{{short description|Nigerian politician, statesman and lawyer}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Remilekun Fani-Kayode | image = Remilekun-Fani-Kayode.jpg | image_size = 180px | order = Deputy Premier of Western Nigeria | term_start = 1963 | term_end = 1966 | successor = None | order2 = Minister for Local Government Affairs | term_start2 = 1963 | term_end2 = 1966 | predecessor2 = Dauda Adegbenro | successor2 = Unknown | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1921|12|22}} | birth_place = Chelsea, England | death_date = {{death-date|October 1995}} | death_place = Brighton, England | relations = | children = Remi Aurora Fani-Kayode Rotimi Fani-Kayode<br/>Femi Fani-Kayode <br/>Adetokumbo Fani-kayode <br/>Jean-Luc Bressard-Kayode (nee Fani-Kayode) | spouse = Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode | profession = Lawyer }}
Chief '''Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode'''{{IPAc-en||audio=Yo-Babaremilekun Adetokunboh.ogg }}, Q.C., SAN, CON (22 December 1921 – October 1995) was a Nigerian politician, aristocrat, nationalist, statesman and lawyer. He was elected deputy premier of the Western Region of Nigeria in 1963<ref name="modernghana.com">Emmanuel Ajibulu ,[http://modernghana.com/news/251696/1/chief-remi-fani-kayode-the-facts-and-not-the-ficti.html "Chief Remi Fani-Kayode: The Facts and Not the Fiction"], ModernGhaha.com, November 2009</ref><ref name="vanguardngr.com">Chuks Akunna,[http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/11/25/re-fani-kayode-the-lies-and-distortions-of-owei-lakemfa/ "Re: Fani-Kayode: The Lies and Distortions of Owei Lakemfa"], ''Vanguard'', 25 November 2009.</ref> and played a major role in Nigeria's legal history and politics from the late 1940s until his death in 1995.<ref name="modernghana.com" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=FANI-KAYODE, (Chief) Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh(late)|url=https://blerf.org/index.php/biography/fani-kayode-chief-remi-ade/|last=Admin|date=2017-01-25|website=Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Chief Remi Fani-Kayode: The Facts and Not the Fiction|url=https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/1620/chief-remi-fani-kayode-the-facts-and-not-the-fiction.html|access-date=2020-05-30|website=Nigerian Voice}}</ref>
==Family background== Fani-Kayode hailed from a prominent and well educated Yoruba family of Ife, stock from south-western Nigeria. His grandfather, the Rev. Emmanuel Adedapo Kayode, was an Anglican Priest, who had got his Master of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College, which at that time was part of Durham University. This happened in 1885. His father, Victor Adedapo Kayode, studied law and graduated from Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1921. He was called to the Middle Temple in 1922, and went on to become a prominent lawyer and then judge, in Nigeria.<ref>{{Cite web|last=rp441|date=2017-07-21|title=Downing's Early Black Cantabs|url=https://www.dow.cam.ac.uk/about/downing-college-archive/archives-college-history/downings-early-black-cantabs|access-date=2020-11-19|website=Downing College Cambridge|language=en}}</ref> His mother was Mrs. Aurora Kayode, née Fanimokun, who was the daughter of Rev. Joseph Fanimokun, also an Anglican priest. He had also got his Master of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College and later went on to become the principal of CMS Grammar School in Lagos, serving from 1896 to 1914.<ref name="modernghana.com" /> This was a missionary school that was founded by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther.<ref>Andrew F. Walls, "Samuel Ajayi Crowther(1807–1891) Foremost African Christian of the Nineteenth Century".</ref>
In July 1958, he successfully moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in the Federal House of Assembly in Lagos. He argued that independence should take place on 2 April 1960<ref name="books.google.com.ng">"Power in an Emergent African Nation" by Richard L. Sklar, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Oi0aVR4YkmUC&q=Nigerian+Political+Parties:+Power+in+an+Emergent+African+Nation], ''Google Books'', p. 269.</ref><ref name="motion">[http://allafrica.com/stories/201009270537.html "The Truth About the Motion for Independence"], AllAfrica.com, 27 September 2010.</ref> (the minutes of Hansard, 1958; Richard Sklar's ''Nigeria's political parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation'', World Press, p. 269; p. 269; Professor Onabamiro's ''Glimpses in Nigeria's History'', p. 140). In 1959, there was a further motion that was moved in the Nigerian Parliament, asking for a slight amendment to the Fani-Kayode motion of July 1958. This new motion, which was moved by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, asked that the 2 April 1960 date for independence, which had already been accepted and approved by Parliament and which had been acquiesced to by the British colonial authorities, should be shifted from 2 April 1960 to 1 October 1960 instead. This motion of amendment was subsequently passed and approved by the Parliament and it was also acquiesced to by the British. That was how the date for Nigeria's independence, 1 October 1960, was finally arrived at.<ref name="motion"/>
==Education and professional life==
After the completion of his study at King's College, Lagos, Fani-Kayode went to Downing College at the University of Cambridge, in 1941. He did the British Bar examinations and came top in his year for the whole of the British Commonwealth.<ref name="modernghana.com"/> He was called to the British Bar at the Middle Temple in 1945 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1960, becoming the third and youngest Nigerian to receive the title. Later, in 1977, he was made a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), becoming the third Nigerian to achieve this distinction.<ref name="modernghana.com"/>
In 1948, he set up the first indigenous Nigerian law firm, "Thomas, Williams and Kayode",<ref name="nigerdeltacongress.com">Femi Fani-Kayode,[http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/in_remembrance_of_fani_power.htm "In remembrance of Fani Power"], ''NigerDeltaCongress.com''</ref> with two other lawyers Frederick Rotimi Williams and Bode Thomas, who had been trained at Cambridge and London University, respectively.<ref name="modernghana.com"/><ref name="vanguardngr.com"/> In 1970, he established another law firm "Fani-Kayode and Sowemimo" with his old friend, Chief Sobo Sowemimo S.A.N.<ref name="nigerdeltacongress.com"/>
==Political career==
thumb|left|Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode Fani-Kayode played a major role in the struggle for Nigeria's Independence. In 1952, together with Rotimi Williams, Bode Thomas and a number of others, he was detained by the British colonial authorities for the active and passionate roles played in the struggle against the British.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/> He was elected the leader of the Action Group youth wing in 1954. He set up a youth wing for the party, who wore "black shirts" and used the "mosquito" as their emblem to reflect their disdain for British colonial rule.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/>
Again, in 1954, Fani-Kayode was elected into the Federal House of Assembly on the platform of Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Action Group, and he continued his fight for Nigeria's Independence from there.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/> He was the Assistant Federal Secretary of the Action Group and in that respect, he played a pivotal role, with the Federal Secretary, Chief Ayo Rosiji, in the organisation and administration of the Action Group. He, alongside Chief Awolowo, S. O. Ighodaro, E. O. Eyo, Adeyemi Lawson and S. G. Ikoku, represented the Action Group at the 1957 London Constitutional Conference.<ref name="books.google.com.ng"/><ref>Emmanuel Ajibulu,[http://modernghana.com/news/251696/1/chief-remi-fani-kayode-the-facts-and-not-the-ficti.html "Chief Remi Fani-Kayode: The Facts and Not the Fiction"], ModernGhaha.com, November 2009.</ref>
In 1957, he led the team of Action Group lawyers, who represented and fought for the people of the Northern minorities at the Willinks minorities Commission in their quest for the creation of a middle belt region, which would have been carved out of the old Northern Region of Nigeria.<ref name="books.google.com.ng"/> In July 1958, he moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in the Federal House of Assembly<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/><ref>''Power in an Emergent African Nation'' by Richard L. Sklar, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Oi0aVR4YkmUCdq], ''Google Books'', Page 269</ref><ref>Emmanuel Ajibulu ,[http://modernghana.com/news/251696/1/chief-remi-fani-kayode-the-facts-and-not-the-ficti.html "Chief Remi Fani-Kayode: The Facts and Not the Fiction"], ModernGhaha.com, November 2009.</ref> (the minutes of Hansard, 1958; p. 269; Professor Onabamiro's ''Perspectives on Nigeria's History'', p. 140).
In 1959, Fani-Kayode resigned from the Action Group and joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, an opposition party. In 1960, he was elected the leader of the NCNC in the Western House of Assembly.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/> In 1963, he was elected Deputy Premier of the old Western Region of Nigeria under Chief Samuel Akintola, on the platform of the Nigerian National Democratic Party.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/><ref name="books.google.com.ng"/> He was also appointed Minister of Local Government Affairs for the Western Region the same year.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/>
In the early hours of the morning of 15 January 1966, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, a Nigerian Army officer, attempted to effect the first military coup d'état in the history of Nigeria. The attempt, though ultimately unsuccessful, resulted in a lot of bloodshed and many senior members of the ruling party, the military and the government of the day, were brutally killed. Early that morning, the coupists, under the command of Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi, stormed and attacked the home of Fani-Kayode, the Deputy Premier of the Western Region. Fani-Kayode was brutalised by the mutineers in front of his family and in the presence of his son, Femi Fani-Kayode, who became Nigeria's Minister of Aviation 40 years later.<ref>Nowa Omoigui ,[http://dawodu.com/omoigui64.htm "Flashback To History: Yakubu Gowon And Fani-Kayode"],''Dawodu.com'', January 2006.</ref><ref>Toyin Fani-Kayode,[http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/12/02/fani-kayode-to-owei-lakemfa-by-toyin-fani-kayode/ "Fani-Kayode to Owei Lakemfa"], ''Vanguard'', 2 December 2009</ref><ref name = "sleepless nights" >[http://www.pointblanknews.com/os2240.html "Soyinka, Umar gave OBJ sleepless nights -Fani Kayode"], ''Point Blank News'', 4 October 2009.</ref> He was then whisked away by them to an unknown destination. After leaving Fani-Kayode's home, the mutineers, with Fani-Kayode in their custody, went to the Ibadan home of Chief S.L. Akintola, who was Premier of the Western Region. They entered his house as well, and murdered him in front of his family. They also wounded his grandson and daughter-in-law.
Fani-Kayode witnessed the killing of his friend S.L. Akintola by the mutineers, and from there, he was taken to the military cantonment in Lagos, where he was also scheduled to be executed by them. However, luckily for him, on arrival at the Ikeja military cantonment in Lagos, the mutineers were overpowered, overwhelmed and killed by loyalist troops under the command of Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon (who later became Nigeria's Head of State). Fani-Kayode was freed by the loyalists and kept by them in a safe house until law and order was restored in the country. The coup attempt was effectively quelled by the loyalist forces and all its ringleaders were either killed or captured. Some of the key government officials and senior military figures that were attacked in their homes that night, included Ahmadu Bello (the Premier of the Northern Region), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (the Prime Minister), Okotie-Eboh (the Minister of Finance), General Maimalari (the Chief of Army Staff), Brigadier Ademulegun (Commander of the Northern Garrison). Fani-Kayode, together with Sir Kashim Ibrahim (the Governor of the Northern Region) were the only ones that were not killed.
Consequently, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over power from the remnants of the Tafawa Balewa government on 16 January, the day after successfully foiling Major Nzeogwu's mutiny and violent coup attempt. He then assumed the position of Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces. However, a few months later, he was toppled in a successful northern coup d'état, which was effected on 29 July 1966, and led by Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed and Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon (as they then were). During the coup, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was arrested at Ibadan, together with his host, General Adekunle Fajuyi, by northern soldiers under the command of Major Theophilus Danjuma (as he then was). Both men were then whisked away and taken to a road side bush, where they were both stripped naked and shot. Such was the brutality of the northern "revenge" coup of 29 July 1966, that no less than 300 Igbo army officers and non-commissioned officers were killed. This was due to the fact that, among a number of other grievances, the northern officers were of the view that General Aguiyi-Ironsi had been far too lenient with Major Nzeogwu and his fellow mutineers, after 15 January coup attempt in which many northern (Hausa – Fulani) and western (Yoruba) political leaders and senior military officers had been brutally murdered.
The suspicion by the northern officers that there was collusion and understanding between the Nzeogwu group and General Aguiyi-Ironsi, was further fuelled by the fact that Aguiyi-Ironsi was of Igbo ethnic stock. Forty years after his murder, Aguiyi-Ironsi's son, Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, was to become Nigeria's Minister of Defence and took over that position from General Theophilus Danjuma, the man that had killed his father 40 years earlier. Many have said that the seeds of the northern officer's counter-coup of July 1966, which witnessed the killings of General Aguiyi-Ironsi and many other officers and which eventually led to the Nigerian civil war, were planted on that fateful night of 15 January, by the bloodletting of Major Nzeogwu and his men.<ref>Max Siollun, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t5Q78sVbLakC&dq=death+of+remi+fani-kayode&pg=PA46 ''Oil, politics and violence: Nigeria's military coup culture (1966–1976)''], Google Books, p. 46.</ref><ref>Dr. Nowa Omoigui,[http://www.citizensfornigeria.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=45 "Northern Nigerian Military Counter-Rebellion July, 1966"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804013943/http://www.citizensfornigeria.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=45 |date=4 August 2018 }},''Citizens for Nigeria''</ref><ref>Max Siollun,[http://www.kwenu.com/publications/siollun/2009/ohsee_nigeria_coup_culture.htm "Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture (1966–1976) – “The Best Book on the Period So Far”"], ''June 2009''</ref><ref>Nowa Omogui,[http://www.omoigui.com/nigerian_military_coups/ "Operation 'Aure': Northern Nigerian Military Counter-Rebellion July, 1966"], ''omoigui.com''</ref>
After the first ever attempted military coup in Nigeria on 15 January 1966, Fani-Kayode and a number of other notable figures were all detained by the military government of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi.<ref name="vanguardngr.com"/> They were later released in July 1966, after the northern counter-coup, led by Lt. Col. Murtala Muhammed and Major Theophilus Danjuma. After Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon became Nigeria's Head of State, Fani-Kayode left Nigeria with his whole family and moved to the seaside resort town of Brighton in south eastern England.<ref name="sleepless nights"/><ref>[http://thenationonlineng.net/web2/articles/22011/1/Obasanjo-Atiku-and-I-by-Fani-Kayode/Page1.html "Obasanjo, Atiku and I, by Fani-Kayode"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726120211/http://thenationonlineng.net/web2/articles/22011/1/Obasanjo-Atiku-and-I-by-Fani-Kayode/Page1.html |date=26 July 2011 }}, ''The Nation'', By Our Reporter, 16 October 2009.</ref> They set up a home and lived there in exile for many years. In 1978, he was one of those that founded and pioneered the National Party of Nigeria. In 1979, he was elected to the position of the National Vice-Chairman of that party and in recognition of his contribution to national development, he was conferred with the honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger by President Shehu Shagari.<ref name="modernghana.com"/>
Between 1990 and 1994, he was a member of the elders caucus of the National Republican Convention (NRC), one of the two political parties set up by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida during Nigeria's third republic.<ref name="nigerdeltacongress.com"/> After the annulment of Chief Moshood Abiola's presidential election on 12 June 1993, Fani-Kayode was one of those, who openly wrote about and spoke out strongly against the annulment. He even went to court over the issue. In 1994, the government of General Sani Abacha appointed him into the Justice Kayode Eso panel of inquiry, which effectively probed and helped to sanitise the Nigerian judiciary and rid it of corrupt judges.<ref name="modernghana.com"/>
==Family==
thumb|right|Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode and his wife Chief (Mrs.) Adia Fani-Kayode in 1975 Fani-Kayode was married to Chief (Mrs.) Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode. They had five children: Akinola Adedapo Fani-Kayode, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Femi Fani-Kayode, Mrs. Toyin Bajela and Mrs. Tolu Fanning. Fani-Kayode also had four other children (not with Adia Adunni): Aina Ogunbe, Remi Nana Akuffo-Addo, Tokunbo Fani-Kayode and Ladipo Fani-Kayode.<ref name="modernghana.com"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fani-Kayode, Remi}} Category:1921 births Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Category:Members of the Middle Temple Category:Osun State Category:1995 deaths Category:King's College, Lagos alumni Category:Nigerian democracy activists Category:Action Group (Nigeria) politicians Category:National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons politicians Category:Nigerian National Democratic Party politicians Category:National Party of Nigeria politicians Category:National Republican Convention politicians Category:Federal ministers of Nigeria Category:20th-century King's Counsel Category:Senior advocates of Nigeria Category:Yoruba lawyers Category:Commanders of the Order of the Niger Category:People from Chelsea, London Category:Yoruba politicians Category:English people of Yoruba descent Category:English people of Nigerian descent Remi Category:20th-century Nigerian lawyers