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Chief Akande, an elder statesman, was born on January 16, 1939 in Ila Orangun, now the Osun Central Senatorial District. He is a nephew of Chief Bola Ige, and former governor of Osun State in 1999 on the platform of the political party, Alliance for Democracy (AD).
Educational career
In his academic pursuit, he had his primary school education at the Native Authority School, Oke Aloyin, lIa-Orangun, and at Methodist School, Ode-Idanre. Although there was no record of his formally going beyond primary school, he had started life as a shop keeper with B.M. Akadiri at Oke-Ola in Odode, Idanre. He was also subsequently lucky to become one of the pioneering teachers in the Obafemi Awolowo’s Free Primary Education programme (introduced in January 1955) at Ijama village of Idanre in the then Western Region of Nigeria.
Akande later trained as a Grade III teacher at Divisional Teachers’ Training College, lle-lfe (1957 and 1958). During his teaching career in Muslim School, Omu-Aran (present Kwara State, 1959), Muslim School, Ilawo-Ejigbo (present Osun State, 1960-1961), Catholic School, Oro (present Kwara State,1961-1962), and Mac-Job Grammar School, Abeokuta (present Ogun State, 1963), he pursued further education through correspondence courses from Wolsey Hall, Rapid Results College, and The School of Accountancy – all based in England.
In his private sector working experiences, Akande had joined British Petroleum Nigeria Limited in August 1963 as a Manager-in-Training in the Finance and Accounts Department, and later attended several professional courses in several reputable institutions, including: International Computers Limited Training College, Beaumont, Windsor, England (1974); London School of Computer Technology, England (1975); and International Institute of Public Management, Washington, DC, USA (1979).
Akande also worked for British Petroleum from 1963 to 1979 when, as Manager, System and Computer Services, he left (on a Leave of Absence) to serve in the government of the old Oyo State: first as Secretary to the State Government and, subsequently, in November 1982, he became the Deputy Governor to Chief Bola Ige.
Political career
After his appointment by the Military in 1971 as a member of Ila Local Government Management Committee and, in 1976, elected unopposed as a councillor for Isedo Ward 1 into Ila Local Government Council, he has remained relevant in the nation’s political space.
In 1977, he was also elected to represent Ila/Odo-Otin Local governments in the Nigerian Constituent Assembly that wrote the 1979 Nigerian constitution. At the Assembly, Akande met many Nigerian leaders, like Shehu Shagari, Ibraheem Gusau, Tatari Alli, Ibrahim Tahir, Solomon Lar, Prof Shiayo, Paul Unongo, Adamu Attah, Sam Mbakwe, Sylvester Ugoh, Ambrose Alli, Richards Akinjide, Prof Tugbiyele, Abraham Adesanya, Bisi Onabanjo, Ayo Fasanmi and a host of others.
For many students of history, his political career turned around after Ayo Fasanmi attracted Akande to Chief Obafemi Awolowo where he joined the Committee of Friends through which he became a foundation member of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
At the 1978 old Oyo State Congress of UPN, Akande was elected into the state Executive Committee of the party. He subsequently got elected as its State Deputy Chairman, thereby becoming a member of UPN’s National Executive Committee under the chairmanship of Awolowo.
Jailed for 42 months
For Akande, it was not a smooth sail into the moody waters of politics as he was arrested along with Chief Bola Ige after the military seized power in December 1983 and jailed for 42 months for what the Military described as ‘conspiracy to unlawfully enrich the UPN’. He was released in 1986.
Akande was happily vindicated by his own people that overwhelmingly voted for him to represent Ila/Ifedayo/Boluwaduro/Boripe Local governments at the Military-sponsored Constitutional Conference under General Sani Abacha.
However, after winning the election, he snubbed the Military and boycotted the conference in obedience to the directives of Afenifere and the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). And that was part of what led to the big “June 12” protests and the cat-and-mouse bloody scrambles between NADECO and Abacha’s Military administration.
Although Akande joined the formation of PSP and PPP – the two political associations which were not registered in 1989 and 1996 respectively, he refused to participate in partisan politics under the military. He suspected that the series of military programmes called ‘transitions towards handing over power’ were mere ploys for self-succession or self-perpetuation in office.
After his tenure in office, Akande ran for re-election in 2003, but was beaten by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In September 2006, Akande’s AD faction merged with other opposition parties to form the Action Congress Party, which later changed their name to the Action Congress of Nigeria.
The party announced plans to merge with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to APC where he emerged the pioneer interim National Chairman in February 2013.
