice I.A Umezulike was laid to rest in his country home, Mgbidi, Awgu local government area of Enugu state. Only if Justice Umezulike had stayed a bit longer in life, he would have witnessed his investment in the education of his offspring. But the late quintessential jurist in his lifetime saw the future, both in the bar, in the bench and in society. As a Judge he desired and practiced the best judicial codes of conduct. In his paper, Judicial Ethics and Accountability, delivered on December 1, 2010, at the National Judicial Institute (NJI’s) National Workshop for the lower courts in Nigeria, Justice Umezulike ascribed the cause of Nigeria’s inability to adhere to codes of conduct, indiscipline, discard of ethics and values to vain glories capable undermining a nation and her people. He noted that code of conduct is usually intended to restore merit, honesty, integrity, patriotism, and hard work.

From testimonies of those he crossed paths with in his 64 years sojourn, Justice Umezulike was an intellectual giant and probably Africa’s most prolific writer in land law, whose brain is not lost but dwells in his 23 books. As a Professor of Land and Property law, his students found his authority in Conveyancing and Adverse Possession as a stamp of knowledge. It did not take time for the Nigerian government to award him Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). The Chartered Institute of Arbitrator also awarded him a Fellow (FCIArb), due to his legal exploits.

Apart from being the Chief Judge of Enugu State for over 13 years, Hon. Justice I.A. Umezulike would be remembered for receiving over 100 distinguished Legal Honours and Awards for excellence in service. He was in the National Committee for the Unification of Criminal Laws of Northern and Southern Nigeria; Secretary Ministerial Committee for the Revision of the Land Use Act; National Leader, Nigerian Delegation to African legal consultative Assembly held in Kampala, Uganda.

Not content with the monumental strides he had made in shaping the legal landscape through his service, adjudication, and teaching he yearned to reach the unseen and unheard, to speak to the soul of society through the timeless medium of legal literature. For he embraced the wisdom of August W. von Schlegel: “Literature is the immortality of speech.” To say that Hon. Justice Innocent Azubike Umezulike loved writing would be a pale understatement, an injustice to the literary world and to the countless readers who sought refuge in his words. His works were not mere books; they were rivers of thought profound in insight, graceful in expression, and clothed in everyday beauty flowing into minds and hearts with a clarity that made truth irresistible.

Beyond the ivory tower, beyond the solemnity of the courtroom and the elegance of the written page, this eminent jurist and social crusader strode into the arena of activism. He became a voice, a beacon, scripting and delivering over 170 papers, seminars, and workshops across Nigeria and beyond. These were not sterile lectures for legal minds alone; they were lifelines for a civil society burdened by ignorance, a clarion call to lift the weight from beleaguered shoulders. Many of these gatherings bore his imprint conceived, nurtured, and brought to life in concert with kindred spirits who shared his vision. His mission was clear: to transform the perception of law and justice, to make them instruments of enlightenment rather than enigma.

As head of the Enugu State judiciary, his seminars and workshops did more than inform they ignited. They enlivened, rejuvenated, and redefined the very soul of the Bench, infusing its members with renewed vigour and an unwavering sense of duty. The judiciary’s high pedigree, its luminous reputation, stands today as a testament to the guiding hand of this exalted man of letters and law Hon. Justice Innocent Azubike Umezulike, OFR, FCIArb, FIIAN, CJEN. His masterful lectures did not merely instruct; they permeated minds, reshaped attitudes, and inspired a renaissance of thought and character.

The Quintessential Jurisperitus was an Iroko in the forest of men unyielding, majestic, and rooted deep in virtue. His presence was a citadel of strength, a fortress of love, casting a shade of comfort over all who dwelt in his orbit. To his family, he was the sun at dawn and the moon at dusk, a constellation of wisdom whose light will never dim. His departure carved a canyon of silence, yet his essence lingers like incense in the temple of memory.

Hon. Justice Professor Innocent Azubike Umezulike name etched in the marble of time took his final bow in London, June 2018. On September 28, 2018, the earth received him in solemn embrace at Mgbidi, Enugu State, after a valedictory court session in the Enugu State High Court Auditorium that now bears his name a sanctuary of justice echoing his ideals.

From the fertile soil of his vision sprang the Hon. Justice Innocent Umezulike Foundation, a perennial tree whose roots drink from the streams of enlightenment. Its mission is a hymn to progress: to sow seeds of learning in every willing heart child, youth, or elder and to nurture minds toward the noble calling of law. Through its programs, it forges swords of knowledge and shields of integrity for scholars, students, and practitioners, arming them to guard the citadel of justice and democracy.

For the law, in his creed, was no mere parchment it was the heartbeat of a nation, the compass of civilization, the golden thread weaving order from chaos. And so, the Foundation stands as a lighthouse on the shores of ignorance, guiding generations with the flame of His Lordship’s ethos a flame that will not flicker, for it burns in the eternal forge of His Lordships legacy.