There was once a Roman statesman,
lawyer, political theorist, philosopher,
widely considered one of Rome’s greatest
orators and prose stylists. His name was
Marcus Tullius Cicero who lived between
(January 3, 106 BC and December 7, 43
BC) Cicero is generally seen as one of the
most versatile minds of Roman culture
and his writings, the paragon of classical
Latin. He introduced the Romans to the
chief schools of Greek philosophy and
created a Latin vocabulary. We learnt
his childhood dream was “Always to be
the best and far to excel the others’’. No
wonder when he started his career as a
lawyer around 83-81 BC, he successfully
defended Sextus Roscius on a charge of
parricide, which of course, was an
indirect challenge to the dictator,
Emperor Sulla, at that time and he had
to travel to Athens with his brother and
cousin, perhaps due to the potential
wrath of Emperor Sulla.
Why are we celebrating Marcus Cicero
today? It is because he shared most of
the sterling qualities with our own Uncle
Bola Ige, popularly called “The Cicero” of
Esa-Oke, considering his education
background and profession as an astute
lawyer, elder statesman, administrator,
seasoned politician, educationist and
undisputable leader of thought.
However, sad enough, both men were
murdered. Perhaps, the only difference
is that the power that be, that killed
Marcus Cicero pride about it and even
displayed his decapitated body for the
people to see in that part of the world at
that time taking a final revenge against
Cicero’s power of speech while those
who planned and killed our own
“Cicero” are still hiding. The big
question still, is who were those
responsible for that cowardly act by
killing Bola Ige on December 23, 2001 in
his home at Ibadan? Life could indeed be
an irony. This is the same Ibadan where
he lived, served, developed when the
opportunity came having being
popularly elected as the first executive
civilian Governor of the old Oyo State.
This same Ibadan happened to be the
seat of power, being the capital of the
old Oyo State.
It was said that when the title “Cicero”
was given to honour Bola Ige by the
people of Esa-Oke, his home town,
because of the inherent traits he shared
with Marcus Tullius Cicero of Rome,
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late sage,
was not too comfortable with the title
because of the way the power-that-be at
that time killed Marcus Tullius Cicero.
And most disheartening he was killed on
our own soil though far away from
Rome. Then, not only did political
parties monitor governors elected under
their platforms, even the governed were
given the opportunity to evaluate the
performances of their governors. Today,
state parties hardly tell you their mission
and only busy themselves in how to rig
elections, crush any opposition and kill
opponents depending on the level of
desperation.
Prior to the assassination, Ige was guest
of His Royal Highness, Oba Okunade
Sijuwade, the reigning Ooni of Ife and it
was widely reported that some
miscreants (apparently being sponsored
by those who hated him) reportedly
removed his cap and hung it on a tree in
the palace area. One begins to wonder
what has become of our society. What an
irony! Years back, and precisely in 1980
at the same venue, the man, Uncle Bola
Ige, was the centre of attraction as
governor holding out the staff of office to
the king-elect then during the
installation and coronation. I think it is
not too late for the police to start a
thorough investigation from that angle.
This to me should be acceptable as a
careful thought with a view to
unraveling the assassination and bring
to book the killers now that we seem to
embrace the rule of law in the country.
It is only when the killers are caught that
we can be talking of prosecution. And
with the zeal of the Inspector General of
Police, Suleiman Abba, he should be
challenged to come out with something
that will cleanse the shame of a nation,
that a sitting Attorney General of the
Federation was that murdered in his
home and more than seven years after,
the nation is still groping in the dark.
Most Nigerians share the belief that the
Nigerian Police is capable if it chooses to
come out with the expected result.
Of course, the Obasanjo administration
did not help the police in that at the tail
end of its tenure, it was widely reported
that the former president at a gathering
quickly admitted that one faceless drug
baron which the then Ministry of Justice
was planning to probe was responsible
for the cowardly act. And because you
cannot put something on nothing, on
October 24, 2007, the court ordered the
release from the Agodi Prison in Ibadan
of the accused as advised by the state
prosecution for want of evidence as
usual and one cannot blame the defence
lawyer boasting to even sue the Federal
Government for damages while the real
damage to the nation still looms and
crime committed still unravelled.
Some schools of thought believe that if
Ige had remained in his self-styled
“siddon look” posture at that time and
not joined the Obasanjo government, he
may still be alive or at worst, he may not
have been slaughtered the way they did.
In any case, death could also have come
due to old age. Some of us also believe
that his joining to serve at all under
Obasanjo’s regime was a silent
revolution or protest from the way and
manner his party presidential primary
at that time was conducted. No political
reasoning could really explain the
“wedlock” considering the events of the
past and even in the present
circumstances. Could it be considered
that he went too far to have opted to
serve under the Obasanjo’s regime?
However, as patriotic as he was to serve
his fatherland when he was invited,
should not in any way make him one of
the high profile political killings that will
be swept under the usual sealed marble
forever.
Sometime ago, one high ranking police
officer told the whole world that
investigation could begin on any case if
there are new findings, clues or trails but
that it was “capital intensive”. This
sounds comforting but not encouraging
because the Nigerian economy is still
strong enough to do more than
unravelling this particular murder case
with a view to bringing the killers to
book. The police should be told that
Nigerians deserve to know who killed
“Uncle Bola Ige” as we used to call him
then and of course, a host of others
killed in similar circumstances for the
sake of posterity and justice. More
importantly, to prove to the world that
we are able not only to detect crime but
to carry out justice in the most civilised
way as being done around the globe. I
hope the police understand very well
that a murder case in every clime is not
statute-barred, which means the case
cannot be closed at any given time.
Issues of note are many in this particular
case and that is why time cannot sweep
it away so quickly. The idea is that this
nation must not allow the unborn
generation to taunt us that a
democratically elected government was
unable to find the murderers of a former
Attorney-General of the Federation. It is
now 13 years after the murder and the
nation is still waiting and seems
hopelessly counting.
In fact, there is not even any hope for
the common man when notables and
nobles are being killed and nothing
happens. My worry is that our children
would found it really difficult to
comprehend. By all means, Nigerians
deserve to know who killed our own
“Cicero”
source
Short URL : http://
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ob...
if you add "j", na you know ooo.

tit:
ob...
if you add "j", na you know ooo.

lol

Mr death

Assassin or u ask baba iyabo...