Mr. 'Bola Ige, co-secretary of the 18th Ecumenical Student Conference held at the University of Ohio, Athens Ohio, and The Rev. Martin Luther King jr at the daily news briefing during the conference which took place between December 27, 1959 and January 2, 1960.

In the middle is Dr. Winburn Thomas, leader of the forum on racial tensions.

The theme of the conference was “Racial Tensions and Technological Upheaval”.

With over 3,000 young people in attendance from over 100 countries, it was billed as the “largest student conference in the free world”.

As co-secretary and organiser of the conference, the 29 year old ‘Bola Ige was about to finish his law studies and took time off.

He travelled widely and in the months leading up to it he was based in the states in preparation.

Ige had the responsibility of co organising the conference by virtue of his being on the executive board of the World’s Students Christian Federation WSCF, from 1956.

At the conference, Martin Luther King expectedly talked about racial integration and announced plans to “develop a non-violent movement across the South” for racial tolerance and integration between people of all races.

It was probably at this conference that Ige first met Walter Carrington who was few years later to come to Nigeria as a Peace Corp volunteer and much later return as the US Ambassador to Nigeria.

Many do not know that Ige’s earliest political platform were in International Christian students’ politics. But it was a different kind of Christian vision that dominated at the time; it was more socially conscious and far from being just a ‘holy huddle’.

While doing his Christian thing he was also keeping an ear to the ground on what was going on at home regarding independence and issues in the Western Region. He was in regular unsolicited correspondence with various political leaders at home, offering views & ideas.

He went back to London early 1960, after the conference, fulfilled his outstanding academic/professional obligations at Inner Temple, his Inns of Courts and finally returned to Nigeria.