BUCKNOR BABATUNDE AKINTADE: THE MAN I ONCE THREW STONES AT — UNTIL I MET HIM

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In the ancient hills of Athens, Solon once warned that “No lie ever grows old; it only waits for daylight.” Among my people, the Egara-Eze proverb echoes the same truth: “Onye na-agba mgbu n’ọchịchịrị, ọkụ ga-akọwa ya n’ehihie.”

He who causes confusion in the dark will be revealed when the sun rises.

For months, the name Barr. Bucknor Babatunde Akintade was whispered to me like a tale of a wandering masquerade, all shadow, no substance. Men whose eyes selectively blind themselves to the good in others fed me stories, seasoning them with fear and falsehood. And like many young political observers, I joined the chorus of stones-throwers without ever meeting the man behind the myth.

I wrote sharply. I investigated fiercely. And I laid out, as any seasoned journalist would, the troubling accusations surrounding a man bearing the sacred title of “Barrister.”

The legal profession, that ancient sanctuary of justice built upon Roman maxims and Athenian principles, is not a playground for impostors. It is a calling, a sacred covenant. Yet reports emerged:

• Reports that, if true, mocked the virtue of the toga.
• That he laid claim to land the University of Abuja received in 1988, long before many of the current actors were born.
• That conflicts spiraled, accusations sharpened, and even threats were said to have been issued.

In the heat of the controversy, I wrote as fire writes, unrestrained, unwavering, with the anger of a journalist who believed he was defending a profession and a university.

And then… the unexpected happened.

This afternoon, beneath the quiet shadows of the Faculty of Law at the University of Abuja, I met Bucknor, again. Not the Bucknor of the whispers. Not the Bucknor of social media venom. Not the Bucknor of alumni politics and campus rumor-mills.

But a man with a smile warm enough to embarrass the stones I had thrown.

A man who spoke, not with the arrogance of a self-styled strongman, but with the gentleness of an alumnus who still loves the soil that shaped him.

A man who greeted us with respect, with the softness of a senior speaking to juniors he wished to uplift.

He told us - calmly, almost painfully, how the behind-the-scenes actors fueling the fire had done so not out of principle, but out of profit. Individuals who weaponized the rift to drain the SUG of funds, despite clear evidence from the ministry on the land’s rightful ownership.

He spoke of ideas, structures, revenue plans for reviving the long-dead campus life at the mini campus.

He spoke, not like a man at war with his alma mater, but like a man trying to rebuild a burnt bridge.

As he talked, I felt like an Athenian juror listening to a defendant who was nothing like the caricature I had been sold.

And an Egara-Eze proverb rose in my mind:

No water sits forever atop evil, the truth eventually floats.

I left my first investigation believing Bucknor was an accident to the legal profession.

I left today’s encounter asking whether he might be a misunderstood chapter in a much bigger political book.

Because sometimes the gods of Athens remind us that public quarrels are seldom simple.

And as Plato once warned:

“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”

Perhaps I, like many others, was fed too many opinions and too few facts.

Perhaps campus politics, that familiar stage where ambition often trumps truth, has once again played its age-old trick: turning men into monsters and conflicts into currency.

It is time, high time, for Euodia and Syntyche to bury their grievances.

The University of Abuja cannot grow on the diet of conflict.The SUG cannot lead with wounds still bleeding.The alumni cannot protect an institution they are busy tearing apart.

This rift must end, not for Bucknor, not for Jamiu Tobi, not for any factional interest, but for the future of the mini campus and the soul of the university.

Peace is not weakness.

Peace is the currency of progress.

As the ancestors say:

Communities build better when peace sits at the center.

I once threw stones at a man I had never met.

Today I saw a man who, despite the controversies, still speaks of love for his school and hope for its tomorrow.

Does this erase the need for investigation?

Never. Justice must still run its full course. The truth must still be sorted from myth.

But what today taught me is this:

No man should be judged solely by the stories told by those who profit from chaos.And sometimes, the villain we imagine becomes human the moment we look him in the eye.

The Athenians say:

“The law is reason, free from passion.”

But experience teaches us this too:

Reason must first be free from prejudice.

If peace must return, let truth lead the way.If campus life must revive, let unity be its foundation.If progress must thrive, let both sides sit, even if awkwardly, at the same table.

For the sake of tomorrow.

For the sake of the university.

For the sake of conscience itself.