Chief Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya // ⓘ (24 July 1922 – 27 April 2008) was a Nigerian politician, lawyer, activist, welfarist, and liberal progressive.
He was said to have preferred his senatorial appointment to the governorship ticket that was originally offered to him by the Unity Party of Nigeria, a successor to the Action Group.
[3] In the aftermath of the deaths of Obafemi Awolowo and Adekunle Ajasin, Adesanya assumed the honorific title 'Asiwaju of Yorubaland' and simultaneously became more active politically, allying with Bola Ige, Ayo Adebanjo, Ganiyu Dawodu, and Bola Tinubu to fight their way to victory in six states of the defunct Western region with their political party, the Alliance for Democracy.
[4] At the peak of military persecution, many of the then pro-democracy activists, including his leader in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Chief Anthony Enahoro, fled the country and went into exile.
Adesanya remained at home, working for the cause of the Nigerian masses alongside such figures as Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and a host of others.
The Nigerian pro-democracy movement's victories were few and far between at this period - first, the independent press was gagged, then a number of people agitating for a return to civilian rule were arrested.
Adesanya acted as the champion of the ordinary Nigerian regardless of the danger to his person, persistently condemning General Ibrahim Babangida’s annulment of the 12 June Presidential election that had been won by Chief MKO Abiola.
On 14 January 1997, Adesanya's uncompromising stance in regards to military misrule led to an attempt on his life at the behest of the then head of state, General Sani Abacha.
Adesanya had just left his law chambers in his chauffeur-driven car when a team of would-be assailants (later revealed to be General Abacha's hit squad) struck.
[8] Since his death, he has been immortalised in a number of ways, especially by the six southwestern states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti.