Sunday Awoniyi

Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi (; 30 April 1932 – 28 November 2007) was a Nigerian politician and tribal aristocrat. He was the Aro of Mopa, Kogi State, formerly Kabba Province. Popularly called sardauna", Awoniyi was a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, from which he was expelled and later recalled. Awoniyi was also chairman of the national executive council of the Arewa Consultative Forum—pan-Northern Nigeria group.

Family and education Awoniyi was born in what is now the Mopa-Muro Local Government Area of Kogi State to Pa Solomon Iwalaye and Dorcas Omoboja. A Baptist, he attended the First Baptist Church in Ileteju, Mopa. He began his education at Baptist Day School in Mopa from 1938 to 1944, moving on to Holy Trinity School in Lokoja from 1945 to 1946, and Provincial Middle School in Okene from 1947 to 1949. He attended the Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology (now Ahmadu Bello University) from 1951 until 1956, University College (now the University of Ibadan) from 1956 to 1959, and the Imperial Defence College (now the Royal College of Defence Studies) from 1970 to 1971.

Political career

First Republic Awoniyi's first political appointment was as a District Officer for the British colonial administration (he was one of few Northern Nigerians to hold the post, most being reserved to Britons). After independence in 1960, he held several posts in the Northern Regional Government including that of Secretary to the Executive Council, Awoniyi often held up the assassinated premier as an example of good governance, and was known as "Sardauna Keremi", or "little Sardauna".

Ever identifying himself as a Northern Nigerian, he later became Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), a pan Northern Nigerian political organization detested by many Southern Nigerians; questioned about his acceptance of this position, he said he was "brought up in my own part of the world to act well our part wherever we may find ourselves." He held the chairmanship until his death.

Awoniyi opposed the Third Term Agenda proposed by supporters of President Olusegun Obasanjo in favor of his re-election, and was attacked at his Abuja house on 12 March 2006 during the debate.

Death On 18 November 2007, while being driven from Abuja to Kaduna, Awoniyi's car flipped over. He was taken to the National Hospital in Abuja and then flown to London, where he died on 28 November.

On 11 December 2007, a one-minute silence honoring him was observed in the Senate. His funeral was held at Mopa on 15 December 2007, and was attended by former heads of state Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who represented President Umaru Yar'Adua.