Adeyemo Alakija

Oloye Sir Adeyemo Alakija, (25 May 1884 – 10 May 1952) was a Nigerian lawyer, politician and businessman. He served as a member of the Nigerian legislative council for nine years starting in 1933. In 1942, he became a member of the governor's Executive Council. Alakija was president of Egbe Omo Oduduwa from 1948 until his death in 1952.

Alakija's collaboration with Herbert Macaulay and Egerton Shyngle early in his political career brought him prominence but after falling out with Macaulay and because of his moderate political views, his popularity began to wane until the early 1950s when he had begun to develop favour in the eyes of the public.

He held the chieftaincy titles of the Lisa of Egbaland and the Woje Ileri of Ile-Ife.

Early life and education Alakija was born to the family of Marculino (sometimes called Elemeji) and Maxmilliana Assumpcao; he was the youngest of the seven children in the family. His father was of Egba ancestry and his mother was the daughter of Alfa Cyprian Akinosho Tairu of Oyo. His eldest brother Maxwell Porphyrio Assumpcao-Alakija was a barrister in Bahia and father in-law of Sir Olumuyiwa Jibowu, and one of his brothers (who went on to become his law partner) was Olayimika Alakija, a sometime member of the Nigerian Legislative Council. An elder sister, Tejumade Assumpcao, became Olori Tejumade Alakija Ademola, Lady Ademola when she married Sir Ladapo Ademola, the Alake of Egbaland, her family's ancestral homeland. Alakija attended St Gregory's Catholic School before moving to CMS Grammar School, Lagos. He later studied at Oxford University in the early 1930s, and became an ardent proponent for the provision of tertiary education to Nigerians during the colonial period.

After finishing his secondary education, Alakija started work in the post office in 1900 and served in the civil service for ten years. He then proceeded to study Law in London, earning his qualification in 1913, He was heavily influenced by the tidal waves of cultural nationalism in Nigeria during the early twentieth century. It was this self-assertiveness that led his family to abandon their assimilated Portuguese name in favour of a native one, Alakija, in 1913. Towards the end of his life it culminated in his ascending to the aristocracy of his tribe, as he was created the Bariyun of the Ake Lineage of Egbaland and the Woje Ileri of Ile-Ife. The Oloye Alakija, whose first name originally was Placido, was of Afro-Brazilian descent like many freed slaves resident in Lagos. The groups were sometimes called Amaros. The Alakija family for a while were the most prominent Amaros in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, he embraced some traditional elements of Yoruba socio-political and religious history when he co-founded the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity and became the Olori Oluwo, or "Grandmaster", of the brotherhood. As a member of the confraternity, he introduced the use of masonic symbols inside the organization, such as the unblinking eye on an inverted V and three vertical shapes. He was himself also a freemason of high rank.

Alakija was influential in the development of Egbe Omo Oduduwa and later the Action Group and was donor to both organizations.

Alakija died in the early hours of May 10, 1952. The night before, he had attended a dinner hosted by Sir Mobolaji Bank Anthony.

Personal life Alakija married Christina Ayodele George in 1907. George died in 1938, and he later took on another wife, Lady Ayodele. Alakija sent most of his children from his first wife to Britain for education. Another son, Oluwole Ayodele Alakija, was the former president of WASU in London and a member of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. Chief Alakija was a founding member and president of the Island Club of Lagos and was a founding member and Vice President of the Nigeria Football Association in 1933. His grandson is Kojo Annan, a Ghanaian businessman and son of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.