Babatunji Olowofoyeku

Babatunji Olowofoyeku (21 May 1917 – 26 March 2003), OFR, SAN, was a Nigerian politician, educationist, lawyer and leader, a Yoruba and native of Ilesha in Osun State of Nigeria, whose political career started in the mid-1950s. Early life and education Olowofoyeku was born in May 1917, and he grew up as the last born of a traditional extended family in Ilesha, a town in the west-south-west of what had previously been Northern Nigeria, a protectorate within the British Empire. Ilesha had previously been right on the border with Southern Nigeria, and was near the border with French-ruled Dahomey. In 1914, both British protectorates, together with the Colony of Lagos, were amalgamated as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Olowofoyeku was born about three years after this new colonial entity had been created by the British. His father died a few months before he was born. His mother enrolled him at the age of 5 at Otapete Methodist School and he was baptised there in the Methodist Church in 1924 and assumed the Christian name "Daniel". In school at Otapete Methodist, Olowofoyeku met classmate, Tai Solarin, then known as Augustus Solarin who became a lifelong friend. They both attended St. Andrew's College, Oyo, from 1936 until 1942. Solarin later said that he was radically changed by Olowofoyeku's final essay in which he made the observation that some of the colonialists were ignorant, and not well-prepared for the duties they were assigned, and therefore had no business running the lives of Nigerians. For this essay, he was punished for challenging the status quo, and suspended from college in his final academic year. However, he sat for and passed the final teacher's examination as an external student a year later. He later dropped the middle name "Daniel" as protest against his perceived oppression by the colonial authorities. In 1932, Olowofoyeku accepted a starting position as a pupil teacher at Otapete Methodist School, before beginning his teacher training at St. Andrew's College.