His intellectual fecundity was not in doubt, particularly on constitutional law. For years, in conjunction with his then struggle soul- mate, Gani Fawehinmi, he was a thorn in the flesh of the various military governments.
Each time Gani was incarcerated, he stood as his lawyer and vice versa. I recall that under the Babangida junta, it was a usual practice for him and Gani to have midnight phone conversations. Then, there was no GSM but land phones. Fully aware that their phones were wire tapped and their conversations being recorded by the security agencies, both Dr Onagoruwa and Gani would deliberately spew forth expletives against the government. It was their ways of getting back at the government which had incessantly harassed them. Dr Onaguruwa spoke truth to power.

But when the dark-goggled General Abacha came on board as the Head of State, he sent Dr Onagoruwa’s Odogbolu kinsman, General Oladipo Diya to Onagoruwa. And his mission was to appoint Onagoruwa as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
Onagoruwa informed his bossom friend Gani of this offer and Gani sternly warned him to stay clear and reject the offer. But Onagoruwa was inclined to accept, trying to convince his friend of the need to use the opportunity to correct what they had been clamouring.
But since Onagoruwa accepted the offer, that became the parting of ways of the two bossom friends, a situation that even led to bitter, acrimonious exchanges.

Unfortunately, during his tenure as the AGF, the military leopard refused to change its colours. It was business as usual with draconian Decrees. Onagoruwa found out too late. By the time he felt he wanted to opt out of the ship, the military showed him “sample” by orchestrating the assassination of his son, who worked for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). A very brilliant boy with PhD. Dr Onagoruwa was totally devastated that he had stroke. He never fully recovered.

Their disagreement notwithstanding, Gani went to his house to commiserate with him over the murder of his son.
Eventually, Onagoruwa wrote a book on his experience in government, validating his reason for taking up the appointment and in the process, threw missiles at his erstwhile friend, Gani who he accused, though falsely, of supporting General Buhari as Head of State because he allegedly gave him money to buy his house in London.

A livid Gani fired back, debunking the allegations as “wicked lies”.
In his response, via another book, Gani countered:

” Dr Olu Onagoruwa, in his book, shamelessly lied against me that General Mohammadu Buhari, as Head of State, helped me acquired my house in London. General Buhari’s military administration lasted from Sunday, 1st January, 1984 to Monday, 26th August, 1985 when the military administration was toppled in another coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida…l did not buy any house or any landed property of any description or of any type in London between 1983 and 1985. In 1980, four years before Buhari military administration came to power, l bought an apartment in Croydon, London. It was 15 Willow Mount….Dr Olu Onagoruwa’s wife, Mrs Titi Onagoruwa and her children visited my wife (Mrs Ganiat Bukun Fawehinmi) and myself in this property in 1981. She wore a red skirt and blouse. That was three years before Buhari’s military administration came to power. It is therefore surprising that Olu Onagoruwa could concoct a horrible falsehood as he shamelessly did in his book.”

Despite the parting of ways of the two erstwhile friends over Abacha, because l was close to both friends, l refused to judge Dr Onagoruwa for serving Abacha, even when l had cause to criticise him in office. I believed he was entitled to his own personal conviction, even if some of us close to him felt otherwise. He wrote the foreword to my first book SALUTE TO COURAGE: THE STORY OF JUSTICE. YAYA JINADU in 1988. I never judged him. And l always believed that nobody should judge him or anyone.

Sir, you have run your race. Fare thee well.