Octave

It was Yuletide season in 2001, plans were being made for Christmas as it has always been and that would not have been. Go exceptional for the then number one lawyer of Nigeria. But little did he know that the cold hand of man-made death was lurking around to deprive him of the year’s Christmas celebration and every subsequent one. Nigeria This Week In History takes a look at the circumstances that led to the murder of Chief Bola Ige and the mystery that surrounds the unresolved case. On 23 December, 2001, the 71-year-old then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the federation, Chief James Ajibola Ige, was with his son and some other members of his family in his house in Ibadun, Oyo state, when some assailants invaded the house, walked the family members of the legal luminary to a room where they were locked in and shot dead the septuagenarian. The whole nation was thrown into shock as the news broke. Many questions were asked; some rhetorical, some demanded answer. Unfortu...

If there’s one thing I hate writing about it is an opinion on Ilorin, my fatherland. It gives me no joy having to wield the hammer I called a pen and land it hardly on the baldhead of my homeland. If I were to describe how I felt each time I wrote an opinion on any incidence regarding this land, no time, I say none, and no time did I felt good. And the reasons are not farfetched; I am always torn in between emotions and saying the naked truth. It had never been lost on me that family, no matter what, is family. However, it seems I am alone on that, maybe I am not. But the odds seem small. The thinking ones, specifically among the youth, are not much. The recent actions and inactions, reports and incidences of immortality and irresponsibility by some sons and daughters of the Emirate clearly affirm my earlier stance.  And this time, neither for emotions or fear of misunderstanding would I be garbing irresponsibility with the robe of nobility or be dressing a clear, crestfallen value...