A Fulfilled Life at 85: Bola Ajibola like no other
*What Ajibola told FG on Onnoghen
*The advice to Buhari on anti-corruption
A flashback into the beginning of the Olori Omo Oba Owu of Owu Kingdom, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Prince Bola Ajibola SAN, CFR, KBE, LL.B, B.L, FCI, NAILS, LL.D, FCILRM, became necessary when he was celebrated recently first in a prayer session in his Olusegun Obasanjo Hilltop GRA, Abeokuta home, attended by dignitaries including the Registrar/Chief Executive, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede among others.
The celebration was later moved to the Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB)’s Bola Ajibola College of Law (BACOLAW) Auditorium where the 13th Founder’s Day Lecture of the university and award of excellence were held in honour of the retired Judge of the International Court of Justice (IJC) at The Hague, Netherlands. More importantly, Founder’s Day to Crescent University Abeokuta is invariably an adoption by the University’s Senate and Governing Council dedicated to mark the birthday anniversary of the institution’s proprietor, Ajibola, who, till date, remains the longest serving ever Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation.
Aside his role as a philanthropist producing many successful university graduates and chattered professionals, who would have been deprived access to quality university education, the Bola Ajibola Community Award was instituted in 2018 to recognize and reward excellence in personalities in appreciation of their contributions in different endeavours. First edition of the award was dedicated to recognizing community policing and the awards went to the immediate past Ogun State Commissioner of Police Ahmed Iliyasu and some of his officers.
It is therefore the reason a tribute published by The DEFENDER celebrating the man of exceptional integrity at 84 last year said: “The name Bola Ajibola can no longer need an introduction. So, I do not have to start my tribute with an introduction of who the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was, is and will still be in the conglomerate called Nigeria, Africa and the world in general.
What will need a continuous mention about the man who, despite the negative campaigns of calumny by own people at home and in the professional community of lawyers where he belonged, emerged in a globally participated election at the United Nations (UN) as Judge of the International Court of Justice (IJC) at The Hague is the story of his Golden Nights and how he had survived death four times just because he had to brush aside the princely status of a royalty in him to, independently, struggle to have a comfortable handshake with successful future that is now being talked about today.”
That tribute, which attracted wide commendations, was apt particularly in the area of “the golden nights”. What one has found out is that the life story of Prince Bola Ajibola will not be complete without the mention of “The Golden Nights” of sleeplessness when, according to him, working for the whole of the day and reading with candle lights for the night were norms. One would imagine the extent of self-afflicted stress, therefore, that the Prince of Oba Abdul-Salam Adewunmi Ajibola, Gbadela II, the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Abeokuta between 1949 and 1972 in the then Southern Protectorate of not too long amalgamated Nigeria, must have passed through.
It is no wonder the heir of the Bola Ajibola dynasty, Barrister Muhammad Mahruf Adesegun Bola Ajibola (SAN) said: “Baba had made sure that all the sufferings of his children he had, had. However, he never allowed our upbringing to be devoid of one which makes us forget where we are coming from and where we are going. He is a religious, God-fearing man and he has brought us up along that line.”
History has it that Bola Ajibola’s father, Oba Abdul-Salam Ajibola Gbadela II was direct recipient of Queen Elizabeth’s British Award of Excellence having been noticeably active and enjoyed free reign in the Police Force as an Inspector playing the role of a crack detective for 13 years before he retired for the reason of ascension to the throne in 1949. Of note also is that Oba Ajibola, whose core-life story has been encapsulated in “A Life of Excellent Service” co-authored by his son, Bola, and another Nigerian, Chief Oladipo Yemitan.
According to the published tribute at his 84th anniversary, it was said: “Do I need to mention when he had actually wanted to pass on and he let on his gas cylinder to let loose its content while sleeping in a locked up room? That was precisely one of the four experiences he had with death. But while would Abdul-Jabbar Bolasodun Adesumbo Ajibola (SAN) want to be taken away by content of a gas cylinder? That is story for another day. But the whole myths surrounding all of those experiences from the era of Golden Nights to those other ones boiled out to the fact that achieving greatness in life is not an easy task to go by.”
The tribute continued: “If I was not lucky to be alive to see him in his days of the Golden Nights and others because I was not born at that time – only arrived on September 3, 1972 – I was alive, alert to recognising happenings around me when he became attorney-general of the federation and I saw Prince Bola Ajibola as pragmatic person, who went into the government of his country at no cost to the government but at huge sacrifice of his personal comforts. That was because, for the six years, six months, six weeks, three days and one and a half hours that he was in office as Minister of Justice, he earned no kobo from the treasury of government. Rather, he spent his own hard earned money to take care of his personal needs required of him to serve his father land. That was exactly what he did that General Babangida saw and still sees him as truly an enigma.”
How best to celebrate a man, therefore, who has seen it from his immediate community to the world communities other than make his birthday anniversary a worthwhile. It happened exactly that way. This year’s weeklong event however did not just happen the way of the past. It happened with reminiscence of the genesis to the revelation and achievements of the great Fellow of many professional institutions, who is first man ever to be President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) from where his activities as a practice person came to the notice of President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (GCFR) (1985 – 1993) who made him Attorney-General of the Federation.
This featurised story celebrating his birthday this year titled, “A Fulfilled Life At 85: Bola Ajibola Like No Other”, can therefore not be an overstatement as it is not easy to have a man, product of Baptist Boys’ High School Abeokuta, who, after having travelled the entire world as World Court Judge, President, Arbitration Panel of the World Bank, Chairman, International Boundaries between Nigeria and Cameroon, Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom among and, above all, one of 500 most influential Muslim leaders in the world, could have decided to sell off all that he had acquired only for him to invest it in an educational project to give Nigeria and entire Africa a brilliant example of well managed university.
In his own case, he has for close to a decade been producing graduates, not as brilliant beasts but, proudly nurtured in moral and academic excellence. That is what Crescent University Abeokuta, considered to be “the peak of my life achievements”, according to Bola Ajibola, has done in its 14 years of existence as a Nigeria’s leading private university.
Speaking at this year’s event of the Founder’s Day, Prince Ajibola, quoting the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, stressed that “recognition of greatness in others is in itself greatness”, adding that winners of the 2019 awards deserved them.
What Ajibola told FG on Onnoghen
Earlier in a newspaper interview, Prince Ajibola, showing his displeasure over the rots in the Nigerian Judiciary vis-à-vis now former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, had said that it was high time all hands were on deck to in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s crusade for clearing the country of corruption and other crimes. He warned that the nation may be “stepping on dangerous ground”, should the Federal Government fail to handle the alleged corruption saga involving the then suspended as required.
He said: “It is a very delicate matter, the moment a judge is to take a decision on issue linking up with himself, connecting his own proprietary, being found wanting on issues of which he is supposed to be a judge as CJN, it is stepping on very dangerous ground and a very special care should be taken and that care should be one in which he should be free from any iniquity himself.
“He should not be found wanting, he should not be suspected of anything at all. In other words, he should not be corruptible. As a result, once the CJN is tainted, it becomes a terrible situation for the judiciary and the judiciary must handle with care and trepidation. “Because he should not become a judge unto himself. But having said that, such allegations must be carefully looked into, must be carefully checked. He should be given the opportunity of being heard.” Those were the words of Prince Bola Ajibola to the Federal Government and which is generally believed to have helped in the fairness that the case leading to the sack of Onnoghen was accorded.
The advice to Buhari on anti-corruption
Prince Bola Ajibola, as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice with Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as his Special Assistant, did the last and only Law Reform that Nigeria has had so far. He had once advised President Buhari to stay firm as the anti-corruption fight he engaged in since May 29, 2015 was not going to be an easy one as some Nigerians, with complex romance with corruption, impunity and spirit of not-doing things properly and based on the rule of law, would hold on to any criminality in sight to frustrate him.
This statesmanly advice made Ajibola the most respected foretelling the possible challenges President Buhari would likely come across as democratically elected President of Nigeria but didn’t end without assuring the President, sighting his own experience fighting corruption as Minister of Justice, that the end of his struggle will be well with Nigeria.
