Bola Ajibola: Ex-Attorney General who gave Osinbajo his first political appointment dies at 89
Prince Bola Ajibola, Nigeria’s former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, whose death was announced on Sunday, April9, 2023, has been described as an icon of law and judicature, father of arbitration in Nigeria and a passionate leader who served Nigeria and the world diligently and honourably.
A family statement by his eldest son Adesegun Ajibola (SAN) said the former Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and member of its Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at the Hague, died over the midnight on Sunday.
“He was a recipient of great honours from King Abdullah II of Jordan and he received similar tributes from King Abdullah bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud, the immediate past King of Saudi Arabia,” the statement read.
Born March 22, 1934, Ajibola, who hailed from Owu in Abeokuta, Ogun state, grew up on the Lagos Island with his father, a police officer.
Ajibola, the founder of Crescent University, Abeokuta, was the only son of his mother’s seven children while his mother was his father’s third wife.
Before traveling to the United Kingdom to study law, he attended Baptist Boys High School in Abeokuta where he was former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s schoolmate.
A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ajibola was appointed Minister of Justice by former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, in 1985 and spent six years in office. As Justice Minister, Ajibola appointed Prof Yemi Osinbajo as Special Adviser on Legal Advice and Litigation in 1988. It was Osinbajo’s first experience in politics before he was appointed Lagos State’s Attorney General in 1999.
During his time as Minister, Ajibola said he didn’t take his salary. “In my sharing formula, I gave 25 per cent of my salary to the NBA, 35 per cent to the government and 40 per cent to all other organisations involved in humanitarian activities,” he said in an interview with Daily Trust in 2016.
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said Ajibola’s death has robbed Nigeria of one of the country’s finest and most authoritative voices in the legal profession.
“The legal luminary was instrumental to the entrenchment of law and order for decades in Nigeria and across the globe,” Gbajabiamila said in a statement.
Peter Obi, Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the February 2023 presidential election, said Ajibola “served Nigeria and the world diligently and honourably. We pray that God Almighty will grant the family the fortitude to bear this colossal loss and give peaceful repose to his soul.”
