Adebowale Ibidapo Adefuye, who served as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States, died yesterday at the age of 68 at an undisclosed hospital in Washington DC. He was Nigeria’s ambassador to the US from 2010 until his death.
Ambassador Adefuye was born in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun state in 1947. He studied History at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, where he earned his first degree in 1969 and a Ph.D in 1973. As a Fulbright scholar, he did further studies and research at Columbia University, the University of North Florida and the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Professor Adefuye, who wrote several historical texts, including Culture and Foreign Policy; The Nigerian Example (1993), was a lecturer at the University of Lagos where he rose to the position of Professor and served as head of the History Department from 1985 to 1987.
The late Adefuye was appointed an ambassador to the US by former president Goodluck Jonathan in 2010. Before then, he was an advisor at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He had also served as an ambassador to Jamaica and deputy high commissioner in the U.K.
Before his death, ambassador Adefuye had already been recalled to Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in. But he was yet to officially handover to a new ambassador before death struck. His death came as a shock to many, especially officials at the Nigerian Embassy in the US, who had already planned a send-forth party for him scheduled to hold next week.
Analysts said the late professor would be remembered as an outspoken and defender of the image of Nigeria. He is said to have contributed immensely in persuading the U.S to remove Nigeria from the U.S government’s “country of Interest” terrorism watch list. Nigeria was placed on the list following the December 25, 2009, incident when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a flight headed from Amsterdam to Detroit.
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