By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
Former Kwara State governor, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo has passed away at the age of 84.
Family sources confirmed to reporters that Adebayo, a prominent pro-democracy advocate, died in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja.
Born on February 24, 1941, in the Igbaja community of Kwara State, Adebayo was a key figure in Nigeria’s political and democratic evolution.
He served as Kwara State governor in 1983 and was elected senator on the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) platform in 1979.
The late Cornelius Adebayo also served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications from 2003 to 2006, during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He was a leading member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a pro-democracy group that resisted military rule and fought to reclaim the June 12, 1993, presidential mandate won by late Chief Moshood Abiola.
In 1993, Adebayo rejected a position in General Sani Abacha’s military government, faced police arrest linked to opposition activities after a 1995 bomb explosion, and subsequently went into exile in Canada in 1996.
He was Kwara State Commissioner for Education from 1975 to 1978.