Daniel Coker

Daniel Coker (1780–1846), born Isaac Wright, was an African American of mixed race from Baltimore, Maryland. Born a slave, after he gained his freedom, he became a Methodist minister in 1802. He wrote one of the few pamphlets published in the South that protested against slavery and supported abolition.^[1] In 1816, he helped found the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States, at its first national convention in Philadelphia.

In 1820, Coker took his family and immigrated to the British colony of Sierra Leone, where he was the first Methodist missionary from a Western nation. There Coker founded the West Africa Methodist Church.^[2]

His descendants are member of the prestige Coker family who are one of Nigeria's most aristocratic and elite families and hold a lot of influence in business and politics. An affluent district in Lagos, Coker, is named after this family. All are descendants from Daniel Coker. Other notable members include Folorunsho Coker, High Chief Dr F.B.A. Coker; a renowned doctor now in his 90s who has been one of the most prominent doctors in Nigeria's history and High Chief G.B.A Coker, a Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court, serving from 1964 until 1975. Other siblings of F.B.A Coker and G.B.A Coker have been heavily successful in their own right. Such as Mr. F.C.O. Coker, an Oxford Educated charted accountant, Lagos Municipal Treasurer and Secretary to the first Lagos State Government. F.C.O Coker was on the board of the first Lagos state government and played a key role in economic policy and created a tax system that is still used to this day. Mrs. Oye Akintola-Williams nee Coker (Mama MUSON), who later became a professional health nurse, patron of the arts and ardent environmentalist. She was married to Chief Akintola Williams CBE, the first indigenous African chartered accountant and regularly described as the Doyen of Nigerian Accountancy. He opened the first indigenous professional services firm in the country which eventually merged with Deloitte to become Akintola Williams Deloitte. As brothers-in-law, G.B.A. Coker and Chief Williams worked together on many occasions and Williams was involved in the Coker Commission where G.B.A. Coker was the judge in the trial of Obafemi Awolowo, that found him guilty of malpractice and sent to prison, resulting in a huge shift in the political climate of Nigeria. Obafemi Awolowo was a Nigerian nationalist and politician who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement (1957–1960). The remaining siblings would include Mrs. Hilda Omolola Johnson nee Coker SRN, SCM, a future founder and matron of Logemo Hospital; Chief H.T.O. Coker SAN, OON, KC who later became a successful lawyer and who won many cases against the likes of Chief Frederick Rotimi Williams The only surviving sibling, High Chief (Dr.) F.B.A. Coker, OON, KJW, a Trinity educated consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, boardroom guru and owner of Victoria Island Consultancy and Hospital Services.  Chief (Dr.) F.B.A. Coker would grow up to be a titan in the Nigerian medical field with an international reputation; his hospital carried out the autopsy of Moshood Abiola and was involved in a number of other high-profile operations. He was also the senior gynaecologist to multiple Nigerian Presidents such as Murutala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo. Chief Dr F.B.A. Coker was the personal physician to Fela Kuti, a pioneer in Afrobeat's and the most notable Nigeria musician of the 20th Century before he died in Coker's hospital in Victoria Island. He is a confidante to the Oba (King) of Lagos and sits on the Oba's board of directors A major player in the construction industry, his office building in Victoria Island, FABAC Centre, includes tenants such as Main One, Austrian Embassy and Adeniyi Coker Consultants Limited (ACCL). ACCL is run and owned by two of Coker's son's and is one of the top 3 largest architectural firms in Nigeria. His youngest son, Dele Coker was the director of the Nigerian Rugby Football Federation and took them on multiple international tours around Africa and Dubai and has contributed significantly to the promotion of grassroots rugby in Nigeria. Coker's grandchildren are amongst Nigeria's elite social scene and rub shoulders with other prominent members of society.