Eshugbayi Eleko (The Oba/Eleko of Lagos/Eko)

Eshugbayi Eleko, the validly appointed King of Lagos by custom had been deposed by the colonial government in 1925. Part of Eleko’s trouble with the colonial government began with the government’s proposed pipe borne water scheme, estimated to cost about ₤130,000 and the subsequent government proposal that Lagosians should pay the cost because it was for their health. Eleko’s objections were that they had not been informed earlier about this scheme, that it was the Europeans who wanted pipe borne water and should pay for it and that the Lagosians’ old well water was still good enough for them. The press, which may be regarded as representing the vocal educated elite, opposed the water rate not because it objected to taxation, but on the American colonists principle of ‘No taxation without representation’. It said the people had not been consulted and therefore the government had no right to tax them. But despite protests, agitations and petitions from Eleko and other anti-government factions, the Iju waterworks was constructed.

Governor Egerton held out the bait of a town council in which they would participate, but they refused it. There they thought the matter ended, but Egerton suddenly published his House Assessment Ordinance, which, despite denials from the government, the people believed was a prelude towards imposing a water rate. Towards the end of 1908, a mass meeting was called. All the markets were closed, expatriate shops were looted, 15,000 people marched on State House, in response to the call from the Eleko’s bellman (town crier). Egerton was impressed by the traditional elite’s demonstration of
power; so also was the educated elite.

Eleko also fell out with the colonial government when he accepted the invitation from the Central Mosque to approve the appointment of Bashorun Balogun and others. The government believed that this was a purely muslim affair that should have been done in the Central Mosque with its blessings rather than with Eleko’s approval. The government held on to this and used the opportunity to avenge itself for Eleko’s defiance over the water rate levy. It thus withdrew recognition and suspended the Eleko’s stipend. Instead of making life more difficult for Eleko as the colonial government had believed, so as to make him change his mind, the suspension made Eleko more popular. Market women flooded Eleko’s palace with foodstuff, while Chief Oluwa (an Idejo chief) and other members of the Ilu committee made sure that the Oba was financially and materially self sufficient. This was a slap on the face of the colonial government. Seeing this, Yesufu Omo Oba led a pro-government group to the government asking for Eleko to be deposed, while the lawyer Egerton Shyngle led another faction which defended Eleko’s action in approving the Central Mosque appointment. As a result, Eleko was reinstated by Sir Hugh Clifford in 1919.

Finally, the controversial trip of Herbert Macaulay and Chief Amodu Tijani Oluwa to London over the Apapa land case and the statement made by Macaulay to the British press were to have significant effect on the Eleko affair. While in London, Macaulay gave a statement to the British press, saying that Eleko (whose grandfather had ceded Lagos to the British) was the head of seventeen million Nigerians and that Eleko was earning less than the lowest paid European gardener in Lagos, that the pension promised Eleko’s grandfather, Dosunmu, had never been paid, while the colonial government had neither rebuilt his Iga (palace) nor renovated it. This provoked serious reaction from the British government, as the British press played up the statement.

Meanwhile, the colonial government in Lagos was at Eleko’s throat over Macaulay’s statement in London. Eleko denied knowledge of the statement, but admitted giving his staff of office to Oluwa according to native customs. Although his press release of the denial appeared in the newspapers, the government would only be content if Eleko’s bell-ringers (town crier) went round with a denial written on behalf of Eleko by Henry Carr. Eleko bluntly refused. The colonial government reacted by withdrawing its recognition of Eleko as a native chief and stopping his stipend.

On June 10, 1925, nineteen princes (known to be pro-government) signed a letter demanding that Eleko should quit the palace within fourteen days. Their letter was signed by eleven literate princes, while the remaining eight affixed their thumbprints. Another letter was sent to Eleko on June 26 notifying him that Ibikunle Akitoye had been chosen to replace him.

The government sanctioned the deposition and ordered that Eshugbayi should leave Lagos. The Eleko did not comply with the order and on August 8th another order was made against the Eleko. He was thus arrested and exiled to Oyo. Sanusi Olusi was then appointed Oba by the Colonial Government.

Eshugbayi took his case to the Privy Council in London and he was assisted by Herbert Macaulay, who was hell-bent on remedying the damage done to the Eleko by a care free Governor-General.

On reviewing the customary laws of Lagos on the deposition of Eleko and the appointment of another oba, the Privy Council in London found rightly that British administrators in Lagos were beginning to act lawlessly. It stated that no validity could be given to a Lagos custom by the whimsical action of the Nigerian Governor-General of Lagos Colony, because, “it is the assent of a community that gives validity to a customary law”. Hence, the court said that the deposition of Eshugbayi Eleko was completely contrary to customary law. Mr Olusi was politely asked by the Lagos colonial authorities to leave Iga Idungaran soonest. This he did on Wednesday June 28, 1931.

After the privy Council directive of June 1928 in favour of Eleko, Herbert Macaulay’s “Lagos Daily News” published an article alleging that the colonial government was planning to plant gunpowder in the car that would bring Eleko back from Oyo, so that it could explode and kill him. For his publication, Macaulay was given six months imprisonment with hard labour, without option of a fine, while his co-owner of the paper, Dr Caulcrick, was fined £50 with the alternative of a month jail term.

Eshugbayi Eleko later resumed Obaship of Lagos in 1931. in 1933, however, Eshugbayi Eleko died.

Nigerians. Make una learn.

My one and only Hero is Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. The honest man that set out to clean Nigeria until evil forces overpowered him; not through fight, by through manipulations.

All progressives should learn from the mistakes of Nzeogwu

me

ekt_bear: me

You?

Please, list your achievements and what you have done for Nigeria.

greateros: Since ojukwu, who sacrificed for his people more than any person you have mentioned so far, is not deserving of being mentioned as a hero in your "unbiased" opinion, then i see no reason to contribute to your post.

.... Gerraout idiot!!!!

Alhaji Alhassan Dantata

(1877-Aug 17th 1955). The wealthiest man in West Africa. 

 

Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was a Nigerian businessman who was the wealthiest man in West Africa at the time of his death.

 

                                             Ancestors and Heritage  

Dantata's father was Abdullahi, a man from the village of Danshayi, near Kano. Dantata was born in Bebeji in 1877, one of several children of Abdullahi and his wife, both of whom were traders and caravan leaders.

Bebeji was on the Kano to Gonja (now in northern Ghana) and Kano to Lagos routes. The people of Bebeji, at least those from the Zango (campsite) were great traders. Bebeji was considered a miniature Kano. There was a saying which went “If Kano has 10 kolas, Bebeji has 20 halves" or in Hausa: "Birni tana da goro goma, ke Bebeji kina da bari 20".  The town attracted many people of different backgrounds in the 19th century, such as the Yorubas, Nupes, Agalawas, etc. It was controlled by the Sarki (chief) of Bebeji who was responsible for the protection of Kano from attack from the southwest. 

 

 Alhassan was born into an Agalawa trading family. His father was a wealthy trader and caravan leader; Madugu Abdullahi while his mother was also a trader of importance in her own right enjoying the title of Maduga - Amarya. Abdullahi, in his turn, was a son of another prosperous merchant, Baba Talatin. It was he who brought
the family from Katsina, probably at the beginning of the nineteenth century, following the death of his father, Ali.

Abdullahi already had a reputation of some wealth from his ventures with his father and therefore inherited his father’s position as a recognized and respected madugu. Like his father, he preferred the Nupe and Gonja routes. He specialized in the exchange of Kano dyed cloth, cattle, slaves and so on for the kola of the Akan forest. Surprisingly, he had added cowries brought to the coast by European traders to the items he carried back to Kano. 

 

Abdullahi continued to operate from Madobi until 1877, one of our few fixed dates when having just set out for a journey to Gonja, his wife delivered in the Zango (campsite) of Bebeji. The child was a boy and after the usual seven days, he was named Alhassan. Abdullahi purchased a house in the town and left his nursing wife and child to await his return from Gonja. On his return, he decided to abandon Madobi and moved to Bebeji. Some say that the house that contains his tomb is still held by the family. The date of his death is unknown, but it was probably about 1885 when Alhassan was between seven and eight years of age. By then he had brothers and sisters – Shuaibu, Malam Jaji, Malam Bala, Malam Sidi and others.

 

 

 

                                                                             Early life

The children were too young to succeed to their father’s position and to manage his considerable wealth. They all received their portion according to Islamic law. Maduga Amarya, like her mother in law, was a trader of wealth in her own right. Indeed she was known to be such a forceful character that nobody in the Zango would take her to wife. She therefore decided to leave the children in Bebeji, in the care of an old slave woman, while she moved to Accra where she became one of the wealthier Hausa traders. 

 

The slave was known as "Tata" from which circumstance young Alhassan became known as Alhassan Dantata because of her role as his ‘mother’ (" Dantata" means "son of Tata”).

Alhassan was sent to a Qur'anic school (madrasah) in Bebeji and as his share of his father’s wealth (as so often happens), seemed to have vanished, he had to support himself. The life of the almajiri (Qur’anic student) is difficult, as he has to find food and clothing for himself and also for his malam (teacher) and at the same time read. Some simply beg while others seek paid work. Alhassan worked and even succeeded at the insistence of Tata in saving. His asusu, “money box” (a pottery vessel) purchased by Tata and set in the wall of the house can still be seen.

 

When he was about 15 years of age, Alhassan joined a Gonja bound caravan to see his mother. He purchased some items from Bebeji, sold half of them on the way and the rest in Accra. When he saw his mother, he was very delighted hoping she would allow him to live without doing any work since she was one of the wealthier local traders. After only a rest of one day, she took him to another malam and asked him to stay there until he was ready to return to Kano and he worked harder in Accra than he did in Bebeji. After the usual reading of the Qur’an, Alhassan Dantata had to go and beg for food for his malam, and himself. When he worked for money on Thursdays and Fridays, Alhassan Dantata would not be allowed to spend the money for himself alone, his malam always took the lion’s share (this is normal in Hausa society). After the visit, his mother sent him back to Bebeji where he continued his studies. Even though now a teenager, Tata continued to insist that he must save something everyday.

 

 

                                      Upheavals and slavery 

When he was still a teenager, great upheavals occurred in the Kano Emirate. This included the Kano Civil War (1893-1894) and the British invasion of the emirate. During the Kano Civil war, Alhassan and his brothers were captured and sold as slaves, but they were able to buy back their freedom and return to Bebeji shortly afterwards.

 

                                       Business career 

Alhassan remained in Bebeji until matters had settled down and the roads were secure, only then did he set out for Accra, by way of Ibadan and Lagos (Ikko) and then by sea to Accra and then to Kumasi, Sekondi and back to Lagos. Alhassan was one of the pioneers of this route. For several years, he carried his kola by sea, using steamers; to Lagos where he usually sold it to Kano bound merchants. By this time, he was relatively wealthy. In 1906, he began broadening his interests by trading in beads, necklaces, European cloth, etc. His mother, who had never remarried, died in Accra around 1908 and he thereafter generally restricted his operations to Lagos and Kano, although he continued to visit Accra.

 

 

Thus far in his career, with most of his fellow long distance traders, he continued to live in one of the towns some distance from Kano City, only visiting the Birni for business purposes. Before Alhassan settled in Kano permanently, he visited Kano City only occasionally to either purchase or sell his wares. He did not own a house there, but was satisfied with the accommodation given to him by his patoma (land lord.). It was during the time of the first British appointed Emir of Kano; Abbas (1903-1919) that Alhassan decided to establish a home in Kano. He purchased his first house in the Sarari area (an extension of Koki). At that time there were no houses from the house of Baban Jaki (at the end of Koki) up to Kofar Mazugal. In fact the area was called Sarari because it was empty and nobody wanted that land. Alhassan built his first house on that land and was able thereafter to extend it freely.

 

 

In 1912, when the Europeans started to show an interest in the export of groundnut, they contacted the already established Kano merchants through the Emir, Abbas and their chief agent, Adamu Jakada. Some established merchants of Kano like Umaru Sharubutu, Maikano Agogo and others were approached and accepted the offer.

 

Later in 1918, Alhassan was approached by the Niger Company to help purchase groundnuts for them. He was already familiar with the manner by which people made fortunes by buying cocoa for Europeans in the Gold Coast. He responded and participated in the enterprise with enthusiasm, he had several advantages over other Kano business men: he could speak some English because of his contact with the people on the coast, thus he could negotiate more directly with the European traders for better prices. He also had accumulated a large capital and unlike other established Kano merchants, had only a small family to maintain, as he was still a relatively young man. Alhassan had excellent financial management, was frugal and unostentatious. He knew some accounting and with the help of Alhaji Garba Maisikeli, his financial controller for 38 years, every kobo was accounted for every day. Not only that, Alhassan was hard working and always around to provide personal supervision of his workers. As soon as he entered the groundnut purchasing business, he came to dominate the field. In fact by 1922 he became the wealthiest businessman in Kano. Umaru Sharubutu and Maikano Agogo were relegated to the second and the third positions respectively. When the British Bank of West Africa was opened in Kano in 1929, he became the first Kano businessman to utilize a bank account when he deposited twenty camel loads of silver coins. Shortly before his death, he pointed to sixty “groundnut pyramids” in Kano and said, “These are all mine”.


 

Alhassan became the chief produce buyer especially of groundnuts for the Niger Company (later U.A.C). It is said that he used to purchase about half of all the nuts purchased by U.A.C in northern Nigeria. Because of this, he applied for a license to purchase and export groundnuts in 1940 just like the U.A.C. However, because of the great depression and the war situation, it was not granted. Even Saul Raccah lost his license to export and import about this time because he did not belong to the Association of West African Merchants. In 1953-4 he became a licensed buying agent (L.B.A) that is, a buyer who sells direct to the marketing board instead of to another firm. However, Alhassan had many business connections both in Nigeria and in other West African countries, particularly the Gold Coast. He dealt, not only in groundnuts, but also in other merchandise. He traded in cattle, kola, cloth, beads, precious stones, grains, rope and other things. His role in the purchase of kola nuts from forest areas of Nigeria for sale in the North was so great, that eventually whole “kola trains” from the Western Region were filled with his nuts alone.

 

When Alhassan finally settled in Kano, he maintained agents, mainly his relations, in other places. For instance Alhaji Bala, his brother, was sent to Lagos. Alhassan employed people, mainly Igbos and Yoruba's and the indigenous Hausas, as wage earners. They worked as clerks, drivers, and labourers. Some of his employees, especially the Hausas, stayed in his house. He was responsible for their marriage expenses. They did not pay rent and in fact, were regarded as members of his extended family. He sometimes provided official houses to some of his workers.

 

People’s opinion of Alhassan Dantata differed. To some people, he was a mutumin kirki (complete gentleman) who was highly disciplined and made money through hard work and honesty. He always served as an enemy to, or a breaker of hoarding. For instance, he would purchase items, especially grains, during the harvest time, when it was abundant at low prices. He would wait until the rainy season, (July or august) when there was limited supply in the markets or when grain merchants started to inflate prices. He then moved to fill the markets with his surplus grains and asked a price lower than the current price in the markets by between 50 – 70%. In this way, he forced down prices. His anti- hoarding activities did not stop at grains and other consumer goods, but even to such items as faifai, igiya, babarma (Mat), dyed cloth, shuni, potash, and so on. However on the other hand, according to information collected in Koki, Dala, Qul-qul, Madabo, Yan Maruci e.t.c Alhassan was viewed as a mugun mutum (wicked person). This was because some people expressed the view that Dantata undercut their prices simply to cripple his fellow merchants.

 

He founded, with other merchants (attajirai), the Kano Citizens’ Trading Company, for industrial undertakings. In 1949, he contributed property valued at  ₤10,200 (ten thousand, two hundred pounds) to the proposed Kano citizens trading company for the establishment of the first indigenous textile mill in Northern Nigeria. Near the end of his life he was appointed a director of the Railway Corporation.

 

 

Real estate

He started to acquire urban land as early as 1917 in the non- European trading site (Syrian quarters) when he acquired two plots at an annual fee of ₤20. All his houses were occupied by his own people; relations, sons, servants, workers and so on. He never built a hotel for whatever purpose in his life and advised his children to do like wise. His numerous large warehouses in and around Kano metropolis were not for rent, rather he kept his own wares in them. 

 

 

Business with women

Because of his Islamic beliefs, Alhassan never transacted business with a woman of whatever age. His wife, Hajiya Umma Zaria, (mother of Aminu) was his chief agent among the women folk. The women did not have to visit her house. She established agents all over Kano city and visited them in turn. When she visited her agents, it was the duty of the agents to ask what the women in the ward wanted. Amina Umma Zaria would then leave the items for them. All her agents were old married women and she warned her agents to desist from conducting business with newly wedded girls. Umma Zaria dealt in the smallest household items, which would cost 2.5 d to sophisticated jewels worth thousands of pounds.

 

 

The manners of Alhassan Dantata

Though Alhassan became the wealthiest man in the British West African colonies, he lived a simple life. He fed on the same foodstuffs as any other individual, such as tuwon dawa da furar gero. He dressed simply in a white gown, a pair of white trousers (da itori), and underwear (yar ciki), a pair of ordinary local sandals, and sewn white cap, white turban and occasionally a malfa (local hat). He was said never to own more than three sets of personal clothing at a time. He never stayed inside his house all day and was always out doing something. He moved about among his workers joking with them, encouraging and occasionally giving a helping hand. He ate his meal outside and always with his senior workers like Garba Maisikeli and Alhaji Mustapha Adakawa. Alhassan met fully established wealthy Kano merchants when he moved to Kano from the Kauye, like Maikano Agogo, Umaru Sharubutu, Salga and so on. He lived with them peacefully and always respected them. Occasionally he visited the senior of them all Umaru Sharubutu to greet him. The eldest son of Umaru Sharubutu became an important employee in his commercial enterprise. He avoided clashes with other influential people in Kano. He hated court litigation. He was in court only once, but before the final judgment the case was settled outside a Lagos court (it was a ₤10,000 civil suit instituted by one Haruna against him). He lived peacefully with the local authorities. Whenever he offended the authorities he would go quietly to solve the problems with the official concerned.

 

 

Health

Alhassan enjoyed good health and was never totally indisposed throughout his active life. However, occasionally he might develop malaria fever and whenever he was sick, he would go to the S.I.M clinic for treatment. Because of his simple eating habits, ordinary Hausa food two or three times a day and his always active mode of life, he never developed obesity. He remained slim and strong throughout his life. Alhassan had no physical defects and enjoyed good eye sight.

 

 

Religion

Alhassan was a devout Muslim. He was one of the first northerners to visit Mecca via England by mail boat in the early 1920’s. He loved reading the Qur’an and Hadith. He had a personal mosque in his house and established a qur’anic school for his children. He maintained a full time Islamic scholar called Alhaji Abubakar (father of Malam Lawan Kalarawi, a renowned Kano public preacher).

He paid zakkat annually according to Islamic injunction and gave alms to the poor every Friday. He belonged to the Qadiriyya brotherhood.

 

 

Pilgrimage and presentation to the King

Soon after the First World War he went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, via Britain, where he was presented to King George V.

 

Education

Alhassan Dantata respected people with qur’anic and other branches of Islamic learning, and helped them occasionally. He established a qur’anic school for his children and other people of the neighbourhood. He insisted that all his children must be well educated in the Islamic way. He appreciated also, functional western education, just enough to transact business (some arithmetic, simple accounting, Hausa reading and writing and spoken English).

 Alhassan backed the establishment of a western style school in the Dala area for Hausas (i.e. non-Fulani) traders’ children in the 1930’s. The existence of a school in Bebeji (the only non-district headquarters in Kano to have one in the 1930’s) was probably due to his influence, although he could neither read nor write English. Alhassan could write beautiful Ajami, but could not speak or write Arabic, although he could read the Qur’an and other religious books with ease (this is very common in Hausa society). Most of the qur’anic reciter's could read very well, but could not understand Arabic. Alhassan Dantata knew some arithmetic-addition and subtraction and could use a ready reckoner. He also encouraged his children to learn enough western education to transact business, the need of his time. He established his own Arabic and English school in 1944, Dantata Arabic and English school.

 

Politics

 He never became a politician in the true sense of the term. However, because of his enormous wealth, he was always very close to the government. He had to be in both the colonial government’s good books and maintain a position very close to the emirs of Kano. He was nominated to represent commoners in the reformed local administration of Kano and in 1950 was made a councillor in the emir’s council- the first non- royal individual to have a seat at the council. Other members of the council then were: Madakin Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa, Walin Kano, Malam Abubakar Tsangaya, Sarkin Shanu, Alhaji Muhammadu Sani, Wazirin Kano Alhaji Abubakar, Makaman Kano Alhaji Bello Alhaji Usman Gwarzo, and the leader Alhaji Abdulllahi Bayero. Alhassan therefore was a member of the highest governing body of Kano in his time. He was also appointed to mediate between NEPU and NPC in Kano in 1954 together with Mallam Nasiru Kabara and other members. He joined no political party, but it is clear that he sympathised with the NPC.

Death

In 1955, Alhassan fell ill and because of the seriousness of the illness, he summoned his chief financial controller, Garba Maisikeli and his children. He told them that his days were approaching their end and advised them to live together. He was particularly concerned about the company he had established (Alhassan Dantata & Son’s). He asked them not to allow the company to collapse. He implored them to continue to marry within the family as much as possible. He urged them to avoid clashes with other wealthy Kano merchants. They should take care of their relatives, especially the poor among them. Three days later he passed away in his sleep on Wednesday 17th august, 1955. He was buried the same day in his house in Sarari ward, Kano. When he died in August 1955, he was the wealthiest man of any race in West Africa.

Heirs

It was and is rare for business organizations to survive the death of their founders in Hausa society. Hausa tradition is full of stories of former successful business families who later lost everything. In Kano city alone names like: Kundila of Makwarari, the wealthiest man at the end of nineteenth century, Maikano Agogo of Koki Ward, Umaru Sharubutu also of Koki Ward, Baban Jaji, Abdu Sarki of Zaitawa Ward, Madugu Indo of Adakawa, and others too numerous to mention here, were some of them. The question is, why this sorry state of affairs?

M.G Smith suggested that three reasons were responsible as follows: the amount of money spent by the wealthy Hausa man on religious and social obligations was so great that only large fortunes could survive. Secondly, he was, after the introduction of the colonial economy, dependent for credit facilities on good relations with expatriate firms and stable groups of reliable agents and thirdly, under Islamic law, his estate was subdivided on inheritance.

He further suggested that only Alhassan of Kano was likely to leave able heirs to continue his business in a grand way. This observation was made in 1949 before Alhassan’s death. The reasons for this, Smith argued, was that his heirs were interested in keeping the family name going and the employment of modern methods of book keeping, the only local merchant to do so at that time. Another observer, Tahir (1919-75) has the opinion that business ventures in Hausa society often collapsed upon the death or retirement of the founder because the heirs were not trained before the death or retirement of the founder. Alhassan Dantata’s entire estate was subdivided according to Islamic law among the eighteen children who survived him. Alhassan’s descendants include Dr Aminu Dantata (son), Sanusi Dantata (son), Abdulkadir Sanusi Dantata (grandson), Dr Mariya Sanusi Dangote (granddaughter), Alhaji Aliko Dangote (great-grandson), Alhaji Tajudeen Aminu Dantata (great-grandson) and Alhaji Sayyu Dantata (great-great grandson).

Sir Louis Phillipe Odumegwu Ojukwu, KBE, (1909-1966)

Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was an extremely successful Nigerian businessman and politician from the Ojukwu family of Nwakanwa Quarters Obiuno Umudim Nnewi south east of Onitsha in modern Anambra State. One of the most illustrious citizens of Nigeria, he had remarkable success as a businessman and also rendered distinguished public service in several fields. He was also associated with several philanthropic and cultural organisations to which he made generous material and tacit contributions.

He was born in 1909 in Nnewi and attended a primary school in Asaba and the Hope Waddell Institute. After formal schooling he joined the Produce Inspection Service as produce examiner in 1928 and later worked as a clerk with the large West African trading company of John Holt. It was here that the self made man who later became one of Nigeria’s foremost business tycoons and a multi-millionaire developed his business interest. He incorporated a textile company in Onitsha to supplement his income during this period, already exhibiting a little bit of his entrepreneurial spirit. While at John Holt, he noticed the severe strain a lack of adequate transportation had on Eastern textile traders He resigned from John Holt in 1934 to start a transport business with one second-hand truck that later grew into a vast transport enterprise. As a transporter he was a tireless worker and meticulous to detail; he was usually the first to inspect his transport vehicles for oil and leakages. His transport company (Ojukwu"s Transport Company) was the first major transport company to move the easterners to Lagos from the Asaba end of the Niger river after they might have crossed over from Onitsha on a boat.

He entered politics in 1951 as a member of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which included him in the delegation to the London Constitutional Conference in 1951. Four years later Odumegwu Ojukwu was elected to the Federal House of Representatives in Lagos, but resigned in 1956 to become chairman of the Eastern Region Development Corporation.

Apart from his work ethic, his success was also oiled by the economic boom after World War II, working with the West African Railway Company and the newly inaugurated produce boards, he provided his fleet for commodity transportation and for other traders use. During the 1950s, he diversified his interest, bought some industries and invested heavily in the real estate sector.

His success, drive and ability led him to a host of other business appointments as chairman of the Eastern Nigerian Marketing Board, chairman of the Nigerian Shipping Line, chairman of the Nigerian Cement Company, first and founding President of The Nigerian Stock Exchange and director of a number of business concerns including Shell-BP. He was also a member of the board of Nigerian Coal Corporation. His last public engagement was as chairman of the Eastern Nigeria Marketing Board. He resigned from this position and also from office as chairman of the African Continental Bank, in May 1966 as a result of ill health.

His own company, founded on the Ojukwu Transport Company in 1934, had at the time of his death in 1966 spread its activities into construction and other areas, growing into a multi-million-naira group and employing thousands of workers.

In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal; he was knighted in 1960. In 1963 the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law, becoming the first to be so honoured by that university. He died on September 13th 1966 at Nkalagu in his home state, at the age of 57.

Ojukwu’s death came a few months after the first Nigerian civilian government was ended by a military coup d’etat which saw his son, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, ascend to office as Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria. Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu later declared the region, which he renamed Biafra, independent of the Federation of Nigeria, but secession was ended after a three-year bitter civil war in 1970.

These are some of the notable names, I think are my Nigerian heroes:

- Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther
- Herbert Macaulay
- Nigeria's Atlanta 1996 Olympic Football Team
- Chief Obafemi Awolowo
- Christopher Okigbo
- Chief Nnamdi Azikwe
- Alhaji Ahmadu Bello
- Alhaji Aminu Kano
- Prof. Wole Soyinka
- Fela Kuti
- Chief Gani Fawenhimi

Henry Oloyede Fajemirokun (1926-78 )


Henry Oloyede Fajemirokun was a prominent Nigerian businessman and one of the country's dynamic indigenous entrepreneurs who promoted West Africa's economic integration.

He was born in Ile-Oluji in Ondo State, Nigeria on July 14 1926. Between 1932 and 1936 he attended St Peter’s School in his birthplace and later St Luke’s School in Oke-Igbo, from 1937 to 1940. He had his secondary education at C.M.S Grammar School, Lagos and Ondo Boys’ High School.

In April 1944, Fajemirokun enlisted in the old Royal West African Frontier Force and in 1945 served with the 2nd Echelon at Jhansi GHQ in India. After army service in 1946, he pursued an accountancy career, joining the post and telecommunications division of the colonial civil service. He was elected president of the Post and Telecommunications Ex-servicemen’s Union in 1948 and later became president-general of the Nigerian Civil Service Union until 1956, when he left to start a business career, which at the time of his death in March 1978 spanned a whole spectrum of ventures from insurance and engineering to shipping, centred around Henry Stephens and Sons.

He started business in the 1950s by exporting hides and skin, rubber, coffee and shea nuts. In the 1960s he started a massive importation of cement from Egypt and Poland. He received funding for this particular venture from a credit facility that had been provided to him by a British bank in London. He also ventured into commodity brokerage and in 1969 he bought and held a seat on the London Stock Exchange.

Later in the decade, as the chairman and largest shareholder of the Henry Stephens group of companies, he became a major shareholder in some leading companies in Nigeria. Following a decision to withdraw the wealth of the country from foreign nationals that was taken in 1972, an “indigenisation” decree was promulgated by the Federal Government. Henry Stephens capitalized on the euphoria of the contemporary nationalism of the period and acquired or represented major foreign operations in the country. It became the sole distributor for Xerox after the Daily Times, a company Fajemirokun had failed to acquire a stake in, left negotiations. Henry Stephens also acquired stakes in Johnson Wax and Fan Milk. The company was a pioneer in the Nigerian maritime industry and was one of the first Nigerian companies to own an interest in a shipping line

In 1970 he was appointed president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry; in 1972 he became president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Mines; the same year he was elected the first president of the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce, followed in 1974 with the vice presidency of the Federation of Commonwealth Chambers of Commerce. Henry Fajemirokun was one of the two co-presidents of the Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce and also a member of the Board of Governors of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce.


Henry Fajemirokun was not only a successful businessman; he was also a respected man in Nigeria. In 1968, in appreciation of his own contributions to the development of his province, the Jegun of Ile-Oluji conferred the chieftaincy title of Yegbato of Ile-Oluji on him. In 1971 he was given the title of Asiwaju of Okeigbo and the University of Ife conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. A few days before his death – in Abidjan, while leading a trade mission to the Ivory Coast – he presented a cheque for N 15,000 to help build a town hall in Ile-Ife.

Nwankwo Kanu

(From Wikipedia)

Nwankwo Kanu, OON (born 1 August 1976), or simply Kanu, is a Nigerian footballer who plays for Portsmouth. He was also a member of the Nigerian national team for 16 years from 1994 until 2010. Kanu is a member of the Igbo ethnic group;[2] his name, Nwankwo, means Baby boy born on Nkwo market day in the Igbo language.[3]

Kanu has won a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three FA Cup Winners Medals and two African Player of the Year awards amongst others. He is also one of few players to have won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal.[4] He holds the record for most substitute appearances in Premier League history, appearing from the bench 118 times.[5] He is also a UNICEF ambassador.[6]

Career

Early career

Born in Owerri, Nigeria, Kanu began his career at Nigerian league club Federation Works, before moving to Iwuanyanwu Nationale. After a notable performance at the U-17 World Championships he was signed by Dutch Eredivisie AFC Ajax in 1993 for €207,047. He made his Ajax debut the following year and went on to score 25 goals in 54 appearances. Kanu also came on as a sub in Ajax's 1995 Champions League final win over AC Milan. In 1996, Ajax sold Kanu to Serie A side Internazionale for around $4.7 million that summer he captained the Nigerian team that won gold at the Olympics, and scored two late goals in the semi-finals against powerhouses Brazil to overturn a 2–3 scoreline into a 4–3 win in extra time. Kanu was also named African Footballer of the Year for that year . However, soon after returning from the Olympics, Kanu underwent a medical examination at Inter, which revealed a serious heart defect; he underwent surgery in November 1996 to replace an aortic valve and did not return to his club until April 1997. In interviews, Kanu frequently cites his faith as a Christian,[7] and has often mentioned this trying time of his career as an occasion when he prayed to God. Kanu's experience also led to his founding the Kanu Heart Foundation, an organisation that helps predominantly young African children who suffer heart defects. Kanu is known throughout Africa for his philanthropic work.

Arsenal

In February 1999, after just eleven games and one goal for Inter, Kanu was signed by Arsenal for approximately £4.15 million. His debut for Arsenal, against Sheffield United in the FA Cup, was a highly unusual match. With the score 1–1 and ten minutes to go, the United goalkeeper, Alan Kelly, kicked the ball out of touch so that treatment could be given to an injured player. When the ball was thrown back into play by Ray Parlour, although it was intended for Kelly, Kanu was unaware of the circumstances. Thinking it to be an attacking move, he chased the throw-in down the right wing unchallenged, and centred the ball for Marc Overmars, who promptly scored to make the match 2–1. Immediately after the match Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger offered to right the error and replay the match; in the end, Arsenal won that match 2–1 as well.

Despite the events overshadowing his debut, Kanu's career was quickly revived at Arsenal. He scored his first goal for the club in the next round of the cup against Derby County, coming off the bench to net the only goal of the game. He quickly became known for his goalscoring prowess from the bench, scoring important goals against Sheffield Wednesday, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa as a substitute. He became very popular among the fans for his two-fingered salute – something that he later explained was based on the team's nickname, The Gunners – which started in 1999 against Middlesbrough.

Kanu was named African Footballer of the Year for the second time in 1999, and in 1999–2000 he scored 17 times in 50 matches for the Gunners, including three goals in fifteen minutes against Chelsea to turn a 2–0 deficit to a 3–2 victory. In August 2001, Arsenal rejected a bid from Fulham of "around £7m" for Kanu.[8] However, Kanu's appearances for Arsenal gradually became less frequent, particularly after the emergence of Thierry Henry as Arsenal's first choice striker, when Kanu was mainly used as a substitute. Despite this, Kanu won the Double with Arsenal in 2002, an FA Cup in 2003 (as an unused sub) and the Premier League title in 2004. In all he played 197 games for Arsenal (nearly half of them as a substitute), scoring 44 goals. In the summer of 2004, after his contract with Arsenal ended, he moved to West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer.

In 2008, Kanu was voted 13th in the "Gunners' Greatest 50 Players" poll[9]

West Bromwich Albion

West Brom had just been promoted to the FA Premier League for the second time in the space of two years. Kanu started as a regular for the club, making his debut in a 1–1 draw away at Blackburn Rovers on 14 August 2004. He scored his first goal for Albion on 18 September 2004, an 88th-minute equalizer in a 1–1 home draw against Fulham. In a match against Middlesbrough on 14 November 2004, Kanu was guilty of an incredible miss in injury time, with Albion 2–1 down. Kanu had sent a low cross over the bar from a yard away from the goal line. Manager Bryan Robson was seen in TV footage mouthing the words "How the Bleep did he miss that?", and Kanu's howler was crowned 'Miss of the Season' by many television stations in the end-of-season reviews. Nevertheless, the 2004–05 season was ultimately a memorable one for West Brom, as they became the first club to avoid relegation from the Premier League after being bottom of the table at Christmas.

One of the most memorable games of the 2005–06 season for Kanu came with the visit of his former club Arsenal to The Hawthorns on 15 October 2005. Philippe Senderos put the visitors ahead in the 17th minute, but Kanu equalised shortly before half time. West Brom went on to win the match 2–1 with a spectacular strike from Darren Carter. It was their first home win over Arsenal since 1973,[10] and the first time that they had come from behind to win a Premier League game.[11] But such highlights were rare for Albion that season, and the club was relegated at the end of 2005–06. Kanu's contract had expired, and he chose not to renew it. In his two years at The Hawthorns he made a total of 58 appearances – 16 of them as a substitute – and scored nine goals.

In the summer of 2006, Kanu played as a guest for Arsenal in Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial game, the first match to be played in Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium. The game was tied 1–1 when Kanu scored the winning goal, making him the third person to score in the stadium. At the end of the match, Kanu joined the rest of the Arsenal side in hoisting the retired Dutchman on their shoulders as fans gave him a standing ovation. He remains a popular figure at Arsenal, being applauded when he appears at the Emirates Stadium.

Portsmouth

Kanu was a free agent following his departure from West Brom, and he signed for Portsmouth on a one-year deal shortly before the start of the 2006–07 season.[12] Pompey had undergone a revival in the second half of the previous campaign, following the return of Harry Redknapp as manager, avoiding relegation by four points after being in serious danger at the turn of the year. At the start of the 2006–07 season, they were undefeated in their first five games, during which they did not concede a single goal. Kanu made his debut for Portsmouth as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers on 19 August 2006, the opening day of the 2006–2007 Premier League season. He scored twice and missed a penalty. Though Kanu led the top scorers chart early in the season, he had a goal drought for the rest of the season, but still finished as the top goalscorer for Portsmouth, with 12 goals.

In his second season at Portsmouth, Kanu scored in both the FA Cup 1–0 semi-final win against West Bromwich Albion and the 1–0 win in the final against Cardiff City, earning him a third FA Cup winner's medal.

His first goal of the 2008–09 season put Portsmouth 2–0 up in their eventual 2–2 UEFA Cup draw with Italian club A.C. Milan. He later scored the winning goal against Bolton Wanderers, which ensured Pompey's mathematical safety. It was his only Premier League goal of 2008–2009. He re-signed with Pompey in August 2010, with an eye on becoming a coach when he retired.[13] Kanu signed a three-year deal and kept the number 27 shirt,[14] but was not a regular starter throughout the course of the season and only managed two goals.

International career

Kanu was a member of the Nigerian national team from 1994 until 2010, making his debut in friendly against Sweden. Earlier on at the start of his career, Kanu was instrumental in Nigeria's overall success at the 1993 FIFA U-17 tournament in Japan and their subsequent 2–1 victory over Ghana in the final. With five goals, he was second joint-scorer in the tournament with Peter Anosike and Manuel Neira, behind compatriot and Captain Wilson Oruma.

As well as winning the Olympics gold in the football event at 1996 Olympics,[15] Kanu participated in the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups. On 24 June 2010, Kanu ended his international career following Nigeria's exit from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Nigeria lost their group matches against Argentina and Greece, before a 2–2 draw with South Korea ended their stay in the tournament.[16] He won 86 caps and scored 13 goals for his country and is the joint most capped Nigerian player of all-time alongside Muda Lawal.

Personal life

His younger brother is also professional footballer and his stepbrothers are Anderson "Anders" Gabolalmo Kanu and Henry Isaac. He also has a younger brother called Yaya.

1)All youth corpers that died during the last general Election.
2) Samuel Oparaji

Chioma Ajunwa: first and only Nigerian Olympic gold medalist.

Aba Women Rioters: for resisting unfair taxation.

Queen Amina: for leading men to protect her territory against insurgents.

The young man who stayed with his sick wife in LUTH for over a year (someone pls help me out with his name). It couldnt hv bn easy!

Tropilo (real witheld): for being about d most patriotic Nigerian. Paying his taxes, performing his civic responsibilities, non-tribalist/sectionalist, etc.

Picture below (3 of my favourites): John Pepper-Clark, Professor Chinua Achebe and Professor Wole Soyinka @ Dodan Barracks to plead for the life of (soldier and poet) Major General Mamman Vatsa. Picture and some excerpts in the narrative below are from "You May Set Forth At Dawn" by Wole Soyinka (published by Bookcraft).


In October 1965, he was arrested and charged with holding up a radio station at gunpoint and replacing the tape of a speech by the premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, with a different one accusing the premier of election malpractice.

“It all proceeded according to plan. The duty officers responded as any sensible person would under the gun, removed the premier’s tape and replaced it with mine. It ran long enough for the message to the government to be clearly transmitted – drop your stolen mandate, leave town and take your reprobates with you etc. etc. Then a disbelieving senior operator in another control room roused himself from his paralysis, rushed into the studio and cut off the transmission. By that time I had slipped away. My retreat was unhindered”.

Wole Soyinka was declared wanted for stealing the tape of the premier’s speech. He went into hiding, first in Ibadan and later in the Eastern Region. The government of the Eastern Region and the Eastern Region police were sympathetic to his cause. The Federal Police found out that he was in the East and guessed that he would be at Professor Sam Aluko’s house, so they sent a signal to the Eastern Region police to search for him there. The following ensued.

“They arrived as promised, armed with copies of the WANTED notice that was now home to my photograph. A charade ensued. Sam accompanied them as they looked through the rooms, one after the other, passed through the living room where I was seated, looked right through me as through a windowpane. Content with the futility of their mission, they sat down with the Aluko family in the same living room. With a straight face, they enquired of Sam Aluko if he had any news of me. Sam shook his head in the negative. Well, be sure to keep us informed if he makes contact – we’ll leave this WANTED notice with you in case you lay eyes on anyone resembling him – again looking straight through me as I sat sipping my coffee”.



In 1967 Wole Soyinka journeyed to Biafra to meet with Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chinua Achebe, etc. in order to find a solution to the brewing crisis that was to later lead to the civil war. He also met Colonel Victor Banjo, who told him that he did not believe in Biafra, but rather, intended to lead a third force (The Liberation Army of Nigeria) to invade Lagos and overthrow Yakubu Gowon. Victor Banjo asked Soyinka to help him deliver a message to Obafemi Awolowo, Olusegun Obasanjo (General Officer Commanding the troops in the West) and other Western leaders.

Soyinka, with the help of an officer in military intelligence, called Obasanjo. Obasanjo said he had to search for the source of the mysterious ringing that he eventually traced to a phone in a wardrobe in his bedroom. They agreed on a rendezvous and also agreed to attend the meeting alone and unarmed. However, they both arrived at the rendezvous with “lookouts” and escorts. Obasanjo later admitted that he was also armed at the time. They succeeded in losing their lookouts and escorts and Soyinka delivered Banjo’s message. Banjo wanted Obasanjo to stand aside and grant him free passage through the West on his journey to unseat Gowon in Lagos. Obasanjo, in reply, refused to grant free passage to Banjo, stating that he had sworn an oath of loyalty to Lagos and so he was loyal to whoever was in command in Lagos. He suggested that Banjo could get to Lagos through other means, for instance, over water via Okitipupa.

Soyinka was declared wanted by the government (he was even branded a Biafran spy), arrested and detained for two years and four months (he spent a year and ten months of that time in solitary confinement).

This biography of Brigadier General Dr. Otu Oviemo Ovadje, inventor of the EAT-SET, was written before he retired from the Nigerian Army.

Brigadier General Dr. Otu Oviemo Ovadje, born 20 December 1954 is a Medical Doctor in the Nigerian Army and a Chief consultant anaesthesiologist and intensive care physician who works at the Military Hospital, Ikoyi-Lagos. Trained at both the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. He is a Fellow Medical College of Anaesthesiology, Fellow West African College of Surgion member Association of Military Surgion of the Federal Republic of Austria and Life member of the Association of Military Surgion of the United States (AMSUS) and has attended numerous courses and conferences internationally.

Brigadier General Dr. Ovadje was declared the Best African Scientist in 1995 before African Heads of States when he won the World Intellectual Property Organisation and Organisation of African Unity Gold Medal for scientific work designed to save women who usually die from abnormal pregnancy (ECTOPIC GESTATION). He also won Promex Silver Medal in Geneva in April 1998. He is a two time winner of the Chief of Army Staff Award of the Nigerian Army for professional excellence, and various non medical awards. Recently elected into the membership of the Association of Military Surgeons of the Federal Republic of Austria.

Brigadier General Dr. Ovadje was Chief of Delegation -Nigeria, to the World Congress of Military Medicine at various times. Dr. Ovadje has delivered lectures in United States of America, Germany; China; Zimbabwe, Austria and Lesotho- South Africa. He is a member of the Technical Working Committee of the International Congress of Military Medicine.



Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje in 1989, solved the problem of blood salvage from body cavities by pioneering and creating a design the EATSET to replace and improve on the gauze filtration technique as practiced in developing countries. The EATSET device has been described as a low cost and an appropriate technology relevant to the needs of developing countries. Its development is part of the global effort at ensuring blood safety. The device is made up of a transparent rigid capsule, incorporating a V – shaped micro – filter and its part arrangements allow its adaptation to a manual source of low vacuum.

Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje, as a medical doctor undergoing specialist training in Nigeria, observed that a lot of women during pregnancy in developing countries die from internal haemorrhage (bleeding) arising from ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

The condition is common in developing countries and the absence of a well organized blood transfusion service is a factor in the increased morbidity and mortality in this group of women, many of whom cannot afford the cost of procuring blood from the laboratories. The gauze filtration and scooping technique adopted by earlier doctors did not seem to be attractive to most practioners who considered the technique messy and unsafe.

The initial skepticism that greeted the simplicity of the EATSET and it’s lack of sophistication led to the invitation of Dr. Watson Williams by the World Health Organization as consultant at the instance of the UNDP in its response to a request by Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje for financial support to enable him refine the crude device through a North _ South collaboration.

The EATSET was used in its primitive but sterile form by Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje to save intraperitoneal blood from 12 patients as presented at the world congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM) in Augsburg, Germany in June 1994, and Published in the journal of the ICMM in 1995.

The UNDP sponsored the refinement of Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje’s EATSET in 1994, under the executive of the World Health Organization. By April 1995, the equipment was refined and in-vitro trials were conducted successfully at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital by Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje, Mr. Fell and Professor Asalor, Professor Akinsete and Professor Dorothy Foulkes-Crabbe, (Chairman of the African Chapter of the World Federation of societies of Anesthesiologist.) (WFSA) both approved of the work.

Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje organized an International Scientific Conference and Workshop (April 29 – 31 1995 sponsored by the UNDP, WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health to determine the degree of the problem of heamorrhage in pregnant women in developing countries. About 430 medical professionals, (Doctors, Nurses, Hospital, Administrators, Scientists and Industrialist attended from Nigeria, Ghana, Switzerland, United Kingdom and India. His presentation of techniques of auto-transfusion and the EATSET to medical doctors undergoing specialist training at an OPEC funded conference at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (1990) and during a seminar organized by the Commonwealth Defence Science Organization at the Defence Headquarters in 1991 contributed in endearing the EATSET to many of his professional colleagues.

Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje’s work in the management of ectopics in developing countries was publicly acknowledged by Government. UNDP and WHO whose awareness of the need for a simplified, low cost device such as the EATSET in developing countries increased. Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje won the 1995 OAU-WIPO Invention Award in recognition of his significant contribution to African innovation in the field of Health Care. A Gold Medal was presented to Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje during the OAU summit in Addis-Ababa.

Prof Morel’s report from the Geneva University Hospital Cantonal confirmed the need for the EATSET and of its usefulness in clinical practice. Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje in 1996 won the National Council of Health and Ministerial Award for professional excellence and for his contribution to health technology

Brigadier General Dr Oviemo Ovadje won the World Bank institute award in February 2000 after he was classified as one of the top 339 finalists at the developmental market place in Washington DC.

He became the first African to win the World Health Organisation Sasakawa Award in the year 2000.

He won the national honour of Member of order of the Niger MON

yet we don't have any one that provide us with electricity!

Timothy Adeola Odutola

Early life

Adeola Odutola was born in Ijebu-Ode, a community, which earlier had a fructifying gateway to the port of Lagos. However, the coming of colonialists had clipped the sovereignty of the Ijebu's and their right over the Lagos transit. It was during the latter period that he was born to the family of an Ijebu produce trader. He attended St Saviour's School, Italupe but he left at the age of fifteen after the death of his father. He was transferred to Ile-Ife by his family to ease his mother's burden but he later returned to Ijebu Ode to re-unite with his family and try to complete his secondary education. He then registered and attended the Ijebu Ode Grammar school for four years. After cutting short his secondary education, he left for Lagos to fend for himself. He became a clerk in various departments of the Lagos Colony and later, in the Ijebu Native Administration. He occupied his spare time by engaging in private trading from 1921-1932.

Business career

In 1932, he resigned his position as a court clerk and entered private enterprise. He soon opened damask stores and fish stalls at various cities in western Nigeria, such as Ife, Ibadan, Ilesha and Lagos. After, his subtle beginnings as a fishing net and damask trader, he entered the Cocoa and Palm trading business and started buying lorries to transport the produce to Lagos for export. He built two large commodity storage stores during this period, one was located at Ijebu Ode, he was also involved in the business and political community as a member of the Produce Buyers Union and the Nigerian Youth Movement. However, the establishment of marketing boards, and the subsequent power of the boards to regulate Cocoa and Palm oil trading proved to be an inhibiting factor to private entrepreneurship in the commodity produce business. Odutola, gradually, transferred his resources and energy to saw milling and gold mining at Ilesha. He also became a major agent for John Holt Nigeria. At the beginning of the drive towards industrialisation in Nigeria,Odutola extended his industrial prowess to the production of rubber goods and started the manufacturing of cycle tyres and tubes in 1967.

Throughout his career, he established various factories in the country, spanning, the transport and food industry, he also built a secondary school at Ijebu-Ode. He was a member and later president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria in the early 70s.

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, (born 23 July 1929) was a journalist who became governor of Lagos State in Nigeria from 1979 to 1983, and later was Minister of Works under the Sani Abacha military regime (1993–1998).

Background
Lateef Kayode Jakande was born in the Epetedo area of Lagos Island on 23 July 1929. He studied at the Lagos public school at Enu-Owa, Lagos Island, then at Bunham Memorial Methodist School, Port Harcourt (1934–1943). He studied briefly at King's College in 1943, and then enrolled at Ilesha Grammar School in 1945, where he edited a literary paper called The Quarterly Mirror. In 1949 Jakande began a career in journalism first with the Daily Service and then in 1953 joining the Nigerian Tribune. In 1956 he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Tribune by the owner Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His editorials were factual and forthright, and were treated by the colonial powers with respect.[1] After leaving the Tribune in 1975, Jakande established John West Publications and began to publish The Lagos News. He served as the first President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).

Governor of Lagos State
Encouraged by Awolowo, he ran for election as executive governor of Lagos State in 1979, on the Unity Party of Nigeria platform, and was elected. His administration was effective and open. He introduced housing and educational programs targeting the poor, building new neighbourhood primary and secondary schools and providing free primary and secondary education. He established the Lagos State University. Jakande's government constructed over 20,000 housing units. The schools and housing units were built cheaply, but were of great value.[1] He also started a metroline project to facilitate mass transit. The project was halted and his tenure as Governor ended when the military seized power on 31 December 1983.

Later career
After the military take-over in 1983, Jakande was charged, prosecuted and convicted of treason, although later he was pardoned. After being freed, he accepted the position of Minister of Works under the Sani Abacha military regime, which earned him some criticism. He claimed that he had accepted the post under pressure from MKO Abiola and other progressive leaders.[3] In a later interview, he said he had no regrets about the decision to serve.[4] However, his association with Abacha handicapped his career in politics after the restoration of democracy in 1999.

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande became a senior member of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) when the UNPP and APP merged. In June 2002, he was "suspended" by a faction of the ANPP loyal to Chief Lanre Razaq.[6] Jakande was the first chairman of the Action Party of Nigeria (APN) when it was formed in November 2006. In May 2009, he was reported to be engaged a struggle for control of the party with his former ally, Dr. Adegbola Dominic.[7]

Many prominent people attended his 75th birthday celebration. At this event, Governor of Lagos State Bola Ahmed Tinubu said Jakande was worth celebrating for his life of consistent commitment to public service. Imo State Governor Achike Udenwa said Jakande's life and times epitomised "resilience, positive audacity, bravery and bravado, and a knack for excellence."

apart from THE GREAT GANI, and our sports heros

i wonder what makes the other people great nigerians. they simply pursued their personal ambltions and climb to the top.

Fela Anikulapo and Gani Fawehinmi were extra ordinary in pursuit of justice

courage89: Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, (born 23 July 1929) was a journalist who became governor of Lagos State in Nigeria from 1979 to 1983, and later was Minister of Works under the Sani Abacha military regime (1993–1998).

Background
Lateef Kayode Jakande was born in the Epetedo area of Lagos Island on 23 July 1929. He studied at the Lagos public school at Enu-Owa, Lagos Island, then at Bunham Memorial Methodist School, Port Harcourt (1934–1943). He studied briefly at King's College in 1943, and then enrolled at Ilesha Grammar School in 1945, where he edited a literary paper called The Quarterly Mirror. In 1949 Jakande began a career in journalism first with the Daily Service and then in 1953 joining the Nigerian Tribune. In 1956 he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Tribune by the owner Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His editorials were factual and forthright, and were treated by the colonial powers with respect.[1] After leaving the Tribune in 1975, Jakande established John West Publications and began to publish The Lagos News. He served as the first President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).

Governor of Lagos State
Encouraged by Awolowo, he ran for election as executive governor of Lagos State in 1979, on the Unity Party of Nigeria platform, and was elected. His administration was effective and open. He introduced housing and educational programs targeting the poor, building new neighbourhood primary and secondary schools and providing free primary and secondary education. He established the Lagos State University. Jakande's government constructed over 20,000 housing units. The schools and housing units were built cheaply, but were of great value.[1] He also started a metroline project to facilitate mass transit. The project was halted and his tenure as Governor ended when the military seized power on 31 December 1983.

Later career
After the military take-over in 1983, Jakande was charged, prosecuted and convicted of treason, although later he was pardoned. After being freed, he accepted the position of Minister of Works under the Sani Abacha military regime, which earned him some criticism. He claimed that he had accepted the post under pressure from MKO Abiola and other progressive leaders.[3] In a later interview, he said he had no regrets about the decision to serve.[4] However, his association with Abacha handicapped his career in politics after the restoration of democracy in 1999.

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande became a senior member of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) when the UNPP and APP merged. In June 2002, he was "suspended" by a faction of the ANPP loyal to Chief Lanre Razaq.[6] Jakande was the first chairman of the Action Party of Nigeria (APN) when it was formed in November 2006. In May 2009, he was reported to be engaged a struggle for control of the party with his former ally, Dr. Adegbola Dominic.[7]

Many prominent people attended his 75th birthday celebration. At this event, Governor of Lagos State Bola Ahmed Tinubu said Jakande was worth celebrating for his life of consistent commitment to public service. Imo State Governor Achike Udenwa said Jakande's life and times epitomised "resilience, positive audacity, bravery and bravado, and a knack for excellence."

But Ahmed Bola Tinubu is a big thief,who wants Lagos State to cough out 1Billion naira for his birthday,meanwhile I leant that man is over 70 already.

shymmex:

I don't want this thread to become another tribal e-war. Ojukwu did his thing for Biafra - bute he never really contributed anything of note, to Nigeria - both before and after Biafra. I included CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO on my list instead of Ojukwu. CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO died fighting the Biafran cause - and before Biafra, he made his mark as a modernist - and one of the greatest writers and poets - to ever come out of Nigeria.

Hey, you can post Ojukwu's achievements if you want, but I'd rather have Christopher Okigbo on mine.

haha i laff in oshimili...
Ojukwu did his thing for biafra no doubt...
Awolowo did his thing for Yoruba finish...Awo is a regional/tribal/ethnic leader and therefore you cant force him on the 29 non Yoruba states....

If ojukwu an igbo defender is not in the list, how come awo a Yoruba defender is on the list? Ndi Yoruba and sophisticated sophistication...


No wonder my president called u guys rascals..

For me-

Major General Babatunde Idiagbon

He's a great man!

shymmex: These are some of the notable names, I think are my Nigerian heroes:

I decided not to include Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu on my list because, while I commend him for his bravery for the Biafra war (some of tactics were myopic) - but his lack of achievements before and after the civil war, made him ineligible to be a Nigerian hero. He made the best decision at that time, due to the pogroms - though, the execution was questionable.

You are one of the biggest bigot that pretends not to be a bigot I've ever seen. Each time you start a thread pretending it to be good but even before it begins, you destroy it.
Ojukwu is not your hero, and so what? do you need to say it.

[quote author=igbo boy]


haha i laff in oshimili...
Ojukwu did his thing for biafra no doubt...
Awolowo did his thing for Yoruba finish...Awo is a regional/tribal/ethnic leader and therefore you cant force him on the 29 non Yoruba states....

If ojukwu an igbo defender is not in the list, how come awo a Yoruba defender is on the list?

Ask that slave

Ndi Yoruba and sophisticated sophistication...


No wonder my president called u guys rascals..

abi o

General Sani Abacha

Shina Rambo

Anini

Bode George

Tafa Balogun

My Nigerian Heroes are: Murtala Mohammed, Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu and Mohammadu Buhari.

Colonel David "Baba" Ogunewe and Captain (later Major General) Joseph Nanven Garba.


On July 29th 1966 absolute madness broke out across Nigeria. Northern soldiers were engaged in mass murder, killing Igbo soldiers and civilians in barracks and towns across Nigeria. However, two officers of the Nigerian Army, acting as proper officers and gentlemen, were able to ensure that not a single life was lost in their units. Read their stories below.


Enugu: July 1966 (excerpts from Operation Aure by Dr Nowa Omoigui).

The commander of the 1st battalion in Enugu, Lt. Col. David “Baba” Ogunewe, a thoroughly professional and experienced officer who had risen from the ranks, found out about the Abeokuta mutiny late at night on July 29 by accident. Captain Ogbonna had tried to reach the battalion from Abeokuta.
 
The duty officer at the 1st battalion (who happened to be a northerner) was not on seat when Ogbonna’s message came through, so it was passed directly to Lt. Col. Ogunewe, thus giving him an early insight into events, which proved to be crucial. He went to the mess in the early hours of July 30 and found a group of northern officers (including Lts. Shehu Musa Yar-Adua, A. A. Abubakar, Sale Mamood, Daudu Suleiman, Captains Muhammadu Jega, Gibson S. Jalo and others) fully dressed in combat fatigues and apparently talked them out of taking precipitate action, tapping an incredible reserve of goodwill he had always had with the boys. Ogunewe’s successful confrontation with the northern officers is all the more remarkable when it is realized that he was unarmed and had only been in command of that battalion for six months. It was truly a testimony to his man-management skills in crisis, well worth study for future reference. It turns out though, that these officers had already been having meetings behind Hotel Presidential in Enugu to discuss their own contributions to the “Aure” plot and the neutralization of Lt. Col. Ojukwu. However, they had decided after careful appreciation of the situation, surrounded by a hostile population, to restrict themselves to self defence to avoid reprisals against their families.
 
In an October 1979 interview with the FRCN, Major-General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua (rtd), now deceased, recalled his role as the Adjutant of the 1st Battalion in those dark days. According to him, there was no plan initially to kill anyone although he clearly intended to arrest Lt. Col C. Ojukwu, then Military Governor. He corroborates other sources who have since said that the coup date had in fact been put off when informal word came late on Friday night, more likely early Saturday July 30, from Captain Remawa in Abeokuta, that violence had broken out. At first Yar'Adua did not know what to make of it since Remawa was not part of the original "Aure" plot. But then he got dressed and alerted other northern officers. By the time he returned to the office at about 4 am, as he put it: "........my CO and all the Igbo officers had been there at three, because somebody had also rang them from Abeokuta and told them what was happening." This "somebody" was none other than Captain Ogbonna.

A joint guard, consisting of northern and southern soldiers was then posted to guard the armoury, choking off weapon flow. Ogunewe then notified Lt. Col Ojukwu and later ordered that all officers irrespective of regional origin should live together in the mess while all Other Ranks were to live on the parade ground. In this manner, no group could conspire or make a move without detection. The only officer authorized to be armed at this point was Ogunewe himself who sat with the other officers while everyone looked at everyone.
 
At 11am on July 30, Ojukwu called a meeting of the regional executive council at which they were briefed on events in other parts of the country. Before then Ojukwu had been on the telephone all morning contacting units and eastern officers all over the country to get a picture of events. He is quoted by NU Akpan, former Secretary to the Government of the Eastern region after one of his calls, as saying: “One thing is clear, however; these people are quite bent on annihilating the Ibos.” Later that day, for reasons that have never been clarified, he slipped out of Enugu (leaving Ogunewe behind) and went to Onitsha from where he was making his calls to Ogundipe in Lagos encouraging him to stand firm. Much later that night, urged by Mr. P. Okeke who was then Commissioner of Police, he returned to Enugu, moving his office, home and relatives to the Police HQ, surrounded by a special guard of Mobile Policemen of Igbo origin. That same evening, eastern chiefs and traditional rulers arrived back from the Traditional Rulers meeting in Ibadan, bringing with them information about the kidnapping of Ironsi and Fajuyi.
 
By Sunday July 31st, when Ojukwu called the executive council again, he announced that Brigadier Ogundipe had since told him that the situation was out of control. Shortly thereafter, Ogundipe himself could not be contacted. It was not until Lt. Col. Gowon’s broadcast on August 1st that a transient semblance of order became discernible. Ojukwu made a broadcast in response in which he said, inter-alia,
 
“In the course of this rebellion, I have had discussions with the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Brigadier Ogundipe, who as the next most senior officer in the absence of the Supreme Commander, should have assumed command of the Army………”
 
”During those discussions, it was understood that the only condition on which the rebels would agree to cease fire were: that the Republic of Nigeria be split into its component parts; and that all southerners in the North be repatriated to the South and that Northerners resident in the South be repatriated to the North……”
 
“…….the brutal, planned annihilation of officers of Eastern Nigerian origin in the last two days has again cast serious doubts as to whether the people of Nigeria, after these cruel and bloody atrocities, can ever sincerely live together as members of the same nation….…”
 
“….I have further conveyed to the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, my fellow military governors and the Chief of Staff, Army Headquarters, my understanding that the only intention of the announcement made by the Chief of Staff, Army Headquarters today is the restoration of peace in the country whilst immediate negotiations are begun to allow the people of Nigeria to determine the form of their future association. Good night and thank you.”
 
Ojukwu then spent the next one week insisting that northern soldiers in Enugu (who comprised no less than two thirds of the battalion) be removed from the city before he would consider leaving the safety of the Police HQ back to the State House.
 
Through all this, Ogunewe kept in touch with Gowon in Lagos and was crucial to arrangements that were subsequently made to successfully repatriate non-eastern soldiers and their families out of the region - a remarkable achievement for which he was rewarded by being fully reabsorbed into the Nigerian Army without loss of rank after the civil war. But even this was not so straightforward. For one, Ogunewe had to resist all kinds of entreaties to allow vengeful Igbo mobs gain entry into the barracks to liquidate the northern troops there. Secondly, according to then Major (later Brigadier) Benjamin Adekunle, Lt. Col. Murtala Muhammed had contacted Lt. Yar’Adua secretly and ordered him to break into the armoury to secure arms and ammunition for northern soldiers - to the exclusion of others. This led to a clash between them which almost cost Adekunle his life later on.



Dodan Barracks Ikoyi: July 1966 (excerpts from Operation Aure by Dr Nowa Omoigui).

After being alerted, first by Lt. Col. Muhammed, then Lt. Col. Gowon, Captain Garba and Lt. Tarfa secured the Federal Guards Barracks at Obalende, better known as 'Dodan Barracks'. It is named after a town called Dodan in the Arakan peninsula in Burma where Nigerians fought back in World War 2. They rounded up all Igbo soldiers and locked them up in safety. Not a single Igbo soldier in that unit lost his life. Garba and Tarfa overcame a challenge by a northern soldier called Adamu Lamurde who emotionally threatened to kill them both if he was not allowed to avenge the death of Brigadier Maimalari by liquidating the Igbo soldiers in the unit. Indeed, this achievement was one of the very few successes of northern officers against northern NCOs seeking revenge. Garba later got a letter of commendation and appreciation from Col Hilary Njoku, his erstwhile Brigade Commander, when all the Igbo soldiers including Sergeant Vidal, Private Oligbo, Private Calistus Chukwu and others in the unit eventually arrived back safely in the east.

http://www.dawodu.com/omoigui13.htm

The soldier that carried his commanding officer.

Whenever the National awards are being handed out I listen attentively to the citation of recipients of the "lesser" awards. This is where you find real heroes.

The "higher" awards (GCFR, GCON, etc) are usually reserved for criminals and the corrupt, but the lesser awards (MON, etc) yield heroes.

Sometime around 2001/2002 a soldier was given an award for carrying his injured commanding officer on his back, under fire and over several kilometres, to safety. This happened in Sierra Leone.

Unfortunately I cannot remember his name.

Brigadier General Maxwell Mitikishe Khobe (Chief of Defence Staff of Sierra Leone)

Born on January 1st, 1950 at Zeku, in Adamawa State, he attended the Native Authority Junior Primary School, Dong from 1958 to 1961 and Native Authority Senior Primary School, Numan, from 1962 to 1963. He later attended the Church of the Brethren Mission, Waka Secondary School, Biu, in Borno State from 1964 to 1968.  In September 1969, in the dying months of the civil war, he enlisted as a soldier.    He was subsequently enrolled in the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Short Service Combatant Course 11 from March 29, 1971 until September 13, 1971 when he was commissioned 2/Lt with seniority effective from March 29, 1971. He was initially posted to the Infantry. He was awarded the Nigeria Defence Service Medal in 1973, promoted Lt. in 1974, and awarded the Republic medal in 1975. 
 
 
Following a heroic role during the Dimka coup attempt of 1976, he was encouraged to apply for transfer to the Armoured Corps as a Captain (which he became in 1977), having already attended the Young Officer’s Course (Infantry) and a number of support weapons courses at the School of Infantry.    After joining the Armoured corps, he attended the Armoured Officers Basic Course at Fort Knox, Kentucky (USA) and later, the Advanced Armour Officer's Course.   He also attended a Gunnery course at the Royal Armoured Corps School, Bovington Camp, UK.   His area of specialization was Gunnery.    
 
Khobe was 2ic of 245 Recce Battalion Ikeja under Capt. Martin Luther Agwai (the former Chief of Army Staff) and was responsible for coordinating the training program of that battalion.  He did all this under some pressure because the unit was constantly under close security surveillance, especially in the months leading up to October 1979 when General Obasanjo handed over to President Shagari. 
 
According to a former Army Officer,
 
“He played a very key role in the deployment of Duty Officers to Radio Nigeria and State House Dodan Barracks. His claim to fame was his appetite for" the job". Throughout my years with him I never saw him in No. 4 Dress. He was forever in anklets and 99% of the time engaged in practical soldiering instead of staff work. He was not cast in the same mould with other Armour officers like the late UK Bello, Buba Marwa or Friday Ichide who were highly skilled staff officers and were literally adored by very senior officers. Khobe's magnetic pull for senior officers came from his practical ability and endearing qualities towards junior officers, NCOs and soldiers alike.”
 
He attended the Staff College in 1983 and was promoted Major in 1984.  In August 1985, as Commanding Officer, 245 Recce Battalion, Ikeja, he led a unit of Tanks in Lagos during the palace coup that removed Major General Buhari from power, ushering in fellow Armoured Corps officer, Major General Babangida.   He was awarded the Forces Services Star in 1986 and became a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1989.

Always leery of a political appointment (he turned down political appointments offered to him by General Babangida after the 1985 coup), the outbreak of the Liberian crisis in 1990 provided him an outlet for his martial inclinations.  He eventually served four tours of duty there, getting ECOMOG Liberia medals for each one.  In addition he won the coveted Nigerian Army Chief of Army Staff Commendation Award and became a Colonel in 1994. 
 
According to another ex-Army officer,
 
“Bachama by tribe, (from the Numan - Demsa axis), Khobe was the archetypal warrior. Without a doubt, he was the most outstanding Nigerian soldier throughout the Liberian war. Some of the feats he performed are story-book like.  He was extremely fearless and motivated very many Nigerian troops who kept lobbying for postings to his unit where casualties were minimal.   In short, as the Commander of the 221 Tank Battalion (and later a Brigade Commander), he was the Etuk of the Liberian war. After his return from Liberia, he was personally asked by the late General Abacha to work out details for the establishment of a military task force which would be specifically tasked to bring an end to Armed Robbery in Nigeria. Of course when he submitted his requirements to "Baba", money matters "kpafukad" the plan as usual. It was after that he got the Sierra Leone job.  He was a completely detribalized Nigerian.”

On February 12, 1998, he led the ECOMOG Ground Task Force assault that removed Major Koromah from power and restored the elected government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.  He was promoted Brigadier and later assumed the position of Chief of Defence Staff of Sierra Leone.  In December 1998, after evasion measures, he slipped out of encirclement when the RUF attempted to take Freetown, barley escaping being captured at Hastings Airport General Khobe was injured during this campaign, but he waved away medics who tried to attend to him, telling them to go and take care of other soldiers. The injury eventually cost him his life).

On Tuesday, 18 April 2000, Khobe died of Encephalitis at the St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos one week after being evacuated back home from Sierra Leone.

The BBC’s West Africa correspondent, Mark Doyle, wrote this obituary in honour of General Khobe:

LEAD-IN: Now this week’s profile which, unusually, is more of an obituary. General Maxwell Khobe, Nigerian commander of ECOMOG and the man considered by many Sierra Leoneans as the hero in ousting the rebels from Freetown, died this week in a Lagos hospital following a cardiac arrest. The ECOMOG commander had been made the chief of defence staff of Sierra Leone by President Tejan Kabbah when the government of Sierra Leone was reinstated. Here’s our West Africa correspondent Mark Doyle.

BBC WEST AFRICA CORRESPONDENT MARK DOYLE: I had a soft spot for General Maxwell Khobe. I think he may have saved my life. Early last year I was in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, when rebels were trying to oust the elected government. Half the city was on fire, and the rebels were committing unspeakable atrocities against civilians. I was in the small part of the city held by the government -- or to be more precise, since most of the government army had joined the rebels, I was in the part of town held by General Maxwell Khobe’s Nigerian troops. On this occasion I found Khobe, a stocky bulldog of a man, in a hilltop military barracks. I asked him if it would be relatively safe for me to take a look in the center of town. "I don’t think so," he said in his gruff voice. "Best to wait a bit." That was quite a statement. Khobe and I both knew what it meant, that his troops were not in control. Quite an admission for a general to make in war. But I was grateful for his honesty. Another foreign journalist who unfortunately hadn’t heard this advice was killed by rebels when he went into the center of town the next day. In the middle of that fierce battle for Freetown, Maxwell Khobe briefly lent the foreign press corps his only helicopter so that we could evacuate our colleague’s body. Many Sierra Leonean journalists also died in the battle. General Khobe and I weren’t always on good terms. Two years ago he was angry with me when I found myself on the rebel side of a front line which he was attacking. He listened to my BBC radio reports that the rebels were fighting back -- which they were -- and those reports infuriated him. At one point he telephoned me across the front line. He told me he was going to flush out the rebels and that I would be well advised to keep my head down. Khobe did as he had promised. He arrived with his men near the Freetown front line. According to a soldier who was there, he looked at the smoking battle front and then began walking towards it saying, cool as a cucumber, "Gentlemen, let’s go." Analysts will no doubt debate Khobe’s military record for years to come. The war in Sierra Leone has been at the centre of a major African power struggle. The stakes have been high. Some say Khobe was a brave soldier whose tough and wily tactics overcame the generally low level of training and equipment in the Nigerian army. Others say that he was beaten by the rebels who have now won a share in government through a shaky peace deal because he got sucked into Sierra Leonean political and business affairs. This, they say, weakened his military professionalism. But most Sierra Leoneans are very sorry that General Maxwell Khobe, the foreign head of their national army, their Nigerian "big brother," has died. Ordinary Sierra Leoneans fear that if the peace agreement were to break down, the UN troops might not show the same resolve or resourcefulness that the Nigerians used in fighting the rebels. That’s why the death of the Nigerian commander was such a blow to the confidence of many in Sierra Leone. Khobe had his flaws, but to most ordinary people there he was a hero, the man that protected their elected president. The mourning for the passing of Nigerian General Maxwell Khobe continues in Sierra Leone today.


Ben Asante who knew Gen. Maxwell Khobe personally writes about the exploits of the Nigerian general and chief of defence staff of Sierra Leone who died of a heart attack on 18 April.

Sometime around Christmas 1998, Brigadier General Maxwell Mitikishe Khobe invited us – a group of visiting journalists – to lunch with him at his official residence in Freetown.

It was a Sunday. He arrived late, and when his military convoy sped through the gate, he briskly jumped down from the jeep. With a quick apology, using words like, “he has been busy doing nothing and wasting other people’s time”, he proceeded to say the grace. It was unusual for even an ofFicer known to be deeply religious. For several minutes, Khobe prayed that President Kabbah be protected and allowed to complete his mandate against attempts by rebels to overthrow him.

Little did we know at the time that what was uppermost on Khobe’s mind was rebel activities slowly threatening the government and the people of Freetown. Barely a year before, he had liberated the capital in a swift action against the AFRC military junta headed by Major Johnny Paul Koroma. Khobe was among a small core of Ecomog officers who saw action in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. I first met him in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1992.

Few soldiers trust civilians, and least journalists, especially during operations, but Khobe invited us to film battle action involving his tanks.

We were not disappointed For one moment by the experience and in seeing what impact our work was having on the morale of Ecomog troops. Several times soldiers came on our camera to send messages to their relatives. One 25-year-old gunner shouted a message on camera to his father. “Papa, I am a man now for I have fought in a war as a soldier!”

Khobe hardly entered a tank at the front but preferred to walk armed with nothing but a radio. In typical fashion, he and several officers and troops marched on foot to take town after town in Liberia until they captured Buchanan City in 1992.

Because of the utter confusion generated by Ecomog’s role in fighting to protect itself and the civil population in its areas of control, people began accusing the force of becoming a party to the conflict. The level of misgivings about Ecomog was such that a CNN reporter asked the then Ecomog chief of staff Brig-Gen Victor Malu, why his troops who were supposed to be neutral were fighting alongside other factions opposed to Charles Taylor’s NPFL and allowing them to operate freely in Monrovia.

We visited Khobe regularly at his Caldwell base in Monrovia where he kept an open door. He was an avid poultry farmer, a habit he brought to Monrovia.

After his tour of duty in Liberia, he went back home where in very quick succession, he held appointments first as head of a special unit formed to protect Lagos against armed robbers, then to Abuja, and to the Armour Brigade headquarters at Yola, not Ear from his hometown, Numan.

In 1985, he turned down a political posting from the military head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. After serving in Ecomog in Liberia, another posting was to follow not long after. The May 1997 overthrow of President Kabbah by the AFRC junta in Sierra Leone offered Khobe another opportunity to work abroad. He was appointed the commander of the Ecomog Task Force in Sierra Leone.

In a lighting action, Ecomog troops marched into the capital and seized the centre of Freetown including the State House with Koroma’s junta in flight. In recognition of his efforts, President Kabbah asked the Nigerian government to second him as chief of defence staff of the Sierra Leone army.

Khobe had been promoted a full Brigadier-General but he hardly had enough time to re-build the Sierra Leone army before the rebels invaded Freetown again on 6 January 1999. In spite of repeated intelligence warnings, no-one would listen.

Weeks before the attack, Khobe went out one early morning and removed the rebel leader, Foday Sankoh from the Pademba Maximum Security Prison where he was on death row. Had he not removed Sankoh, the fate of Sierra Leone and the outcome of the 1999 invasion would have been different.

The rebels broke into the prison on G January and freed all the inmates, but they missed Sankoh who remained in the hands of the government and ended up negotiating for a ceasefire.

Khobe was a joy to watch at the front. He kept encouraging the troops to move forward. Several times we went to the front at first light only to discover that the men had withdrawn from the positions we left them the evening before. Many factors caused the pull back. Ammunitions were not delivered after they ran out or no food supplies came through. Other times rumours circulated that the rebels were coming with anti-aircraft guns, and lacking effective cover the men just pulled back. Wherever Khobe went, the troops seeing him surged forward and just kept going.

Late last year, Khobe came to London to undergo an operation to remove a shrapnel lodged in his back which he sustained on duty in Freetown. He came only after the rebels had signed a peace agreement. His back hurt him most times and he walked with a limp but he rather put up with the pain than abandon his post. The first operation was successful.

In December he had another operation which unfortunately had to be reopened after an abscess was discovered at the airport just as he was about to return to Freetown.

He returned to his post in January this year. His wife, Martina, who was in London throughout his treatment, went along to Freetown to nurse him.

In March, Khobe went to Harare, Zimbabwe, to address an NGO conference on the plight of civilians in a conflict situation. He passed through London on his way back From Harare, and told me that his British doctors had given him a clean bill of health. He planned to come back to London for further check up in April.

But while in Harare, someone had given him a photocopy of New African’s report (NA February) on how Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first premier, had been killed in a Western-backed plot in 1961 while UN peacekeepers looked on. He wanted the original copy badly because UN troops had recently been sent to Freetown to keep the peace in Sierra Leone.

I sent copies of the Lumumba report to him later, but according to Capt. Hassan who was with him in London, Khobe had been unwell since he returned to Freetown on 23 March. Until then, I knew nothing about his sudden poor health.

He died of cardiac arrest in his hospital bed at 10.30 am on 18 April, aged 50. He was buried in his hometown of Numan in Adamawa State, Nigeria, on 29 April. NA

Rukuba Cantonment Jos was renamed Maxwell Khobe Cantonment in his honour.

Heroes? I qam the hero of myself, fighting, going through each day just by me, all others, were not good enough for the kind of heroes I am looking for....

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/03/sss-parades-seven-suspected-kidnappers-of-arab-businessman/[size=16pt]SSS parades seven yoruba kidnappers of Arab businessman
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Na wa o..ndi ofe manu don enter the business too...economy in the South west must be bad