Aholu Menu-Toyi I occupied the throne of Badagry for almost half a century, but his path to kingship was far from conventional. Before entering the palace, Godwin Babatunde Akran had worked as a teacher, school headmaster and professional journalist, building a career in some of Nigeria’s notable newspapers during a period of profound political and social change.
His appointment as Akran of Badagry was approved by the Lagos State Executive Council on 7 October 1976. He was formally capped in January 1977 and crowned on 23 April 1977, assuming the royal title De Wheno Aholu Menu-Toyi I.
He remained Akran until his death on 12 January 2026 at the age of 89. His reign, lasting approximately 48 years and nine months from his coronation, made him one of the longest-serving traditional rulers in the modern history of Lagos State.
His story, however, began decades before the throne.
Early Life and Education
Godwin Babatunde Akran was born on 18 September 1936 into the royal family of Badagry. He was the fifth child of De Wheno Aholu Ajiyon-Kanho, an earlier occupant of the Akran stool.
His education reflected the opportunities available to a young man growing up in colonial Nigeria. Between 1946 and 1947, he attended Salvation Army Primary School in Lagos. He later continued his primary education at Methodist School in Badagry, where he studied from 1948 until 1953.
After completing primary school, he returned to Lagos in 1954 and received vocational instruction in typing and Pitman’s Shorthand at a private institute. These skills were particularly valuable in an era when clerical work, journalism and public administration depended heavily on shorthand and accurate typewriting.
EXPLORE NOW: Democratic Nigeria
His professional life initially took him into education rather than the press.
In 1955, Akran became a pupil teacher in the old Badagry Division. His abilities led to further professional training at the Methodist Teachers Training College in Ifaki-Ekiti, where he undertook an in-service course between 1956 and 1957.
He subsequently taught in several communities within Badagry Division and served as headmaster at primary schools in places including Igbologun, Igbo-Elejo and Ishashi.
Teaching placed him directly within communities beyond the royal household. His work required regular contact with pupils, parents and local residents, giving him experience of everyday life across the division before he entered either national journalism or traditional government.
From the Classroom to Nigerian Journalism
While working as a teacher, Akran developed a growing interest in journalism. He pursued correspondence studies through Bennett College in Sheffield, England, preparing himself for a change of profession.
In 1961, he entered professional journalism with the West African Pilot, one of the best-known newspapers in twentieth-century Nigerian political and press history.
His journalism career subsequently took him through several newspaper organisations. He worked with the Post Group of Newspapers, including as a diplomatic correspondent and chief reporter. He later worked at Daily Sketch as a senior sub-editor before joining New Nigerian Newspapers, where he held senior editorial responsibilities and eventually served as Acting News Editor in the South.
This was a significant career in its own right. Nigerian journalism during the 1960s and 1970s operated amid independence, military government, civil war, political reconstruction and rapid changes in the country’s institutions. Akran’s years in the press therefore placed him inside one of the principal arenas through which Nigerians encountered national events and public debate.
In 1971, he undertook further journalism training in Kenya through an opportunity associated with the International Press Institute. He distinguished himself during the programme and shared a prize relating to press law with a Ugandan journalist.
By the mid-1970s, Akran had accumulated experience as an educator, reporter and newspaper editor. His professional life appeared firmly established. Then the course of his career changed dramatically.
Aholu Menu-Toyi I and the Road to the Throne
The selection of a new Akran brought Prince Godwin Babatunde Akran back into the affairs of the Badagry traditional institution.
In 1976 he emerged as the Aholu-elect. On 7 October 1976, the Executive Council of Lagos State formally approved the appointment of Godwin Babatunde Akran as Akran of Badagry.
The appointment was published in the Lagos State of Nigeria Official Gazette under the Akran of Badagry Approval of Appointment Notice 1976.
He was formally capped as Akran in January 1977. His coronation followed on 23 April 1977, when he assumed the royal title De Wheno Aholu Menu-Toyi I.
The journalist who had spent much of his adult life in classrooms and newsrooms was now the traditional ruler of one of Nigeria’s most historically significant coastal communities.
Badagry had long occupied an important place in the history of the region. It was connected to Atlantic commerce, the transatlantic slave trade, nineteenth-century Christian missionary activity and the political development of what later became Lagos State.
By the time Menu-Toyi took the throne, the town was also confronting the pressures associated with modern government, expanding urbanisation and the preservation of its historic identity.
His reign would span military governments, the Second Republic, further periods of military rule and the return to civilian democracy in 1999.
Traditional Authority and Public Service
Aholu Menu-Toyi I did not operate solely within the ceremonial responsibilities of the palace. He became an important figure in Lagos State’s broader traditional governance structure.
He served as a member of the Lagos State Judicial Service Commission from 1979 to 1983. He later became Chairman of the Chieftaincy Committee in Badagry Local Government and served as Permanent Vice-Chairman of the Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs.
In October 1990, he was chosen to represent the council at an enlarged National Council of States meeting in Abuja, demonstrating the position he had acquired within Lagos State’s traditional establishment.
His public service also brought national recognition. In 1981, he received the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic, OFR.
Yet his greatest institutional responsibility remained the Badagry throne itself.
For nearly five decades, Menu-Toyi presided over a traditional institution operating within a rapidly changing part of Lagos State. During his reign, Badagry’s cultural heritage, royal institutions and historical identity continued to occupy an important place within the expanding political and social landscape of Lagos State.
Preserving Badagry’s Historical Identity
Badagry’s history extends far beyond any single monarch. Nevertheless, the length of Menu-Toyi’s reign meant that for generations of residents, visitors and government officials, he became closely associated with the modern public image of the kingdom.
The palace remained a centre of traditional authority, royal ceremony and cultural continuity. Its complex included spaces associated with royal ceremonies, family shrines, reception areas, offices, guest facilities and other functions of the traditional institution.
EXPLORE NOW: Biographies & Cultural Icons of Nigeria
Menu-Toyi also presided during decades in which Badagry’s slave trade heritage, missionary history, traditional festivals and surviving historical sites gained greater national and international attention.
His reign therefore unfolded at the meeting point of several identities. Badagry was simultaneously an ancient kingdom, a border community, a historic Atlantic port, part of modern Lagos State and a destination for people seeking to understand important chapters of West African history.
For Menu-Toyi, preserving the dignity of the traditional institution meant operating within a society that was changing rapidly around it.
Nearly Half a Century on the Throne
When Aholu Menu-Toyi I was crowned in April 1977, Nigeria was under military rule and Lagos was still the federal capital.
By the time he died in January 2026, Abuja had been Nigeria’s capital for more than three decades, Lagos had developed into one of Africa’s largest urban regions and Nigeria had passed through several political eras.
His longevity on the throne made him an institutional link between these periods.
Menu-Toyi also retained a prominent position within the Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs. At the time of his death, he was Permanent Vice-Chairman of the council.
His professional background remained an unusual element of his public identity. He had entered traditional leadership after substantial careers in education and journalism rather than moving directly from royal upbringing into palace administration.
His years in teaching exposed him to the everyday life of communities across Badagry Division. Journalism then brought him into Nigeria’s wider national conversation. Kingship gave him an entirely different responsibility, requiring him to represent the history and traditional authority of Badagry while maintaining relations with modern government institutions.
Those different stages of his career made his life one of the more distinctive biographies among Nigerian traditional rulers of his generation.
The Death of Aholu Menu-Toyi I
Aholu Menu-Toyi I died on Monday, 12 January 2026, aged 89.
His death ended a reign of approximately 48 years and nine months from his coronation in April 1977.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu joined the government and people of Lagos State in mourning the monarch. The President remembered Menu-Toyi for his contribution to the preservation and promotion of Badagry’s cultural and historical heritage, as well as his earlier careers in teaching and journalism.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also mourned his passing as the end of an important era for Badagry.
Formal funeral ceremonies later combined traditional observances with religious and state participation. A ten-day programme beginning on 23 April 2026 included ceremonial activities across Badagry, traditional rites, the Ajogan royal parade, religious services and public commemorations.
On 2 May 2026, Governor Sanwo-Olu joined other dignitaries at a funeral service for the late monarch at Freeman Memorial Methodist Cathedral in Badagry.
The ceremonies reflected an important feature of Menu-Toyi’s long reign. Traditional kingship in contemporary Badagry existed alongside Christianity, Islam, state institutions and civic administration rather than in isolation from them.
His death also opened a new chapter in the history of the Badagry throne. After almost five decades under one monarch, the kingdom faced the task of choosing a successor and beginning another period in the life of one of Lagos State’s oldest traditional institutions.
READ MORE: Ancient & Pre-Colonial Nigeria
Conclusion
The significance of Aholu Menu-Toyi I lies not simply in the extraordinary length of his reign, but in the unusual journey that preceded it.
Godwin Babatunde Akran began professional life as a teacher. He became a headmaster, moved into journalism, worked for prominent Nigerian newspapers and acquired substantial experience in public communication before traditional responsibility brought him to the Badagry throne.
Lagos State formally approved his appointment on 7 October 1976. He was crowned on 23 April 1977 and remained Akran until his death on 12 January 2026.
Across almost five decades of kingship, Nigeria changed enormously. Governments rose and fell, the federal capital moved from Lagos to Abuja, civilian rule returned and Lagos expanded dramatically. Through those transformations, Menu-Toyi remained one of Badagry’s principal symbols of institutional continuity.
His journey from classroom to newsroom and finally to the palace remains one of the most distinctive royal biographies in modern Lagos history.
Author’s Note
The life of Aholu Menu-Toyi I demonstrates how traditional authority in modern Nigeria developed alongside education, journalism, government and civic life. His nearly half-century on the Badagry throne connected generations living through very different political eras, while his earlier careers showed how professional experience could accompany royal responsibility. His story is therefore not only the biography of a king, but also a window into the way an old West African institution continued to function through the immense political and social transformations of twentieth and twenty-first-century Nigeria.
References
Ibrahim, Tijani; Ojo, Babatope O., and others. Badagry: Past and Present: De Wheno Aholu Menu-Toyi I, Reign of Peace. Ibro Communications Ltd, 1992. National Library of Nigeria repository.
Lagos State Government. Lagos State of Nigeria Official Gazette, Vol. 10, No. 4, 13 January 1977. The Akran of Badagry Approval of Appointment Notice 1976, L.S.L.N. No. 29 of 1976.
The State House, Abuja. “President Tinubu Mourns Oba Babatunde Akran of Badagry”, 12 January 2026.
News Agency of Nigeria. “Akran of Badagry Joins Ancestors at 89”, 12 January 2026.
The Guardian Nigeria. “Akran of Badagry Dies at 89 After 48 Years on Throne”, 12 January 2026.
Punch. “Sanwo-Olu Leads Farewell for Late Akran of Badagry”, 3 May 2026.
