Tinubu On Ige, 10 years After Assassination

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) national leader, has said murdering a man of ideas like the late Bola Ige was futile, but charged the federal authorities not to rest until his killers were brought to book.

"Whoever thought killing Uncle Bola would bring an end to his ideas and ideals must have realised how fatally flawed they were," Asiwaju Tinubu said. "But the federal authorities must not rest until they find and punish those behind that dastardly murder; no matter how high ranking they are in the society.

The former governor of Lagos said it was a shame the killers of Bola Ige are still on the loose ten years after the heinous crime, insisting that the development has cast a slur on Nigeria's criminal-justice system.

"The political system operated by the ruling government has failed to unmask the killers of the former attorney-general of the federation. For a country like Nigeria that mouths the rule of law not to be able to resolve Ige's murder is regrettable," Asiwaju Tinubu said. "Rather than take his death seriously and bring the killers to justice, the government is allowing them to walk the land freely and even contest elections."

Asiwaju Tinubu insisted that the search for Ige's killers must continue because other good nations spend decades to unravel similar high profile murders.

Commenting on political developments 10 years after the assassination of the foremost politician and former federal attorney-general and minister of Justice, the ACN national leader quipped: "Ige may have fallen by cowardly assassins' bullets. But his progressive political ideas have proved the reigning ideas 10 years after his death."

He pointed to developments in the Nigerian South West to press his claim, adding that those who thought killing Bola Ige would arrest the progressives triumph in South West politics and progressive appeal nationwide had been proved wrong.

"When they struck our inimitable Uncle Bola exactly 10 years ago today, they thought they had killed his political persuasion with him. But after stealing the vote back in 2003 and even killing and maiming more of our people to maintain their steal in 2007 in Obasanjo's do-or-die electoral storming, the castles they built in the air have tragically unravelled," he said. "Now, it is Uncle Bola that has the last laugh; for those evil forces of reaction, who thought they could thrive only after Ige had been cowardly but physically eliminated, have themselves been banished to political Siberia."

He added that Ige's tragic death – "tragic not for Ige himself even if he suffered physical elimination and those he left behind were traumatised, but tragic for our country which needed his erudition and winning ideas" – must persuade the Nigerian political elite to contest on the basis of ideas, and not on murderous thoughts.

"Ige was a man of ideas. But his traducers either lacked any ideas or fatally suffered from the tyranny of dead ideas. On both counts, they dreaded him so much that his physical presence gave them the jitters. But see who is winning now," Asiwaju Tinubu enthused.

"Let us compete on the basis of ideas. Let a thousand ideas flower. But let the best carry the day. That is more in the best tradition of democracy, where robust debates and logical persuasions carry the day," Asiwaju Tinubu pleaded. "Cowardly physical eliminations have no basis in a modern, peaceful and just democratic polity."

But he cautioned the ruling progressive order in the South West to devote themselves to service, service and more service, if only to honour Ige's memory.

"We must strive for excellence in public service. We must raise the bar in governmental performance. We must earn our people's confidence in compassionate governance, which creates equal opportunities for all our citizens. That is the only way," he added, "we can do justice to the Ige memory and honour his martyrdom".