20th May, 2017
The Nigerian government has renamed the Federal University in Oye Ekiti the Adeyinka Adebayo Federal University in honour of former governor of the old Western Region, Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo (retd).
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo announced the decision on Saturday during the funeral service of General Adebayo, who died in Lagos on March 8, 2017.
At the funeral service, which took place in the late general’s hometown, Iyin-Ekiti, in Ekiti State, Osinbajo paid tribute to him, describing him as a promoter of peace.
Osinbajo said, “General Adebayo’s life was a light-bearing one. Though kindled in the ancient town of Iyin in Ekiti State in Nigeria, his light shone brightly for the world to see.
“In an obituary in the Times of London on April 18, 2017, he was described and I quote, ‘Governor of the Old Western Region of Nigeria whose attempt to promote the peace and attempt to prevent the Biafran war failed with devastating consequences for the nation’.”
The Acting President stressed that Nigerians owed the late general a duty to continue to pursue the values which his iconic life represented.
“Whatever may be said of what eventually spiralled into the civil war, General Adebayo’s role in the quest for peace did not go unnoticed. In fact, this became his most important imprimatur and all through his life.
“We can never thank the late general enough for his service and sacrifice to the nation. But we must also not take for granted the labour of this redoubtable hero.
“Indeed, we owe him a duty to continue to pursue the values which his iconic life represented. It is for this reason that the Federal Government of Nigeria has decided, in recognition of his service to Nigeria, to rename the federal university in Ekiti the Adeyinka Adebayo Federal University,” he said in a report by Channels TV.