By Olanrewaju Onigegewura
One of the lessons I learnt from His Excellency Babatunde Raji Fashola, CON, SAN is the art of writing tributes. He had requested me to draft a tribute in honour of a departed colleague. I quickly knocked up something I considered vintage Onigegewura. He skimmed through the draft I gave him and he picked up his ubiquitous red pen with his left hand (he writes with his left hand).
I noticed that he was striking out some words in the paper and was scribbling some things.
When he finished, he turned to me. “This is good but it is too generic. What I have done is to cross out everywhere the name of my late colleague appears and I replaced it with names of Jakande, Awolowo, Sardauna and Azikiwe. What you have written fits all of them. A tribute must be personal, sincere, and must detail, even if briefly, your relationship with the subject. How did the subject influence you? What is peculiar about the subject? What was your relationship with the subject?”
“Learned Silk, what if the subject never impacted you and never influenced you?” I asked.
“Then you simply write ‘may his soul rest in peace’ rather than manufacture an abstract song of praise.”
He then went on to write a moving tribute about the colleague, a copy of which I have kept over the years for my personal education.
That’s BRF for you.
Every meeting with him is an opportunity to learn. It is impossible to leave his presence without learning something new. His encyclopedic knowledge spans history, politics, books, culture, arts, and of course, Law and football. He has a repertoire of soundbites and quotable quotes with which he laces his conversation.
Of course you remember his famous ‘May our loyalty never be tested’ which has continued to trend after more than a decade. A colleague of mine who is now on the Bench of the High Court kept a booklet dedicated to collecting the sayings of BRF during our stint at the Lagos House.
Yet, his towering brilliance notwithstanding, BRF is a great student of knowledge who has elevated active listening into an art. What sets BRF apart is his ability to seize an idea, refine it and return it transformed beyond its original scope. It is akin to giving a chef a tuber of yam and watch as the yam is transformed to pounded yam, porridge, and whatever else could be made from yam.
Mr. Ben Akabueze once made a presentation at the Adeyemi Bero Hall on economic performance of the government. That was the focus of the presentation. BRF then started asking questions about the impact of the economic policies on job creation, revenue generation, housing, transportation. In a matter of minutes, he had changed the direction of the presentation from data and statistics to humanity.
Strangely, what became the lead stories in newspapers the following day were not the numbers and figures but their effect on the good people of Lagos State.
Significantly for me is the fact that BRF never fails to acknowledge the contributions of his team. His intellectual curiosity is matched by an uncommon generosity of giving credit. This must have been the effect of his profession as a commercial lawyer whose practice areas include intellectual properties.
I once watched him at an international forum where he made a presentation. At the end of the presentation, he received a standing ovation. BRF then told the gathering that he was not actually the person who deserved the applause. He asked if Architect Gidado was in the audience. Arc. Gidado jumped up from his seat. BRF pointed at the gentleman and told the gathering that what he presented was what Gidado and his team had spent the past six months working on. The hall erupted in applause for Gidado.
Arc. Gidado who was on the verge of retirement told me that in his almost 35 years of service, he had never felt more honoured or appreciated in his life. Till his last day in service, I noticed Gidado was working sprightly with extra springs in his footsteps.
In the same way, he acknowledges contributions of his colleagues, he also makes it a point of duty to protect the interest of his subordinates. I have seen people in leadership positions throwing their colleagues under the bus without batting an eyelid. BRF would never hang you out dry, at least in the public. He will defend you outside but may take you to the cleaners once you are back in the office.
There was this day a parliamentarian suggested that perhaps civil servants were being less than truthful in giving correct information to BRF about a particular matter. BRF turned to the chairman of the committee and in a measured voice, objected to the uncomplimentary remarks made by the lawmaker about his staff. “Mr. Chairman, may I respectfully request that distinguished parliamentarian kindly withdraw the remark that seeks to impugn the integrity of these hardworking public servants. The petitioner has withdrawn his allegation based on the compelling evidence from the same staff of the Ministry whose integrity is now being questioned.”
Before the chairman could interject, the parliamentarian was gracious enough to withdraw the statement.
Outside the building of the parliament as we walked back to the carpark, Engr. Kuti, one of the Directors in the Ministry, told me that he was so proud of himself that day as the Minister rose to stoutly defend their collective integrity as staff of the Ministry. He said that other bosses would have nodded in agreement.
When he was interviewed on TVC about his then latest publication, he graciously mentioned my name alongside Terfa Tilley-Gidado and Hakeem Bello as some of the people who assisted him in gathering data for the book. That’s the stuff of great leaders. I did not watch the programme but Luqman Animashaun, my friend from our College of Education days who has made it his life commitment to monitor my career, did. He sent me the clip all the way from Ibadan.
BRF exemplifies the principle that a leader must invest in his colleagues. He goes out of his way to advance the lot of his aides. Although he did not meet Iya Agba, my grandmother, the two of them share the same philosophy on advancement and positive influence. Iya Agba would often remark that: Olowo ti a ba rin ti a ko yo, ti a ba fi sile, ebi ko le pani [A rich man whose company does not benefit you, you won’t be worse off if you part ways with him].
It is impossible for you to remain static after coming in contact with BRF. He will always be in your corner. He will be there rooting for you, encouraging you and cheering you on. I believe he must have imbibed this leadership lesson from his own mentor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Earlier this month, the Lagos State Ministry of Justice held its Mid-Year Attorney General’s Meeting with State Counsel. For some reasons, the Attorney General, Mr. Lawal Pedro, SAN, invited five people who had previously worked with BRF [and by extension, the Lagos MOJ] to address the meeting.
I was struck by the fact that God has been kind to the five of us. Oyinkan Badejo-Okusanya and Onigegewura, who served as BRF’s General Counsel and Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector Reform respectively, had taken Silk. Akeem Olajide Bello who was BRF’s Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector has become a Professor of Law. Gbolahan Adeniran who was BRF’s Senior Special Assistant on Legal Matters later served as a sub-national Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice. Iyabode Oshodi has been elevated to the Bench!
BRF is a classic example of ‘once a lawyer always a lawyer’. His extensive years of public service did not take anything away from his fidelity to the legal profession. Between Idris Olorunnimbe, Esq and myself, we kept his law library updated throughout the time he was not appearing in court. One of my pet duties was to attend public presentations of law books he was invited to for purposes of purchasing the books for him. This must be one of the reasons his return to active legal practice was seamlessly effortless. He has never left the legal profession.
In the same way Chief Obafemi Awolowo returned to mainstream legal practice after his exit from Gowon administration, as one of the counsel in the landmark case of Idundun v. Okumagba, BRF’s grand return to law was as lead counsel for the Plaintiff in the federalism dispute case of Attorney General of Lagos State v. Attorney General of the Federation and Others [judgment delivered on 22 May 2026] before the Supreme Court.
He led the trio of Supo Sashore, Muiz Banire, and Onigegewura – all members of the Inner Bar, and who had previously worked with him. It is doubtful if anyone watching him marshaling legal argument when the case was argued could have guessed that this was someone who was just returning to active practice after serving as a Governor and a Minister.
His advocacy was compelling, his arguments were sound, and he was at his persuasive and oratorical best. Habib Lawal, the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, was so impressed that he could not help remarking on the smooth transition at a public forum earlier this year.
BRF approaches Law in the same way he approached public service. His focus is always on the substance and not technicality. When I told him that I was going to object to the admissibility of certain documents to be tendered in a case we were doing, he shook his head. He told me that his boss from whom he learned litigation, Mr. Ebun Sofunde, SAN (who learnt from the Great FRA Williams, SAN) does not object to admissibility of documents at the point of tendering but would reserve his objection until the address stage before pulling the trigger.
BRF believes that a man’s work is his prayers. Again, on this, he is one the same page with Iya Agba whose constant refrain was: ise eda ni adura eda. He is a deeply religious man who does not joke with his five daily prayers. There was a day we had a litigation strategy meeting in his house. He came in some minutes past four and he told us that he was yet to observe his Asr prayer and he went to his study to pray. My colleague, Titilayo Alimi, could not help commenting that such a big man still had time to pray.
I told her that one permanent feature in his study, both in Lagos and Abuja, is his prayer mat.
When he was 60, Morayo Alimi, Nike Giwa, Hakeem Bello, and Onigegewura presented him with simple branded prayer beads which he greatly appreciated.
Now, this reminds me of something else. BRF loves simple and thoughtful things. He abhors big and bogus gifts. When he was 55, a couple of beneficiaries of his large heartedness wanted to celebrate him by putting up adverts in a newspaper and gifting him a cow. They sought my view. I did not hesitate before dissuading them. They then asked for my opinion. I advised them to get him premium art work or books on history or politics. He is an arts connoisseur. He loves quality art work. They looked at me as if to say: Art work of all things! Well, they took my advice and came back to thank me. I was told that when they presented him with the art work featuring Lagos Eyo, he was thrilled.
When my son, Akindoyin, met him the first time, he was shocked by his apparent simplicity. No airs, no frills, no officialdom, just a regular gentleman watching football with his friends, Said Sanusi, SAN, Demola Azeez, and Dimeji Shofowora.
The same simplicity was echoed by Kafayat Oriniowo, a visually impaired legal practitioner who was employed by BRF when he was governor. Even without physically seeing him, Kafayat told me that from his voice she intuitively knew that he is a simple human being. BRF had gone to the Lagos School of the Blind to celebrate his birthday with the students when he encountered Kafayat. She is today a Senior State Counsel and Head of Unit in the Office of Public Defender.
It appears that BRF has a special commitment to people living with disability. At a public forum in Lagos, three visually impaired lawyers who made solid grade in Law School approached him and complained that prospective employers were discriminating against them. There and then, the three of them; Bolarinwa Salami, Babatunde Shafiu, and Mubinu were given employment as State counsel. I had the privilege of preparing the memo which the Attorney General, Mr. Ade Ipaye, OFR forwarded to BRF to formalize their appointment.
Dr. Mike is a visually impaired legal practitioner who holds a PhD in Law from Aberdeen. He is currently in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation. He told me that the dream of his postgraduate study abroad would have never materialised but for BRF’s generosity. Dr. Mike, a prolific writer, dedicated a couple of his voluminous books to BRF.
I know that this is supposed to be a private portrait, the truth however is that there is no difference between BRF in public and BRF in private. He is the same person whether he is addressing the Senate of the Federal Republic or he is assisting his son, Demola Fashola, to adjust his barrister’s wig on the occasion of the latter’s call to the Bar.
I was with him in the evening of the day he was conferred with the national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Niger. I asked him why the honour was late in coming. He told me that he was offered the honour ten years earlier when he was a Governor. He however declined it on the ground that it was improper for a member of the awarding body to award the honour to its own member.
That was not the first time he was going to decline the offer of award or title. When he was governor, many universities offered him Honourary Doctorate Degree. He declined all. He advised that they should make him the offer when he left office. Most of them never came back.
It appears that we only celebrate people when they are in office. A high-ranking jurist was surprised when BRF announced his appearance recently as simply Babatunde Fashola without ‘Chief’. His Lordship offered there and then to confer him with a chieftaincy title. BRF declined politely and the whole court burst into muted laugh.
Earlier this year, BRF sent me three books authored by the cerebral Reuben Abati. One of the books is Portraits: People, Politics and Society, described by the Punch as “tributes or mini-biographies of a hundred individuals”.
I was struck by the fact that all the tributes penned by Egbon Reuben in the book, without a single exception, were personal, sincere, and detailed Abati’s relationship with the subjects. The same lesson BRF taught me many years ago.
From BRF I learnt that history is made of those seemingly innocuous events which occur every day. He thus treats every interaction as an opportunity to influence the course of history.
As a Bencher, he regularly attends the traditional Dinner of the Nigerian Law School. At one of the Dinners, he was mobbed by the aspirants to Bar who wanted to take pictures with him or who wanted to collect his details for purpose of requesting him to sponsor them to the Bar. I watched patiently as he attended to all the students without exception.
On our way back from Bwari, he told me: “To us, it was just another day. But to those future Judges, Senior Advocates, and Professors of Law, today could be one of those days they would remember for a long time.”
Well, if a tribute must be personal, then this is mine. If it must be sincere, I affirm that I have spoken the whole truth to the best of my recollection. If it must detail the relationship with the subject, I hope this chronicle of lessons learnt not from speeches, but from watching a life deliberately lived meets the BRF standard.
Today, BRF is 63! It has been a privilege to be mentored by this rare human being. He has been a leader, a mentor, a teacher, a role model and a big brother, all rolled into one. He has been a person of immense influence to me and countless others.
Happy Birthday to the Grand Patron of Team Onigegewura!
-Onigegewura is a legal practitioner and an amateur historian.
28 June 2026
