By Gbenga Olarinoye, Osogbo

On Friday, December 23, 2011, it will be exactly 10 years since the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, was assassinated in his home in Ibadan, Oyo State. Ige was killed shortly after a trip from Lagos with his son.

In this interview, the son, Muyiwa, now the commissioner in charge of lands and physical planning in Osun State, speaks on the night of the murder, the controversial trial of those suspected to be behind it, why his father wanted to quit the cabinet of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, and many more. Excerpts:

Where were you on the night of 23 December, 2001 when your father, Chief Bola Ige, was gruesomely murdered?

I was in my father’s house at Bodija, Ibadan, on that horrible night of 23 December, 2001.We came together into the house that fateful day, because we had both traveled to Lagos and we had been together all day from 11.00 a.m. till about 8.30 p.m., having dropped his brother at the Oluyoro Catholic Hospital, Ibadan, an hour before. The murderous people came in shortly after he left us to go to his bedroom and, unfortunately, they killed my father (pauses and weeps).

Are you saying you were at the house when the incident happened?

I was in the house and I was the one who took my father to the hospital but, unfortunately, before we got to the hospital my father had died. He was confirmed dead when we got to the hospital. I was there with him at the hospital. I didn’t witness the shooting but I was in the house because they put a gun to us to move us to another room. If you followed the murder case of my father, you will know that I testified in court in 2002.

What was your immediate reaction when you heard the gunshot?

It was an unfortunate experience. We were all in one wing of the house and the only people that were not in the house with us were the security personnel attached to my father as the then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. We never expected it because it never happened that an intruder would be in the house with us. We knew that they were not armed robbers because they didn’t take anything away from the house.

Muyiwa Ige

When we heard the gunshot in the room where we were, we knew something had happened to my father but there was nothing we could do because we were locked up. Later, my sister and my nephew came and I told them that we were locked up in the room by the assassins. When we gained entrance from the room where we were, I rushed to my father’s room and saw him in the pool of his own blood lying down helplessly. I applied mouth to mouth resuscitation but it was too late.

What was the reaction of the family when your father took up the appointment as a minister under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo?

Before he took up the appointment as a minister, he actually consulted every member of the family and we gave him our words. What he said was that he wanted to serve Nigeria and help his friend of many years, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He said Obasanjo gave him two options on where to serve, that is the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Power and Steel but he decided to take that of the Ministry of Power and Steel in order to make a great impact and ensure industrialisation, especially in major cities. He felt where he could make significant impact was the Ministry of Power and Steel; because he believed whoever solved the problem of power in Nigeria would have his name written in gold.

He also felt that he had a duty to serve the good people of Nigeria when Obasanjo approached him for the appointment, but, unfortunately, they sabotage the ministry. All his plans to improve the power sector and ensure uninterrupted power supply could not be achieved because of the saboteurs. They made a mess of all his plans. The people that were benefiting from the use of generators sabotaged his plans.

You will recall that few weeks before the killing, an incident happened at the palace of the Ooni of Ife where his cap and glasses were removed when he was harassed by some hoodlums. Do you think there is any link between that incident and the killing?

Yes! On 15 December, 2001, my father attended the coronation of the late Mrs Stella Obasanjo at the palace of the Ooni of Ife and, unfortunately, he was harassed at the palace by some people and his cap, neck lace and glasses were removed by these people. You begin to wonder how these characters got close to a sitting Attorney General of the country?

Obviously, there was security breach at the palace. I remember what he told us because I was supposed to meet with him at the palace on that day, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t make it. He told us that he told Kabiyesi, the Ooni, that he wanted his cap back. It was an abomination for the cap of an elderly man to be removed in Yoruba land. This man was the one who presented the staff of office to the Ooni when he was governor of the old Oyo State in 1980.

All said and done, Bola Ige has come and gone!

He did his best for his nation and he left a legacy. So, those that did the dastardly act may they not die.

Ten years after the death of the pillar of the house, how has it been?

We are still forging ahead 10 years after the death of my father. The prime suspects in the case were arrested but instrument of government was used to release them.

Our belief, however, is that if man cannot judge them, God, the Judge of all judges, will judge them at a time that pleases Him. If you follow the proceedings of the trial, you would know the roles everybody in the case played. At a point, the government that took over from Alhaji Lam Adesina turned everything upside down and the person who was supposed to be prosecuting the case was going to Adedibu’s house to beg for promotion.

There was a situation when somebody won election from Agodi Prison, a prime suspect for that matter. Because of temporary gain, some people preferred to look the other way in the case that affected a man who was by the time he was murdered a sitting Attorney General and Minister of Justice. God, in His infinite mercy, will do justice to the dastardly act that took Chief Bola Ige away untimely, and, like I said, may they not die.

We were surprised.

What surprised you most?

We expected that the right thing should have been done on the case. At a time, the machinery of government was used to defend a suspect in the case. The suspect was, at a time, taken to a magistrate court and he refused to come out and he was even told not to come out of the car. A star witness was also at a time coerced to mess up the whole thing. It was very unfortunate.

Late Justice Atinuke...died shortly after her husband was murdered

Do you subscribe to the view in some quarters that the day Ige wrote his resignation letter to quit Obasanjo’s cabinet was the day he signed his death warrant?

I read the resignation letter he wrote and he explained why he wanted to leave the cabinet. He told them that he wanted to go and consolidate the Yorubaland, his primary constituency, and that he wanted to go and restructure his party and you know he was a member of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and also Deputy Leader of Afenifere, so he had a huge role to play in the politics of Nigeria and Yorubaland in particular at that time.

He was highly relevant. He told me to make copies of the letter which I did and the letters are still there in the house. People only tried to castigate personalities based on certain actions. But those who killed Ige, may they not die again.

Do you also believe that PDP might not have captured the South-West in 2003 if Ige were to be alive?

They were also bragging that when you remove the head, the whole body had been captured. Bola Ige was the mobilizer in the period of 1998 till his demise and he was very relevant in the politics of his days.

But, what was it worth killing a man?

There is nothing to gain from it. Ige was greater in death than in life and he will continue to be great. Again those who did the dastardly act, let’s see what will become of them in life.

What are the major things you missed in him?

My father! I miss everything he stood for. I miss his wise counsel, his ability to discuss issues and acceptance of superior arguments. He was a loving father and a great man. Indeed, he was my hero

Can you recount the last memorable thing you did together?

We were together on the day he was murdered. We discussed something in the car when we were going home but I will not tell you. He said he wanted to do something and I gave him my own position on it and he agreed with me.

Will you now want the case to be reopened?

They have been trying to open, close, throw under the table the case because I think the case is too hot for them to handle, but, by the grace of God, well-meaning people would one day realise that they need to dust up some of these unresolved murder cases and, definitely, my father’s case would be there.

I pray that justice is done on the matter on earth, but I am sure that God will do justice to the case because a sinner can never go unpunished. Ige’s killers may be moving around now, but the truth is that they are dead inside. They would never succeed in whatever they lay their hands upon.

Do you have trust in the present crop of Afenifere leaders?

My father was the Deputy Leader of Afenifere; so, I have no comment on that. There is no need to lay trust on any man. They are contemporaries of my father, so whatever ill they did to him, their consciences will judge them. Bola Ige served his people from 1962 till he died in2001. He will continue to be remembered and we will continue to do justice to his legacies.

… Death of mama Justice Atinuke Ige

During the period of mourning by the family, mama, Justice Atinuke Ige, also died. What was the situation in the family when she died?

My mother died on April 9, 2002, in her room. She was in court a day prior to her death. All she said when she entered the room was ‘is this how they would kill my Bola?’

And she didn’t sleep all through the night and eventually died. She died of a broken heart. My dad and mum courted for 12 years before they got married and they were married for 41 years; so they had known each other for 53 years.

To mark the 10 years remembrance of the Cicero, what does the family plan to do?

We honour him every year but this year is unique. The Bola Ige Movement is the one anchoring the remembrance, though the family is supporting them and we appreciate their efforts over the years.

The remembrance will start on 18 December with a church service at Saint Anne’s Anglican Church, Ibadan; a lecture in honour of Ige holds at MUSON Center, Lagos on the 20th, there will be command performance of the Kaduna Boy on the 21st and, on the 22nd, there will be evening of poetry, drama and arts at Esa-Oke, his home town, and a candle light possession in Ibadan and Osogbo and, on the 23rd, there will be a church service at Esa-Oke.

We will continue to remember him as a man of the people who lived his whole life to serve the generality of the people. His friends cut across all the country because he could speak Hausa and Igbo very well.

Of all the qualities of the late Chief Bola Ige, which one do you admire most and will like to take after him?

His humility, love for masses, respect for the people and doing the right things always are some of the qualities I cherished in him. I admire all his responsible behaviours. I have told my children to also take these qualities.

Could there be another Bola Ige in this country and in this generation?

Bola Ige was an uncommon person. It is like asking, could there be another Wole Soyinka? But they didn’t start from nowhere. My father was writing in the newspapers from age 15. He was a student-activist and politician.

At 32, he was National Director of Publicity of the Action Group, he was chairman, committee on racism, he was Commissioner for Lands and then Agric in the old Western Region, he was governor, he was a minister, and above all, he was a friend of the people.

He did his best while on earth. He made a mark and it is left for those of us remaining to do our best so that the people we leave behind will remember us after our exit on earth