Prince Bola Ajibola | |
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Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria | |
In office 13 September 1985 – 4 December 1991 | |
President | Ibrahim Babangida |
Preceded by | Chike Ofodile |
Succeeded by | Clement Akpamgbo |
Judge of the International Court of Justice | |
In office 1991–1994 | |
Preceded by | Taslim Elias |
Succeeded by | Abdul Koroma |
President of the Nigerian Bar Association | |
In office 1984–1985 | |
Preceded by | A.N. Anyamene |
Succeeded by | Ebele Nwokoye |
High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom | |
In office 1999–2002 | |
President | Olusegun Obasanjo |
Personal details | |
Born | Bolasodun Adesumbo Ajibola 22 March 1934 Lagos Island, Lagos Colony, Southern Region, British Nigeria (now in Ogun State, Nigeria) |
Died | 8 April 2023 Lagos State, Nigeria | (aged 89)
Spouses | Olufunmilayo Janet Abeni Ajibola and Amatullah Olaitan Ajibola. |
Parent |
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Alma mater | University of London |
Occupation | Jurist |
Prince Bolasodun Adesumbo "Bola" Ajibola, SAN, KBE, CFR (22 March 1934 – 8 April 2023) was a Nigerian jurist, who was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria from 1985 to 1991 and a judge of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994.[1] He was president of the Nigerian Bar Association from 1984 to 1985. He was also one of five commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, organized through the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In 1979, he founded The Nigeria Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (NICArb) as the premier arbitration institute in Nigeria and it was duly incorporated in 1988 under the Companies Act as a legal entity Limited by Guarantee.
A prince from Owu, he was born on 22 March 1934,[2] in Lagos Island,[Lagos Colony], Colonial Nigeria, to the Owu royal family of Oba Abdul-Salam Ajibola Gbadela II,[3] who was the traditional ruler of Owu between 1949 and 1972. Ajibola attended both Owu Baptist Day School and Baptist Boys' High School in Abeokuta between 1942 and 1955. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Law (LL.B.) at the Holborn College of Law, University of London between 1959 and 1962 and was called to the English Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1962.[4] He returned to Nigeria to practise law, specialising in commercial law and international arbitration.
Prince Bola Ajibola was chairman of the panel set up by the Plateau State government to probe the 2008 Jos riots.[5][6] He established an Islamic and co-educational institution, Crescent University, in Nigeria in 2005, and he served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN).
Ajibola was the high commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2002.