Samuel Akintola

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Chief SL Akintola (right) with David Ben Gurion

Samuel Ladoke Akintola (born July 6, 1910 in Ogbomosho , Nigeria , † January 15, 1966 in Ibadan ) was a Nigerian politician. In the 1960s he was Prime Minister of the Western Region.

Life

Akintola was born on July 6, 1910 in Ogbomosho, western Nigeria. His father belonged to the Joruba tribe and was a small trader. He attended the Sudan Interior Mission School in Mina , South Dakota , but went back to Ogbomosho with his father a little later. Here Akintola was trained as a teacher at the local Baptist day school and at the Baptist college. From 1930 to 1942 Akintola then taught at the Baptist Academy in Lagos . He also became secretary of the Baptist union and editor of the Nigerian Baptist newspaper and also worked as a lay Baptist priest. Akintola later worked as a railway clerk in Ebute Metta and began to be politically active. From 1943 he published the Daily Service , which became the organ of the Nigerian youth movement. He received a scholarship from the British Council and went to Oxford to study administrative sciences and then law . In 1949 he was sworn in as a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn. A year later he returned to what is now the Republic of Nigeria, which was then a British colony . Akintola became an advisor and close confidante of the leader of the Action Group and later Prime Minister of the western region Obafemi Awolowo .

politics

Akintola joined the central parliament in 1951, a year later he became minister of labor, and a year later minister of health. He was also elected Vice Chairman of the Action Group in December 1951. From 1954 to 1957 he was the leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives. When Tafewa Balewa, Vice President of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), became Prime Minister of the Federation, he named Akintola Minister of Transport and Aviation. In December 1959 Akintola succeeded Awolowos and thus Prime Minister of the Western Region. The long-running disputes between the two leaders of the Action Group reached their climax in May 1962. Akintola opposed the increasingly radical socialist rhetoric Awolowos and sought the support of the conservative party members and the alliance with the conservative party of the north, the NPC. Awolowo managed to exclude Akintola from the party, but Akintola founded the United People's Party directly , which formed a coalition with the NPC in the federal parliament. In 1963, Akintola became Prime Minister of Ibadan , a region of Nigeria.

death

After the crisis in Nigeria, the elections were boycotted in October 1965. Akintola was accused by his enemies of masterminding the election rigging. As a result of these events, a military revolt broke out on the night of January 15, 1966, in which several politicians, including Akintola, fell victim. Ahmadu Bello , Sardauna (King) of Sokoto , and the Minister of Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh , also died next to him . It was initially believed that Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was merely abducted, but his death was reported a week later. Akintola left a daughter who visited West Germany as a journalist in 1963. In 1961 Akintola also stayed in Germany for a while.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Siollun Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966-1976) , 2009 Algora Publishing New York ISBN 978-0-87586-708-3 , p. 46

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personal data
SURNAME Akintola, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Akintola, Samuel Ladoke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Ogbomosho , Nigeria
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1966
Place of death Ibadan