On 23rd December 2016, it will be the 15th remembrance anniversary of Minister of Mines and Power and later Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige who was gruesome murdered at his home in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital city, by unknown men. In a recent interview with Punch, the daughter of Chief Bola Ige, Mrs. Funso Adegbola has expressed dissatisfaction with the way the case has been handled over the years with the killers yet unknown. When asked during the interview if she had premonition of his death, Adegbola said,”Funny enough, I was the one that had premonition of his death. On December 18, 2001, my mother was honoured with the Order of the Federal Republic by President Obasanjo. On the 15th of the same month, my father’s cap was removed in Ooni’s palace. Two days after, a report was published where those who removed the cap said that would be my father’s last visit to the palace.
“On the night between December 21 and 22, 2001, I had a terrible dream that I was wearing black cloth and crying. When I told my father that he or my brother could be killed, he discarded the thought. I had earlier lost my immediate younger brother in 1993 so I could not bear the loss of another family member. My father said that nobody could kill him and I replied that Nigeria was not worth dying for. Then he said anything worth living for was worth dying for. When he was killed, I remembered that a day earlier, I had warned him of a tragedy in the family. December 15 was special in my life; it was the day his cap was removed in Ife and also the birthday of my daughter.
“Nigeria is not worth dying for. For my dad, that was his own belief (that whatever you live for is worth dying for), I don’t believe Nigeria is worth dying for because there hasn’t been justice. If somebody or some people are paying the price for his death, then I’ll know that Nigeria is worth dying for. My father believed too much in this Nigeria. Every time you said anything negative about the country, he would say no, Nigeria is going to be great, that Nigeria would someday be part of G7 and all that stuff. That was him, and I don’t condemn him for it. But as for me, Nigeria is not worth dying for. I’m going to live for my children, my grand children and great-grand children. God forbids anything to happen to you in this country, you are on your own. So, I’m not going to die for Nigeria. My father has already died for Nigeria; nobody in my family will ever die for Nigeria again.”
