Michael Adeyemo

Early Life and Education

He was the first child of the Adeyemo family of the Alaarun compound in Lanlate. He attended primary school at IMG, Oke Ado, and secondary school at Celestial Church High School, Oke Ado, both in Ibadan. He took a first degree in educational management at the University of Port Harcourt, then studied law at the University of Ibadan and qualified as a lawyer in 2004.

Lawyer

He began his legal career as an associate at the Ibadan chambers of Olujinmi and Akeredolu and joined the Nigerian Bar Association and the International Bar Association. In the association’s Ibadan branch he served on the executive committee as auditor and assistant secretary. The branch chairman, Akeem Agbaje, later called him “humble, committed” and “a benefactor and an asset” to the association.

Ibarapa East Lawmaker

He entered politics in 2007. In 2011 he won the Ibarapa East seat in the state Assembly on the Action Congress of Nigeria platform, and as Deputy Chief Whip of the 7th Assembly sat on committees covering fund allocation, works and transport, agriculture, trade and investment, appropriation and public finance. He was re-elected in 2015 under the All Progressives Congress, a first for a member from that constituency according to a published profile, and was elected Speaker.

Speaker of the Oyo Assembly, 2015 to 2018

Adeyemo served as Speaker under Governor Abiola Ajimobi, succeeding Monsurat Sunmonu. He set out his vision for the 8th Assembly as “continuity and sustenance of peace,” with a constructive relationship with the executive that preserved the legislature’s independence. The state’s secretary to the government, Olalekan Alli, said at his funeral that Adeyemo was skilled at turning political opponents into allies, and the Nigerian Conference of Speakers described his death as a calamity. Specific bills he sponsored were not found in the sources reviewed.

Death and Funeral

The Speaker’s death on April 27, 2018, was confirmed by Assembly members and by the Oyo government spokesman. The cause was reported at the time as a suspected heart attack, and a profile noted that the circumstances had not been fully established. Ajimobi returned from an official assignment, visited the University of Ibadan’s anatomy department to learn the likely cause from pathologists, and met the family. Mourning ran from April 30 to May 2 with flags at half-mast. A service of songs was held at Oke Ado Baptist Church in Ibadan, attended by Ajimobi, Ondo governor Rotimi Akeredolu and the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Olasupo Ayokunle, and the Assembly held a valedictory plenary in his honour. He was buried at his private residence in Lanlate on Thursday, May 3, after a funeral service at New Park, Lanlate. He was survived by his parents, his wife and three children.

Timeline