The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has paid tribute to the deceased former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bola Ajibola.
Osinbajo gave his tribute via his verified Twitter handle on Monday, while he shared memories from when he worked with Ajibola as his Special Adviser.
He tweeted, “I was 30 years old when I was first offered a public service role as Special Adviser to Prince Bola Ajibola, then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
“I learnt a lot working for him. Permit me to share 3 defining events that I witnessed.”
Sharing a release with the tweet, Osinbajo gave his personal experience with the late justice.
The release was titled: “Let me mention three defining events that I personally witnessed while working with Prince Bola Ajibola the former Attorney General of Nigeria.”
It read, “The first was a situation where a foreign contractor that had won a lucrative contract from the Federal Government went to give a car to Judge Ajibola’s son who was then at a University in England at the time. Judge Ajibola’s son told his father that the contractor had sent a car to him and I had never seen him so angry. I had to make him seat down because he was physically angry. Not only was the gift returned, but the man was also reported to his government. His government had to make a special apology to our own government and to Judge Ajibola. I remember when he came to the Ministry to apologize to the Attorney-General for offering a bribe to him.
“The second incident was a commercial aircraft arrested in Nigeria for carrying drugs. The office of the Attorney General was responsible for a very successful lawyer who claimed he was acting as an intermediary for some interests that were connected to the airport. He came to offer the AG a large sum of money in Foreign Exchange. When I recall how Prince Bola Ajibola shouted at the senior lawyer and ordered him out of his office, I still remember the shame and fear on the face of the man.
“These two incidents show that Judge Ajibola believed that Public Service was Public Service and that bribes of any kind were completely unacceptable. He set that very high standard even then.
“In later years, Bola Ajibola decided that his life work will be the establishment of a university. He sold every property he had in Lagos at the time and moved to his home in Abeokuta. He established Crescent University with all the resources he had. Today he runs that university and subsidizes the cost for students.
“When I asked him why he was selling everything he had to establish the university, he said that “at the end of the day, wealth means nothing if it doesn’t positively impact the lives of others.”
