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  Bola Ige was highly respected not only for his wisdom but also for his oratory prowess. He was trained in the Classics with Greek and Latin languages as part of the disciplines. Ige could also speak Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa fluently and this endeared him to people across divides. Several books and articles to his credit were evidence of his scholarship, and also a complement to his oratorical prowess.
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On getting home, Ige was caught right in the middle of the power struggle in the Action Group (AG). Amidst all of the political controversies, Ige became a Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region of Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 – at a time when General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd.) was the garrison commander of the Army in Ibadan. It was from this point that he rose to become the governor of Oyo state from October 1979 to October 1983 under the flagship of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) which succeeded the Action Group, after General Olusegun Obasanjo had ushered in the Second Republic in 1979. At the onset of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Ige, who was one of the leaders of a rival political party to Olusegun Obasanjo’s ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was appointed as Minister of Mines and Power (1999–2000). He was switched to the Ministry of Justice when he could not make much impact on the jinxed power sector.
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In his time as Attorney General, Ige was reputed to have said that the Federal government would not allow the Sokoto State government to go ahead with the judgement of a Gwadabawa sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini, to death for committing adultery. As a legal luminary, he knew that the diffracting judicial system being run in Sharia courts in the north was a time bomb. Bola Ige was also already in the process of commissioning a platform which would re-arrange and consolidate the laws of the Federation, publish them in digital form, and make them available on the Ministry of Justice’ website. Also, he was about to take up a new position as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission before his untimely death. News of Ajibola Ige’s assassination at his Ibadan residence on 23 December 2001 took Nigeria by storm. But he continued to rise as his eloquence eulogized him and his legacies sent him forth. Featured Image Source: Daily Post NG
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This article was first published on 10th July 2020

adedoyin

Macaddy is mostly a farmer in the day who also dabbles into technology at night, in search of other cutting edge intersections. He's on Twitter @i_fix_you

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