ON Tuesday December 23, 2003, it would be exactly two years when Chief Bola Ige, former governor of the old Oyo State, Deputy Leader of the Afenifere, 3rd Republic Attorney General, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the Cicero of our time, was gruesomely murdered, in his bedroom around 9.30 pm, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Regrettably, two donkey years after his death, we have not been able to resolve the various conflicts, which his death had generated in our socio-political life. Firstly, we would have loved to know why the man who God in His infinite mercies had preserved his life up to 71 years, could not be allowed to die a peaceful natural death. Secondly, we had expected that by now we should have known who killed him and why he was killed. Was it as a result of political vendetta, which had claimed the life of Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju and of which the former deputy governor of Osun State, Chief Omisore, had been alleged of complicity? Or was he killed for a financial reward, i.e. N8 million, as the self confessed felon, who the police has continued to keep in custody, without any valuable result? Thirdly, why was Chief Bola Ige who survived the turbulent first republic crises, unlike Akintola, scaled through Buhari's prison, unlike Chief Bisi Onabanjo and who was able to triumph, during Abacha, unlike Pa Alfred Rewane, could be caught, just like that, like a helpless fish in a net, in a relatively peaceful democratic dispensation? Only God can tell.

The assassination of Chief Bola Ige no doubt was a monumental tragedy. His death created a great vacuum that if we have not wasted him, we would still be benefiting from his goodwill and valuable contributions to our national life. For instance, the death of Chief Bola Ige catapulted the opposition to the front sit and enabled them to sweep the South West and shame both the Awoists and the Afenifere in the scheme of things, during the last general election. Secondly, the failure of our system to track down the culprits and the inability of the prosecution to give any iota of hope that justice would be done, led to the sudden death of Late Bola Ige's wife, Atinuke, a retired judge of the Court of Appeal, who like Hon. Mustapha Akanbi, would by now still be rendering service to her fatherland.

The unresolved crisis gave more courage to the assassins, and ever since then, they have been having free days terrorising the populace across the country. Politicians, elder statesmen, lawyers and government officials have been taking turns to lose their lives in the cruel hands of the murderers. Apart from the assassination of Chief Bola Ige, Suliat Adedeji was assassinated in her private residence and Chief Adebola, a frontline lawyer and former Commissioner in Oyo State was also slaughtered like a ram in his bedroom.

Not so long after Chief Bola Ige was killed, about six months to be precise, Chief Marshall Harry, the ANPP Chieftain was also shot several times in the stomach in his house in Abuja. Before this, Mrs. Maria Theresa Nsa, the Chief Magistrate Grade 1, in Cross Rivers State, had been cruelly cut into unrecognisable pieces. You will recall that Mrs Ingrid Rohrbacher had earlier been assassinated in her official quarters in Unical. From Calabar, the devils moved to Anambra and killed the former NBA Chairman and his wife in sorrowful circumstances. After shooting them, they dragged their remains on the tarred road in Awka and dismembered their body parts!

It is however very unfortunate that instead of making positive steps towards eradication of brigandage in our country, our government has pursued wrong priorities such as COJA, CHOGM and the rest. They have made us to believe that the success of the two jamborees and the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to Surulere, Lagos, while his wife the Queen of Elizabeth was cooling off in Karu, Abuja, was an indication that Nigeria is a safe haven for investors. Let us hope that events do not prove us right especially during this festive period that all is nothing but a facade.

Although Chief Bola Ige is dead, he would forever be remembered as an elder statesman, a frontline politician and a legal jurist who attained the heights of his professional career. Chief Bola Ige believed in the oneness of Nigeria. This perhaps owed largely to his background. He was born in Zaria and attended elementary education in an Ibo populated school. The quintessential Bola Ige could speak both Hausa and Ibo so well like Yoruba. He was a very great orator who could move mountains with words. He had a sound educational background. He first studied classics and later crowned it with law.

As a lawyer, Chief Bola Ige attained, although belatedly, the enviable position of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He was highly instrumental to the drafting of the Constitutions of the PDP, ANPP and the AD. As Minister of Power and Mines, he unravelled the high level of corruption in our Steel Rolling Mills. He played the role of the Attorney General with high sense of professionalism and justice. To him, the court is the last hope of everybody. So, when the issue of resource control became highly controversial, he did not hesitate to go to the Supreme Court. As an advocate extraordinary, he personally presented the case of the federal government before the justices, with candour and high professionalism.

Chief Bola Ige never had a stain throughout his political career. As Governor of Oyo State, he never touched a government cheque. It was reserved for the career civil servant designated to do the job. He pursued the welfarist programmes of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) to the letter. He executed the free education policy of his government without any blemish. As the Chief Law Officer of the country, Chief Bola Ige admonished the police to redeem its manage and become more public friendly. To those who would not accede, he rained curses on them. 'They would never know peace in their lives. They would lavish their extortion on sickness and intangible things!'

As great as Chief Bola Ige was, he was an epitome of humility. He was a strong supporter of the National Conference. According to him, we need to talk in order to strengthen our national unity. To him, rather than tear us apart, National Conference would transform us to the first Black super power, in the world. He believed that INEC didn't need to register political parties, but may regulate those that freely emerge, whatever their number may be. According to Chief Bola Ige, Rotational Presidency is rotational nonsense. To him, it was the constitutional insult bestowed by the military on the political class. His view was that the political class had a way of arrogating and conceding powers. No Northerner was prevented from contesting, but those who featured were bound to lose.

Chief Bola Ige believed that the federal government had no business with local government elections. He also believed that moneybags were not supposed to participate actively in politics, but that the military made it to be so. To him, though military rule is an aberration, he commended them for mid-wifing democracy about two times in Nigeria.

Chief Bola Ige is dead, but his footprints would forever remain in the sands of time. his wife Atinuke would have told him what all that transpired after his death. He would have been told of the befitting burial given to him in Oyo, Lagos and Osun States. He would have been told how his political enemies declined that his corpse should not pass Ile Ife. He would have been told how PDP won even in Esa Oke, his home town. He would just be laughing in his grave now. He would have been told of the gallant roles played by his bosom friend Professor Wole Soyinka and the wits of words between him and the President. By now, Bola Ige would be commending the upcoming Lagos Lawyer, Festus Keyamo, for standing by the prosecution, to ensure that justice is done. As a deity now, he would have known that with the pulling down of Chief Awolowo's statue at the government house Ibadan, nothing would come out of the trial of Omisore and others.

Chief Bola Ige would be wondering if the country he has served so well couldn't do anything to immortalise his name. But he would commend his friend, the former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, for naming some shopping centres after him. It is only hoped that Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola would not reserve it. But seriously speaking, Chief Bola Ige deserves the type of treatment the true friends of Shehu Musa Ya'Adua had given him in death. His wife Atinuke also deserves to be treated like a heroine. She was to Bola Ige what Kudirat was to Chief MKO. Adieu, Chief Bola Ige, adieu the Cicero of our time.

Ogunbowale is a legal practitioner in Lagos