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| Bola Ige |
He graduated from University College London and University of Ibadan. He work a Nigerian politician. He died in Ibadan in December 2001 aged 71 years and 3 months old. He was shot to dead by some suspected Assassin
During the
First Republic (1963–1966), at age 31 he was at the Centre 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). 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 re-election
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.
Following the restoration of democracy in 1999, Chief Bola
Ige sought the nomination of the Alliance for Democracy 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).
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| Chief Bola Ige and Wole Soyinka |
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 Sharia 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 judgment 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.
Some Nigerian Poetry / Writers/ Authors wrote about the Late
Bola ige
Read Below
Bola Ige is widely acknowledged as a well- rounded personality.. a role
model.. a person the yoruba race would describe as OMOLUABI, a man with the
ultimate in refinement and good character- BIMPE ABOYADE
Principled, truly egalitarian in his vision of society, almost ascetic
in his ways, his 'devotion to the life of reason'.. put him head and shoulder
above all his colleagues in the Awoist School. Very few members of his
generation can claim to have come into politics with sounder credentials; an
outstanding Classics degree, a teaching career, a good law degree and
successful law practice, and a world view that was firmly grounded in the
tenets of local politics, as it was the same time internationalist in outlook -
YEMI OGUNBIYI
A strong but soft man inside, Dad was never ashamed to apologize, when
he had inadvertently hurt my feelings or come to a false conclusion about me.
He taught us to appraise ourselves honestly, to know our strengths and
weaknesses. He assured us that if we jointly worked on them together with God's
help, we would overcome them and turn them around to pulses in our lives- FUNSO
ADEGBOLA
In the hamlets and villages, in private company and public
institutions, in caucuses of politicians and the assemblages of thinkers and
builders, in the pulsating nests of righteous dissidence, conscientiously in
the corridors of power, and contentiously in the media- both on the home front
and at international gatherings, this was a voice that rang out clearly,
decrying injustice and mobilizing others, moving millions towards an infinite
vision of the possible, the vision of human cohabitation in mutual respect, the
harmonizing of the diverse communities- but only in conditions of absolute
parity, only under conditions of absolute peace.- WOLE SOYINKA
The Greeks talked about the education of the whole man. Bola was such a
person. What a most knowledgeable man! He was a great man of letters, a
prolific and versatile writer, a consummate lover of music and the arts. A man
of strong principles, loyalty, dedication, steadfastness, and with a gift of
the gab..-TAYO AKPATA
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| Bola Ige |
DEATH
On 23 December 2001, Bola Ige was shot dead at his home in the
south-western city of Ibadan by some suspected assassin. He had been entangled
in squabbles within his Alliance for Democracy 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. He was
buried in Ibadan.
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