Bola Ige
Encyclopedia
James Ajibola Idowu Ige (September 13, 1930 - December 23, 2001) simply known as Bola Ige was a Nigeria
n lawyer and politician. He became Federal Minister of Justice
for Nigeria. He was murdered in December 2001.
in northern Nigeria on September 13, 1930.
His parents were Yoruba
natives of Esa-Oke
village, in the old Oyo State
(now in Osun State
).
Bola Ige left Kaduna and headed south to the Western region at the age of 14.
He studied at Ibadan
Grammar School (1943-48), and then at the University of Ibadan
. From there, he went to the University College London
where he graduated with a Law degree in 1959. He was called to the bar in London's Inner Temple
in 1961.
Bola Ige established Bola Ige & Co in 1961, and later became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
.
He became well known in the country for his oratory prowess, as well as his advocacy work on civil rights and democracy.
Uncommonly, Bola Ige spoke all the three major Nigerian languages, Yoruba
, Ibo and Hausa
fluently. He wrote several books, and an anthology of articles and tributes about him was published shortly after his death.
(1963-1966), at age 31 he was at the center of the Action Group
crisis, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo
was pitted against his deputy, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.
He became a rival of Olusola Olaosebikan for succession to Obafemi Awolowo.
Bola Ige was a Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region of Nigeria (1967-1970) under the military government of General Yakubu Gowon
.
In 1967 he became a friend of Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a commander of the army brigade in Ibadan.
In the early 1970s, during the first period of military rule, he devoted his time to the anti-racism campaign of the World Council of Churches
.
Towards the end of the 1970s he joined the Unity Party of Nigeria
(UPN), the successor to the Action Group.
When General Olusegun Obasanjo initiated the Second Republic
, he was elected as governor of Oyo State from October 1979 to October 1983.
Adebisi Akande
, later to be governor of Osun State
after it was split off from Oyo State, was his deputy governor during this period.
In the 1983 elections, when he ran for reelection as the UPN candidate, he was defeated by Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo
. Ige unsuccessfully challenged the election in court. However, Olunloyo lost the seat three months later to a coup staged by Generals Muhammadu Buhari
and Tunde Idiagbon
.
Ige Bola was detained after the coup, accused of enriching party funds. He was released in 1985, after the next coup, by Ibrahim Babangida
, and returned to his legal practice and to writing. In 1990, he published People, Politics And Politicians Of Nigeria: 1940-1979, a book that he had begun while imprisoned.
He was a founder member of the influential Yoruba pressure group, Afenifere
. Although critical of the military rule of General Sani Abacha
, Bola Ige avoided political difficulties during this period.
party as a presidential candidate, but was rejected.
President Obasanjo appointed Bola Ige as minister of Mines and Power (1999-2000).
He was not able to make significant improvements to service provided by the monopoly National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
He then became Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2000-2001).
In September 2001 Bola Ige said that the Federal government had initiated a program to re-arrange and consolidate the laws of the Federation, publish them in digital form, and make them available on the website of his ministry.
He campaigned ardently against the imposition of the Saria Law in the Northern States of Nigeria.
In November 2001 he said that the Federal government would not allow the Sokoto State
government to execute the judgement of a verdict passed by a Gwadabawa
sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini
to death for committing adultery.
Bola Ige was about to take up a new position as African's Representative on the United Nations International Law Commission when he was gunned down in Ibadan
, the Oyo State
capital.
party in Osun State
. The previous week, the long-running feud between Osun state Governor Bisi Akande and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore
, had apparently contributed to the death of an Osun State legislator, Odunayo Olagbaju
.
The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo deployed troops in south-western Nigeria to try to prevent a violent reaction to the murder.
Although various people were arrested and tried for involvement in the murder, including Iyiola Omisore, all were acquitted.
As of November 2010 the killers had not been found.
In a speech at his funeral, he was quoted as saying that he was sure that Nigeria was worth living for but he was not so sure that it was worth dying for.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n lawyer and politician. He became Federal Minister of Justice
Nigerian Federal Ministry of Justice
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Justice is the legal arm of the Federal Government of Nigeria, primarily concerned with bringing cases before the judiciary that are initiated or assumed by the government. It is headed by the Attorney General, who is also Minister of Justice...
for Nigeria. He was murdered in December 2001.
Background
James Ajibola Idowu Ige was born in Zaria, near KadunaKaduna
Kaduna is the state capital of Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria. The city, located on the Kaduna River, is a trade center and a major transportation hub for the surrounding agricultural areas with its rail and road junction. The population of Kaduna is at 760,084 as of the 2006 Nigerian census...
in northern Nigeria on September 13, 1930.
His parents were Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
natives of Esa-Oke
Esa-Oke
Esa-Oke is a Yoruba town located at the Obokun Local Government Area of the Ijesa North Federal Constituency of Osun State, South-West of Nigeria...
village, in the old Oyo State
Oyo State
Ọyọ State is an inland state in south-western Nigeria, with its capital at Ibadan. It is bounded in the north by Kwara State, in the east by Osun State, in the south by Ogun State and in the west partly by Ogun State and partly by the Republic of Benin....
(now in Osun State
Osun State
Ọṣun State is an inland state in south-western Nigeria. Its capital is Osogbo. It is bounded in the north by Kwara State, in the east partly by Ekiti State and partly by Ondo State, in the south by Ogun State and in the west by Oyo State. The state's current governor is Rauf Aregbesola, who was...
).
Bola Ige left Kaduna and headed south to the Western region at the age of 14.
He studied at Ibadan
Ibadan
Ibadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...
Grammar School (1943-48), and then at the University of Ibadan
University of Ibadan
The University of Ibadan is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria...
. From there, he went to the University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
where he graduated with a Law degree in 1959. He was called to the bar in London's Inner Temple
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
in 1961.
Bola Ige established Bola Ige & Co in 1961, and later became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
Senior Advocate of Nigeria
Senior Advocate of Nigeria is a title that may be conferred on legal practitioners in Nigeria of not less than ten years' standing and who have distinguished themselves in the legal profession...
.
He became well known in the country for his oratory prowess, as well as his advocacy work on civil rights and democracy.
Uncommonly, Bola Ige spoke all the three major Nigerian languages, Yoruba
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
, Ibo and Hausa
Hausa language
Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...
fluently. He wrote several books, and an anthology of articles and tributes about him was published shortly after his death.
Early political career
During the First RepublicNigerian First Republic
The First Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1963 and 1966 governed by the first republican constitution.-Founding :...
(1963-1966), at age 31 he was at the center of the Action Group
Action Group (Nigeria)
Action Group was a Nigerian political party established in Ibadan on March 21, 1951, by the Ègbe Ọmọ Odùduwà led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The party was founded to serve as the platform for realizing his primary objective of mobilising the Yorùbá into one political umbrella...
crisis, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo
Obafemi Awolowo
Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was a Nigerian politician, trade unionist, author and statesman. A Yoruba and native of Ikenne in Ogun State of Nigeria, he started his career as a regional political leader like most of his pre-independence contemporaries and was responsible for much of the progressive...
was pitted against his deputy, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.
He became a rival of Olusola Olaosebikan for succession to Obafemi Awolowo.
Bola Ige was a Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region of Nigeria (1967-1970) under the military government of General Yakubu Gowon
Yakubu Gowon
General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon was the head of state of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. He took power after one military coup d'etat and was overthrown in another...
.
In 1967 he became a friend of Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a commander of the army brigade in Ibadan.
In the early 1970s, during the first period of military rule, he devoted his time to the anti-racism campaign of the World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
.
Towards the end of the 1970s he joined the Unity Party of Nigeria
Unity Party of Nigeria
The Unity Party of Nigeria was a Nigerian political party that was dominant in western Nigeria during the second republic. The party revolved around the political leadership of Obafemi Awolowo, a sometimes polemical but effective administrator. However, the party's main difference with its...
(UPN), the successor to the Action Group.
When General Olusegun Obasanjo initiated the Second Republic
Nigerian Second Republic
The Second Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1979 and 1983 governed by the second republican constitution.- Founding :...
, he was elected as governor of Oyo State from October 1979 to October 1983.
Adebisi Akande
Adebisi Akande
Abdukareem Adebisi Bamidele Akande was a governor of Osun State, Nigeria from 1999-2003, as a member of the Alliance for Democracy party, and is Chairman of the Action Congress party.-Background:...
, later to be governor of Osun State
Osun State
Ọṣun State is an inland state in south-western Nigeria. Its capital is Osogbo. It is bounded in the north by Kwara State, in the east partly by Ekiti State and partly by Ondo State, in the south by Ogun State and in the west by Oyo State. The state's current governor is Rauf Aregbesola, who was...
after it was split off from Oyo State, was his deputy governor during this period.
In the 1983 elections, when he ran for reelection as the UPN candidate, he was defeated by Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo
Victor Omololu Olunloyo
Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo is a mathematician who became governor of Oyo State in Nigeria in October 1983, holding the office briefly until the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari took power in December 1983. He later became a power in the People's Democratic Party in Oyo State.-Early...
. Ige unsuccessfully challenged the election in court. However, Olunloyo lost the seat three months later to a coup staged by Generals Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari was a military ruler of Nigeria and an unsuccessful candidate for president in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 presidential elections...
and Tunde Idiagbon
Tunde Idiagbon
Babatunde "Tunde" Idiagbon was a Nigerian soldier and a one-time member of the Nigerian military juntas of 1966–1979 and 1983-1998 Nigerian military junta which ruled that country. He served as a military administrator of Borno State in the 1970s in the military administration of Olusegun Obasanjo...
.
Ige Bola was detained after the coup, accused of enriching party funds. He was released in 1985, after the next coup, by Ibrahim Babangida
Ibrahim Babangida
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida CFR DSS mni , popularly known as IBB, was a Nigerian Army officer and military ruler of Nigeria...
, and returned to his legal practice and to writing. In 1990, he published People, Politics And Politicians Of Nigeria: 1940-1979, a book that he had begun while imprisoned.
He was a founder member of the influential Yoruba pressure group, Afenifere
Afenifere
Afenifere was formed as a socio-cultural organization for the Yoruba people of Nigeria, with Abraham Adesanya as its leader and Chief Bola Ige as deputy leader. Other founding members were Pa Onasanya, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Adegbonmire, Okurounmu Femi, Ganiyu Dawodu, Olanihun Ajayi, Olu Falae,...
. Although critical of the military rule of General Sani Abacha
Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military leader and politician. A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, he was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998....
, Bola Ige avoided political difficulties during this period.
Third republic
Following the restoration of democracy in 1999, Bola Ige sought the nomination of the Alliance for DemocracyAlliance for Democracy (Nigeria)
The Alliance for Democracy was a progressive opposition political party in Nigeria. It was formed on September 9th 1998. At the 2003 legislative elections, 12 April 2003, the party won 8.8 % of the popular vote and 34 out of 360 seats in the Nigerian House of Representatives and six out of...
party as a presidential candidate, but was rejected.
President Obasanjo appointed Bola Ige as minister of Mines and Power (1999-2000).
He was not able to make significant improvements to service provided by the monopoly National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
He then became Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2000-2001).
In September 2001 Bola Ige said that the Federal government had initiated a program to re-arrange and consolidate the laws of the Federation, publish them in digital form, and make them available on the website of his ministry.
He campaigned ardently against the imposition of the Saria Law in the Northern States of Nigeria.
In November 2001 he said that the Federal government would not allow the Sokoto State
Sokoto State
Sokoto State is located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2005 it has an estimated population of more than 4.2 million...
government to execute the judgement of a verdict passed by a Gwadabawa
Gwadabawa
Gwadabawa is a Local Government Area in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Gwadabawa on the A1 highway.It has an area of 991 km² and a population of 231,358 at the 2006 census.The postal code of the area is 843....
sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini
Safiya Hussaini
Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu is a Nigerian woman condemned to death for adultery in 2002. She gave birth to a child as a single woman in Sokoto, a Nigerian state under Sharia law...
to death for committing adultery.
Bola Ige was about to take up a new position as African's Representative on the United Nations International Law Commission when he was gunned down in Ibadan
Ibadan
Ibadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...
, the Oyo State
Oyo State
Ọyọ State is an inland state in south-western Nigeria, with its capital at Ibadan. It is bounded in the north by Kwara State, in the east by Osun State, in the south by Ogun State and in the west partly by Ogun State and partly by the Republic of Benin....
capital.
Death
On 23 December 2001, Bola Ige was shot dead at his home in the south-western city of Ibadan. He had been entangled in squabbles within his Alliance for DemocracyAlliance for Democracy (Nigeria)
The Alliance for Democracy was a progressive opposition political party in Nigeria. It was formed on September 9th 1998. At the 2003 legislative elections, 12 April 2003, the party won 8.8 % of the popular vote and 34 out of 360 seats in the Nigerian House of Representatives and six out of...
party in Osun State
Osun State
Ọṣun State is an inland state in south-western Nigeria. Its capital is Osogbo. It is bounded in the north by Kwara State, in the east partly by Ekiti State and partly by Ondo State, in the south by Ogun State and in the west by Oyo State. The state's current governor is Rauf Aregbesola, who was...
. The previous week, the long-running feud between Osun state Governor Bisi Akande and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore
Iyiola Omisore
Iyiola Omisore, alias Otunba, is a Nigerian politician who served as deputy governor of Osun State from 1999–2003, and represented the People's Democratic Party as a member of the Nigerian Senate for Osun East from 2003–2009, when his election was annulled by an electoral appeal...
, had apparently contributed to the death of an Osun State legislator, Odunayo Olagbaju
Odunayo Olagbaju
Odunayo Omobolanle Olagbaju was a Nigerian politician who was an Osun State legislator. He was stabbed to death in December 2001. In May 2002, eleven suspects were arraigned for the killing. In August, seven additional suspects were arrested...
.
The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo deployed troops in south-western Nigeria to try to prevent a violent reaction to the murder.
Although various people were arrested and tried for involvement in the murder, including Iyiola Omisore, all were acquitted.
As of November 2010 the killers had not been found.
In a speech at his funeral, he was quoted as saying that he was sure that Nigeria was worth living for but he was not so sure that it was worth dying for.
Books
- Ige, Bola. Golden quotes : a selection of my favourite inspirational quotations. Ibadan : Pocket Gifts ; Oxford : African Books Collective [distributor], c2000. x, 163 p. ; 19 cm. ISBN 978-129-496-5
- Ige, Bola. Detainee’s diary Ibadan : NPS Educational, 1992. 262 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN 978-2556-45-9
- Ige, Bola. Constitutions and the problem of Nigeria Lagos : Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 1995. 36 p. ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-2353-43-4
External links
- Banjo, Ayo (Ed.) Bola Ige: Passage of a Modern Cicero. An anthology of views, reviews and tributes, dedicated to the Nigerian politician assassinated in 2001. B/w illus, 215pp, NIGERIA. BOOKCRAFT LTD, ISBN 978-2030-49-X 2003 Paperback
- Ladigbolu, A. G. A., prince. The success of Bola Ige administration in the old Oyo State of Nigeria . [Nigeria] : Lichfield Printing Co., [2003] vii, 160 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. ISBN 978-30498-2-8