Ladoke Akintola
Nigerian politician (1910-1966)
Chief Samuel Ládòkè Akíntọ́lá () otherwise known as S.L.A. (6 July 1910 – 15 January 1966) was a Nigerian politician, aristocrat, orator, and lawyer. He served as Oloye Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of Yorubaland and served as premier of Western Nigeria from independence in 1960 until his assassination in 1966.
Early life
Akintola was born in Ogbomosho to the family of Akintola Akinbola and Akanke. His father was a trader and descended from a family of traders. At a young age, the family moved to Minna and he was briefly educated at a Church Missionary Society school in the city. In 1922, he returned to Ogbomosho to live with his grandfather and subsequently attended a Baptist day school before proceeding to Baptist College in 1925. He was a teacher at the Baptist Academy, Lagos from 1930 to 1942, he was a member of the Baptist teachers' union and thereafter worked briefly with the Nigerian Railway Corporation. During this period, he became acquainted with Chief H.O. Davies, a lawyer and politician and joined the Nigerian Youth Movement where he assisted Ikoli and supported the latter to represent Lagos in the legislative council over the candidacy of Oba Samuel Akisanya, who was supported by Nnamdi Azikiwe. He joined the staff of the Daily Service Newspaper and soon became the editor in 1943 with the support of Chief Akinola Maja, a shareholder, replacing Ernest Ikoli as editor. Akintola was also founder of Iroyin Yoruba (a newspaper written in the Yoruba language).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ladoke Akintola” is nigerian politician (1910-1966). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ladoke, Akintola and Nigerian, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “nigerian politician (1910-1966)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q338973. VIAF identifies the subject as 52596680. The Library of Congress control number is n84183029. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1966, 1960 and 1922.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Ladoke Akintola” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.