…At Crescent University, a Founder’s Dream Endures as Prof. Abikan Sends Warning to a Fracturing World
Dipo Kehinde/
On a warm April morning, beneath the dignified arches of the Bola Ajibola Auditorium, memory and momentum converged.
They came in flowing agbadas and corporate dress, in academic gowns and traditional regalia, a former president and monarchs, scholars and students, drawn together by the enduring idea of one man: the late Chief Bola Ajibola, jurist, statesman, and founder of Crescent University.
Twenty years after he built the institution with what many recalled as a near-sacrificial devotion, selling personal property to finance its beginnings, the university paused to measure its journey. But the celebration quickly became something more: a meditation on legacy, and a sober interrogation of a world increasingly untethered from the rules that once governed it.
At the heart of the commemoration was a deeply personal tribute from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who spoke not just as a statesman, but as a friend.
Sprightly and spirited, Chief Obasanjo took the stage to share fond memories of his friend and schoolmate. He described the late judge of the International Court of Justice, former Attorney General, and Minister of Justice as a very humorous man.
Ajibola, he said, was “a visionary who devoted his life and resources to building a lasting educational legacy,” a man whose humor softened his gravity, and whose commitment to nation-building began long before public office.
That legacy, Obasanjo noted, is no abstraction. It is visible in lecture halls filled with over 3,500 students, in a faculty that has remained unusually loyal in a restless academic market, and in the quiet but persistent expansion of infrastructure across the campus.
It is also visible in ambition.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibraheem Gbajabiamila, spoke of a forthcoming College of Medicine and a new Medical Science Laboratory Complex, a multi-million-naira project backed by the Abdul Samad Rabiu Foundation, as evidence that the founder’s vision continues to evolve rather than ossify.
Yet perhaps the most telling transformation lies in the student body itself. What began as a male-dominated institution has inverted its demographic reality. Today, women constitute nearly 70 percent of the population, a shift that Ajibola, a known advocate of girl-child education, lived long enough to witness with pride.
If the morning belonged to memory, the afternoon belonged to warning.
In a lecture that ranged far beyond the campus, Prof. Abdulqadir Ibrahim Abikan, Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, delivered a sweeping critique of the global order.
Titled “Collapse of the Rule-Based World Order: Whither International Law and Institutions,” the lecture argued that the architecture of international law, once presented as neutral and stabilizing, is increasingly compromised by power asymmetries.
Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, he said, often impose fiscal prescriptions that prioritize macroeconomic discipline over state-building, leaving developing nations structurally dependent.
For Africa, the implications are stark.
“A more industrialised, coordinated and self-reliant Africa,” he argued, “would be better positioned to shape global rules rather than be subjected to them.”
It was a thesis that resonated beyond academia, touching on questions of sovereignty, development, and the unfinished business of post-colonial statehood.
The intellectual tone of the day was reinforced by the unveiling of a weighty volume: Trends in Constitutionalism and Constitutional Adjudication in Nigeria, published in honour of Prince Mahruf Adesegun Ajibola, the university’s proprietor and Chairman of its Board of Trustees.
Reviewed chapter by chapter by Dr. Kemi Pinhero SAN, the book was described as an “intellectual feat,” mapping the evolving terrain of constitutional law in a country where the judiciary remains both a stabilizing force and a contested arena.
For Prince Ajibola, the moment was less about recognition than continuity. He used the occasion to thank staff, many of whom have served since the university’s earliest days, and to call for broader societal support to sustain its growth.
The ceremony also turned toward recognition.
Ninety-four members of staff, including senior administrators, received long service awards, a testament to institutional continuity in a sector often defined by flux.
Beyond the campus, three Nigerians were honoured with the Bola Ajibola Community Service Awards: retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Adeleye Oyebade, mni, for his work in security reform and community policing; Asiwaju Kamal’deen Akintunde for youth development and interfaith harmony; and Aare Kazeem Bakinson for contributions to education and societal development.
Their recognition underscored a central theme of the day: that the founder’s vision extended beyond academic excellence into the moral architecture of society.
The audience itself reflected a convergence of Nigeria’s institutional pillars.
Traditional rulers, including the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, and the Olota of Ota, Prof. Abdul-Kabir Obalanlege, sat alongside jurists, policymakers, and civil society leaders. The Ogun State Chief Judge, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, was present, as were former governor’s representative and leading professionals.
A major highlight of the anniversary was the unveiling of the university’s Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Knowledge Department, an ambitious initiative that drew immediate financial backing from the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, and the Osi of Egbaland, Chief Bode Mustapha, who pledged ₦10 million toward its development.
University officials said the new department was designed to position the institution at the forefront of AI education in Africa by producing graduates equipped not only to develop and deploy intelligent systems, but also to shape the regulatory and ethical frameworks guiding their use. The curriculum, they added, would blend rigorous technical training with critical instruction in ethics, law, and public policy.
The book launch also garnered donations.
The gathering was reminded of a man who liquidated assets to build classrooms; who believed education was not merely a pathway to employment but a moral enterprise; who insisted on discipline, faith, and intellectual rigor as coequal pillars of development.
The VC spoke, too, of persistence, of the early years when student numbers barely reached 350, when resources were scarce, and when belief had to substitute for capital.
Two decades later, Crescent University stands not as a monument, but as an argument: that individual conviction, when sustained, can outlive its maker.
As the event drew to a close, a recitation from the Holy Quran, offered in the founder’s memory, settled over the auditorium with a quiet finality.
Yet nothing about the day suggested closure. If anything, the themes that defined it, institutional resilience, global uncertainty, intellectual inquiry, pointed forward.
The ceremony drew a distinguished assembly of dignitaries, including the Ogun State Chief Judge, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, while the Olowu of Owu Kingdom was represented. Barrister Adewolu Adeleke stood in for former Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
Also in attendance were respected community leaders and professionals, including Chief Doja Adewolu and the Bada of Owu Kingdom, Chief (Engr.) Oluwatoyin Jokosenumi, a former project director at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The university’s leadership was prominently represented by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibraheem Gbajabiamila; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Rasaki Kareem; and the Registrar, Prince Zakariyya Ajibola. They were joined by members of the governing council, including Alhaji Muritala Ariyo Olushekun, FCA; Alhaji Disu Kamor; Mrs. Kafayat Ibiwoye, representing the Registrar of JAMB; and Hon. Justice Tajudeen Okunsokan of the Ogun State High Court.
Together, the gathering reflected not just a ceremonial milestone but a broad coalition of institutional, traditional, and civic voices, an affirmation that the legacy of Bola Ajibola continues to command respect across spheres of influence, even as the university he founded charts its next chapter.
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