Category: People
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Sunny Okosun; Popular Nigerian musician who came into the local music scene in the mid 1960s with an eclectic style which blended highlife, pop and calypso with organised reggae. His African reggae sound rendered in native Ishan language, vernacular and English is often steeped in sensitive national and global issues. Okosun’s 1977 release, Fire in…
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Simeon Adebo; Public servant of the Nigerian first post-colonial generation. He was head of the Western region civil service during the political impasse that led to the Emergency rule which was declared on 29 May 1962, hence had had to interpret the role of civil servants in the uncertain passage of leadership from Premier Ladoke…
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Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke; Nigerian politician and criminologist. Adeleke became the first civilian governor of Osun State after the state was carved out of the old Oyo State in August 1991. He was elected into the Senate to represent Osun West Senatorial district in 2007 and chaired the Senate Committee on INEC. Isiaka’s father, Ayoola Adeleke…
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Adebayo Adefarati; third civilian governor of Ondo State. Adefarati was one of the pro-democracy activists who fought for the return of civilian rule in Nigeria as a member of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. He was a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy put together with…
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Adegeye Sunday; or King Sunny Ade is one of the most recognizable brand in Nigerian music, who with his unique Juju brand carved a long career that is successful. His music was famous for its multi-layered percussion, electric guitars and synthesizers, as well as the close harmony of his all-male vocalists. KSA achieved fame internationally…
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Moses Olaiya; a.k.a. Baba Sala, regarded in his heydey as the father of Nigerian comedy, alongside other dramatists like Hubert Ogunde, Kola Ogunmola, Oyin Adejobi and Duro Ladipo. Before he ventured into acting, Adejumo performed highlife music in 1960. He joined a group known as the Federal Rhythm Dandies in 1964, where he tutored and…
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Anthony Adefuye; Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, engineer, and founder of a top flight indigenous contracting company which carved a niche for itself in the country’s construction industry. Adefuye who began his political career at the University of Lagos when he won election as the Treasurer of the Students’ Union in 1969, was…
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Chinua Achebe; Nigerian novelist who during the Langston Hughes award in 1993 was praised as the man who through clouds and mists saw the life of the people, whose vision was sharpened by careful watching, uplifting the people of the world’s villages by his vision. Achebe, a professor of English, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize…
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Abioro Yakubu; (1930-96), Nigerian music producer, whose TYC Records discovered great acts like Sunny Ade, then known as Sunny Ade and the Green Spot Band; Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Tunde Nightingale, Idowu Animashaun, Kayode Fashola, Oludunni Decency, Ayinde Bakare, Toye Ajagun, and Pick Peters. Origin Yakubu Bolarinwa Abioro was born on August 21, 1930 at…
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Kudirat Abiola; Pro-democracy activist and wife of MKO Abiola who was widely believed to have won the June 12, 1993 presidential election that was cancelled by the military. Kudirat was bom in 1951 in the northern Nigerian city of Zaria, where she also had her early education. From her times at the Muslim Girls High…