Chief Victor Olabisi Onabanjo (12 February 1927 – 14 April 1990) was

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to the ...

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 ...

from October 1979 – December 1983, during the

Nigerian Second Republic The Second Nigerian Republic was a brief formation of the Nigerian state which succeeded the military governments formed after the overthrow of the first republic. Background Contested elections and political turbulence in the Western region en ...

. He was of Ijebu extraction.

Background

Oloye Oba means ″ruler″ in the Yoruba and Bini languages of West Africa. Kings in Yorubaland, a region which is in the modern republics of Benin, Nigeria and Togo, make use of it as a pre-nominal honorific. Examples of Yoruba bearers include Oba ...

Victor Olabisi Onabanjo was born in 1927 in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

. He was educated at

Baptist Academy Lagos Baptist Academy is a secondary school located in Obanikoro, Lagos, Nigeria. The school was established in 1855 by the American Baptist Missionaries. The school is regarded as a sister school to Reagan Memorial Baptist Girls' Secondary Schoo ...

in Lagos and at the

Regent Street Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Aug ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, where he studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

between 1950 and 1951. He worked as a journalist for several years before becoming a full-time politician. His column ''Aiyekooto'' (a

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

word meaning "parrot" - a creature known in

Yoruba mythology The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitu ...

for telling the plain truth) appeared in the Daily Service and Daily Express newspapers between 1954 and 1962.

Political career

Olabisi Onabanjo was elected chairman of the

Ijebu Ode Ijebu-Ode is a town in Ogun State, South Western geopolitical zone in Nigeria, close to the A121 highway. The city is located 110 km by road north-east of Lagos; it is within of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern part of Ogun State and p ...

Local Government Area in 1977 under the tutelage of Chief

Obafemi Awolowo Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo (; 6 March 1909 – 9 May 1987) was a Yoruba nationalist and Nigerian statesman who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement (1957-1960). Awolowo founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Om ...

. He was subsequently elected governor of

in October 1979 on the

Unity Party of Nigeria The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was a Nigerian political party that was dominant in western Nigeria during the second republic (1978-1983). The party revolved around the political leadership of Obafemi Awolowo, a sometimes polemical politician ...

platform. He was known as an unpretentious and plain-speaking man, and his administration of Ogun State was considered a model at the time and later. On May the 13th, 1982, he commissioned Ogun Television. The Ogun State University, founded on the 7th of July, 1982, was renamed

Olabisi Onabanjo University Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye is a state owned and operated university located in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria. The university was founded on 7 July 1982 as Ogun State University (OSU) and was renamed Olabisi Onabanjo University on 2 ...

on May 29th, 2001, in his memory. He established the Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic. General

Oladipo Diya Donaldson Oladipo Diya (born 3 April 1944) is a Nigerian general who served as Chief of the General Staff, (''de facto'' Vice President of Nigeria) under military head of state General Sani Abacha from 1994 until his arrest for treason in 1997. ...

, who became military governor in 1983, closed the school down, and it remained closed until it was re-opened after the return to democracy in 1999.

Later career

When General

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 ...

took power in a military coup, he was thrown in jail for several years. After his eventual release, he returned to journalism, publishing his Aiyekooto column in the Nigerian Tribune from 1987 to 1989. Chief Onabanjo died on April the 14th, 1990. Selected articles from his column were published in a book in 1991.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onabanjo, Olabisi 1927 births 1990 deaths Unity Party of Nigeria politicians Governors of Ogun State Yoruba politicians Politicians from Lagos 20th-century Nigerian politicians Baptist Academy alumni Alumni of the Regent Street Polytechnic