Alhaji Ibrahim Idris was born to the family of Alhaji Idris  Adejoh and Hajia Hauwa Adejoh in the year of our Lord Nineteen hundred and forty nine (1949).  The older Idris, a well traveled businessman is a native of Icheke town in Omalla Local Government Area in the Eastern Senatorial District of present day Kogi State.  He belongs to the royal lineage of ONU IFE (OJOGBA).

The older Idris, a strict disciplinarian, imbued in his wards the virtues of hard work, independence, prudence and integrity early in life.  The old man believed that, equipped with these virtues, his children will be able to compete favorably in the world of business which was the only one he knew.  This upbringing has indeed been beneficial to the children of Alhaji Idris Adejoh, particularly His Excellency, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris.

Young Idris began his education at the Holy Trinity Primary School Onitsha, where he schooled briefly before he was taken to Kano by his businessman father who had moved to the ancient town.  In Kano, he attended the United Native Authority Primary School which he completed in 1963.  In 1964/65 he was admitted to the Kings College of Commerce, Buguma in the present day Rivers State.  Young Idris was only at school for a while before he decided his career belonged in the uncertain terrain of the business world.

A man of a great foresight, Idris spend little time in business before accomplishing great feats.  For instance at the age of 18, Idris had bought a personal car taken a wife, feats which by the value of his people in those days were considered superlative.  His business grew in leaps and bounds. Thus, by the late sixties, Idris incorporated the Ibrahim Idris and Sons Ltd which has today snowballed into several subsidiaries, among which are:

*      Ibro Hotels Limited (with a five star hotel in Abuja and a 3 star in Sokoto etc)
*      Ibro Construction Ltd
*      Ibro Furniture Company
*      Ibro Electronics and General Merchandise
*      Ibro Farms etc.

But even as his business grew from strength to strength, Idris knew that to face the challenges of a changing and sophisticated world, his interrupted schooling must be improved.  Thus, he enrolled to read Law at the University of Abuja, from where he graduated with LLB in 2004, one year after he had assumed office as Governor of Kogi State.
             
Indeed, nothing stands in the way of Idris once his mind is set on a goal.  Thus even as Governor with all the demands of office, Idris still squeezed out time to attend lectures and sit for examinations at the University of Abuja.

It was with similar zeal that he had plunged into business in the late sixties, beginning from Minna in the present day Niger State.  Before long, young Idris began spreading his corporate tentacles extending to Sokoto in 1970, where he established the largest ever furniture factory in the state known as the Ibro Furniture Company.  It is instructive that more than 35 years after, the company still endures. In this ancient city he also established a three star hotel, the first of its kind in Sokoto.  In the same vein the Ibro Hotel, Abuja, was the first Three Star Hotel in the Federal Capital Territory before it was upgraded to a five star.  Even now with over a thousand Hotels in Abuja, Ibro Hotel remains the largest and most successful privately owned hotel in the city even a the Ibro Hotel Sokoto remains the largest indigenous hotel in the sultanate.

Discerning observers had wondered why a man of such acclaimed achievements maintained a safe distance from the volatile terrain that was Nigerian politics.  Idris had distrusted politics and politicians and had constantly resisted pressures from all quarters to drag him into partisan politics.  That was until 2002, when the ordinary people of his state, began paying their way to Abuja to demand that he returns home to provide leadership for his people.  Even for a strong willed man like Idris, there is a limit to which the will of the people can be resisted.  Thus in 2002, less than one year to the 2003 gubernatorial election, Idris was drafted into politics by the grassroots and peasants in Kogi State.

With such popular support, this simple man easily overwhelmed 18 other career politicians, some of whom had been on the field seeking the office for 10 years, emerge the governorship flag bearer of the People Democratic Party (PDP).  With the PDP ticket and the ordinary people of Kogi State. Massively behind him, Idris moved into the Lugard House as Executive Governor on May 29, 2005, leaving in his wake an incumbent Governor as the casualty of the gubernatorial contest.  It was an election so free and fair, that not a whimper of protest was heard from anywhere.

As it is said, to whom much is given, must much be required. Idris came into office with this biblical wisdom as his watch word.  More than five years after, he still works and lives by this adage as can be seen in his numerous achievements in all sectors of the state’s economy.