Activities marking the 10th year of the murder of mercurial politician, Chief Bola Ige, was rounded off in the week. KUNLE ODEREMI writes on some of his distinguishing virtues.

Good things do not last. Good people too. To many, Bola Ige, a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, was among the tribe of good men and women that traversed Nigeria and are no more. He is among the many martyrs and heroes of the country, whose footprints transcend several decades in the history of Nigeria beginning from the pre-independence era to 2001 when he fell to the bullets of assassins in the country.

Uncle Bola, as many of his admirers called him, the polyglot rose from being a Kaduna boy to a political colossus because of his uncompromising stand against injustice. His meteoric rise, which came to a climax when he became the governor of old Oyo State in the Second Republic, plummeted during the fierce battle against military hegemony in subsequent years. With other fearless leaders like Chief Anthony Enahoro, Senator Abraham Adesanya,  Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, just to name a few, Ige launched a passive resistance against the military government’s annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by late Chief MKO Abiola under the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).

He was a leader of leaders and would not run away when the battle became fiercest. Rather, he chose to be in the forefront even when a number of some self-styled democrats decided to retreat to the safest background or sneaked out of the country at the heat of the June 12 debacle. Consequently, he was arrested in Ibadan during one of the times the military oligarchy bared its fangs and declared Ige a prisoner of war for he and 34 other concerned citizens insisting on their political rights.

Another instance was when he and other leaders like Enahoro, Adesanya, Chief Olisa Agbakoba, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, to name a few, frontally confronted the military establishment at Yaba Bus Stop during the Abacha years. They had defied threats from official quarters, including the security agencies to clamp down on the leaders who had arranged a parallel five-million man match in Lagos to counter the two-million-man rally sponsored by the government as part of the propaganda for Abacha to transmute to a civilian president. The build-up to the day had all the signs of a pending civil war in Lagos and its environs, because 48 hours to the event, a massive movement of troops in parts of the nation’s economic hub became noticeable. Security operatives had cordoned off the whole of  Yaba from Jibowu, down to Ojuelegba, one of the hideouts of Lagos’ bad boys about 24 hours to the rally. By dawn, the whole streets of Lagos Mainland in particular, had been deserted, with only a battery of fully armed operatives, riot policemen taking over the ever-pulsating Yaba bust stop. Armoured tanks were positioned menacingly at all adjoining streets and highways leading to Oyingbo. However, the leaders of NADECO were not cowed by the huge security as they matched defiantly led by Enahoro towards the venue. While the riot policemen threatened to open fire on the advancing team, their officers made frantic calls to Abuja and manoeuvred to block members of the advancing team to the place. Though many of the leaders were brutalized by the agents of the state, the leaders still marched their way into Yaba and delivered vitriolic attacks on their oppressors.

One other dramatic occasion that brought out the fearlessness of Ige and his co-travellers when the nation was at the precipice was when they decided to send forth a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington after a promising service in Nigeria. Agents of the state had perfected plans to abort the programme, which was meant to show appreciation to the envoy for his immense and open support for the then ongoing democratic struggle and the doggedness of Ige and other leaders in the forefront of the war against military rule. The operatives sealed off the venue, but it was unknown to them that the leaders had made an arrangement for an alternative venue, which was the private residence of one of their leaders, Pa Solanke. The ceremony was midway when the operatives stormed the new venue, but the leaders stuck to their guns in the face of the act of terrorism.

That was the category of Nigerian leaders Ige symbolised until he was mowed down by assassins’ bullets two days to Christmas in 2001. He was courage personified and indeed an enigma. But such virtues still constituted a problem for him because he became a misunderstood politician in a few circles. Because of his bluntness and forthrightness, he was a man many hated to love. He detested laziness, but would praise industry and enterprise to the high heavens. He did not pretend that he was first and foremost a Yoruba man, but he did not allow the inclination to becloud his sincere patriotic spirit and nationalistic zeal. He was able to combine the two worlds perfectly well, such that he and many other like-minds involved in the June 12 struggle played a leading role in the formation of the main political parties that contested elections that heralded the restoration of democracy in the country on May 29, 1999. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Peoples Party, now All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) benefitted from his wealth of experience, as he was believed to have been actively involved in drafting their individual constitutions and manifestoes.

These are snippets from the rich and immense contributions of the man a lot of people also called Cicero at Agodi because of his power of oration and erudition. The latter virtues were misconstrued by some of his adversaries, who claimed that he was arrogant. But Ige was known to be among the few Nigerians that truly encouraged scholarship either while in government or outside the corridors of power. Thus, many of his teeming admirers, especially the youth are beneficiaries of his academic initiatives.

Thursday, December 23, 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of his gruesome murder at his private residence in Ibadan. Lagos, Ibadan, Osogbo, Ile-Ife and his hometown, Esa-Oke  played host to a large number of dignitaries as venues for a week-long programmes in his honour. The events attracted persons from all walks of life, all of whom paid glowing tributes to Ige. But the striking message from the speakers was their call for the re-opening of the case on the killing of Ige. However, beyond this is the teaser, if the present crop of leaders truly espouse the virtues the man with the golden voice actually stood for.