Aisha Muhammed, daughter of former Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, has said her father’s simple lifestyle and leadership approach contributed to the ease with which he was assassinated.

Muhammed, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, said this while speaking on ARISE News’ Morning Show on Monday.

Reflecting on her father’s leadership style on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, she said the late military leader embodied the values he preached, particularly accountability, responsibility and discipline.

She said her father believed corruption was a “cankerworm” capable of destroying society and did not merely speak against it but lived out his anti-corruption stance through his personal conduct and leadership style.

“I think his (late Muhammed’s) leadership style was clear. He led with clarity. He believed in accountability.

“He believed in responsibility, you know, and then, you know, we’re all very familiar with his anti-corruption stance, you know, and corruption was not something you sort of just talked about.

“He actually literally felt that it was a cankerworm that was going to destroy our society, and 50 years later, look at what has happened.

“But I also think that he felt that you had to embody the leadership, you know, in the way you yourself presented yourself,” Muhammed said.

According to her, Murtala Muhammed deliberately avoided the trappings of power, including heavy security details, motorcades and sirens, insisting on living like the ordinary Nigerian.

This lifestyle, she said, directly contributed to his assassination on February 13, 1976.

Aisha Muhammed noted that he was travelling in traffic like every other road user when the attack occurred.

“If you know, my father didn’t go around with motorcades and sirens and a lot of security. Now, there are people who say to me, 50 years later, it must have been quite painful because of the loss, but that was what he embodied.

“So, and that was why it was actually easy to assassinate him, because he didn’t have a whole slew of security with him.

“He was in traffic just like everybody else. In fact, the traffic wardens stopped them, and they stopped, just like everybody else, and that was when the coup plotters came out from behind the sectarian barricade, and then he was shot,” she said.

General Muhammed seized power in a bloodless coup in July 1975, ousting General Yakubu Gowon.

FILE: General Murtala Ramat Muhammed

He was, however, assassinated during an abortive coup on February 13, 1976, barely six months after assuming office as Nigeria’s Head of State.

During his brief 200-day tenure, Muhammed implemented sweeping reforms, including the dismissal of over 10,000 public officials accused of corruption, the creation of seven new states, and plans for a transition to civilian rule.

His administration also initiated the process that led to the relocation of Nigeria’s capital from Lagos to Abuja.

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Adunni Oluwole remains one of the most controversial and intriguing figures in Nigeria’s late colonial political history. At a time when nationalist leaders were mobilising the masses for immediate self-rule, Oluwole stood almost alone as a vocal opponent of rapid independence, arguing that Nigeria was not yet prepared for the responsibilities and dangers that would follow the departure of British colonial administration.

Born in 1905 into the family of an Ibadan warrior, Adunni Oluwole’s reputation for fearlessness was rooted in both her upbringing and her temperament. Her early life was partly spent under the care of Bishop Howells of St John’s Church, Aroloya, Lagos, after which she grew up in Mushin. From a young age, she showed signs of independence and creativity. As a youth, she wrote a highly successful play for the Girls’ Guild of St John’s Church, Lagos, which was directed by Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists. She later distinguished herself as the only woman to found a professional theatre company in Western Nigeria, using drama as a tool for social and political commentary.

Oluwole rose to national prominence during the General Strike of 1945, a defining moment in Nigeria’s labour and nationalist movements. When the colonial government withheld workers’ salaries, she mobilised women to support the striking workers and personally donated funds to trade unions to help them cope with the crisis. Her actions earned her recognition as a powerful grassroots organiser with strong appeal among ordinary people, particularly women and rural dwellers.

Politically, Adunni Oluwole was a committed unitarist and a fierce critic of the Nigerian political elite. In 1954, she founded the Nigerian Commoners Party, a movement that opposed the rapid transfer of power to Nigerians, which she believed would only replace British colonialism with what she described as “internal colonialism” by indigenous elites.

Despite being a woman in a male-dominated political space, she won a seat in Ikirun, in present-day Osun State, during the 1954 Western Region House of Representatives election, defeating candidates from both the NCNC and the Action Group led by Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo respectively.

Her views shocked many Nigerians. Among Yoruba-speaking communities, her movement became mockingly known as Egbe Koyinbo Máílò—“The White Man Must Not Go”. Yet her message resonated with sections of the rural population who were already burdened by taxation and wary of elite politics. Oluwole argued that independence, if poorly managed, would lead to dictatorship, corruption and the oppression of the masses.

Her confrontational style brought her into direct conflict with powerful figures. On 25 August 1955, she presented her views at the palace of the Olubadan of Ibadan, where she was publicly insulted and threatened by Ibadan politician Adegoke Adelabu.

Following her banishment from Ibadan, she continued her activism in Akure, staging dramatic public demonstrations in which she tied ropes around her waist and had hired men pull her through the streets as a symbol of the suffering she believed ordinary Nigerians would endure under post-colonial leadership.

Adunni Oluwole died in 1957 from complications related to whitlow, three years before Nigeria attained independence. Though widely dismissed and ridiculed in her lifetime, her warnings have since been revisited by historians and commentators who see in her activism an early critique of post-colonial governance in Nigeria. Today, she is remembered as a fearless woman who dared to challenge the dominant nationalist narrative and paid a heavy personal price for her convictions.

Source:
– Toyin Falola, The Political Economy of a Pre-Colonial African State: Ibadan, 1830–1900 (and related essays on Yoruba political culture).

– Tekena N. Tamuno, Nigeria and Elective Representation, 1923–1947.

– Nigerian historical archives and secondary literature on late colonial politics in Western Nigeria.

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1.Isheri Olofin – Olofin Ogunfunminire and his retinue from Ife before moving on to Ebute Metta and Iddo
2.Iddo Island – Olofin Ogunfunminire (See above)
3.Lagos Island/Eko – Aromire, son of Ogunfunminire. Iduganran was the site of a pepper farm (Ereko or Oko).
4.Iru/Victoria island – Oniru Origefon traditionally part of the idejo land owning children of Ogunfunminire
5.Ikate/Elegushi – Elegushi Kusenla (Another member of the idejo class)
6.Otto/Mainland – Pawu ogboja oloto
7.ijora/Orile iganmu – Kueji/Isikoko ojora
8.Ajiran – Ojomu Ejo/Mogisho, brother to Olofin Ogunfunminire
9.Ikoyi – Onikoyi Adeyemi/Efunluyi
10.Ebute Lekki (Ileke) – Lootu son of Labolo, grandson of Oba Alara of Epe.
11.Ibeju – Abeju Agbeduwa originally from ife through the coastal Ijebu area
12.Ajah – Olumegbon/Ogunsemo/Ojupon
13.Otto Awori – Aregi Ope, Iworu Oloja and Odofin, all part of the original Awori stream from Ife.
14.Ojo – Esugbemi/Erelu/Osu
15.Iba – Àyoká Oniba ekun
16.Mushin – Oduabore/Aileru
17.Isolo – Akinbaye/Alagbeji
18.Ejigbo – Fadu onimewon/Olojan
19.Ikotun – Ategbo Olukotun
20.Egbe – Kudaki/Akeja
21.Oshodi/isolo – Olusi onigbesa/Agedegudu
22.Ijegun – Ajibade Agbojojoye
23.Igando – Eseba onimaba/oko osi/Eshidana
24.Eleko – Sobokunren
25.Akesan – Ominuye/Aina òdofin
26.Ogba (Ikeja) – Owoeni Asade/Madarikan
27.Ogudu – Amosu from Ile ife
28.Ikeja – Amore/Ikudehinbu
29.Aguda/Surulere – Gboin /Odunburé
30.Itiré – Òtá Onitire
31.Ilasa – Àbere ijé
32.Onigbongbo – Ikunyasun Àwusefa
33.Irewe – Edinni/Ojube/Oluwen
34.Ikosi-Kosofe – Aina ejo from Isheri
35.Idimu – Eletu Apataiko (Isa Aperindeja Olugoké)
36.Ilara-Epe – Tunse/Sabolujo/Alara Adejuwon
37.Ibonwon – Soginná from Ijebu
38.Ketu (kosofe) – Balogun oyero from Ketu-Ile
39.Ojokoro – Oniojugbelé Adeitan from Ota
40.Ikaare – Ikeja Ajija
41.Orile Agege – Efunmikan
42.Obele odan (Surulere) – Alago asalu
43.Ikorodu – Oga from Epe Sagamu
44.Epe – Uraka from Ife joined by Isein & Modu of Omu. they settled under a Popoka tree, that site became Poka township. Alaro (a woman) later joined. Then Ramope, Ogunmude and Oloja Shagbafara joined from Ijebu ode.
45.Odo Ayandelu – Ayandelu from Ile ife
46.Agbowa – Olayeni Otutubiosun son of Owa Otutubiosun who was Awujale, and grandson of Lafogido of Ife.
47.Igbogbo – Oshinbokunren
48.Meiran – Oroja from Ota
49.Imota – Ranodu from Ijebu
48.Owode Apa badagy – Oganogbodo-Akereyaso/Asese Alapa
50.Ajido – Aholu sagbe from Allada
51.Oworoshoki – Ajumogijo
52.Iworo/Imeke – Ajagunosin/Adejori isejoye
53.Badagy – Egun people from Popo, Allada, Wida and Weme who fled the wars of the Dahomey conquest of the coastal kingdoms of Allada and Igelefe (Ouidah) to come settle of Apa lands to their east.
54.Ejinrin – Loofi Ogunmude founded Ejinrin around 1619
55.Eputu Lekki – Ogunfayo
56.Orimedu Ibeju/Lekki – Ladejobi left Ife to Okegun then crossed the Lekki Lagoon.
57.Akodo – Oyemade Ogidigan
58.Offin – Liyangu of Ife.
59.Ibonwon – Soginna from Ijebu ode.
60.Ijede – Ajede

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