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ABRAHAM ADESANYA

Late Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya, a Nigerian politician, lawyer, activist, welfarist, and a liberal progressive idol of his time was born on July 24, 1922 in Ijebu Igbo. He was a son of a powerful and famous traditional healer, late Pa Ezekiel Adesanya aka Baba Obu’keagbo who lived between 19th and 20th century.

Late Abraham Adesanya attended Ijebu Igbo grammar School after which he worked as a teacher before travelling to United Kingdom to study law at the then Holborn College of Law.

In 1959, he returned to Nigeria as a qualified lawyer and joined the action group led by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The same year, he was nominated and eventually elected to the defunct Western House of Assembly to represent Ijebu Igbo constituency in the December 12 1959 House of Representatives Election.

Having qualified as an ambassador of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s penchant for people’s welfare, this rather than his political prowess saw him securing another nomination (or selection as it was then under Chief Obafemi Awolowo) as-well-as the real mandate, to the second republic Senate which he was famously remarked to have preferred to the Governorship ticket that was originally offered him by his party, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) - This principle was to be further justified in the accentual roles played by him in the effort to re-define Nigerian politics and Nigerian democracy.

As a religious Awoist, he went through the thick and thin with Chief Obafemi Awolowo including all the persecutions and imprisonment experienced by the late Sage. On one occasion, he led a team of lawyers that defended Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the famous trumped-up case of Treasonable Felony preferred against him by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Late Abraham Adesanya like many other world class leaders also suffered persecutions on many fronts. For instance, at his country home; he suffered persecutions for not accepting the governorship position which his people in his native Ijebu land had deemed more beneficial to them than his personal choice of senate. But history will find justification in the fact that rather than enforcing draconian laws as a governor, reticent but tactful campaigner Adesanya was more interested in encouraging and legislating friendly, home-cooked laws for his people and the generality of Nigerians - a people just emancipating from the shackles of colonial rule and two post colonial rule military aberrations. On the leadership front, his Yoruba and Afenifere leaderships were heavily burdened by contentions from his opponents’ tiny quarters, but he left no one of them in doubt that he was truly in charge with the strong character of honesty and consistency as-well-as pragmatic approach he often adopted in handling issues.

Adesanya was the deputy leader, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a prodemocracy movement formed in 1994 during the dark days of Abacha military regime to fight the military and to rescue Nigeria and Nigerians from its wicked claws. Though Adesanya was second in NADECO hierarchy; he was more virulent to the military – silent but more heard and more feared.

At the peak of military persecution, many of his colleagues including his leader in NADECO, Chief Anthony Enahoro fled the country on exile, but Abraham Adesanya remained at home solidly behind the Nigerian masses alongside others like late Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and a host of others to achieve victory which came gradually - first when IBB bowed out of their way in 1993 - a period that saw Adesanya acting as the mouthpiece of Nigerians, persistently condemning the General Ibrahim Babangida’s (IBB) annulment of June 12 Presidential election won by late Chief MKO Abiola and second, when General Sanni Abacha attempted transforming from a military head of state to a civilian president - a period Adesanya firmly stood his position as an activist and a progressively minded politician, siding with Nigerians and ardently opposed to Abacha’s idea, and lastly when in 1999, democracy was eventually ushered in. These feats saw him and the group he led for eventful five years shot to international limelight in world-widely reported news and commentaries.

Tuesday, 14th of January, 1997, his uncompromising stance to the military misrule led to an attempt on his life at the behest of the then head of state, late dictator General Sanni Abacha. Adesanya had just left his law chambers on the faithful day sitting at the back of his car when an unknown team of assailants (later unveiled to be Abacha killer squad) struck. The front and back screens of his Mercedes Benz car were shattered and his car seats perforated by bullets from the assailants' guns but he escaped unhurt with his driver. The car was later transferred to a Lagos museum.

Backed by the unalloyed support and loyalty which his lieutenants offered to have him fill the lacuna created in Yoruba land by the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Adekunle Ajasin, the fourth republic saw Adesanya engaged politically more than ever, having behind him well-known political gladiators like Chiefs Bola Ige (late), Ayo Adebanjo, Ayo Fasanmi, Ganiyu Dawodu (late), Bola Tinubu to fight their way to victory in five states of the defunct Western region, with their political party, Alliance for Democracy (AD).

At a time the unity of Nigeria was getting bleak, Adesanya under the auspices of Afenifere and Yoruba council of Elders, alongside others led a congress of Yoruba elder-statesmen through a congress that rose to pronounce that the convocation of a constitutional conference, where new confederating terms could be determined for the country, was inevitable for the good of Nigerians.

Adesanya later became incapacitated by illness which confined him to his Lagos Apapa residence and made his role appreciably gravitate to advisory on important matters affecting Yoruba and Afenifere, the two leadership caps he unarguably wore till his death.

He died on the 27th of April 2008 while having lunch at the ripe age of 85.

Category:Populated places in Ogun State

Ijebu Igbo

Ijebu Igbo is a town in Ogun State, Nigeria. It is approximately a 15-minute drive north of Ijebu Ode. Ijebu Igbo is divided into 5 clans: Oke-Sopen, Oke-Agbo, Ojowo, Atikori and Japara. An Oba(King) is enthroned to govern each of these clans. These Obas are typically classified as "Second-class" and they all submit to the headship of the Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo. The Orimolusi is a First-class Oba, and he is the supreme head of Ijebu-Igbo. The last Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo was Late Oba Samuel Adetayo (Ikupakude IV), who joined his ancestors in 1994.

History has it that the founder, Onayelu, was a great hunter who hunted the Northern parts of Odo-Oluiwa; the present Ijebu Ode, where he was a prince. Following the sudden demise of his father and the subsequent controversial accession to the throne of his younger brother, the Ofiranoye while he (Onayelu) was away hunting, he decided to migrate from Ijebu Ode to settle permanently on the large expanse of land where he had been hunting and known today as Ijebu Igbo. Thus Ijebu Igbo has the largest land mass of all Ijebus, and in Ogun state, Nigeria. Coordinates: 6°58′N 4°00′E, Ijebu Igbo extends to, and has three important boundary points at Ibadan, Ikire, and Ondo.

Like all other Ijebus, the people of Ijebu Igbo speak the Ijebu dialect that is distinct from and similar to the Yoruba language. Ijebu Igbo boasts of two of the foremost secondary schools in Nigeria, the Molusi College & Abusi Odumare Academy. Ijebu Igbo is the political headquarter as well as the commercial nerve centre of Ijebu North local government with many of its indegenes playing actively on the national political stage. Apart from politicians, Ijebu-Igbo boasts of other vibrant and respectable men and women, young and old, who are mostly notable businessmen and academics of high profile. On the social angle, Ijebu-Igbo indegenes are pacesetters.

The town's primary economic activity is timber, cocoa and other farm produce, and is home to many saw mills. Other economic interests of late include entrepreneurial investment in hotels, textile and polythene industries, animal and fish farming.