Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo | |
---|---|
Governor, Kwara State, Nigeria | |
In office 1983–1983 |
|
Preceded by | Adamu Atta |
Succeeded by | Salaudeen Latinwo |
Federal Minister of Communications, Nigeria | |
In office July 2003 – August 2006 |
|
Preceded by | Haliru Mohammed Bello |
Succeeded by | Obafemi Anibaba |
Personal details | |
Born |
Oke-Onigbin, Kwara State |
24 February 1941
Profession | Teacher, Politician |
Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo is a former Senator of Nigeria, who became a state governor, and later was head of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Communications.
Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo was born on February 24, 1941 in Igbaja in Kwara State. He was educated at all Saints Anglican School, Oke-Onigbin, Provincial Secondary School, Ilorin and then at Barewa College, Zaria from 1962-1963. He studied at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1964–1967), and then at the University of Ghana, Legon (1967–1969). He became a lecturer at the University of Ife in 1969, and in 1973 was appointed head of the English Department at Kwara State College of Technology. Between 1975 and 1978 he was Commissioner for Education and later Commissioner for Information and Economic Development in Kwara State.
When the reforms instituted by the military ruler Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo led to democratic elections for the second republic in 1979, Adebayo was elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria running for the Unity Party of Nigeria. In 1983 he was elected governor of Kwara state, but lost the position in December 1983 when the military overthrew led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari took control.
In 1993 Adebayo was offered a ministerial office by the military regime of General Sani Abacha, but turned it down. After a May 31, 1995 bomb explosion in Ilorin, capital of Kwara State, the police arrested and interrogated Adebayo and other members of the National Democratic Coalition, a group that called for the return of democracy during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. In 1996, after finding he was scheduled to be arrested again, he fled the country in disguise for a brief exile in Canada.