Chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

Arthur Edward Prest (10 February 1906 – 26 September 1976) was an

Itsekiri The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, ''iJekri'', ''Itsekri'', ''Ishekiri'', or Itsekhiri) are one of the Yoruboid subgroup of Nigeria's Niger Delta area, Delta State. The Itsekiris presently number 2.7 million people and live mainly in the Wa ...

politician of

biracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

heritage from the

Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial c ...

division of southern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Life

Prest was born in February 1906 to a white

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

father from

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who was a ship's captain and a colonialist, and an

royal

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

mother, Princess Mami Ogbe, who was the daughter of the Olu of Warri. He was an officer in the Nigerian

police force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

, and the first Nigerian commissioned police officer. He studied law in England, and registered at the supreme court of Nigeria in 1947, prior to his nomination as a representative of the Warri district in the Western Regional House of Assembly. In 1950 Prest and

Anthony Enahoro Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro (22 July 1923 – 15 December 2010) was one of Nigeria's foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. He was born the eldest of ten children in Uromi, present-day Edo State of Nigeria. His Esan parents we ...

founded the ''Mid-West Party''. Enahoro had already started the Mid-West Press and he published the ''

'' newspaper from 1950 to 1953. The Mid-West Party became part of the Action Group in 1951. Prest was later made regional

minister Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

and was deputy leader to

Obafemi Awolowo Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo (; 6 March 1909 – 9 May 1987) was a Yoruba nationalist and Nigerian statesman who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement (1957-1960). Awolowo founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Om ...

, he was subsequently appointed federal minister for communications in 1952. Prest, Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Anthony Enahoro and others fought for Nigeria's independence and attended the Lancaster House talks that negotiated Nigeria's independence. He left the Action Group in 1957. Prest was High Commissioner for the Federation of Nigeria to the UK. In 1971, Prest was involved in a prominent court case. He challenged the

Communal Lands Trust which wanted to use the purported overlord rights of the

Olu Olu is a popular name amongst people of the Yoruba ethnic group. It is usually the first three letters of the full name. "Olu" is a diminutive of " Oluwa" in the Yoruba language and it can mean God, deity or lord, so the name 'Oluwale' could mean "M ...

of Warri over lands in Warri. The overlord rights would have given the trust indirect ownership of all lands including overriding the rights of ownership of landlords. However, the communal lands trust lost the case. Prest was given the chieftaincy title of the Olorogun of Warri by the Olu of Warri in 1946. He also became a High Court Judge in the then Mid Western Region. Chief Arthur Prest had a rich and full family life. He had several children, the most prominent being his first son Chief Michael Godwin Prest who became a successful lawyer, politician and Chief of Staff to Nigerian President

Shehu Shagari Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018), titled Turakin Sokoto from 1962, was the first democratically elected President of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo in ...

in 1979. Chief Michael Prest had 4 children. His eldest child, (granddaughter to Arthur Prest) is

Helen Prest-Ajayi Helen Prest-Ajayi, formerly Prest-Davies, (née Prest, born 17 September 1959) is a Nigerian lawyer, writer and former beauty queen. Helen was raised in England. She attended the International School Ibadan for her advanced levels and Obafemi ...

, a former

Miss Nigeria Miss Nigeria is an annual pageant showcasing positive attributes of Nigerian women and awarding university scholarships. The winner portrays exemplary qualities and serves as a role model for young women in the country. The pageant is currentl ...

in 1979, lawyer, author and literacy advocate ; while his son Michael J. Prest is a trained barrister (grandson of Arthur Prest), Nigeria's first oil trader, foremost oil and gas mogul and philanthropist. He was the architect of the landmark company law case of

Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd is a leading UK company law decision of the UK Supreme Court concerning the nature of the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil, resulting trusts and equitable proprietary remedies in the context of English family law. Facts Ms Yasmin Prest ...

taught in every law school around the world and defined the direction of company law. Chief Arthur Prest passed away in 1976.

References

Further information

* KWJ Post, ''The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959: Politics & Administration in a Developing Political System''. Oxford, 1963 * Richard L Sklar, ''Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation'', Princeton, NJ, 1963 * Michael Vickers, ''Ethnicity & Sub-Nationalism in Nigeria: Movement for a Mid-West State'', Oxford, 2000 * Michael Vickers, ''A Nation Betrayed: Nigeria & the Minorities Commission of 1957'', Trenton, NJ, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Prest, Arthur Edward 1906 births 1976 deaths People from Warri Itsekiri people Action Group (Nigeria) politicians Federal ministers of Nigeria 20th-century Nigerian lawyers 20th-century Nigerian politicians Nigerian police officers Nigerian people of British descent People of colonial Nigeria