On December 12, 1910, Honorable Chief Danieles Kubuwaje Olumofin was born. In addition to serving as the Western Region’s Minister of Education, he was a member of Nigeria’s first parliament and its Minister of Economic Planning. DK Olumofin, a native of Ondo State, was employed by Shell Oil Company in the 1940s and was a member and leader of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). He started getting involved in politics around the late 1940s. He had notable relationships with a number of well-known people, including Oba CD Akran, Tos Benson, Adegoke Adelabu (also known as Penkelemess), Kola Balogun, and Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode (also known as Fani-Power). He peaked as a senior cabinet member in the Western Region at the age of 52, marking the pinnacle of his political career.
He was from a prominent Yoruba aristocratic family in Ondo State, but he sided with the NCNC and the Zik Movement rather than the Action Group, which was primarily made up of Yoruba people. He became one of the most influential political personalities in the Western Region and actively participated in the resistance. Olumofin saw then-Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola assassinated and experienced a near-death experience. He described the intense gunfire that broke out between the Premier and the coup plotters that night, which finally resulted in Akintola’s death.
The First Republic came to an end when he and other senior government leaders were jailed. For many influential politicians of the era, the military takeover that brought down the First Republic also signaled the end of an era. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Mr. DK Olumofin, a member of the NCNC, was especially critical of the colonial authority.
He was known as “DK Gwandu” because of his fervent essays criticizing the Emir of Gwandu and Sir John Ranking, the Governor-General of the Western Region. He was known as a fiery politician in high political circles and was a talented writer and speaker of Latin.
