Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has showered encomiums on late Maj.-Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo referring to him as the officer many soldiers looked up to in the army.
Obasanjo spoke with newsmen during a condolence visit to the Ikeja GRA home of the Adebayos in Lagos.
The former president, who arrived at about 8.00p.m., said: “He (Adebayo) was my boss and in the military; when we were acting militarily, we put proper decorum.
“But on a very serious note, Gen. Adebayo is probably the last of the officers that we looked up to in the army when we joined the army just before the attainment of independence.
“We had a lot to learn from them. After him, may be among the officers we will be talking of somebody like David Ejoor.
“So when the old order is being completely turned over and the new order coming up, I think the way things are going, in another five to ten years, there won’t be many of the officers that were commissioned before independence left.”
“Sincerely they have done their best and they yielded the ground to those who are coming behind; we just hope that they will do their best and yield the floor after that.”
Earlier, the former president chatted with the widow of the deceased, Mrs Dupe Adebayo and some other family members and prayed that God would be with them.
Obasanjo praised God that Adebayo did not die in pain and anguish. In the condolence register, he wrote ” Rest in Peace”.
Adebayo died on Wednesday on the eve of his 89th birthday.
The late general served as the military governor of the then Western region comprising Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and some parts of Lagos State between 1966 and 1971.