Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye (August 19, 1916 – September 18, 2007), popularly known as A.M.A, was a Nigerian lawyer, politician and the Seriki of
Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...
land, thus making him a
Yoruba tribal aristocrat.
[ ]
Legal career
Akinloye read law at the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
between 1946 and 1948. Upon his return to Nigeria, he briefly worked as a lawyer before venturing into politics.
[
]
First Republic
Akinloye was instrumental to the formation of the first ever political party in Ibadan called Ibadan Peoples Party (IPP) which he served as its president,[ with Adegoke Adelabu as his deputy. His IPP party later merged with the Action Group, led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to form the first government in the Western Region of Nigeria, in which Akinloye was appointed the Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources.][ During the second half of the 1950s he was elected Chairman of Ibadan City Council.
During the Western Region crisis in the early 1960s, he left the Action Group for Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola's newly formed Nigerian National Democratic Party and served in the cabinet led by the then Prime Minister, ]Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (December 1912 – 15 January 1966) was the first and only Prime Minister of Nigeria, Prime Minister of Nigeria. A dominant figure of Nigerian Independence, he was a conservative Anglophile. His political career spa ...
. (The government was overthrown in a military coup on 15 January 1966.)
Second Republic
Akinloye was the Chairman of the then-largest political party in Africa, the National Party of Nigeria
The National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was the dominant political party in Nigeria during the Second Republic (1979–1983).
History Formation
The party's beginning could be traced to private and sometimes secret meetings among key Northern Nigeri ...
, which ruled the country between 1979 and 1983 while Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (; 25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018) was a Nigerian politician who was the first democratically elected president of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by Military Head of State of Nigeria, military head of sta ...
was President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
. Akinloye went into exile in 1983 after his party was overthrown by the military government headed by General Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023. A retired Nigerian army major general, he was the military head of state of Nigeria from 31 December 1983 to 27 Augu ...
and returned to Nigeria after ten years when the interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan was in place.
Personal life
The Oloye
''Oba'' ('King' in the Yoruba language, Yoruba language) is a pre-nominal honorific for kings in Yorubaland. Traditional rulers with dynasties of Yoruba origin, across the modern republics of Benin, Nigeria, and Togo, frequently make use of it.
...
Akinloye was married and had multiple children.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akinloye, Augustus
1916 births
2007 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Ibadan
Yoruba politicians
Ibadan Peoples Party politicians
Action Group (Nigeria) politicians
Nigerian National Democratic Party politicians
Federal ministers of Nigeria
20th-century Nigerian politicians
Politicians from Ibadan
Lawyers from Ibadan