Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, shared an inspiring story of a young
lowly but hardworking typist, whom he recommended for an international
job despite the fact that he had only his school certificate.
He said;
While
I was teaching at the University of Lagos, as a young lecturer, in the
department of Public Law in the Faculty of Law, there were 3 typists in
the department. The chief typist, senior typist, and the junior typist.
Because in those days before laptops and personal computers, typists in
universities had to do a lot of work and they were very important
because you always needed to type all your materials.
When there
was work to do, what l discovered was that the chief typist would
disappear. He works only till 4 pm. The senior typist would be nowhere
to be found. But a gentleman called Adereni the junior typist, who only
had his school certificate, was remarkably hardworking. Sometimes I
would drop him off at his home at 1am.
Years after I was working
as an adviser to the then Attorney-General of the Federation Hon. Bola
Ajibola, who later became a judge of the World Court.
While
in the court at The Hague, in the Netherlands, one day he called me and
asked if I could recommend a good secretary who is hard working and
could do long judgments. I had three options, chief typist, senior or
this junior typist, but the junior typist at a time had only school
certificate, he didn’t have any other qualification but l choose him.
He
got to the Hague, and typically worked hard and diligently. Every judge
in the court wanted him to work with them. He later moved his family
over to the Hague and got degrees and made a good living for himself.
One day he remembered me and actually sent me a car.