My father’s values continue to inspire others — Bola Ige’s daughter

The daughter of the late Bola Ige, Nigeria’s minister of Justice who was assassinated in 2001, Funsho Adegbola, has recounted the torturous circumstances which surrounded her father’s death in 2001.

While speaking on a radio programme called State Affairs with Edmund Obilo, Adegbola said she dreamt she was mourning before her father was assassinated.

She confided in him, but he reassured her, saying, “Nobody can kill me; my life is in God’s hands.”

Adegbola recounted a warning a friend gave concerning her father.

According to her, a friend who read an article in a national newspaper suggested that Ige might not return alive from one of his trips to Ile-Ife because of the mounting political threats and tensions at the time.

She said, “I told him, ‘Daddy, it appears they will do something to you.’ He replied, ‘I am surrounded by the White Light of Christ through which nothing evil can penetrate.’”

She added that her father’s death coincided with his conflicts with some politicians, including Iyiola Omisore, then Deputy Governor of Osun State, during the era of Governor Bisi Akande’s administration. She linked this threat with Ige’s assassination.

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23 years after his assassination, the perpetrators of the crime have not been brought to book.

Ige’s wife, who was a Justice of the Court of Appeal, could not secure justice for him. Adegbola said this broke her mother and family.

“It was a cruel irony that broke her spirit,” she said.

Despite these painful memories, Adegbola holds on to her father’s memory as a politician who had integrity, was selfless and eschewed corruption.

“As Minister of Power and Steel, he returned 16 official cars assigned to him, saying, ‘I can’t maintain more than two cars,’” said Adegbola.

“After his assassination, Kema Chikwe visited our home and was shocked to see that our doors were ordinary wooden carpentry doors that were easily breakable. My father had no bulletproof doors or elaborate security, unlike many public officials.”

Ige may be dead, but he continues to be a source of inspiration to others, says Adegbola.

He said, “His values and principles continue to inspire those who remember him; his life serves as a powerful example of leadership, even as the pursuit of justice for his death remains an elusive goal.”