Chief Tony Okoroji (R) with Prince Bola Akinola at the Lados Sheraton Hotel in 2025
The demise of Prince Bola Ajibola, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, as well as ex-Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has prompted the showering on him glowing tribute by Chief Tony Okoroji, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) chairman.
The death of the former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and famed Jurist at the World Court at the Hague, just just got announced.
Chief Okoroji described Prince Ajibola as “a superb patriot, a totally committed public servant, a detribalised world citizen and one of the greatest Nigerians that ever lived”.
Noted Okoroji: “As I made the reform of Nigeria’s copyright system the work of my life, Prince Bola Ajibola and the late Prince Tony Momoh were my principal partners. In the building of the copyright system in Nigeria, they were my mentors, my supporters, my backbone, and my advisers. After I had organised a major, noisy and historic picketing of his Federal Ministry of Justice office at the Marina in Lagos, in the agitation for copyright reforms in Nigeria, Prince Ajibola did not show any animosity towards me or take any offence. He understood that my interest was the progress of the Nigerian nation. We struck a bond of friendship and trust that has lasted many years. Every promise he made to me, he kept. He was a man of his words.
“The exceptional relationship that existed between me and this unassailable gentleman and my admiration of this very brilliant man are captured in my book, ‘Copyright & the New Millionaires’ and several editions of my weekly column, ‘Saturday Breakfast with Tony Okoroji’.
“Prince Ajibola had no airs about him. I had unlimited access to his Marina office where he always welcomed me like a cherished younger brother. The fact that I was a completely unknown Igbo boy made no difference to him.
“On November 2, 2015, at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, I had the privilege of publicly decorating Prince Bola Ajibola with the ‘Copyright Grand Medal’ and presenting him with a plaque in appreciation of his incomparable work for the nation. It was a most joyous occasion for me.
“Bola Ajibola was an exceptional patriot and lover of the Nigerian nation, a legal mind per excellence, a consummate administrator, and a very good man. With the passing of Prince Bola Ajibola, the Nigerian nation has lost an irreplaceable icon”.
