Abdulrahman Ado Ibrahim (7 February 1929 – 29 October 2023) was the fourth traditional ruler and

Ohinoyi of Ebiraland The Ohinoyi of Ebiraland is the traditional ruler of the Ebira people. The title Atta of Ebiraland has also historically been used for this position but fell out of favour in the 20th Century. The position is elected by a group of elders and has t ...

, a traditional state with headquarters in

Okene Okene is a town in the Nigerian state of Kogi. The town is based in a Local Government Area of the same name. Okene runs along the A2 highway. It had an area of 328 km² and a population of 320,260 at the 2006 census. The predominant people ...

Kogi State Kogi State is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the west by the states of Ekiti and Kwara, to the north by the Federal Capital Territory, to the northeast by Nasarawa State, to the northwest by Niger State, to the s ...

Middle Belt The Middle Belt (also spelt Middle-Belt or Central Nigeria) is a term used in human geography to designate a belt region stretching across central Nigeria longitudinally and forming a transition zone between Northern and Southern Nigeria. It ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. He was a son of the second attah (now "ohinoyi") of Ebiraland, Ibrahim Onoruoiza, of the Omadivi clan, who reigned from 1917 to 1954.

Early years and education

Ibrahim was born on 7 February 1929. He attended both western nursery and

Quranic The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

schools. He went on to conclude his primary education in 1940 at the Native Authority (NA) primary school in

, Northern Region (now

). He began his secondary school education at Ondo Boys High School and later moved to Oduduwa College, where he graduated in 1949. In 1954, he obtained a bachelor's degree in Economics from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and a master's degree from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 1959.

Enthronement

Following the death of Ohinoyi Sanni Omolori of the Oziada clan in 1997, the Lagos-based entrepreneur and son of the second paramount ruler of Ebiraland, Abdulrahman Ado Ibrahim, ascended the Okene throne as the second Ohinoyi or fourth ''independent'' traditional ruler of Ebiraland on 2 June 1997. Ibrahim constructed the Azad Palace, named after one of his sons, said to be among the most beautiful in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

Friction with state government

Ibrahim was reportedly issued a query by the Kogi State Government, following his inability to grant the Nigerian President

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...

a welcome during the latter's visit to the state, on 29 December 2022. It was reported that a bomb exploded during the president's visit at a mosque close to the palace of the ohinoyi in Okene, killing about three persons. On 3 January 2023, the Nigerian police Department of State Security (DSS) was said to have arrested the bomb blast masterminds who were members of the ISWAP, which released a video a day before the arrests, reportedly stating that the attack was undertaken by "soldiers of the caliphate". Ibrahim in his reply to the query on 12 January 2022, addressed to the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, stated that he did not receive an official notification and was unaware of the construction of another palace which was part of the projects to be commissioned by the president, other than the one he had been residing in since his coronation in 1997. In addition, he stated that as he prepared to go to meet the president, the bomb incident happened and his palace entrance got barricaded, thus his inability to go out and meet the president before the latter left for

Lokoja Lokoja is a city in Nigeria. It lies at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers and is the capital city of Kogi State. While the Yoruba (Oworo), Bassa Nge and Nupe are indigenous to the area, other ethnic groups of Nigeria, including the ...

. Earlier in December 2022, Ibrahim declared his support for Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of the PDP vying for the

Kogi Central Senatorial District Kogi Central Senatorial District covers 5 local government areas which include, Adavi, Ajaokuta, Okehi, Okene, and Ogori-Mangogo. The current representative is senator Yakubu Oseni. List of members representing the district {, class="wikitable ...

ultimate position. That notwithstanding, the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

as of then and currently is being run by an opposition party, the APC.

Royal family

One of Ibrahim's children, Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, was as of 7 January 2023, the presidential candidate of the

Young Progressives Party The Young Progressives Party (YPP) is a social-democratic political party in Nigeria. The party was created to challenge the two major contemporary parties in Nigeria, the People's Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress. In its m ...

(YPP) towards the upcoming elections in Nigeria.

Death

Ado Ibrahim died in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

on 29 October 2023, at the age of 94.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibrahim, Ado 1929 births 2023 deaths Nigerian traditional rulers People from Kogi State Ohinoyi of Ebiraland Ebira people Alumni of the London School of Economics Harvard Business School alumni