adeyinka-adebayo
Adeyinka Adebayo

One of the first generation of Nigerian top military officers and a former governor of the defunct Western State, Robert Adeyinka Adebayo has died aged 89. Family sources say he died in his sleep.

Born in 1928 at Iyin-Ekiti, near Ado-Ekiti, he was educated at Eko Boys High School, Lagos and Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti.

He joined the West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) under the British colonial government in 1948 as a regiment signaler. Having completed the Officer Cadet Training Course and having passed the War Office Examination for Commonwealth Cadets as well as the West African Qualifying Examination between 1950 and 1953, he was commissioned as an officer.

He became the 23rd West African military officer with number WA23 and the 7th Nigerian military officer with number N7 of the RWAFF. Military training took Adebayo to different institutions. His Officer Cadet Training Course was at Teshie, Ghana. He completed the War Office Cadet Training at Eaton Hall, England. He also attended the Staff College Course at Camberley, Surrey, England and the Imperial Defence College, London.

Between 1957 and 1958, Adebayo served as Aide-de-Camp to the last British Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir James Robertson. He was the first indigenous Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army (February 1964 to November 1965).

Major-General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo became Military Governor of the Western Region (later named Western State) on August 4, 1966 and served in that capacity until April, 1971.

As Governor, he succeeded the Late Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi who was killed in the counter-coup of July 29, 1966. His last major military posting was as Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1971. He was retired from the Nigerian Army in July, 1975 as a Major-General.

Outside military service, Adeyinka Adebayo took interest in the politics of the Second Republic and was a founding member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He was a Vice Chairman of the party. Much later, he was a prominent member of the Alliance for Democracy.