Background
He was born on December 7, 1940, of Muslim parents at Omu-Aran in Kwara State, the third in a family of five.
He was born on December 7, 1940, of Muslim parents at Omu-Aran in Kwara State, the third in a family of five.
He was sent to a strictly run Christian Mission school, the Sudan Interior Mission at Igbaja, near his home town, and at Ilorin Middle School. He then went on to Government College, Zaria, between 1954 and 1959 for a secondary education.
Deciding to become a soldier, he went to the Nigerian Military Training College, Kaduna, in April 1960, to Mons, Aldershot in October of the same year, and was commissioned in March 1961. Posted to the 3rd Battalion, he served in the Congo (Zaire) with the UN Peace Keeping Force and then was transferred to 2nd Brigade Headquarters at Apapa near Lagos, until April 1967, when he went to the newly created Area Command at Ibadan as Staff Officer, Grade I. He was not directly involved in front line operations in the Biafran war, and was still in Ibadan when appointed Military Governor of the new Central West State, which later changed its name to Kwara.
Here came his biggest challenge as Kwara was the poorest of all Nigeria’s states, with virtually no export crops or mineral production. He had to start almost from scratch, building up the administration at Ilorin and tackling the diverse development problems. Public demand for social services, better communications and improved health and education facilities seriously stretched the state revenues. But in his fifth state budget Bamigboye was able to announce considerable progress.
Cheerful, chubby-faced and extremely young, with skin like burnished ebony. Colonel Bamigboye dresses in a Yoruba cap and white robes, reflecting his governorship of a part Muslim, part Christian, border state. He was installed at the tender age of 27 and has worked tirelessly, travelling the state from end to end to see what can be done about the vast disparities in development. Though he has upgraded the power of the chiefs, to meet the demands of some areas, he is basically modern in his approach and is the first northern governor to promise votes to women at the next elections.