Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, a former senator, ex-governor of Kwara State, and prominent pro-democracy advocate, has passed away at the age of 84. Family sources confirmed that he died in the early hours of Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Abuja.
Born on February 24, 1941, in the Igbaja community of Kwara State, Adebayo played a significant role in Nigeria’s political and democratic development. He was elected senator in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and served briefly as governor of Kwara State in 1983 before the military coup ended the Second Republic later that year.
Adebayo also served as Minister of Communications from 2003 to 2006 under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, overseeing key transitions in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector. He was instrumental in pushing for the privatization of the state telecom company NITEL and expanding mobile telephony infrastructure.
A steadfast advocate for democracy, Adebayo was a leading member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which opposed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election widely believed to have been won by MKO Abiola. In 1993, he declined a ministerial position offered by the military regime of General Sani Abacha, choosing instead to stand with democratic forces.
Following a bomb explosion in Ilorin in 1995, Adebayo and other NADECO members were detained and interrogated by the police. Facing increased threats from the military junta, he fled into exile in Canada in 1996, where he continued his pro-democracy activism before eventually returning to Nigeria.
Before his national political prominence, Adebayo contributed significantly to education in Kwara State, serving as Commissioner for Education between 1975 and 1978. His reforms helped improve educational infrastructure and policies in the state.
Cornelius Adebayo’s death marks the loss of a distinguished Nigerian statesman whose legacy spans education, democratic activism, and public service.
