Gen Adebayo will remembered for Complementing Awolowo’s Free Education for Better Ekiti-Osinkolu

A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Ekiti State, Mr Olusegun Osinkolu, has said that late General Adeyinka Adebayo will be remembered for setting the State on the faster pace of economic and political development.

The former Western Region Governor, who died recently at age 89 will be buried on May 20, 2017 at his Iyin Ekiti countryhome.

Osinkolu, a senatorial aspirant for the 2019 poll, said Adebayo’s giant strides in exposing Ekiti to political and economic emancipation complemented the free education provided by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, where the people of the zone had tremendously benefited from.

He said in terms of administration, Gen Adebayo divided the old Ekiti district in four during his time as the Governor of the Old Western Region, which he said translated into economic and political emancipation for the zone at that time.

In a statement in Ado Ekiti on Sunday, Osinkolu said the exposure General Aebayo brought to Ekiti makes the creation of the State easier on October 1, 1996 under the General Sanni Abacha’s military government.

He said the people of the State won’t forget the rural electrification, general hospitals and roads that were constructed during his reign the governor of the defunct Western Region, saying these landmark achievements exposed Ekiti to modernity and civilisation .

“Before General Adebayo became the governor of the old western region, Ekiti was operating as a district in the zone. But it was the illustrious son that established Ado , Ikole, Ijero and Ikere districts , which formed parts of the criteria used to convince the Justice Mbanefor panel on State creation for Ekiti to become a reality
in 1996.

“However, Chief Obafemi Awolowo had earlier provided free education, which liberated some of our citizens from ignorance and illiteracy.

The global respect and recognition which Ekiti commands today was as a result of Awolowo’s benevolence by providing education for the sons and daughters of peasant farmers and traders.

“But General Adebayo enhanced this potentials by building schools, health facilities and government offices in Ekiti axis where these educationists can work, because there had been a serious drift with the concentration of Awolowo’s beneficiaries of free education in Ibadan, Abeokuta, Lagos and other modern towns.

“Also before reign, some of the public utilities and facilities that represent good governance and good life were concentrated at the centre in Ibadan. It was General Adebayo that went interland, particularly to Ekiti and brought the people out of darkness to modernity” he added.