The amazing life of Olubadan in 14 bullet points
It’s no longer news the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade, is dead.
The Oyo monarch was 101.
We, here, attempt a summary of his obviously amazing life.
- He was born on April 14, 1914, the year Nigeria came into existence.
- He was a minister in the First Republic.
- He worked for a while with the United Africa Company as a produce clerk.
- He taught at the Church Missionary Society Elementary School, Jago, in the present Ona-ara Local Government Area, in 1938.
- He fought in World War II which ran from 1939 through 1945. After the war ended, he was in charge of the demobilisation of returning soldiers in Lagos.
- He had an appointment with the Colonial Office Education Department in 1946.
- He ventured into politicis in the 1959 pre-independence House of Representatives.
- He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to late Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, in the country’s first independent cabinet.
- In 1963, he attended the epoch-making Commonwealth Conference in London.
- He was later appointed Nigeria’s Minister of State for Labour.
- In 1964, he led the Nigerian Parliamentary delegation to the London Constitutional Conference to restructure the then British colonies of Rhodesia and Nyasaland now known as Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
- He was appointed Mogaji (Head) of his Ladunni family compound, at Oja-Igbo in 1972.
- In 1976, he became the Jagun of Ibadanland.
- He was crowned Olubadan of Ibadan in July 2007.
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