Jump to content

Ladoke Akintola

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sowoletoyin (talk | contribs) at 02:15, 24 January 2021 (→Impact: Citation added. #1Lib1Ref and #WikiAfLibs). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Samuel Ladoke Akintola
Premier of Western Nigeria
In office
October 1, 1960 – January 15, 1966
Preceded byObafemi Awolowo
Succeeded byNone
Personal details
Born(1910-07-06)July 6, 1910
Ogbomosho, Western Region, Colonial Nigeria
(now: Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria)
DiedJanuary 15, 1966(1966-01-15) (aged 55)
Ibadan
Political partyAction Group
Nigerian National Democratic Party
OccupationLawyer
Samuel Akíntọ́lá with David Ben-Gurion during a visit to Israel in 1961

Chief Samuel Ládòkè Akíntọ́lá, otherwise known as S.L.A. (July 6, 1910 – January 15, 1966), was a Nigerian politician, lawyer, aristocrat and orator who was born in Ogbomosho, [1] of the then Western Region. In addition to serving as one of the founding fathers of modern Nigeria, he was also elevated to the position of Oloye Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of the Yoruba.[2]

Early life

Akintola was born in Ogbomosho to the family of Akintola Akinbola and Akanke, his father was a trader and descended from a family of traders. [3]At a young age, the family moved to Minna and he was briefly educated at a Church Missionary Society school in the city. In 1922, he returned to Ogbomosho to live with his grandfather and subsequently attended a Baptist day school before proceeding to Baptist College in 1925.[4] He taught at the Baptist Academy from 1930 to 1942 and thereafter worked briefly with the Nigerian Railway Corporation. During this period, he became acquainted with Chief H.O. Davies, a lawyer and politician and joined the Nigerian Youth Movement where he assisted Ikoli and supported the latter to represent Lagos in the legislative council over the candidacy of Oba Samuel Akisanya, who was supported by Azikiwe.[5] He joined the staff of the Daily Service Newspaper and soon became the editor in 1943 with the support of Chief Akinola Maja, a shareholder, replacing Ernest Ikoli as editor. Akintola was also founder of Iroyin Yoruba, a newspaper written in the Yoruba language. [6] In 1945, he opposed the general strike led by Azikiwe's NCNC and Michael Imoudu, earning the distrust of politicians like Chief Anthony Enahoro.[7] In 1946, he earned a British scholarship to study in the U.K. and completed legal studies by 1950. He started his legal career working as a lawyer on land and civic matters. In 1952, he formed a partnership with Chief Chris Ogunbanjo, Chief Bode Thomas and Michael Odesanya.[8]

Political career

After he was trained as a lawyer in the United Kingdom, Ladoke Akintola returned to Nigeria in 1949 and teamed up with other educated Nigerians from the Western Region to form the Action Group (AG) under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.[9] He initially was the legal adviser of the group before becoming the deputy leader in 1953[10] after the death of Bode Thomas. He defeated Arthur Prest in the primary to succeed Bode Thomas. As the deputy leader of the AG party, he did not serve in the regional Western Region Government headed by the premier Awolowo but was the Action Group Parliamentary Leader/Leader of Opposition in the House of Representatives of Nigeria.[11] At the federal level he served as Minister for Health and later Minister for Communications and Aviation.

Decisions over the direction of strategic alliances by the party, the adoption of democratic socialism as the party's platform and the battle for supremacy in the party led to disagreement between Chiefs Akintola and Awolowo. Akintola disagreed with Awolowo's decision not to join the coalition government. [12]Akintola felt the Yoruba people of the West were losing their pre-eminent position in business, university and administration in Nigeria to the Igbo people of the East simply because the Igbo-controlled NCNC had joined the government and the AG had not.[13] He also opposed the party's decision to adopt democratic socialism as its ideology, preferring a more conservative stance.[14]

Criticisms

Akintola was accused by Chief Awolowo for trying to supplant him as Leader of the party.[15] In May 1962 with the Western House of Assembly set to remove Akintola after the party had earlier passed a vote of no confidence in the premier in a party meeting, crisis erupted on the floor of the house.[16] The AG party broke into two factions leading to several crises in the Western Region House of Assembly that led the central/federal government, headed by the Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to declare State of Emergency rule in the region and Chief (Dr.) M.A Majekodunmi, the Federal Minister of Health was appointed as Administrator .[17] Eventually Akintola was restored to power (even though he had lost the legal battle with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council then Nigeria's highest tribunal)[18] as Premier in 1963. In the general election of 1965, Akintola won his position as Premier, not as member of the Action Group party, but as the leader of a newly formed party called Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), which was in an alliance with the Northern People's Congress (NPC) the party that then controlled the federal government.

Death

Akintola was assassinated in Ibadan, the capital of Western Region, on the day of Nigeria's first military coup of 15 January 1966—which terminated the First Republic.[19] Also known as the "Young Majors Coup" or the "coup of the January boys", the coup resulted in the assassination of many leading politicians, mostly members of the Northern People's Congress.[20]

Impact

Akintola was a dignified orator. [21]In 1962 he was responsible for completing the founding of the University of Ife (a brainchild of Awolowo, which was renamed in his honour). He was also involved in the development of Premier Hotel and other monuments.[citation needed][22]

Personal life

Akintola was married to Chief (Mrs) Faderera Akintola and had five children, two of whom were later to become ministers of state for finance in the Nigerian Third Republic (Chief Yomi Akintola and Chief (Dr.) Abimbola Akintola).[23] Chief Yomi Akintola also served as Nigeria's Ambassador to Hungary and Samuel Akintola's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Dupe Akintola, was Nigeria's High Commissioner in Jamaica. His fourth child, Chief Victor Ladipo Akintola, dedicated much of his life to ensuring the continued accurate accounting of Samuel Akintola's contributions to Nigeria's position on the world stage. He published many works including a biography that highlighted his father's love of his country and lifelong commitment to its progress (Akintola: The Man and the Legend).[24] His youngest child, Tokunbo Akintola, was the first black boy at Eton College and features prominently in the best selling book by the Nigerian author Dilibe Onyeama, Nigger at Eton.

A number of institutions, including Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, were established in both the Oloye's home town and other Nigerian cities as a means of remembering him posthumously.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Samuel Ladoke Akintola | Nigerian politician". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  2. ^ "NIGERIA : SAMUEL AKINTOLA and AHMADU BELLO. Photos: (1966) | LIVRESCOLLECTOR". www.abebooks.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  3. ^ Akintola 1982, p. 7-8.
  4. ^ Akintola 1982, p. 10.
  5. ^ Akintola 1982, p. 18-19.
  6. ^ "Samuel Ladoke Akintola – Early Life, Career & many more". Dakingsman.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  7. ^ Akintola 1982, p. 19-20.
  8. ^ Akintola 1982, p. 29.
  9. ^ "The Generalissimo of western region's politics". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2020-03-08. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  10. ^ "Samuel Ladoke Akintola In the eyes of History". Vanguard News. 2016-01-29. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  11. ^ "Samuel Ladoke Akintola: Deft politician, lawyer, aristocrat, orator". Businessday NG. 2017-12-31. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  12. ^ "Koike's party could join Japan coalition government". Emerald Expert Briefings. 2017-10-06. doi:10.1108/oxan-es224954. ISSN 2633-304X.
  13. ^ Martin Meredith, The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence, p. 195.
  14. ^ "Samuel Ladoke Akintola | Nigerian politician". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  15. ^ Ojo, Emmanuel Oladipo (2016-01-25). "The Awolowo – Akintola Leadership Tussle: A Reinterpretation". Journal of Arts and Humanities. 5 (1): 76–90. doi:10.18533/journal.v5i1.896 (inactive 2021-01-11). ISSN 2167-9053.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021 (link)
  16. ^ "The Yoruba nation and history lessons - Part 1". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  17. ^ Martin Meredith, The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence, p. 196.
  18. ^ cf. Larry Diamond, Class, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria, Syracuse University Press
  19. ^ John de St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War (Hodder and Stoughton Publishing, London, 1972) pp. 34–35.
  20. ^ John de St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War, p. 43.
  21. ^ "Obafemi Awolowo University | Tethys Engineering". tethys-engineering.pnnl.gov. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  22. ^ Ojo, Emmanuel Oladipo (2016). "The Awolowo - Akintola Leadership Tussle: A Reinterpretation". Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 5(1). {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  23. ^ Segun, Akin. "THE LEGACIES OF CHIEF AKINTOLA - Grandpa Babalola". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. ^ Akintola, Victor Ladipo (1982). Akintola, the man and the legend: a biography. Enugu, Anambra State, Nigeria: Delta of Nigeria. ISBN 978-978-2335-06-7. OL 2987210M.

Media related to Samuel Akintola at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ladoke_Akintola&oldid=1002365475"