1930 - Africa: N-R

Nigeria

*Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist whose first novel, Things Fall Apart, became the most widely read book in modern African literature, was born in Ogidi, Nigeria Protectorate (November 16).

Chinua Achebe (b. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, November 16, 1930,  Ogidi, Nigeria Protectorate – d. March 21, 2013, Boston, Massachusetts) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958) was considered his magnum opus, and is the most widely read book in modern African literature. 

Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in South-Eastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist". It was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid some controversy.

When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a supporter of Biafran independence and acted as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the United States in 1990 after a car accident left him partially disabled.

A titled Igbo chieftain himself, Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. From 2009 until his death, he served as David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University in the United States.

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*Christie Ade Ajayi, a Nigerian specialist in early childhood education, was born in Ile Oluji, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Christie Ade Ajayi (b. 1930, Ile Oluji, Ondo State, Nigeria) was the author of various English-language books for young children, and made a point of writing stories with a Nigerian setting with which her readers could relate. As well as having long experience in teaching, she was active in a number of organizations concerned with children and education.

Born Christie Aduke Martins on March 13, 1930 in Ile Oluji, Ondo State, Christie Ade Ajayi (also written Ade-Ajayi) went to Kudeti Girls' School in Ibadan (now known as St. Anne's School) and then to United Missionary College in Ibadan where she trained to be a teacher.  She also studied in London at the Froebel Institute and then at the Institute of Education where she received a Diploma in Child Development in 1958.  Between 1952 and 1978 she taught in various schools in Nigeria and, in London, became a headmistress. She also attended San Jose State University in California, where she was awarded a Diploma in Elementary School Administration and Leadership in 1971.  She married J. F. Ade Ajayi 1956 with whom she had five children.  Ade Ajayi's experience in early years teaching led to a concern with the learning needs of Nigerian children. She was motivated to encourage preschoolers and beginner readers by offering them books that reflected their own experience and culture.  While enjoying stories and pictures of West African characters, they could enlarge their vocabulary and develop reading skills.

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*Adebayo Adedeji, a Nigerian politician who was an Executive Secretary to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa from 1975 to 1978, and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General from 1978 until 1991, was born. He became the founding Executive Director of the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies (ACDESS) in 1991.

Adebayo Adedeji (b. Ijebu-Ode, December 21, 1930) graduated from both London (B.Sc and Ph.D in Economics) and Harvard Universities (M.P.A). At the age of 36 years, he became a full-fledged Professor at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). In 1971, he was drafted into the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of General Yakubu Gowon as the Cabinet Minister responsible for the economic development and reconstruction of post-civil war Nigeria. He was the founder and pioneer Chairman of the Nigeria National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the pére da la CEDEAO –– the father of ECOWAS –– which he established in May 1975 ––after over three years of arduous negotiations with sixteen governments and countries divided into Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone spheres of influence.

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*Alexander Bada, the second Pastor of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria (December 4). 

Alexander Abiodun Adebayo Bada (b. December 4, 1930 - d. September 8, 2000) was the second Pastor of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), succeeding the founder Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oschoffa in December 1985.

The Celestial Church of Christ is an African Initiated Church founded by the Reverend Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa on September 29, 1947 in Porto-Novo, Benin. (An African initiated church is a Christian church independently started in Africa by Africans and not by missionaries from another continent.)  The Celestial Church of Christ is mainly located in Africa and in the Afro-descendant communities in the world, particularly in Benin and Nigeria.

The movement was founded by Samuel Joseph Bilewu Oshoffa, a former carpenter born in Dahomey (now Benin) in 1909.  Raised as Protestant (Methodism), Oshoffa had a divine revelation on May 27, 1947, during a solar eclipse, in a forest where he was lost. He felt called to pray, to heal the sick, and to raise the dead, and he founded his church in September 1947.  Having appointed himself prophet, Reverend, pastor and founder, he occupied the highest office of the movement he had just founded. The hegemony he exercised on doctrine and discipline issues made his succession difficult after his death in 1985 in Lagos (Nigeria).

The movement continued to grow after Oshoffa's death, but also suffered setbacks — the most immediate being severe difficulties related to the matter of succession. Oshoffa was succeeded by Alexander Abiodun Adebayo Bada, who was head of the church until his death on September 8, 2000. Bada was briefly followed as leader by Philip Hunsu Ajose, who died in March 2001. There was a dispute over the succession to Ajose, with some declaring Gilbert Oluwatosin Jesse the leader, while others recognized the Reverend Emmanuel Oshoffa, son of Samuel Oshoffa. Following Jesse's death, his faction declared that Superior Evangelist Paul Suru Maforikan was the new spiritual leader of the church.

Contrary to the procedure of succession in Nigeria, Porto-Novo, the supreme headquarter, successfully chose Benoit Agbaossi (1931-2010) to the head of the church, who in his turn appointed Benoit Adeogun as the next Reverend Pastor shortly before his death in 2010. The Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) was recognized and authorized by the Republic of Dahomey (former name of Benin) in 1965. From 1976, the church launched an evangelistic campaign in former colony of the French West Africa, which became independent in 1960. From the late 1990s, the church showed its willingness to use the Internet as a means of evangelization thus allowing the many existing branches of the church within the African Diaspora (United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, and the United States) to maintain contact with each other and with Nigeria, the country in which the church is the most popular.

The Celestial Church of Christ is prophetic with Christian background. The faithful are called “Celestians”, and the church is sometimes informally called “Cele”. The official name of the church is inspired by a vision by which Jesus would have said that Church members adore him as do the angels in heaven^] The name of the church comes from the Bible: Deuteronomy 26:15 "Look down from thy Holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our father, a land flowing with milk and honey". The name signifies that they deem themselves as celestial or a representative of the heavenly on Earth. The church claims inspiration from God through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit among the faithful. Its doctrinal teachings are based on the Bible, and any superstition or animist belief from traditional African religions is excluded, as in other churches in the Aladura movement.

The church is governed by twelve major recommendations, consisting of several banned things, including food, common to other monotheistic religions. Tobacco, alcohol and eating pork are forbidden. The faithful must remove their shoes for prayer and in the places of worship. Men and women are separated at the church. Menstruating women and those who have recently given birth are unclean and cannot attend church events for seven days in the first case after which they would be "sanctified". Members of Celestial Church of Christ are forbidden to engage or participate in any form of idolatory, fetish ceremony or cults, black magic and charms. Only men who are "anointed" are allowed access to the altar.

The church uses the King James Bible and the Yoruba translated versions. Although the church takes elements from Gungbe and Yoruba thought, it also has strong similarities to the "purification movements" against paganism that are relatively common in African Christianity. Oshoffa believed he had a mission to combat "'Satan', 'fetish priests' and other 'powers of darkness'."

As for Alexander Abiodun Adebayo Bada, Bada was born on December 4, 1930.  His father was the Baale, or viceroyal chieftain, of the Ago-Oba area of Abeokuta and the organist of the African Church, Ereko, Lagos. Bada was brought up in this church. Bada attended St. John’s School, Iloro, Ilesa (1936–1942) and Ilesha Grammar School (1943–1949). He began work with Nigerian Breweries in 1950 and was promoted to stock control supervisor in 1952.

In mid-1952, he met Superior Evangelist S. O. Ajanlekoko of the CCC, who profoundly influenced him. He left his job to work full-time for the church, becoming a Senior Elder in 1954, Leader in 1955, Senior Leader in December 1960 and Evangelist in 1964. On December 24, 1972, he became a Senior Evangelist, and on December 25, 1980 a Supreme Evangelist, the first person to attain this position which implied that he was next in rank to the pastor Samuel Oshoffa.

When Oshoffa died on September 10, 1985, after a car crash without having defined a successor, several of his followers claimed the leadership, leading to a legal conflict that continued for many years. However, the Board of Trustees announced that Bada was the new Pastor and spiritual leader at the annual CCC convocation on December 25, 1985. He was formally installed on December 25, 1987, at the CCC world headquarters at Imeko City in Ogun State, Nigeria, and led the church for the next 15 years.

Bada died on September 8, 2000, at Greenwich Hospital, London. His body was returned to Nigeria for burial at Celestial City, Imeko.  Governor Olusegun Osoba represented President Olusegun Obasanjo at the funeral ceremony.  Bada was survived by his wives, children and grandchildren.  He was succeeded by Philip Hunsu Ajose,  who was appointed leader of the Church on October 2, 2000.

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*Victor Banjo, a star crossed Colonel in the Nigerian Army who was executed for staging a coup against Biafran President Odumegwu Ojukwu, was born (April 1).

Victor Banjo (April 1, 1930 – September 22, 1967) was a Colonel in the Nigerian Army. He ended up in the Biafran Army during the struggles between Nigeria and Biafra. Victor Banjo was first mistaken for a coup plotter against the Nigerian Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa.  He was later alleged to have staged a coup plot against Biafran President Odumegwu Ojukwu and was executed as a result. It took a second military tribunal judge to sentence Victor Banjo, because Odumegwu Ojukwu's first military judge stated that there was not enough evidence to convict Victor Banjo of coup charges. There has been no third party verification of Victor Banjo's involvement in the Nigerian Coup nor Biafran Coup. His alleged involvement in both coup plots has been based on unsubstantiated claims.

Lieutenant Colonel Victor Adebukunola Banjo, was the first Nigerian Director of the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps of the Nigerian Army. He joined the Army in 1953 as Warrant Officer 52 and he was the sixteenth Nigerian to be commissioned as an officer. A product of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he also obtained a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering. His travails began immediately after the January 15, 1966 coup, which brought Major-General Thomas Johnson Aguivi-Ironsi to power.

Three days after Aguiyi-Ironsi came to power, Banjo was summoned to the office of the Supreme Military Commander and was arrested while he was still waiting to see the Head of State. He was accused of planning to kill the Head of State and detained. It is however believed and this much has been suggested in other writings on that tumultuous moment in Nigerian history that Banjo was detained because it was thought that he had a hand in the January 15, 1966 coup. It was a difficult moment for Nigeria as the January 15 coup had inflamed tribal passions and divided the military, and Aguiyi-Ironsi more or less did not know what to do.

Northern Army leaders successfully carried out a counter coup against the incumbent Nigerian president Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo. Along with Ironsi many Yorubas were killed. Banjo, a Yoruba, attempted to defend a Yoruba officer but was arrested and thrown into prison by Olusegun Obasanjo.  Banjo proclaimed his innocence but he was refused a trial.

When Biafra was proclaimed on May 30, 1967, Banjo was released from an Eastern Nigerian prison by Biafran President Odumegwu Ojukwu and made Colonel. His imprisonment had been without trial, due to his alleged involvement in the 1966 coup. When the Nigerian Army invaded Biafra on July 6, 1967, Ojukwu sent Banjo and Major Albert Okonkwo to invade Nigeria.  Banjo was able to capture Benin City in less than a day and was able to get within 300 kilometers of the Nigerian capital of Lagos.  After Banjo was repulsed at the Battle of Ore, he and other officers (Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Phillip Alale, and Sam Agbam) were accused of allegedly plotting a coup against Ojukwu. After a hurried trial, Banjo and other alleged plotters were found guilty of treason and were sentenced to death. On September 22, 1967 Banjo, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, and Philip Alale were marched into the Enugu city center and were tied to a pole. A firing squad of Biafran soldiers fired at them. When Banjo was hit, he reportedly yelled defiantly, "I'm not dead yet!" and he had to be shot multiple times before he died.

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*Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano from 1963 to 2014, was born in Kano, Northern Nigeria (July 25).

Ado Abdullahi Bayero (b. July 25, 1930, Kano, Northern Nigeria – d. June 6, 2014, Kano, Nigeria) was seen as one of Nigeria's most prominent and revered Muslim leaders.  He was the son of Abdullahi Bayero son of Muhammad Abbas. Ado Bayero was the 13th Fulani emir since the Fulani War of Usman dan Fodio, when the Fulani took over the Hausa city-states. He was one of the strongest and most powerful emirs in the history of the Hausa land. He was renowned for his abundant wealth, maintained by means of stock market investments and large-scale agricultural entrepreneurship both at home and abroad.

Ado Bayero was the son of Abdullahi Bayero, a former emir, who reigned for 27 years. 

Bayero was born to the family of Hajiya Hasiya and Abdullahi Bayero and into the Fulani Sullubawa clan that has presided over the emirate of Kano since 1819. He was the eleventh child of his father and the second of his mother. At the age of seven, he was sent to live with Maikano Zagi.

Bayero started his education in Kano studying Islam, after which he attended Kano Middle School. He graduated from the School of Arabic Studies in 1947. He then worked as a bank clerk for the Bank of British West Africa until 1949, when he joined the Kano Native Authority. He attended Zaria Clerical College in 1952. In 1954, he won a seat to the Northern regional House of Assembly.

He was head of the Kano Native Authority police division from 1957 until 1962, during which he tried to minimize the practice of briefly detaining individuals and political opponents on the orders of powerful individuals in Kano. He then became the Nigerian ambassador to Senegal. During this time he enrolled in a French language class. In 1963, he succeeded Muhammadu Inuwa as Emir of Kano.

Muhammadu Sanusi who was Ado Bayero's half brother ruled after their father from 1953 to 1963. Following his dethronement in 1963, Muhammadu Inuwa ruled only for three months. After Muhammadu's death, Ado Bayero ascended the throne in October 1963. Bayero was the longest-serving emir in Kano's history. Bayero's Palace played host to official visits by many government officials and foreigners.  

Bayero became emir during the first republic, at a time when Nigeria was going through rapid social and political changes and regional, sub-regional and ethnic discord was increasing. In his first few years, two pro-Kano political movements gained support among some Kano elites. The Kano People's Party emerged during the reign of Muhammadu Inuwa  and supported the deposed Emir Sanusi, but it soon evaporated. The Kano State Movement emerged towards the end of 1965 and favored more economic autonomy for the province.

The death in 1966 of many political agitators from northern Nigeria, and the subsequent establishment of a unitary state, consolidated a united front in the northern region but also resulted in a spate of violence there, including in Kano. Bayero's admirers credit him with bringing calm and stability during this and later crises in Kano.

As emir, Bayero became a patron of Islamic scholarship and embraced Western education as a means to succeed in a modern Nigeria. The constitutional powers of the emir were whittled down by the military regimes between 1966 and 1979. The Native Authority Police and Prisons Department was abolished, the emir's judicial council was supplanted by another body, and local government reforms in 1968, 1972, and 1976 reduced the powers of the emir. During the second republic, he witnessed hostilities from the People's Redemption Party led government of Abubakar Rimi.

In 1981, Governor Abubakar Rimi restricted traditional homage paid by village heads to Ado Bayero and excised some domains from his emirate. In 1984, a travel ban was placed on the emir and his friend Okunade Sijuwade.

In 2002, Bayero led a Kano elders forum in opposing the onshore and offshore abrogation bill.

Ado Bayero was seen as a vocal critic of the Islamist group Boko Haram who strongly opposed their campaign against western education.

On January 19, 2013, Bayero survived an assassination attempt blamed on the Islamist group which left two of his sons injured and his driver and bodyguard dead, among others. 

Ado Bayero died on June 6, 2014. He was succeeded by his brother's grandson Muhammadu Sanusi II. 

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*Ganiyu Bello, a prominent Yoruba community leader and business tycoon, was born in Oyo State, Nigeria (July 10).

Ganiyu Akanbi Bello (b. July 10, 1930, Oyo State, Nigeria – d. June 5, 2014, Kano, Nigeria), a Yoruba community ambassador in Kano, was the chairman and chief executive of Criss Cross Ltd.  He was popularly known as G A Bello.

Bello was born in Oyo State, Nigeria, on July 10, 1930, to Abdullahi Yusuf and Sinota Bello, the second of three children. Both parents died while he was a child and he was sent to live with his uncle who refused to send him to school. He left his uncle and started cutting wood in order to fund his school fees.

Bello married Sakirat Ayoka Ogabi Bello in approximately 1959. Their first child named Tawakalitu Bello Sanusi, was followed by Moriliatu Bisola Bello Sanusi, Basira Biodun Bello Oyefeso, and a son Nurudeen Bello. Between 1966 and 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, known as the Biafran War, Bello sent his wife and children to Lagos while he remained in Kano. His family returned shortly after to join him, and they had their fifth child, Shamsideen Bello. His sixth child, Fausat Bello, was born around 1970 but died of measles as an infant.

In 1950, Bello joined the Nigerian Police under British colonial rule. During the time, he was a police officer, his closest friend was Ado Bayero,  the Chief of the Nigerian Police Force who was later appointed Emir of Kano in 1963. He resigned around 1958 and founded a company which dealt in Building and Civil Engineering.

His company was the first to build a multi-story building in Kano on Odutola Street which was a residential estate. He later bought his first private residence along Abedee Street Sabon Gari, Kano. He opened the first filling station in Kano in 1968 and behind it he opened a club known as the Criss Cross Club which sold drinks, chicken, and pepper soup. His company built its first hotel, the Criss Cross Hotel, in 1971. His second hotel, known as Gab Hotel, and built in 1980.

His two eldest daughters, Tawakalitu and Moriliatu, married on the same day in 1988. Tawa married Dr. Lukman Sanusi while Morili married Retired Colonel Olawale Sanusi. In 1989, his youngest daughter, Basira, married Sakiru Olanipekun Oyefeso, the founder and managing director of Standard Trust Assurance Company. His eldest son, Nuru, married Salawat Titilope.

From 1990 to 2000, G. A. Bello was the Vice-Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association (IPMAN) in the Kano Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC).

Even though Bello only had a secondary school education, he was a great believer in it and each of his children attended university.

Bello was an advocate of unity in Kano. He encouraged the government to foster unity between the different tribes in Kano State. He advised the government to encourage Nigerians to stop tribalism and live in harmony. This encouraged the Yorubas to continue to live in Kano. In January 2006, Bello served as the acting Oba of the Yoruba Community in Kano State for sixty days.

Bello contributed to many Islamic causes in Kano including the construction of two Juma't Mosques built in Sabon Gari, a non-native's settlement area. The first mosque was built around 1982 at Nomans Land, Kano and it was commissioned by the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero. In early 2000, he built a second mosque, the Ahammadiya Mosque along Emir Road, for the Ahmadiya Muslims.

Bello donated millions of naira (the currency of Nigeria) to charity related issues, including the Rotary International.  He donated equally generously to communities, Mosques and Churches. This earned him a long list of honorary awards.

Bello held many Chieftaincy titles such as: Aarre Egbe Omo Balogun Maiyegun of Ibadanland, Babasaiye of Owu, Abeokuta of Ogun State, and Aarre Basorun Timi Agbale of Ede in Osun State.  He was also given an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration by Kenton University. 

Bello was murdered a month before his 84th birthday on June 5, 2014 by unknown assailants in Kano. He was buried in his residence at Race Course Road. 

Abubakar Abdurrahman Sadiq was caught by Nigerian police in August 2014 and confessed to the murder. Sadiq had broken into Bello's house to steal money and stabbed him when Bello tried to stop him. Sadiq had previously worked in one of Bello's hotels, but was let go for stealing.

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*Mohammed Bello, the first Northern Chief Justice of Nigeria from 1987 to 1995, was born in Katsina, Nigeria.

Mohammed Bello (1930–2004) was an eminent jurist who tried to protect the court against the excess of military incursion in judicial matters.

Mohammed Bello was born in Katsina.  His father, Gidado, was the mufti of Katsina. He started early education at the Central Elementary school Katsina, in 1943. For secondary tutelage, he attended the Middle school in Katsina. He then proceeded to the University College Ibadan to study Latin as a preparatory course for a law degree. Between 1953 and 1955, he was at Inn of Court, London, earning his law degree. Mohammed Bello then started his professional law career as the pupil crown counsel to the Northern Nigeria government in 1956. In 1961, he was appointed the chief magistrate, Northern Nigeria and served in that capacity for three years. He took on another public duty as the Director of Public Prosecutions, Northern Nigeria. During the waning months of the Nigerian civil war, Justice Mohammed Bello was appointed acting and later Chief Justice of Northern Nigeria between 1969 and 1975.

Described as a detribalized Nigerian by some of his peers, Justice Mohammed Bello's tenure at the Supreme Court was one of a fearless actor in the midst of a military onslaught on democratic norms and judicial precedents. As the supreme court chief, he steered the wheels of the judiciary towards peace and away from political controversy with the exception of a few instances. 

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*Sumner Dagogo-Jack, the chairman of the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria from 1994 to 1998, was born. 

Sumner Karibi Dagogo-Jack (b. 1930) served as a member of the Humphrey Nwosu electoral commission (1989–1993) and was later appointed, by President Sani Abacha, chairman of the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria. His commission was reportedly not impartial, but was controlled by Abacha. Under Dagogo-Jack, NECON registered five political associations, none led by credible politicians. These were United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), Congress for National Consensus (CNC), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN), National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN) and Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM).  The purpose was to ensure that Abacha would become the sole presidential candidate, supported by all parties.

The commission conducted elections for the local government councils and the National Assembly. NECON overstepped the bounds of its authority in some cases. For example, shortly before the March 1997 local government elections, Dagogo-Jack nullified the positions of National Leader in the NCPN and National Coordinator in the DPN, which he said were in violation of the parties' constitutions. The elected officers had not been inaugurated when Abacha died suddenly in June 1998, and his successor Abdulsalami Abubakar initiated a fresh electoral process that would lead to the establishment of the Nigerian Fourth Republic in May 1999.

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*Isaiah Kehinde (I. K.) Dairo, a Nigerian musician who was an important innovator in juju music and is considered by many to be the "father of juju", was born in Offa, Nigeria. 

The family of Isaiah Kehinde (I. K.) Dairo (b. 1930, Offa, Kwara State, NIgeria - d. February 7, 1996, Efon-Alaiye, Nigeria) was originally from Ijebu-Ijesa before migrating to Offa. Dairo0 attended a Christian Missionary primary school in Offa, however, he later quit his studies due to a lean year in his family's finances. He left Offa and traveled to Ijebu-Ijesa where he chose to work as a barber. On his journey, he took along with him a drum built by his father when he was seven years old. By the time he was residing in Ijebu Ijesa, he was already an avid fan of drumming.  When he was unoccupied with work, he spent time listening to the early pioneers of juju music in the area and experimented with drumming. His interest in jùjú music increased over time, and in 1942, he joined a band led by Taiwo Igese but within a few years, the band broke up. In 1948, he went to Ede,  a town in present-day Osun State where he started work there as a pedestrian cloth trader and played music with a local group on the side. One day, while his boss was away traveling, I.K. Dairo decided to join his fellow friends to play at a local ceremony, unknown to him, his boss was coming back that same day, the boss was furious with the act and he was relieved of his job as a result.

I. K. Dairo later pursued various manual tasks after his firing and was able to save enough money to move to Ibadan, where Daniel Ojoge, a pioneer Jùjú musician usually played. He got a break to join a band with Daniel Ojoge and played for a brief period of time before returning to Ijebu-Ijesa, most of the gigs he played with Ojoge's band were at nights.

Considered by many to be the "father of juju" for his many innovations, Isaiah Kehinde Dairo was born in Kwara State, Nigeria, in 1930. One story has it that his lifelong love of music stemmed from a drum that his father, a carpenter, made for him in his youth and that accompanied him wherever he went. In early adulthood, Dairo tried earning a living as a barber, a construction worker, and a cloth merchant, among other jobs. Dairo sat in with early juju bands at night, led by musical pioneers Ojoge Daniel and Oladele Oro. In the mid-'50s he formed his own group, the ten-member Morning Star Orchestra, which gained fame later as the Blue Spots.
Though highlife was the most popular form of band music in West Africa at the time, Dairo and his band released a long succession of influential singles that, by the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, helped establish juju as the premier Nigerian sound. Dairo changed the tenor of juju by introducing the accordion and talking drums to the orchestra and singing in a variety of regional dialects, which widened the rural appeal of the music. When his appeal began to wane at the end of the 70s, he gave up performing, turning first to managing clubs and a hotel in Lagos, then to a ministry in the Cherubim and Seraphim church movement. In 1990 he recorded his first album in 15 years with a re-formed Blue Spots band.

I.K. Dairo's musical career entered the fast lane when he founded a ten piece band called the Morning Star Orchestra in 1957. In 1960, during the celebration of Nigeria's independence, the band was called on to play at a party hosted by a popular Ibadan based lawyer and politician Chief D. O. A. Oguntoye. With a lot of prominent Yoruba patrons at the venue, I. K. Dairo showcased his style of jùjú music and earned attention and admiration from other Yoruba patrons present, many of whom later invited him to gigs during cultural celebrations or just lavish parties. In the early 1960s, he changed the band's name to the Blue Spots and he also won a competition televised in Western Nigeria to showcase the various talents in jùjú music. During the period, he was able to form his own record label in collaboration with Haruna Ishola and achieved critical and popular acclaim and fame.

I. K. Dairo's emergence at the end of the 1950s coincided with the rising euphoria over independence. He was seen then as a premier musician who could capture the exciting moment preceding the nation's independence and briefly after independence. The musical taste during the period had graduated from appreciation of solemn music to much more intensified sounds. The period was also one of lavish parties with musicians as a side attraction.

I. K. Dairo's musical success in the 1960s, was influenced by different factors including the use of traditional sounds.  The political life of the 1950s, which inspired him had a focus on rhythm, beats and tempo that reflected different ethnic sounds and in the process leading to his appeal rising beyond his primary ethnic group.  His band experimented and played with musical styles originating from different Yoruba areas and also utilized the Edo, Urhobo, Itsekiri and Hausa language in some of their lyrics. The band's well organized and slick arrangement, Yoruba and Latin America influenced dance rhythm and patronizing lyrics on the entrepreneur pursuits of patrons were factors that contributed in his rise to the height of the juju and musical arena in the country. He also employed musical syncretism, mixing the Ijebu-Ijesa choral multi-part sound with melodies and text from Christian sources.

In 1962, he released the song 'Salome' under Decca records. The song mixed traditional elements in Yoruba culture and urban life as major themes. The song was a major hit of his. Another song of his which was quite popular was Ka Sora (Let Us Be Careful), the song is sometimes described as predictive of the Nigerian civil war in its warning about the pitfalls of unreasoned governance. He also released other popular hits including one about Chief Awolowo,  who was incarcerated at the time the song was released.

The band made use of an amplified accordion, which was played by Dairo, and he was the first high-profile musician to play the accordion. Other musical instruments used by the group included electric guitar, talking drum, double toy, akuba, ogido, clips, maracas, agogo (bell), samba ([a square shaped drum]).

Dairo's stay at the top in the Nigerian music scene was short lived, by 1964, a new musician in the person of Ebenezer Obey was gaining ground and by the end of the 1960s, both Obey and King Sunny Ade had emerged as the popular acts of the period. However, Dairo continued with his music, touring Europe and North America in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also involved in a few interest groups dealing with the property rights of musicians. Between 1994 and 1995, he was a member of the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle.  

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*Samuel Ecoma, a Nigerian jurist who became the Chief Judge of Cross River State, was born in Itigidi, Nigeria (November 29). 

Samuel Eson Johnson Ecoma (b. November 29, 1930, Itigidi, Nigeria – d. August 30, 1999) was a Nigerian jurist and the Chief Judge of Cross River State appointed in March 1990. He was called to the English Bar in June, 1961 and to the Nigerian Bar in August 1963.

Ecoma was born in Itigidi, Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria.  He was the first legal practitioner from Itigidi. He was baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, and attended several schools due to the frequent transfer of his father --  Eson Johnson Ecoma -- who was a Police Officer and who served in Calabar and other stations of the Old Calabar Province and other places outside Calabar Province.  Some of the schools Ecoma attended include Duke Town Primary School, Calabar; Government Primary School, Eket; Umuda Isingwu Methodist School, Umuahia;  Aggrey Memorial College, Arochukwu; Duke Town Secondary School, Calabar; and Excelsior Evening School, Calabar.

Ecoma also attended North Western Polytechnic, Kentish Town, London, where he read for his General Certificate of Education at the Advanced Level before gaining admission into University College London as an internal student to read Law. During this period, he also enrolled in the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn.  Ecoma was called to the English Bar in June, 1961.

Ecoma returned to Nigeria in August, 1963, and set up a lucrative private legal practice at Enugu,  which practice took him all over the then Eastern Region of Nigeria. He later shifted his base to Abakaliki until the Civil War broke out and was compelled to flee Abakaliki to Afikpo, to Okigwe and to Mbano where he remained until January, 1970 when the Civil War ended.

After the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, Ecoma returned to his home state, then known as the South Eastern State and was appointed a Civil Commissioner (Commissioner for Development Administration) in the then South Eastern State Executive Council in March, 1970 by Brigadier U. J. Esuene. In March, 1972, he was appointed Commissioner for Law Revision and was posted to the Ministry of Justice.  He held that post for barely a year when in March, 1973, he was appointed a Judge of the High Court of South Eastern State. On March 11, 1990, he was appointed Chief Judge of Cross River State, a post he held until he retired on November 29,  1995.

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*Afi Ekong, a Nigerian artist and arts promoter, was born in Calabar, Nigeria (June 26).

Constance Afiong "Afi" Ekong (b. June 26, 1930, Calabar, Nigeria – d. February 24, 2009, Calabar, Nigeria) was born to Efik parents in Calabar as a member of the royal family of Edidem Bassey Eyo Epharaim Adam III. She attended Duke Town School and Christ Church School in Calabar.  She trained as a painter and studied fashion design in England, at the Oxford College of Arts and Technology, Saint Martin's School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design.

Ekong returned to Lagos from her studies in London in 1957. In 1958, Afi Ekong was the first woman artist to hold a solo exhibit in Lagos.  In 1961, she had a solo exhibition at Galeria Galatea in Buenos Aires.  She owned and operated the Bronze Gallery in various locations, in Lagos and on the Fiekong Estate in Calabar. She was manager of the Lagos Arts Council, a founding member of the Society of Nigerian Artists, supervisor of Gallery Labac from 1961, and chair of the Federal Arts Council Nigeria from 1961 to 1967. She appeared regularly on a Nigerian television program called "Cultural Heritage", to promote the arts. In 1963, she was featured in a New York Times photo essay as an example of the "new African woman" after independence.  She also chaired a UNESCO commission in the 1970s, and in 1990 the National Council of Women's Societies Committee on Arts and Crafts.

Ekong's work to advance the arts and women's education in West Africa was recognized in 1962 when she was proclaimed "The Star of Dame Official of the Human Order of African Redemption," by President William Tubman of Liberia. She was also an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church. 

Afi Ekong was married to government official Abdul Azizi Atta, son of the Atta of Igbirra, in 1949. Afi Ekong died in 2009, in Calabar, at the age of 78. 

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*Bakare Gbadamosi, a Yoruba poet, anthropologist and short story writer, was born in Osogbo, Nigeria.


Bakare Gbadamosi (b. 1930, Osogbo, Nigeria) wrote his own Yoruba poetry and short stories in the early 1960s. However, he is best known for collecting and translating Yoruba folk tales and traditional poetry in collaboration with Ulli Beier. Much of Gbadamosi's work was published by Mbari, a club founded by Beier in Ibadan.  In the late 1960s, Gbadamosi was working as an ethnographer for the Nigerian Museum in Lagos, having previously worked as a letter writer, stage magician and actor. He participated in Duro Ladipo's theatre group in Osogbo.

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*Michael Ibru, a Nigerian businessman who led the Ibru Organization, was born in Nigeria (December 25).

Michael Ibru (b. Michael Christopher Onajirevbe Ibru, December 25, 1930, Nigeria –   d. September 6, 2016, Miami, Florida, United States) was a Nigerian businessman from Agbara-Otor, Delta State.  He was the head of the Ibru Organization, one of the largest conglomerates in Nigeria. As a traditional chieftain of his homeland, Ibru bore the tribal honorific Olorogun and often used it as a pre-nominal style. This title is also borne by many of the members of his large family in the same way.

Ibru was born to the family of Janet Ibru and Peter Ibru, a missionary worker, who also worked at the Igbobi Orthapaedic Hospital, Lagos. After secondary school, he joined the United African Company, as a management trainee. In 1956, a few years after joining U.A.C, Ibru left the company and started a partnership, which he called Laibru. The corporate entity was in partnership with an expatriate, Jimmy Large. After engaging in general trading with some success, in 1957, Michael Ibru discovered that the frozen fish market was a fertile market with the potential to deliver returns above the market rate. However, it was a tough market to penetrate, at the time, many expatriate firms and Nigerian traders were lacking and some were not interested in the market. But he felt he could put extra effort communicating with general traders, who played key roles in product acceptance. To trade in seafood, he established an importing company, he also rented and built cold storage facilities across the country. By the mid-1960s trading fish had become the traditional money maker for the Ibru organization. Though he had other profitable interests such as transportation and construction, fish trading helped him secure financing and other forms of capital to engage in large scale trading. He established a partnership with a Taiwanese company, Osadiere Fishing Company,  which provided Trawlers and other accessories for trading. By the end of the 1960s Ibru branched out fully into other areas of the economy.  Like a lot of his contemporaries, he established a transportation company, called Rutam. He also invested in palm oil production. Over the years, the Ibru Organization has expanded into other areas such as Tourism. Brewery, Timber and Poultry.

Ibru was known as an entrepreneurial figure who created one of the largest modern Nigerian owned groups with other figures such as the low key Bode Akindele.

Michael Ibru attended Igbobi College, and acquired a school certificate in 1951.

No group of Nigerians has benefited more from Michael Ibru’s legacy than the Urhobo people. Urhobo men and women have profited at many levels since the rise of the Ibru brand in the second half of the 1950s. First, Urhobo market women were among the first batch of Nigerians to embrace the “Ibru” frozen fish. Many of them rose from relative poverty to higher economic brackets because they participated in the new Ibru ventures from market stalls. There were more direct beneficiaries from Michael Ibru’s openness to his Urhobo people. These were the many Urhobo professionals who joined the Ibru organization. Many of them left the Ibru organization to pursue their own independent dreams constructed with the aid of ambitions conceived in the Ibru organization.

Ibru, who was the patriarch of one of Nigeria’s foremost business dynasties, died at a medical facility in the United States in the early hours of Tuesday, September 6, 2016. 

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*Bola Ige , a Nigerian lawyer and politician, was born in Zaria, Kaduna (September 13). He became Federal Minister of Justice for Nigeria. He was murdered in December 2001.

James Ajibola Idowu Adegoke Ige (b. September 13, 1930, Zaria, Kaduna, Nigeria –  d. December 23, 2001) was born the son of  Yoruba natives of Esa-Oke town, in the old Oyo State (now in Osun State). Bola Ige left Kaduna and headed south to the Western region at the age of 14. He studied at Ibadan Grammar School (1943–48), and then at the University of Ibadan.  From there, he went to the University College London where he graduated with a Law degree in 1959. He was called to the bar in London's Inner Temple in 1961.

Bola Ige established Bola Ige & Co in 1961, and later became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. He became well known in the country for his oratory prowess, as well as his advocacy work on civil rights and democracy. Bola Ige's faith was Christianity.  Uncommonly, Bola Ige spoke all the three major Nigerian languages, Yoruba, Ibo and Hausa fluently. He wrote several books, and an anthology of articles and tributes about him was published shortly after his death.

During the First Republic (1963–1966), at age 31 he was at the center of the Action Group crisis, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was pitted against his deputy, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.  He became a rival of Olusola Olaosebikan for succession to Obafemi Awolowo. Bola Ige was a Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region of Nigeria (1967–1970) under the military government of General Yakubu Gowon. In 1967, he became a friend of Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a commander of the army brigade in Ibadan.

In the early 1970s, during the first period of military rule, he devoted his time to the anti-racism campaign of the World Council of Churches.

Towards the end of the 1970s he joined the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the successor to the Action Group. When General Olusegun Obasanjo initiated the Second Republic, he was elected as governor of Oyo State from October 1979 to October 1983. Adebisi Akande, later to be governor of Osun State after it was split off from Oyo State, was his deputy governor during this period. In the 1983 elections, when he ran for re-election as the UPN candidate, he was defeated by Victor Omolulu Olunloyo. Ige unsuccessfully challenged the election in court. However, Olunloyo lost the seat three months later to a coup staged by Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon.

Ige Bola was detained after the coup, accused of enriching party funds. He was released in 1985, after the next coup, by Ibrahim Babangida, and returned to his legal practice and to writing. In 1990, he published People, Politics And Politicians of Nigeria: 1940–1979, a book that he had begun while imprisoned. He was a founder member of the influential Yoruba pressure group, Afenifere. Although critical of the military rule of General Sani Abacha, Bola Ige avoided political difficulties during this period.

Following the restoration of democracy in 1999, Bola Ige sought the nomination of the Alliance for Democracy party as a presidential candidate, but was rejected. President Obasanjo appointed Bola Ige as minister of Mines and Power (1999–2000). He was not able to make significant improvements to service provided by the monopoly National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).

Bola Ige then became Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2000–2001). In September 2001 Bola Ige said that the Federal government had initiated a program to re-arrange and consolidate the laws of the Federation, publish them in digital form, and make them available on the website of his ministry. He campaigned ardently against the imposition of the Sharia law in the northern states of Nigeria. In November 2001 he said that the Federal government would not allow the Sokoto State government to execute the judgment of a verdict passed by a Gwadabawa sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini to death for committing adultery.

Bola Ige was about to take up a new position as Africa's Representative on the United Nations International Law Commission when he was gunned down in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

On December 23, 2001, Bola Ige was shot dead at his home in the south-western city of Ibadan. He had been entangled in squabbles within his Alliance for Democracy party in Osun State. The previous week, the long-running feud between Osun state Governor Bisi Akande and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore,  had apparently contributed to the death of an Osun State legislator, Odunayo Olagbaju. The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo deployed troops in south-western Nigeria to try to prevent a violent reaction to the murder. Although various people were arrested and tried for involvement in Bola Ige's murder, including Iyiola Omisore, all were acquitted.

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*Timothy Ikeazor, a Nigerian lawyer and jurist, was born in Obosi, Anambra State, Nigeria.

The parents of Timothy Chimezie Ikeazor were Eugene Keazor (a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police in the former Eastern Region of Nigeria and Mrs N. Ikeazor (the first mid-wife of Igbo origin).  Timothy was the grandson of Igwe Israel Eloebo Iweka, King of Obosi and the first Igbo Engineer (educated at Imperial College, London) and first indigenous author of Igbo history.

Chimezie Ikeazor was educated at Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha, Anambra State, proceeding subsequently to the University of London, where he obtained a Degree in Theology and subsequently read Law at King's College London. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn London in 1960.

He returned to Nigeria and immediately proceeded into Law Practice, setting up the Law practice Ikeazor and Iweka in Onitsha, with his cousin Rob Iweka (who was later to become Attorney-General of Anambra State, Nigeria). On dissolution of this practice, he set up Practice on his own account in Lagos, building a strong Human Rights and Administrative Law practice, which was characterized by a substantial amount of pro-bono work for indigent clients facing criminal prosecution. This was to translate into his agitating for and facilitating the creation of the Nigerian Legal Aid Association, alongside Solomon Lar and Debo Akande, which evolved into a full creature of Statute via the Legal Aid Decree 1977 (later the Legal Aid Act).

Ikeazor was appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) - the equivalent to Queen's Counsel -  in 1986, and was subsequently conferred with the First Class Chieftaincy title of Oboli II of Obosi by the Igwe (King) and Council of Chief's of Obosi.  Beginning in 1986, Ikeazor sat on the Council of Chief's of Obosi. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree (LL.D) by the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.  

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Josiah Ransome-Kuti, a Nigerian clergyman and music composer, died (September 4). He was known for setting Christian hymns to indigenous music, and for writing Christian hymns in Yoruba.

Josiah Jesse Ransome-Kuti (b. June 1, 1855, Igbein, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria - d. September 4, 1930) was born into an Egbafamily.  He was baptized in 1859 and enrolled as a student into the Church Missionary Society Training Institution, Abeokuta before proceeding to the Church Missionary Society Training Institute, Lagos in 1871.

Shortly after completing his education at the Church Missionary Society Training Institute, Lagos, Josiah was employed as a teacher at St. Peter's School, Ake, Abeokuta and then left to teach music at the CMS Girls School, Lagos in 1879 where he met his wife Bertha Anny Erinade Olubi.  In 1891, he was made catechist at the Gbagura Church Parsonage, Abeokuta before he founded Gbagura Church, a local church where he converted people to the Christian faith through his versatility in rendering English gospel hymns into indigenous gospel songs.

He became a deacon in 1895, ordained a priest in 1897, and was appointed district judge from 1902 to 1906. In 1911, Josiah was appointed pastor of St. Peter's Cathedral Church, Ake after previously serving as superintendent of the Abeokuta Church Mission.

In 1922, he was made canon of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos and in 1925, he became the first Nigerian to release a record album after he recorded several Yoruba language hymns in gramophone through Zonophone Records.

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*Augustine Obi, a Nigerian Professor of virology and a President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, was born.

Augustine Njoku Obi (1930 – 2003) was known for developing a cholera vaccine approved for its efficacy in 1971 by WHO.  In 1985, he was elected President of the Nigerian Academy of Science to succeed Professor Emmanuel Emovon.


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*Nnamdi Azikiwe, the future President of Nigeria, graduated from Lincoln University, an historically black university located in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

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Reunion

*Boris Gamaleya, a Reunion poet, literary critic, linguist, folklorist and social activist, was born in St. Louis, Reunion.

Boris Gamaleya (b. December 18, 1930, St. Louis, Reunion) was born to a Ukrainian father and a Reunion Creole mother.  From his youth, he participated in the liberation struggle, experienced persecution from the French colonial administration.  He was expelled from the island for 12 years. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Reunion. The author of several books of poetry. Boris Gamaleya published poems on Ukrainian language in the magazine "The Universe" (1981) and the anthology "The Poetry of Africa" (1983).