By Abdulrazeez Sani
Kwara Nigeria – June 25, 2025
A former Governor of Kwara State and prominent pro-democracy activist, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, has died at the age of 84.
Adebayo, who also served as Minister of Communications, passed away in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja, according to a statement issued by his family.
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Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja, Kwara State, the late statesman was a respected academic, administrator and politician whose public career spanned education reform, governance and democratic advocacy.
He served as Commissioner for Education in Kwara State from 1975 to 1978, where he introduced policies that expanded access to quality education. He was later elected senator in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and became governor of the state in 1983 before the military coup that ended the Second Republic.
Adebayo gained national recognition in the 1990s as a leading member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a group that fiercely opposed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by Chief MKO Abiola.
In 1993, he declined a ministerial offer from the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, choosing instead to align with the pro-democracy movement. He was arrested in 1995 in connection with a bomb explosion in Ilorin and later went into exile in Canada in 1996 following threats to his life.
Tributes have continued to pour in from political figures, civil society actors and members of the public. Human rights advocate, Musa Abdulkadir, described Adebayo as “a principled leader and a fearless democrat whose legacy will endure.”
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During his tenure as Minister of Communications, Adebayo played a key role in laying the groundwork for the liberalisation of Nigeria’s telecoms sector.
He is survived by his family and a generation of Nigerians who continue to draw inspiration from his contributions to national development and democracy.
