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 bo ...

James Ajibola Idowu Ige , ( yo, Bọ́lá Ìgè; 13 September 1930 – 23 December 2001), simply known as Bola Ige, was a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He served as Federal Minister of Justice of Nigeria from January 2000 till his assassination in December 2001. He previously served as governor of

Oyo State Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the east by Os ...

from 1979 to 1983 during the

Nigerian Second Republic The Second Nigerian Republic was a brief formation of the Nigerian state which succeeded the military governments formed after the overthrow of the first republic. Background Contested elections and political turbulence in the Western region en ...

Background

James Ajibola Idowu Adegoke Ige was born in Esa Oke,

Osun State Osun State (; yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀ṣun), occasionally known as the State of Osun by the state government, is a state in southwestern Nigeria; bounded to the east by Ekiti and Ondo states, to the north by Kwara State, to the south by Og ...

in the South Western part of Nigeria on 13 September 1930. His parents were

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

natives of

Esa-Oke Esa-Oke is a Yoruba town located at the Obokun Local Government Area of the Ijesa North Federal Constituency of Ife/Ijesa Senatorial District of Osun State, South-West of Nigeria. It is a native Ijesa (Ijesha) community and shares boundaries w ...

town, in the old

(now in

). Ige left Kaduna and headed south to the Western region at the age of 14. He studied at

Ibadan Grammar School Ibadan Grammar School is a secondary school in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. It is currently located at Molete area, close to St. David grammar school. History Established in March 31st 1913. It is among the notable oldest secondary school in Ibada ...

(1943–48), and then at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 19 ...

. From there, he went to the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where he graduated with a law degree in 1959. He was called to the bar in London's

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

in 1961. Ige established Bola Ige & Co in 1961, and later became a

Senior Advocate of Nigeria Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) 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. It is the equivalent of the rank of Queen's Cou ...

. He became well known in the country for his oratory prowess, as well as his advocacy work on civil rights and democracy. Ige's faith was

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

. Uncommonly, Ige spoke all the three major Nigerian languages,

, Ibo and

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

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 Republic (1963–66), at the age of 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. Ige was a Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region of Nigeria (1967–70) under the military government of General

Yakubu Gowon Yakubu Dan-Yumma 'Jack' Gowon (born 19 October 1934) is a retired Nigerian Army general and military leader. As Head of State of Nigeria, Gowon presided over a controversial Nigerian Civil War and delivered the famous "no victor, no vanquishe ...

. In 1967, he became a friend of

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, , ( ; yo, Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian political and military leader who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its presid ...

, 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 The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

. Towards the end of the 1970s he joined the

Unity Party of Nigeria The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was a Nigerian political party that was dominant in western Nigeria during the second republic (1978-1983). The party revolved around the political leadership of Obafemi Awolowo, a sometimes polemical politician ...

(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 Chief Abdulkareem Adebisi Bamidele Akande (born 16 January 1939) is a Nigerian politician, who was the governor of Osun State from 1999 to 2003, as a member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party, and was the first interim Chairman of the All ...

, later to be governor of

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 Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 A ...

and

Tunde Idiagbon Babatunde "Tunde" Abdulbaki Idiagbon (14 September 1943 – 24 March 1999) was a Nigerian general who served as the 6th Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters (second-in-command) under military head of state General Muhammadu Buhari from 198 ...

. Ige was detained after the coup, accused of enriching himself with party funds. He was released in 1985, after the next coup, by

Ibrahim Babangida Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August, 1941) is a retired Nigerian Army general and politician. He served as military president of Nigeria from 1985 until his resignation in 1993. He rose through the ranks to serve from 1984 to 1985 as C ...

, 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 one of the founders of the influential Yoruba pressure group,

Afenifere Afenifere was formed as a socio-cultural organization for the Yoruba people of Nigeria, with Chief Abraham Adesanya as its leader and Chief Bola Ige as deputy leader. Other founding members were Pa Onasanya, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Adegbonmire, Oku ...

. Although critical of the military rule of General

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful ...

, Ige avoided political difficulties during this period.

Fourth Republic

Following the restoration of democracy in 1999, Ige sought the nomination of the Alliance for Democracy party as a presidential candidate, but was rejected. President Obasanjo appointed Ige as minister of Mines and Power (1999–2000). He was not able to make significant improvements to service provided by the monopolistic 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, 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 Sokoto State (Hausa: Jihar Sokoto Fula: Leydi Sokoto 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤧𞤮𞥅𞤳𞤮𞥅𞤼𞤮𞥅) is one of the 36 states of Nigeria, located in the extreme northwest of the country on the national border with the Republic of the N ...

government to execute the judgement of a verdict passed by a Gwadabawa sharia court to stone a woman,

Safiya Hussaini Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu (born 1967) 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. She was sentenced to be stoned, but was acquitted of ...

to death for committing adultery. Ige was about to take up a new position as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission when he was gunned down in

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 ...

, the

capital.

Death

On 23 December 2001, Ige was shot dead at his home in the south-western city of Ibadan. He had been entangled in squabbles within his Alliance for Democracy party in

. The previous week, the long-running feud between Osun state Governor

Bisi Akande Chief Abdulkareem Adebisi Bamidele Akande (born 16 January 1939) is a Nigerian politician, who was the governor of Osun State from 1999 to 2003, as a member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party, and was the first interim Chairman of the All ...

and his deputy,

Iyiola Omisore Iyiola Ajani Omisore (born 15 September 1957) is a Nigerian businessman, engineer, and politician who served as Deputy Governor of Osun State from 1999 to 2003. Subsequently, he served as a member of the Nigerian Senate for Osun East from 2003 t ...

, had apparently contributed to the death of an Osun State legislator,

Odunayo Olagbaju Odunayo Omobolanle Olagbaju was a Nigerian legislator from Osun State. He was stabbed to death in December 2001 right in front of a police station in Ile Ife, Nigeria. In May 2002, eleven suspects were arraigned for the killing. In August, seven ...

. The government of President

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 his home town in Esa-Oke, Osun State. 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

* ''Golden Quotes: a selection of my favourite inspirational quotations''. Ibadan : Pocket Gifts ; Oxford : African Books Collective istributor c2000. x, 163 pp.; 19 cm. * ''Detainee's Diary'' Ibadan : NPS Educational, 1992. 262 p. ; 23 cm. * * ''Constitutions and the problem of Nigeria'' Lagos: Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 1995. 36 pp.; 21 cm. *

References

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, , 2003. Paperback * Ladigbolu, A. G. A., Prince. ''The success of Bola Ige administration in the old Oyo State of Nigeria''. igeria Lichfield Printing Co., 003vii, 160 pp.: ill. ; 22 cm. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ige, Bola 1930 births People from Osun 2001 murders in Nigeria 2001 deaths 20th-century Nigerian politicians 20th-century Nigerian lawyers Action Group (Nigeria) politicians Alliance for Democracy (Nigeria) politicians Alumni of University College London Assassinated Nigerian politicians Attorneys General of Nigeria Burials in Oyo State Deaths by firearm in Nigeria Federal ministers of Nigeria Governors of Oyo State Ibadan Grammar School alumni International Law Commission officials Justice ministers of Nigeria Lawyers from Ibadan Nigerian Christians Nigerian officials of the United Nations People from Zaria People murdered in Ibadan Senior Advocates of Nigeria Unity Party of Nigeria politicians Unsolved murders in Nigeria Yoruba legal professionals Yoruba politicians