The Federal Government has renamed the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, after the late General Adeyinka Adebayo, a former military governor of the old Western State.
This was announced on Saturday by the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, at the funeral service held for the former military governor at the All Saints Anglican Church, Iyin-Ekiti, Saharareporters reports.
A statement signed by Mr Laolu Akande, spokesperson to the acting President, said the Federal Government will send a bill for an amendment of the Act establishing the university to the National Assembly to reflect the name change.
Speaking at the funeral service, the acting President said President Muhammadu Buhari would have loved to be present at the occasion because he was close to General Adebayo.
“General Adeyinka Adebayo was not a person the President had a casual acquaintance with. General Adebayo was the President’s Commander in the Congo in 1963. He was the President’s first indigenous Chief of Army Staff, and in these military roles, he had a major influence on the President as a young officer,” he said.
The acting President noted that there has been an outpouring of love and nostalgia across the country since General Adebayo died on 8 March. Professor Osinbajo commended the contributions of the deceased to keeping the country one.
“Not only did he advise against the use of force in resolving the Biafran crisis, in what turned out to be one of the most clairvoyant statements on the war, he declared in a broadcast before the war thus: ‘I need not tell you what horror, what devastation, and what extreme human suffering will attend the use of force. When it is all over, and the smoke and dust have lifted, and the dead are buried, we shall find, as other people have found, that it has all been futile, entirely futile, in solving the problems we set out to solve,” recalled the acting President.
He equally recalled that when the situation demanded as governor of the Western State, General Adebayo worked with others to protect the region from the secessionists by halting their advance into Lagos in Ore.
At the end of the war, added the acting President, he chaired the committee on the reconciliation and integration of the Igbo back into Nigeria.
“By most accounts, he handled the task admirably. General Adebayo’s life was a light-bearing one. Though kindled in the ancient town of Iyin, in Ekiti State, Nigeria, his light shone brightly for the world to see,” the acting President said.