Former Senator and ex-Governor of Kwara State, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, has passed away at the age of 84.
The Press Nigeria confirms that Adebayo died early Wednesday morning in Abuja, according to family sources who spoke to The Cable.
Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja, Kwara State, Adebayo served as governor of the state in 1983. He was also Nigeria’s Minister of Communications between 2003 and 2006, and a senator elected on the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) platform in 1979.
A respected statesman, Adebayo played a key role in Nigeria’s pro-democracy movement as a prominent member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which fought for the restoration of MKO Abiola’s mandate following the annulled June 12, 1993presidential election.
In 1993, he rejected a ministerial appointment offered by the Sani Abacha military regime, maintaining his democratic convictions. Two years later, on May 31, 1995, Adebayo was arrested and interrogated by the police in connection with a bomb explosion in Ilorin. He later fled into exile in Canada in 1996 to evade further crackdowns by the junta.
Before his governorship, Adebayo served as Commissioner for Education in Kwara State (1975–1978), where he earned accolades for his sweeping reforms in the education sector.
