As tributes continued to pour in for Chief Ernest Shonekan, the nation’s 9th Head of State, who died on Tuesday, January 11, a former Nigerian leader, General Yakubu Gowon, says the deceased chose to tread where many would not dare.
It also emerged why the deceased read law instead of agricultural science he had planned to read in the university.
Chief Akin Disu, a childhood friend of Shonekan, gave this hint in an interview with Sunday Vanguard.
Chief Akin Disu, has described the deceased Nigerian leader as God’s gift to the nation, saying he sacrificed so much for Nigeria.
The Bobagunwa of Lagos, who was among the numerous very important personalities, VIPs, that paid condolence to the family of the deceased, Wednesday but were denied entry by security agents who cited President Muhammadu Buhari’s proposed visit, told Sunday Vanguard that the deceased served the country very well as Head of State and will always be remembered as someone who kept her unity at a time of heavy distress.
According to him, Shonekan was never a politician and made integrity his watch words”.
Recalling that their friendship started when he and the late Nigerian leader were kids, the 86-yr-old legal icon said his mother and Shonekan’s were classmates.
“We attended the same primary school and later CMS Grammar School together. We lived in the same boarding house and slept on the same bed.
“We were to study agricultural science together but, somehow, we changed our minds after visiting Chief Bode Thomas (First Republic top politician).
“Both of us later studied law.
“We had always lived next to each other. Even here in Ikoyi, his street is next to mine. We both lived in GRA Ikeja and Ogunlana Drive, Surulere.
“When he saw that I had married, he immediately ran and got his own wife.
We did virtually everything together. I was school parents to his children”.
