Niko Nawaikula

Niko Nawaikula (born 16 August 1960) in Suva, also known as Nikolau Tuiqamea, is a Native Fijian politician,^[1] who was appointed to the House of Representatives on 22 June 2005. The Conservative Alliance (CAMV) candidate was declared elected unopposed, after the only other candidate, Ratu Osea Vakalalabure of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) withdrew from the contest, thus averting the scheduled byelection. The CAMV had called on the SDL to withdraw its candidate on the basis of a coalition agreement between the two parties.

The byelection had been called for the Cakaudrove West Fijian Communal Constituency following the imprisonment of the incumbent, Ratu Vakalalabure (Ratu Osea's older brother), on charges related to his role in the Fiji coup of 2000. After the merger of Nawaikula's CAMV into the SDL in early 2006, he won reelection under the SDL banner in the poll held on 6–13 May, and was subsequently elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. His parliamentary career came to an abrut end with the military coup of 5 December 2006. He returned to Parliament as a candidate of the Social Democratic Liberal Party in the 2014 elections, the first since the 2006 coup.

Extra-parliamentary career

Nawaikula qualified as a lawyer at the University of Tasmania in 1985, and has specialized in laws related to native land and indigenous people. He has called for harsher penalties for rapists. A strong supporter of conservative family values, he said that parents should take their children's upbringing and education seriously.

After the 2006 coup, Nawaikula returned to his Private Practice as a lawyer and continued to involve himself with issues affecting indigenous Fijians. In June 2010, after returning from the 10th UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, Nawaikula and many of the Paramount Chiefs of Fiji formed the Fiji Native Tribal Congress,^[2] a nonprofit and non government body aiming to protect and advance the rights of indigenous Fijians, as an indigenous group, and to negotiate with the government and concerned citizens in a manner that balances those rights with the individual rights and group rights of other citizens in Fiji and to champion human rights generally.

Personal life

Nawaikula hails from Buca, Natewa, in Cakaudrove Province. He is married to Miliakere Nawaikula with five children.

References