By Omowumi Omotosho
A respected statesman and former Governor of Kwara State, Senator Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, is dead. He died in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja at the age of 84.
Adebayo was born on February 24, 1941, in the Igbaja area of present-day Kwara State. He briefly served as Kwara state governor in 1983 before the military coup that ended the Second Republic.
A prominent figure in Nigerian politics, Adebayo was elected to the Senate in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Between 2003 and 2006, he also served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications.
A passionate advocate for democracy, Adebayo was an active member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the pro-democracy movement that fought to restore the annulled June 12, 1993, mandate won by Chief MKO Abiola.
In defiance of the military regime, Adebayo rejected a ministerial appointment from General Sani Abacha in 1993. Following a bomb explosion in Ilorin on May 31, 1995, he and other NADECO members were detained and interrogated.
In 1996, he left Nigeria temporarily, going into exile in Canada as military pressure on pro-democracy activists intensified.
Earlier in his career, Adebayo made notable contributions as Kwara State’s Commissioner for Education from 1975 to 1978, where he introduced significant reforms aimed at improving access and quality.
He is survived by his children and grandchildren, including Director General of National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Engr. Olusegun Adebayo and the current Commissioner for Agriculture in Kwara State, Mrs. Toyosi Adebayo.
