19 Facts About Remi Fani-Kayode

Remi Fani-Kayode was elected deputy premier of the Western Region of Nigeria in 1963 and played a major role in Nigeria's legal history and politics from the late 1940s until his death in 1995.

Remi Fani-Kayode's grandfather, the Rev Emmanuel Adedapo Kayode, was an Anglican Priest, who had got his Master of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College, which at that time was part of Durham University.

Remi Fani-Kayode was called to the Middle Temple in 1922, and went on to become a prominent lawyer and then judge, in Nigeria.

Remi Fani-Kayode's mother was Mrs Aurora Kayode, nee Fanimokun, who was the daughter of Rev Joseph Fanimokun, an Anglican priest.

Remi Fani-Kayode had got his Master of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College and later went on to become the principal of CMS Grammar School in Lagos, serving from 1896 to 1914.

Remi Fani-Kayode did the British Bar examinations and came top in his year for the whole of the British Commonwealth.

Remi Fani-Kayode was called to the British Bar at the Middle Temple in 1945 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1960, becoming the third and youngest Nigerian to receive the title.

Remi Fani-Kayode played a major role in the struggle for Nigeria's Independence.

Remi Fani-Kayode was elected the leader of the Action Group youth wing in 1954.

Remi Fani-Kayode set up a youth wing for the party, who wore "black shirts" and used the "mosquito" as their emblem to reflect their disdain for British colonial rule.

Again, in 1954, Remi Fani-Kayode was elected into the Federal House of Assembly on the platform of Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Action Group, and he continued his fight for Nigeria's Independence from there.

Remi Fani-Kayode was the Assistant Federal Secretary of the Action Group and in that respect, he played a pivotal role, with the Federal Secretary, Chief Ayo Rosiji, in the organisation and administration of the Action Group.

In 1959, Remi Fani-Kayode resigned from the Action Group and joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, an opposition party.

Remi Fani-Kayode was appointed Minister of Local Government Affairs for the Western Region the same year.

Remi Fani-Kayode was brutalised by the mutineers in front of his family and in the presence of his son, Femi Remi Fani-Kayode, who became Nigeria's Minister of Aviation 40 years later.

Remi Fani-Kayode was then whisked away by them to an unknown destination.

Remi Fani-Kayode was freed by the loyalists and kept by them in a safe house until law and order was restored in the country.

Remi Fani-Kayode then assumed the position of Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Yakubu Gowon became Nigeria's Head of State, Remi Fani-Kayode left Nigeria with his whole family and moved to the seaside resort town of Brighton in south eastern England.