Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, has disclosed that the late former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Zambia, Ambassador Ibironke Adefope, played a critical role in solving the age-long ownership crisis that bedevilled the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.
The governor noted that the diplomat suggested the tactic, which led to Oyo State gaining the sole ownership of the institution, adding that she was one of his confidants on issues affecting the state.
Makinde, who stated this at the funeral service in honour of Ambassador Adefope, which was held at the St Peter’s Cathedral, Aremo, Ibadan, noted that her death meant that Ibadan, Oyo State and Nigeria lost a rare and courageous woman.
Describing Ambassador Adefope as a personal tactician, the governor eulogised the late diplomat for her quality advice on leadership and her commitment to the progress of the state, adding that whenever he faced knotty issues, he always consulted Adefope, who he described as Mama.
The governor noted, however, that despite his grief and that of the family at losing the Amazon, there was a need to be thankful to God for the gracious and fulfilled life she lived.
He said, “Ibadan, Oyo State and indeed Nigeria have lost a rare, bold and courageous woman, Ambassador Ibironke Olufunke Adefope.
“I personally have lost a personal tactician. After my first attempt to become the governor of this state in 2014/2015 ended in failure, as I didn’t even win my local government, she stayed with me.
“I call her my Mama. Sometimes from 2013 or thereabouts and for the last 10, 11 years till she breathed her last, we were inseparable. There was nothing that she would not tell me. Nothing.
“I remember when I just became the governor, I went on radio; some of you would recall that incident where I said, ‘Look, this School Governing Council, I would scrap it because I think people are using it to siphon state money.
“I just said at that time that the pupils would not be paying the N3,000 levy; that the government would pay so that we could have a lot of our students back in school.
“After the radio programme, I visited her and she was boiling. She said, ‘How would you go on radio and say that School Governing Council members are thieves. Don’t you know that I am also one of the Governing Council members for the school very close to our house at Bodija?
“She said, ‘I have not been stealing but I have been putting in my own money’. I said, ‘Mummy, calm down, I wasn’t talking about you’. She said to me, ‘I think you need training on public speaking. So, you can imagine the depth of personal loss to me and, perhaps, the entire family.”
