Jump to content

Adeniran Ogunsanya

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Omoba
Adeniran Ogunsanya
QC SAN
Born31 January 1918
Ikorodu, Southern Region, British Nigeria (now in Lagos State, Nigeria)
Died22 November 1996(1996-11-22) (aged 78)
NationalityNigerian
Occupations
  • Politician
  • lawyer
ChildrenAdenrele Adeniran-Ogunsanya

Adeniran Ogunsanya, QC, SAN ((Listenⓘ); 31 January 1918 – 22 November 1996) was a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He was among the chief-founders of the Ibadan Peoples Party (IPP). He served as a Lagos State commissioner for Justice and commissioner for Education. He was chairman of the Nigerian People's Party.[1]

Background

[edit]

Adeniran was born on 31 January 1918[2] in Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos, to the royal family of Omoba Suberu Ogunsanya Oguntade, who was the Odofin of Ikorodu. He completed his primary education from Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar under the guardianship of his uncle who was a civil servant.[3] He scored the highest mark at the 1937 Government Standard VI examinations thus earning him a government scholarship to King's College, Lagos. He went on to study Law at the University of Manchester and Gray's Inn School of Law.[4]

Career

[edit]

Adeniran began his law practice at Chief T.O.S. Benson Chambers in Lagos after returning from the United Kingdom a better informed lawyer and politician. In 1956, he joined his brother, Sulu Adebayo Ogunsanya to establish Ogunsanya & Ogunsanya Chambers.[5]

Politics

[edit]

In 1945, representing the Young African Progressive League, he attended the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester. Also in attendance were Hastings Banda, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and Jaja Wachuku to name just a few. [6]

In the mid 1950s, Adeniran served as a member of the National Executive Committee of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. He was the President of NCNC Youth Association and in 1959, he became a member of the parliament[1] representing Ikeja and Mushin. He held various executive positions within his party and in local governance in Lagos. In the NCNC, he was a one-time chairman of the Lagos State executive working committee and NCNC zonal leader for colony province and later secretary of the NCNC parliamentary council. In local politics, was a chairman of Mushin District Council Management Committee. Prior to the end of the first republic, he was appointed federal minister of Housing and Surveys and during the administration of Mobolaji Johnson, he was brought back to local governance as state commissioner for education.[7]

Adeniran was the leader of the Lagos progressives that merged with three other groups to form the Nigerian People's Party (NPP) during the Second Republic. He later became the chairman of the Nigerian People's Party (NPP) succeeding Olu Akinfosile after he had previously lost to Lateef Jakande for a seat in the Lagos Government House. He was the first Attorney General of Lagos and later became the Commissioner of Education.[1][4]

Recognitions and legacy

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "Adeniran Ogunsanya". Nigerian Wiki. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  2. ^ Who's who in Nigeria. Lagos: Nigerian Printing and Publishing Company. 1956. p. 215. OCLC 6274926.
  3. ^ "Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation". Richard Sklar. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Adeniran Ogunsanya: Remembering an icon". Adenrele Adeniran Ogunsanya. National Mirror. 23 November 2012. Archived from the original on 25 December 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ The Third World Calamity. Brain May. pp. 184–185.
  6. ^ Sherwood, Marika (1995). Manchester and the 1945 Pan-African Congress. London: Savannah Press. ISBN 0951972022.
  7. ^ "Mobolaji Johnson: An officer and gentleman goes home". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2020.


Flag of NigeriaBiography icon

This Nigerian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adeniran_Ogunsanya&oldid=1191493302"