Cornelius Adebayo

Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo
Governor, Kwara State, Nigeria
In office
1983–1983
Preceded byAdamu Atta
Succeeded bySalaudeen Latinwo
Federal Minister of Communications, Nigeria
In office
July 2003 – August 2006
Preceded byHaliru Mohammed Bello
Succeeded byObafemi Anibaba
Personal details
Born(1941-02-24)24 February 1941
Oke-Onigbin, Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria
Died25 June 2025(2025-06-25) (aged 84)
Abuja, Nigeria
ProfessionTeacher, politician

Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo (24 February 1941 – 25 June 2025)[1] was a Senator of Nigeria, who became a state governor, and later was head of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Communications.[2][3]

Background

Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo was born on 24 February 1941, in Igbaja, now 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 to 1963. He studied at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1964–1967), and 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.[4]

Early political career

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 on 31 December 1983, when the military overthrow led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari took control.[2]

In 1993, Adebayo was offered a ministerial office by the military regime of General Sani Abacha but turned it down.[2] After a 31 May 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.[5] In 1996, after finding he was scheduled to be arrested again, he fled the country in disguise for a brief exile in Canada.[2]

Obasanjo period

In June 2003, president Obasanjo nominated Adebayo for a ministerial post.[2] As minister of Communications, Corlenius Adebayo said his colleagues should not be carried away by fantastic returns that had been reported by the mobile phone company MTN Nigeria. He described the need to grant incentives to telecommunications service providers, and spoke with approval of plans by Multi-Links Communications Nigeria to expand its switch capacity to 500,000 lines.[6] In September 2005, he was a keynote speaker at the 4th International Nigerian Telecommunications Summit in Abuja.[7]

Adebayo pushed for privatization of NITEL, the state telecommunications company.[8] In September 2005, he said the sale of a controlling stake in NITEL would be completed by the end of the year. Bidders included Vodacom and MTN Group of South Africa, Huawei Technologies, Orascom Telecom of Egypt and Celtel International.[9] In April 2006, Mtel, the Mobile subsidiary of NITEL, announced plans to add 2.5 million lines of capacity. The Board of Mtel, chaired by Cornelius Adebayo, had approved the program in September 2005. The vendors were Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens.[10] A local company founded in 2005, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, acquired NITEL on 3 July 2006.[11]

In September 2006, Cornelius Adebayo became Minister of Works, replacing Engineer Obafemi Anibaba.[3]

Subsequent career

In 2007, a Munich Court found Siemens AG guilty of misconduct and unethical contract dealings by allegedly offering bribes to Cornelius Adebayo and others to secure contracts for telecommunications equipment.[12] According to court papers, former ministers Bello Mohammed, Tajudeen Olarenwaju, Cornelius Adebayo and Alhaji Elewi were paid over $17 million as bribes to secure contracts.[13] In November 2007 President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered security agencies to investigate and prosecute the named officials.[14] The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) invited Adebayo for questioning related to involvement in the Siemens bribe scandal during his spell as communication minister.[15] Despite his short tenure, Adebayo made significant contributions to the educational development of Kwara State. He constructed a number of classrooms in secondary schools and contributed greatly to the abolition of the shift system of education in the state's primary schools by providing more infrastructural facilities.[16]

Death

On 25 June 2025, Adebayo died aged 84.[17]

References

  1. ^ Former Governor Is Dead
  2. ^ a b c d e Dr. Femi Ajayi (7 July 2003). "The Feisty Cornelius and the Critics About His Ministerial Appointment". NigeriaWorld. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  3. ^ a b Usman Adams (15 September 2009). "Oweto-Loko Bridge Project: 15 Years After The Journey So Far". Leadership Nigeria. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  4. ^ Kazeem Akintunde and Kunle Binuyo (15 February 2009). "Birthdays". Newswatch. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  5. ^ "Africa Denounces Arrests of Human Rights and Pro-Democracy Activists and Continuing Disintegration of Rule of Law". Human Rights Watch. 8 June 1995. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  6. ^ Basil Okafor (6 December 2004). "MINISTER CORNELIUS ADEBAYO CAUTIONS HIS COLLEAGUES: 'Not everyone is making money like MTN'". The Sun. Archived from the original on 31 December 2006. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  7. ^ "The Fourth International Nigerian Telecommunications Summit" (PDF). The CWC Group. 19–20 September 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  8. ^ "Nigeria turns talk into communication". World Focus Ltd. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  9. ^ "NITEL six preparing bids; sale due by year end". PriMetrica, Inc. 7 September 2005. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  10. ^ "Nigerian Operator Doubling Network Capacity". Cellular News. 3 April 2006. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  11. ^ "Corporate Information". TransCorp. Archived from the original on 19 May 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  12. ^ "SIEMENS AG €12 MILLION SCANDAL: MORE QUESTIONS!". Point Blank News. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  13. ^ "Siemens Bribery Scandal: Jubril Aminu, 4 Ex-Ministers Exposed!!!". The Times of Nigeria. 16 November 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  14. ^ "Siemens Bribery Scandal- Nigerian President Orders Probe". ITNewsAfrica.com. 20 November 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  15. ^ "Nigeria: Siemens - ICPC Probes Aminu, Adebayo, Others".
  16. ^ [1] Archived 2023-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Fadoju, Rachel Okporu (25 June 2025). "Former Governor Is Dead". Naija News. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
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