By Eric Teniola

Continued from yesterday

Maintenance of public order, customary and cultural affairs, inter-communal relations, chieftaincy affairs and such other matters may be referred to it by the Governor. Furthermore, the Council of Chiefs shall elect one Senator from themselves to represent the State in the Senate.”

In conclusion of their report, Section 37 states that (a) “The Governor may consult the State Council of Chiefs as a body in the exercise of his powers in relation to the maintenance of public order, customary and cultural affairs, intercommunal relations, Chieftaincy matters and such other matters as may be referred to it by the Governor. The composition, powers and procedure shall be prescribed by the State Assembly.”

Let’s look at the profile of the members of the subcommittee.

Alhaji Abdulganiyu Folorunsho AbdulRazaq (A.G.F) (November 13, 1927 – July 25, 2020) was the first Commissioner of Finance for Kwara State after the state was formed in 1967 under Yakubu Gowon’s military administration. He was also the first lawyer from the Northern part of Nigeria. He was President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange from 2000 – 2003 and Vice-President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange from 1983 – 2000.Abdulganiyu was born in Onitsha on November 13, 1927, to Munirat and Abdul Rasaq.

Both his parents were indigenes of Ilorin, Kwara State from Onokatapo and Yerinsa quarters (presently Adewole ward, Ilorin-West) respectively. He studied at the United African School in Ilorin from 1935 till 1936. In 1938, he started at CMS Central school, Onitsha and left in 1943 at the end of his primary education. He started his secondary education at the Kalahari National College, Buguma in 1944 and was there till 1945 when he left to attend African College, Onitsha. He was at African College till 1947. He was a foundation student at the University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) in 1948.

Abdulganiyu Folorunsho AbdulRazaq was called to bar on February 8, 1955, at the Inner Temple, London. After his return to Nigeria, he was made a special member of the Northern House of Assembly from 1960 – 1962 following the Country’s independence. Following that, he was the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Ivory Coast from 1962 to 1964.

He was a member of the Federal Parliament from 1964 to 1966 as the Federal Cabinet Minister of State for Transport. He then became the Kwara State Commissioner of Finance, Health and Social welfare from 1967 – 1972. Abdulganiyu was a member of the Capital Issues Commission from 1973 to 1978 and has also been a member of the International Commission of Jurists since 1959. He was the chairman of the Nigerian Council of human rights.

Alhaji Abdulganiyu was appointed a SAN in 1985 and also the father of the present governor of Kwara state, Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Alhaji Lateef Olufemi Okunnu was born on February 19, 1933. He was educated at King’s College, Lagos and the University College, London He was a civil servant in 1953; technical assistant, teacher, King’s College, Lagos, 1953-1956, publicity secretary, Committee of African Organisations, London, 1958-1960, editor, Nigeria Bar Journal, 1964-1968, member Executive Committee, Nigeria Bar Association, 1964-1968 and Minister for Works and Housing. He is a lawyer and politician.

Alhaji Sule Gaya, a former parliamentarian and minister of Works in the First Republic, an accomplished educationist and politician. Alhaji Gaya was born in 1925 in Gaya, Kano. He was elected member of the Northern Regional Parliament in 1956 and became parliamentary secretary in 1957. He was later appointed Councilor in Charge of Education at Kano Native Authority. He held the traditional title of Sarkin Fadan Kano. He died in 2018 at the age of 93.

Alhaji Shehu Malami (1937-2022) had his education at Sokoto Modern School, Kano Secondary, Schook, Katsina Provincial Secondary School, Bida Provincial Secondary School, North Devon Technical College, Barnstaple, England, Southend-on-Sea Municipal College, England, called to the Bar, Middle Temple, London. He was a broadcaster with the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1959-1963, Private Secretary to the Sultan of Sokoto, 1972-1974, Director, Barclays Bank of Nigeria Ltd, 1974-1980, director, Japan Petroleum Company, 1974-1977, director, Gusau Oil Mill Ltd, 1974-1978 and Chairman Consolidated Industries Ltd, Sokoto, 1976-1980.

Alhaji Malami was appointed Chairman, Union Bank of Nigeria, 1981; former member, Northern People’s Congress, UK Branch; member, Sokoto Loca Authority Council, 1972-1974, member, Governing Council, University of Nigeria, Nsukka since 1974, member, Sokoto University Advisory Council, Chairman, Nigeria Television Authority and member, Constituent Assembly, 1977-1978. He was later appointed Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa.

Dr Koleade Adeniji Abayomi (S.A.N) (August 20,1940-April 2, 2020)had his education at the C.M.S. Grammar School and King’s College, both in Lagos.

He studied Law at the University of Durham and graduated with LL. B Hons. Thereafter, he proceeded to the Nigerian Law School for the vocational practical training course in October 1965. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1966.

He was awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship in October 1966 for Post Graduate studies in Law at the Clare College Cambridge. He obtained the postgraduate degree of LL. B (now LLM) at Clare College Cambridge University in 1967 and a doctorate (Ph.D) degree from Cambridge in 1970. He was also a scholar at Clare College Cambridge University and Commonwealth Scholar Cambridge University.

Dr Abayomi returned to Nigeria in 1970 to start a lecturing career at the Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Law School. He was first engaged as lecturer grade II and later became Secretary to the Council of Legal Education and Director of Administration from 1999-2001. In 2001, he was appointed Deputy Director-General and Head of Lagos Campus of the Nigerian Law School and he became the Director-General of the School in November 2004.

Dr Kole Abayomi was a member of the Nigeria Constitution Drafting Committee from 1975-1976, Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Board 1976-1979; Vice-Chairman of the Lagos State owned Ibile Property Corporation between 1976-1979 and Chairman, Lagos State Ibile Holdings 1991-1992.

He was a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law; Co-founder/President, Nigeria Society for Legal Research and Development; Member National Committee on Law and Administration in Nigeria (1981).

Dr Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe (1915–1990) was a Minister in the first Reepublic. He was born to the family of Mbadiwe Odum from Arondizuogu then under then Orlu division of present-day Imo State. His uncle, Igwegbe Odum, was a warrant chief in the colonial era.

He started primary education at St Mary’s Catholic School, Port Harcourt, and finished it at a government school in Aba. He then attended the Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar, Aggrey Memorial College, Arochukwu, Igbobi College, Lagos and the Baptist Academy, Lagos. At Baptist Academy, Samuel Akintola and E.E. Esau were staff members, while some of his schoolmates at Igbobi were Taslim Elias, Horatio Thomas and Justice F.O. Coker.

After his secondary education, he dabbled into trading by establishing Mbadiwe Produce Association in 1937. He left Nigeria to study at Columbia University and New York University for a number of years. While in America, he helped to establish an African student’s association, through which he gained the attention of the U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who received him and his organisation in the White House.

After returning from the U.S., Dr Mbadiwe started another business and established a research institute on African Arts. He soon entered the Nigerian political scene and joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. In 1951, he was elected into the Eastern Region House of Assembly. He was re-elected in 1954, and shortly thereafter appointed Minister for Lands and National Resources. In 1957, he was appointed Minister for Commerce.

However, his political success was to undergo a great challenge when in mid-1958, he and Kola Balogun attempted to remove Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as the leader of National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). Mbadiwe set up his own newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, as an organ of protest. He later re-joined the party and was appointed Minister for Trade and Communications and also served as a special adviser to the Prime Minister, advising on African affairs.

According to Segun Adeniyi in his article five years ago, Dr. Datti Ahmed (1936-2021) wasborn in 1936 in Daigari, Kano, Datti Ahmed attended Barewa College before reading medicine at the University of Ibadan. He began his working career as a House/Medical Officer in the Northern Nigerian Civil Service. At age 30 in 1966, he resigned to go into private medical practice with the establishment of Kano Clinics. And he has at various times served in public capacities. For instance, between 1976 and 1979, he was the pro chancellor and chairman of the governing council of the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife).

A simple man who lived a complicated  political life, Datti Ahmed was a disciple of the late Aminu Kano. However, during the Second Republic, he led the Concerned Citizens Committee, a group of prominent Northern politicians and professionals who threw their support behind the presidential aspiration of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo during the 1983 general election.

When he was contesting the presidency in the ill-fated Fourth Republic, Datti Ahmed shocked many northerners when he publicly criticized Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) which had by then generated controversy. He said if elected, he would reexamine its relevance to the nation’s economic and political need. Remarkably, even then, he was renowned as a strong adherent of Islam which he would fully later embrace in the last decades of his life.”

Dr Uma Oke Eleazu was born on June 16, 1932 in Asaga, Ohafia in Imo state. He had his education at the Hope Waddel Training Institute, Calabar, 1950-1951, Fourah Bay College, Freetown, 1958-1960, King’s College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne England, 1960-1962, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA, 1965-1969; labour officer, Federal Ministry of Labour, Lagos, 1962-1963,lecturer, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1963-1965, assistant Professor of Political Science, California, 1969-1971, associate Professor of African Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 1972-1974, dean of studies, Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, 197-1976, appointed director, National Policy Development Centre, May 1976.

Mazi Samuel Goomsu Ikoku was a Nigerian trade unionist and politician. As a student at University of Southampton, Ikoku supported Nigeria’s independence movement, writing articles printed by the West African Pilot. After his degree, he joined the radical arm of the independence movement, working as an adviser to the Nigerian Federation of Labour led Michael Imoudu and later co-founding the United Working People’s Party in 1952.

A year later, the party was officially disbanded, the government did so after branding the organisation as subversive and communist. Ikoku later began a relationship with the Action Group (AG) that span majority of the First Republic.

Mazi Ikoku sometimes spoke on national issues with a sense of candor, this style led to him being called a controversial figure by former Science and Technology Minister, Sam Momah. Mazi Ikoku graduated from Achimota College and later studied at University College, Southampton. Beginning in 1946, Ikoku took interest in the independence movement led by Nnamdi Azikiwe. He began writing articles in Azikiwe’s West African Pilot criticising the Legislative Council, in which his father was a nominated member, arguing against the council as an imposed government and aligning with Azikiwe’s ideas about immediate independence.

Whilst studying he met his future spouse, Eileen. He returned to Nigeria in 1949 and joined the civil service, during this time, he took up advisory roles with trade unions in the country. He left government work in 1951, to dedicate his time to work for the Nigerian Federation of Labour which was seeking affiliation with the World Federation of Trade Unions.

Mazi Ikoku also joined a group of young socialist to form a short-lived political organisation, the United Working People’s Party, independent of prominent individuals. During this time, he began publishing a journal with editorials supporting Stalinist ideas. Both the journal and the paper were disbanded by colonial authorities.

In the 1950s, Mazi Ikoku joined one of the mainstream parties when he became a member of Action Group which then had a strong organisational structure. Ikoku was immediately given the position of organising secretary. In 1957, he won regional House of Assembly election, in the assembly he represented AG and served as the leader of opposition. During the campaigns preceding the election, Ikoku’s father was contesting the same seat under the United National Independent Party.

Mazi Ikoku was a member of the Action Group’s socialist faction. This faction was to focus on ideology as a political campaign tool and a believer in imperialism as a pressing danger. In 1960, the party adopted democratic socialism as an Ideology but the party’s national executive and the Western regional premier leaned towards capitalism.

In 1962, he traveled to Ghana, days before factional crisis engulfed the Western Region House of Assembly leading to a state of emergency. Some factional members of the Action Group were later charged for treason. In Ghana, Ikoku organised a branch of the party and also worked as a lecturer at Nkrumah’s Ideological Institute and as an editor for the Spark magazine, published in Ghana.[1]

During the Nigerian Civil War, Mazi Ikoku did not support secession. He was briefly detained after his return from Ghana but was later appointed commissioner for Economic Development and later Health in the East Central State.

Mazi Ikoku broke ranks with former Action Group members and joined Aminu Kano’s People’s Redemption Party during the Second Republic. He was appointed Secretary-General of the party, which believed in the emancipation of the talakawa. He was Aminu Kano’s running mate in 1979 presidential election which was won by Shehu Shagari. However, beginning during the twilight of the republic, Ikoku began to shift away from his socialist ideas. He left PRP and became an adviser to Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria.

He spoke of elongating the role of the military in Nigeria’s political affairs during the administration of Ibrahim Babangida and later served as deputy chairman of the Transition Implementation Committee during Sani Abacha’s regime. As the deputy chairman, Mazi Ikoku argued that Abacha was free to succeed himself if the political parties agree to draft him as their presidential candidate.

He died in 1997. Mazi Ikoku was step-father of Patti Boulaye.

Professor Godwin Anibeze Odenigwe was born on December 12, 1925. He had his education at the Central School, Umabi, 1931-1932, St. Patrick’s School, Amokwe, 1937-1940, St. Thomas School, Udi, 1941, St. Charles Teacher Training College, Onitsha, 1942-1945, Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1950-1953, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, 1953-1957, University of London, England, called to the Bar, Gray’s Innn, London, 1958; Senior Lecture and head, Department of Government and Administration, Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Ibadan, Senior lecturer and head, Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, reader in Political science, later, Professor of Political Science, University of Nigeria and special adviser to the President for Political Affairs, 1979-1983.

Teniola, a former director at the Presidency wrote from Lagos.