Bola Ige: Biography, career, political stance, death, legacy

Bola Ige remains one of Nigeria’s shining legal luminaries and politicians respected across the divide. He was highly revered, to the extent that he was appointed to serve as a Minister while as an opposition leader. That appointment – the ruling government selecting a member of the opposition – has been rarely made in Nigerian politics and is a testament to Ige’s personality and character.

Sadly, he did not stay around long enough to coordinate the process of reform he had hoped to carry out in the Nigerian legal system as he fell to the tragedy of political assassination. So, who was Bola Ige, nicknamed Cicero, after Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and philosopher, for his philosophical and oratorical prowess, but who was silenced by the barrel of a gun?

Table of Content hide 1Bola Ige Biography 2Career 3Political career 4Death 5Legacy 6Family

Bola Ige Biography

James Idowu Adegoke Ajibola “Bola” Ige was born on 13 September 1930 in Esa Oke in the defunct Western Region, a town which is now situated in present-day Osun State. Ige spent the early years of his childhood in Kaduna, the capital of the defunct Northern Region, and returned to the Western Region at the age of 14 for his education.

He attended Ibadan Grammar School from 1943 to 1948 for his secondary school education. He then enrolled at the University College, Ibadan (now the University of Ibadan), where he studied Classics and stayed till 1955. He subsequently proceeded to the University College, London, where he graduated with a law degree in 1959. He was called to the Inner Temple – the bar in London – in 1961.

Career

Upon his return to Nigeria in 1961, Bola Ige established Bola Ige & Co, a law firm that went on to produce some of the finest legal minds in the country. Asides from his immense knowledge of the law, Ige was also highly regarded because of his oratory prowess and his advocacy work on civil rights and democracy. He was increasingly critical of military rule in the 1970s and used his writings to advocate for a return to civilian rule.

ALSO READ: Ayo Adebanjo: Biography, more you didn’t know about Afenifere leader

After he was released from prison in 1985 following his arrest after the 1983 coup, Ige returned to his legal practice and writing. He authored many legal and political publications, as well as memoirs about his various experiences as a child, political officeholder and detainee. His most prominent publication remains People, Politics And Politicians of Nigeria: 1940–1979, a book he had begun to write while in prison and published in 1990.

For his contribution to the legal profession, Ige was conferred with the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the highest legal title awarded to legal practitioners in Nigeria,

Despite all the glitz and glamour of politics, Ige earnestly desired to return to law practice after spending some years on the political front in the Fourth Republic. It was an ambition he was on the verge of fulfilling until his life was brutally cut short in 2001.

Political career

Bola Ige became active in politics from his youth as he became the organizing secretary of the defunct Action Group (AG) in 1953 at just the age of 23. He became entrenched in the crisis that engulfed the AG in 1962. He pitched his tent with Obafemi Awolowo, the party’s leader, against Samuel Akintola, the party’s deputy leader and Premier of the Western Region.

After the 1966 coup and the subsequent takeover by the military, Ige was appointed the Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region by General Robert Adeyinka. In the three years that Ige was Commissioner (1967-1970), Ige encouraged the utilisation of mechanised farming throughout the region. He also effectively managed the Agbekoya riots, which broke out among peasant farmers during the Nigerian Civil War.

While he advocated for the return of democracy during the early 1970s, he focused his attention during that period on the anti-racism campaign of the World Council of Churches. When it was announced that the military will be ceding power to civil rule in 1979, Ige, once again, pitched his tent with Awolowo as he joined the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), which his political mentor founded. He contested the 1979 governorship election for the Old Oyo State and became victorious, a feat which made him the first civilian governor of the now-defunct state.

After he spent four years in office, he re-contested for a second term but lost the governorship election in controversial circumstances to Victor Omololu Olunloyo of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Ige contested the result of the election in court, but he was unsuccessful in his challenge. He was subsequently detained by the military after the 1983 coup, accused of stealing party funds. He was released when the Ibrahim Babangida regime came on board in 1985.

In the following years of subsequent military rule, particularly the Abacha years, Ige was critical of the regime, although he declined to be politically overt.

Following the military’s decision to, once again, cede power to civilian rule in 1999, Ige decided to throw his hat into the ring and be active in politics again. He became a member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and contested the party’s presidential primary, but was rejected by the party. He was, however, appointed a Minister of the Federal Government by President Olusegun Obasanjo, despite him (Ige) being a member of the opposition party. Ige was first appointed as Minister of Mines and Power from 1999 to 2000.

ALSO READ: Dele Momodu: Biography, career, politics, net worth, controversies

He was redeployed and appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2000. It was at this ministry that the legal luminary’s impact was felt at the federal level.  In 2001, he set in motion a programme to re-arrange and consolidate the laws of the Federation, publish them in digital form, and make them available to Nigerians via the website of the ministry. He also criticised the decision by his boss to implement Sharia law, a stance which earned him several enemies in the northern region. He also earned a sharp rebuke from the people of the Niger Delta region over his position on control of oil resources.

He was about to take up a new position as a United Nations International Law Commission member when he was assassinated.

Ige was also one of the founding members of Afenifere, the apex Yoruba socio-cultural organisation.

Death

Bola Ige was killed in an apparent political assassination two days before Christmas in 2001. He was shot dead at his home in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at around 10 pm while observing the Christmas break. The assailants stormed into his home, forced his wife, Judge Atinuke Ige, to leave their bedroom, and then shot him once in the chest. He was buried in his home town in Esa-Oke, Osun State.

To date, the killers of the late Ige have not been apprehended despite various people initially arrested and tried for involvement in the murder. The motive for the killing has not been established to date, but it was linked to the political crisis that engulfed the Osun State chapter of the Alliance of Democracy (AD).

Legacy

Bola Ige will be remembered for the following:

• Implementing the UPN’s policy of free education across the Old Oyo State, thereby providing numerous teenagers with the chance to be educated
• Enhancing the legal profession by publishing publications still referred to by lawyers and law lecturers
• Commencing the process of arranging the laws of Nigeria and publishing them on the Internet for Nigerians to access

Family

Bola Ige was married to his wife, Atinuke, who herself was in the legal profession and rose to the position of a Judge of the Court of Appeal. The couple had two sons and a daughter – Muyiwa Ige, Olumuyiwa Ige and Funso Adegbola, respectively.

ALSO READ: Sunday Igboho: Biography, activism, arrest, controversies, family, net worth