The passing of Oba Lekan Balogun, also known as Alli Okunmade II, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, has deeply saddened numerous Nigerians.
Aged 81, Oba Balogun, who assumed the throne on March 11, 2022, breathed his last on Thursday evening at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, according to a statement from his Chief Press Secretary, Sulaimon Olanrewaju.
1. Oba Balogun was born on October 18, 1942, in the Ali-Iwo compound, in the present-day Ibadan North East Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria.
2. He studied for his O- and A-level certificates in the United Kingdom while doing a part-time job to sustain himself.
3. He attended the Brunel University. He left the university in 1973 with a master’s degree in Administration and Economics.
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4. He later enrolled for his PhD after working with the Lambeth Local Government Social Services Department, where he worked for one-and-a-half years.
5. Balogun had worked as a lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State. He was once an editor of the monthly magazine, The Nigerian Pathfinder. He was also a director with Triumph Newspaper, Kano. He served as management consultant to several multinational organisations. He worked with Shell Petroleum Development as well.
6. The late monarch was a presidential aspirant on the platform of Social Democratic Party during the botched Third Republic. He was also once a governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Oyo State in the present political dispensation.
7. He was a senator representing the Oyo Central senatorial district between 1999 and 2003. He was chairman of the Senate Committee on National Planning. He was also a member of Senate committees like Appropriations, Security and Intelligence, Police Affairs and Defence.
8 . He was the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland before being crowned the Olubadan of Ibadan and given the staff of office by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on 11 March 2022.
9. Oba Balogun, an accomplished author, was a Muslim.
10. He died on March 14, 2024
