Category: Politics – Civil Rights
-
Alao Aka-Bashorun; President of the Nigerian Bar Association and one of the most prominent democracy activists of the General Babangida era. Aka-Bashorun was actively involved with the Beninois national conference lobby, which was responsible for putting together the Sovereign National Conference that resulted in the collapse of the Kerekou regime. In the 1980s, his law…
-
Diya, Donaldson Oladipo; De facto second in command to Nigeria Head of State, General Sani Abacha(1993-97) born in Odogbolu, Ogun State April 3, 1944. He is a retired soldier, lawyer and former Chief of General Staff., CGS during Abacha regime. He was implicated in a phantom coup of 1997 against his boss and was sentenced…
-
Oronto Douglas; Environmentalist, born in 1966 at Okoroba, Bayelsa State. He was a leading human rights attorney in Nigeria, and served as one of the lawyers on the defense team for the Ogoni leader, Ken Saro Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria’s military rulers in 1995. Douglas co-founded Africa’s foremost environmental movement, the Environmental Rights…
-
Obiagweli Ezekweseli; an invaluable member of President Obasanjo‘s economic team raised to ensure the successful execution of the administration’s reform programmes. A leader in Development and Governance initiatives, Ezekweseli co-founded the Transparency International (TI) in 1994. As a minister, she displayed rascality, dishonouring two appointments with the Senate committee overseeing her ministry[i]. Ezekwesili made her…
-
Peter Awelewa Adebiyi; clergy of the Anglican Communion, advocate of political restructuring, true federalism and good governance. Peter Adebiyi was for 14 years the Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West; first Bishop the Diocese. His first three years were spent in Owo Diocese where he was Bishop. Peter Adebiyi, retired in 2013 as the…
-
Mustapha Akanbi; Nigerian judge of the Federal High Court, later president of the Court of Appeal, renowned for good records and deep sense of history. Three years to the expiration of his tenure as the president of the court of appeal, Akanbi, to the consternation of many Nigerians, resigned in 1999. As the grey-haired judge…
-
Gani FAWEHINMI; Lawyer and renowned human rights activist. With his group, the National Conscience, formed in 1994, Gani Fawehinmi fought the cause of democracy following Nigeria’s June 12 1993 debacle. He also collaborated NADECO two years later in organizing rallies where he famously dared policemen. Fawehinmi’s struggle in 1998 was of total revolution and not…
-
Bekololari Ransome-Kuti; Nigerian human rights activist and medical doctor. In his lifetime, Beko earned the admiration of many for his tenacity in the struggle for the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria. Beko was radicalized to fight the military, when on February 18, 1977, soldiers invaded the residence of his elder brother, Fela who was a…