What do you do when someone takes the wind off your sail? Two options readily come to mind: Either you try to force your way and swim against the tide – which is suicidal – or you ride the storm, like the eagle does. Isaiah 40:31 says: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” The eagle does not struggle or fight the storm; it simply rides it – leisurely, effortless ride. That way, the eagle soars and conquers, and the eagle has its way; achieving its goal without struggle. When someone else helps you to get the job practically done, learn a lesson from the eagle!
On Monday morning while meditating on topics to comment about, I stumbled on Lasisi Olagunju’s “Tunji Bello at 65.” Lasisi is a must-read for me every week or whenever he writes and whatever he writes on. We both write for the TRIBUNE titles and we get on very well as professional colleagues and brothers, including other TRIBUNE writers like Festus, Suyi, Adewole, among others. But last weekend was hectic for me and I had not read any of my favourite columnists, including Lasisi. The topic, Tunji Bello, also fascinated me.
Olatunji Bello has a good heart – and I mean, a good heart. If you ask our professional colleagues to rate Tunji, he will score 100 percent – or close to it! I was at the University of Ibadan (for my NYSC, followed by my M. Sc. degree programme in the Political Science department of the same university (1982-1984) when Tunji campaigned for the post of vice-president of the Students Union – and he won. As a member of the Socialist Collectives at U.I at the time, we took active interest in the students gunning for elective officers. We were Dr. Gboyega (where is he now?), Femi Falana (now SAN), Prof. Niyi Osundare, myself, among others.
As Tunji campaigned for votes, he also had his eyes on other things. It was here that he sighted Ibiyemi in one of the female halls, and the pretty lady later became his wife. Handsome man won the hand of a beautiful lady! I was there in 1989 when they both tied the nuptial knot. Ibiyemi, the current vice-chancellor of the Lagos State University (LASU), has part of her roots in Owo, where I also hail from.
Lasisi is one of this generation’s most cerebral and delectable writers. So I am so happy to soar on his wings today! Einstein says, “If I have seen farther than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” It is my pleasure, then, to stand on the shoulders of this literary giant today! Blunt and severe on many occasions, let’s see what Lasisi has to say about Tunji:
“I call myself a dove. That is why I choose my friends carefully. Yet, for reasons I have never understood, many of those I deliberately choose turn out to be delightful rascals. One of them is an Edo man named Louis Odion. We met in Kano in 2002 and have remained family ever since.
“One day, I asked Louis, “Tell me about OPEC.”
“That is KGB-classified information,” he replied with a laugh. Then, like every good conspirator, he broke the code of silence.
“OPEC,” he said, “was the Organisation of Petroleum (Lifting) Correspondents. The crude we traded was Stout beer. It was our opium against the tyranny of Sani Abacha.”
He explained that in those Concord years, confronting a murderous military dictatorship without regular salaries required more than courage; it required fellowship. Tunji Bello, whom everyone simply called TB, was OPEC President. Kayode Komolafe was Vice-President. Louis served as Secretary-General. Their “summits”, he said, were dictated by “operational necessity.”
Whenever the Abacha regime committed an outrage, an “extraordinary summit” was promptly convened. Membership cut across the CONCORD stable, with visiting comrades from The GUARDIAN, VANGUARD and PUNCH. Consumption was measured in barrels—bottles of Stout. Fines for late stories or sloppy copy were also paid in barrels, while Secretary-General Louis enforced compliance by collecting the “dead-cold crude” from CONCORD’s famous “bush canteen.”
“TB gave a good account of himself as OPEC President,” Louis concluded. “He still does.”
Louis is a gifted storyteller. One day he told me he was trained as a secretary. I immediately corrected him: “You mean a typist.” He laughed.
That secretary-turned-journalist trajectory, incidentally, he shares with another mutual friend, Festus Adedayo.
But Louis’s story is more than a career change; it is the story of a destiny transformed by a destiny helper.
He tells it best:
“In late 1992, my internship at CONCORD was ending. I was only 18 and uncertain about my future. Part of me wanted to JAPA. Another part wanted to return to Federal Polytechnic for Higher National Diploma in Secretarial Administration. Tunji Bello, already an editor, had taken interest in my writing. He urged me to go to university instead and study for a degree. But where would I get the funds for a degree? Tunji Bello then persuaded CONCORD management to bend its rules and employ me as Political Correspondent because, as he argued, I had exceptional writing talent. At the time, a university degree was the minimum qualification for the editorial cadre.
“Tunji Bello made it possible for a 19-year-old to become Political Correspondent. Even after CONCORD ran into hard times following Chief MKO Abiola’s incarceration in June 1994, he continued to support my education at UNILAG, morally and financially.” The rest is history.
Whenever I think of Louis Odion, I think of Tunji Bello. Louis is one of his many creations. Across the newsroom and every public institution where Bello has served, there are countless stories of men and women who carry similar testimonies. Destiny helpers are among God’s quietest angels; they leave their fingerprints on lives rather than on monuments.
That young intern, Louis, eventually became Deputy editor of Saturday, Sunday and Daily THISDAY, editor of the Sunday SUN, Managing Director of NATIONAL LIFE, Commissioner in Edo State and today serves as Executive Commissioner (Operations) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
And when Louis says simply, “Oga,” everyone knows who he means.
When Tunji Bello turned 60, President Bola Tinubu described him as “an exceptional human being.” It was an accurate description. Tinubu also called him “friend, comrade and partner” and “the most accomplished and durable public servant in Lagos State of his generation.” Time has not diminished that verdict. Bello has been an editor, commissioner, Secretary to the State Government and now Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Through each role, one quality has remained constant: he builds institutions by first building people.
I knew him only in journalism. We never worked in the same newsroom. Yet, like countless others, I call him ‘Oga Bello.’ Not just because in rank he is the boss, but because he embodies what every good oga should be: generous with opportunities, respectful of colleagues and quietly investing in the success of others.
Shakespeare once lamented that “Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.” Tunji Bello’s life offers a happy subversion of that verse. His virtues were not written in water. They were written in people. And people remember.
This week Wednesday, July 1st, he climbs the sixty-fifth rung of life with the measured grace of an ọmọlúàbí. On behalf of all who have benefited from his friendship and friendliness, his discipline and leadership, I wish him many happy returns.
Five years from now, when he reaches the seventieth rung, we shall summon the Eyo masquerade in celebration of a man whose greatest achievements are not merely the offices held, but the lives lifted.
Congratulations, Oga Bello.”
I endorse all that Lasisi said about Tunji: Team-player, destiny-helper, easy-going humanist, compassionate friend, among others. Lasisi calls him “Oga”; I call Tunji “Ore” – and a true, reliable, and dependable friend he is!
Tunji and I, along with many of our colleagues, were in the trenches during the June 12 struggle. He was one of the Generals that commanded the CONCORD sector while myself and others held forte at the PUNCH sector. Interestingly, both of us (with Louis Odion, the story-teller mentioned here by Lasisi), together with many of our other colleagues, were knighted as Heroes of Democracy in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Democracy Day 2026 broadcast.
Ore, congratulations on your birthday which falls due today!
JUSTICE (PROF.) ALABA OMOLAYE-AJILEYE PRESENTS BOOKS, LAUNCHES FOUNDATION
Tomorrow, Thursday, 2nd July, 2026, all roads will lead to the Conference Centre of the National Open University (NOUN), Jabi, FCT, Abuja, as retired judge of the Kogi State High Court and Visiting Professor of Law at NOUN, Hon. Justice (Prof.) Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, presents two books as well as launches a Foundation for indigent students.
An authority and leading light in the new field of electronic evidence, Omolaye-Ajileye’s new books are “Electronic Evidence, Second Edition” and “A Compendium of Cases on Electronic Evidence, Volume 11, 2020 – 2025.”
Justice Omolaye-Ajileye is also the Chief Executive Officer of Forensic Electronic and Digital Law Consultancy.
