Professor Amari Omaka, SAN: Ebonyi State's Commissioner For Tertiary Education
Recognised by Nkuzify as Leading Teachers and Educators of the Year.
Behind every classroom there is a system, and somebody has to run it. On this World Teachers' Day, Nkuzify looks at Professor Amari Omaka, the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, one of the leaders who run Nigeria's education systems.
Who He Is
When the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee announced the new Senior Advocates of Nigeria in July 2016, one name on the list made history in Ebonyi State. Professor Amari Omaka became the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) from the state. Today he is the Commissioner for Tertiary Education in Ebonyi, and his story shows what can happen when a teacher keeps climbing until he is helping to run the system that trains other teachers.
Professor Omaka was born in Amasiri, in Afikpo, Ebonyi State. He studied law right to the top: his law degree is from the University of Nigeria, his Master of Laws is from the University of Lagos, and he went back to the University of Nigeria for his doctorate in law. He has spent more than thirty years teaching law at the university level, and he is a professor of environmental, water and natural resources law. His main interests are marine and environmental law, human rights, and clinical legal education, which means teaching law students by letting them work on real cases. In 2018 he published a book called Fundamentals of Maritime, Admiralty and International Water Law.
A teacher of teachers
At Ebonyi State University in Abakaliki, Professor Omaka has served as Dean of the Faculty of Law, and he has been the president of the National Association of Law Teachers. In other words, he is a teacher of teachers. He is also the founding director of the Ebonyi State University Law Clinic, where law students learn by helping real people, including through community and prison legal advocacy. He has also served as a visiting professor at Enugu State University of Science and Technology.
From the lecture hall to the ministry
As Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Professor Omaka was chosen as the national chairman of the Forum of Commissioners for Education in Nigeria, so an Ebonyi voice sits at the table where education commissioners from across the country discuss their work. In 2025 he oversaw the first set of Ebonyi postgraduate scholarships to the United Kingdom, and he also oversaw a security overhaul of the state's tertiary schools. He has also spoken publicly against the harassment of lawyers.
The advice he gives young lawyers is a lesson in itself. In interviews with Weekenders Magazine and the Nigerian Tribune in November 2024, he told them that becoming a SAN is something you can achieve, and that you do not need to belong to a cult group to get there.
Why Nkuzify celebrates him
Nkuzify exists to teach anyone anything, and we look out for people who have taught at the highest level of their field, in detail and over many years, because they show us how big teaching can grow. Professor Omaka is one of them. He is a first in his state, a teacher of future lawyers, and now a leader helping to decide how the next generation will be taught. On this World Teachers' Day, we recognise him as a Leading Teacher and Educator of the Year.
Read more about him on Wikipedia and ResearchGate.
Meet The Other Leaders
Dr Tunji Alausa, Dr Lawal Olohungbebe, Mr Jamiu Alli-Balogun, Dr Donatus Ilang. You can also go back to the full list: The Leaders Who Run Nigeria's Education Systems.
Thank You
Happy Teachers' Day to Professor Amari Omaka, and to every leader who works to make learning better in Nigeria, from all of us at Nkuzify.
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