Yesterday, I urged all Nigerians to be wary of any populist tendency from the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, given our experiences with our leaders, in the recent past. I must however proceed now to tell everyone of the little that I know about Prof Osinbajo.

Very amiable person, unusually humble, intelligent and God-fearing, a people’s man. I’d observed him more closely, after his appointment as the Attorney-General of Lagos State, given the bold policy reforms that he was pioneering, within the Lagos Judiciary, focusing more on transparency and good governance. I also knew him as head of a transparency initiative, committed to abolishing all forms of corruption and abuses.

During his tenure as Attorney-General of Lagos State, he facilitated electronic recording in the courts, spearheaded the radical amendment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, which has since been copied in most states and indeed by the federal government. He created new judicial divisions for the courts and revolutionised the welfare packages of judges and magistrates. I can go on and on, but that is not all about the Osinbajo that I know.

He is a thorough bred intellectual, with profound knowledge of the Nigerian Law of Evidence, running a very successful legal practice, in Lagos. In no time, he was promoted a professor of law and was also elevated to the Inner Bar, as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. But this is just so little about the Osinbajo that I know.

The one that I know is Pastor Prof, a thorough bred Christian of the old breed, committed to the work of social engineering and human transformation, through faith based projects. At the time, he was an Area Pastor of Jesus House, Ikoyi, which had become more like a haven for the transformation of the down trodden of the land. His wife, the ever youthful Mummy Dolapo, was always busy running an orphanage in the building next to the church, where teenage girls who have been abandoned and abused, were daily being impacted, transformed and rehabilitated.

The Pastor Prof that I know took the job of the Servant of the Lord, opted to be just the protocol officer of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, and was always on ground as one of the comperes at major programmes in RCCG camp. He was so transparent and clean that at the time of his glorious exit from the service of Lagos State, the Governor had to convene a special executive council meeting, to deliberate on the kind of gift suitable for a man without any record of blemish. It was then decided that a plot of land be bought for him in a private development in the Lekki area.

The Pastor Prof that I know is a consummate prayer warrior, always fasting and on his knees, most times. All the times that I met him in his modest apartment in the camp, he was always upstairs, praying, and I had to keep going and coming, for hours, to meet with him, on most occasions.

The Pastor Prof that I know is such a gentlemen to the core, so very natural and simple, with no taste for allurement and the mundane. Very sincere and open-minded. In his very modern chambers in Victoria Island, I had cause to work with him on some cases, and he is tolerant, even to a fault. On a particular day when he was to have his lunch, he called me inside his office, to join him. And I looked at the food, boiled potatoes and smoked fish! I was just thinking aloud in my mind, wondering if Prof knew that I could just empty the whole bunch in my system all at once! It was then I got to know that Prof thrives on fasting and prayers. Just that.

And eventually Prof was appointed a provincial pastor of RCCG, in high brow Banana Island, but Prof just remained Prof, nothing moving him, nothing changing him.

He is fulfilled in virtuously all areas of his endeavour. The dream of every academician is to become a professor, the highest position in any ministry is the Commissioner, the highest rank in the RCCG is that of a pastor and the highest office in Nigeria is that of the President, for which he is now acting. And of course the best an individual can be is to have a real relationship with Christ. This is the Prof that I know. And indeed I know so very much of his many good parts that cannot possibly be shared. As with all mortals, everyone has his own challenges, as some have pointed at the alleged financial drainage of Lagos State, Alpha Beta, as the brainchild of Prof.

However, I now have to work with the Vice-President and the Acting President, who presently directs the affairs of our dear country Nigeria. In this regard, I would be glad that the Prof that I used to know, should be his own man, work the talk and carry Nigerians along. He should put action into his many promises of true federalism, restructuring, resource control, economic revival and then bridge the sickening gap between the affluent and the poor masses of our people, very urgently.

In this new assignment of mine, I will hold the Acting President in the same esteem as with the Pastor Prof that I used to know, believing that his history and record will stand him in a good position to influence and implement true change for our people, and not just political slogans, as is common with soap box politicians.

And so if the Pastor Prof that I used to know is still himself, it shall be well with Nigeria.

So let work begin, as we start holding the Acting President accountable, to the people and to God, as I truly don’t know and I have not worked with Prof the politician.

•Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Esq., eminent lawyer and rights activist, sent in this piece on Thursday from Lekki, Lagos.

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