SHOLA Ayebola was one of the most principled student leaders who emerged from the University of Lagos, UNILAG in the late 1980s. Equally, he was one of the leaders of the 1990s pro-democracy movement that eventually forced the military out of power. During one of the mass protests, he led the leaders in the Sango Ota axis to the police station where protesters were held and demanded their immediate release.
Then one of the apparent protesters called him aside and whispered that he was a graduate of UNILAG and knew the principled role Ayebola had played on campus. He informed Ayebola that a killer military contingent was on its way to the police station and that Ayebola and his comrades must leave immediately. He believed the man and, he and other protesters scampered out of the station to take shelter in a shack across the road. A few minutes later, the military contingent drove into the station, shooting into the air!
Ayebola, in 1997, joined the Africa Independent Television, AIT flagship morning programme, Kakaaki. He transformed it into a mass participatory programme where all views are welcome. In 2002, I relocated from Lagos to Abuja. One day, I got a call from him to appear on Kakaaki and present the view of the masses on national affairs. I paid my way to Lagos and reported at the AIT, which was at that time running from Alagbado, Lagos. I reported early in the morning, and the station announced I was in the studios.
However, until the programme ended, I was not called. Some powerful forces had heard the promo and had insisted that my views would be too dangerous to air. A decade later, a similar incident almost occurred. Ayebola invited me to Kakaaki in Abuja to discuss the aftermath of the January 2012 mass street protests that had rocked the country. I honoured the invitation, and my presence as the Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, was announced. Then, the wait began. I turned to Ayebola, and he assured me I would be on the set. Later, the then Presidential Spokesperson rushed to the station.
He complained that he had hardly slept when he was woken up and told I was to appear on Kakaaki and that he should get there to present the government’s views. He told me on a lighter note that President Goodluck Jonathan was my brother, both being Ijaws, so why don’t I work out issues with him rather than keep the country boiling? The last time Ayebola invited me to Kakaaki was September 28, 2025. The oil workers had gone on strike against Dangote Refineries, and Dangote, employing his enormous resources, was suffocating the media space. Ayebola felt the workers should also breathe, so he invited me to intervene.
On Thursday, December 18, 2025, Ayebola, unconquerable warrior of the masses, free speech and democracy, suddenly, took a bow.
PETER Ozo-Eson, in the early 1980s, was a mentor of students at the University of Jos, UNIJOS, a pillar of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. I met him in 1986 at a Textile Union conference in Kaduna, and we hit it off. Then, we worked together in the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, he as Head of Research and I as Head of Administration and Information.
He played stylish and beautiful table tennis, and we set up a board on the NLC ground floor. Then, we played at my house. Later, Dr Festus Iyayi, the noted novelist and former ASUU President, joined us at the NLC on sabbatical. Our triumvirate became a think tank in Congress. In 2006, after we had crafted the May Day Speech and passed it for final approval, we were shocked that a portion, purporting that NLC backed the unconstitutional Third Term Agenda of President Olusegun Obasanjo, had been inserted. We were angry and, Comrades Ozo-Eson and Iyayi felt we should go confront Congress President Adams Oshiomhole.
I suggested otherwise; the final draft had been passed to me for printing. I told them I would simply remove the portion and get it printed, thereby presenting the NLC leadership with a fait accompli. I disagreed with both comrades in 2007 when they decided to campaign for Oshiomhole and write his policy documents when he contested the Edo State Gubernatorial Elections. Their experiences with Oshiomhole as Governor did not seem to have been nice.
But Ozo-Eson, the ever quiet and reserved type, did not like discussing his experience. However, Iyayi was livid. He recounted his experiences. When I became the NLC Acting Scribe, Ozo-Eson was my closest confidant. He was also the only one in the Labour Movement I confided in when, in March 2012, I began plotting my exit from the NLC. He was equally, the only person I told my plans to contest elections as the Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, OATUU. He rose to become NLC General Secretary in 2014 and retired five years later.
December 13, 2025, was a sobering day when his passing was announced. The country lost a towering intellectual and principled leader.
ABUBAKAR Sokoto Mohammed was a soft-spoken, respectful and reserved intellectual. These concealed the revolutionary fire that burned in his belly. A professor of Sociology at the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, he had been mentoring radical students at the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, for some years by the time I met him in 1983. In later years, he moved to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS and Usmanu Danfodio.
Ever ready to engage and develop the intellect, when I coordinated the International Lenin Centenary Conference in Abuja, January 22- 23, 2024, the only one that held worldwide, Sokoto not only attended, but also presented a paper titled ‘The Relevance Of The Marxist Theory In The Teaching Of Sociology In Academic Institutions.’ His seminal book “The Satiru Revolt of Peasants and Slaves in Sokoto Caliphate” was published by Malthouse in 2024. It examined the role of peasants and slaves in a revolt that shook the British colonialists and the Caliphate.
He made an online presentation at the Franz Fanon Conference, which held in UNIJOS from November 27-28, 2025. Then, less than two weeks later, the shocking news broke: Comrade AS had transitioned on December 18, 2025.
So, within nine weeks, we lost four giants of the working people, beginning with Abiodun ‘Aremson’ Aremu, who departed on October 12, 2025. He was my closest comrade and best friend. On a personal level, two days later, I lost Omonarutejiro Ovuakporohin Regina Alerebo, my best friend in Europe, with whom I shared our teenage experiences.
Despite these very deep cuts, we move on to 2026. Forward Ever!
- Lakemfa writes from Abuja