Former Kwara governor passes away

Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, a former governor of Kwara State and ex-Minister of Communications, has passed away.

He died in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja at the age of 84, according to a statement from his family.

Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja, Kwara State, Adebayo was a prominent figure in Nigeria’s political and pro-democracy landscape for decades. He served as governor of Kwara State in 1983, following his election under the banner of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), after an earlier tenure as a senator in 1979.

Between 1975 and 1978, Adebayo was Kwara State Commissioner for Education, where he earned praise for his commitment to educational reforms and youth development.

In the turbulent political era of the 1990s, Adebayo became a leading member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a group of pro-democracy activists who fiercely opposed military rule and championed the restoration of the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential mandate believed to have been won by the late MKO Abiola.

Adebayo made headlines in 1993 when he rejected an offer to serve as a minister in the regime of General Sani Abacha, a decision that further solidified his pro-democracy credentials. In 1995, following a bomb explosion in Ilorin, he was arrested alongside other NADECO leaders, and later fled into brief exile in Canada in 1996 amid fears of renewed military persecution.

He returned to national prominence in 2003 when he was appointed Minister of Communications under President Olusegun Obasanjo, a position he held until 2006.