NYSC pioneer chairman, Adebayo Adedeji, dies at 88

The pioneer chairman of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Professor Adebayo Adedeji, is dead.

He was also the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

He was reported to have died on Wednesday in Lagos State.

Details about the death of the 88 years old pioneer Chairman of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were still sketchy at the time of filing this report.

The Ijebu-Ode born politician was the United Nations Under-Secretary-General from 1978 till 1991.

He was the founding Executive Director of the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies (ACDESS) in 1991, a position he holds till date.

The late Adedeji graduated from both London (B.Sc and PhD in Economics) and Harvard Universities (M.P.A) and at the age of 36 years, he had become a full-fledged Professor at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).

In 1971, he was drafted into the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of General Yakubu Gowon as the Cabinet Minister responsible for the economic development and reconstruction of post-civil war Nigeria.

He was the founder and pioneer Chairman of the Nigeria National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the pére da la CEDEAO –– the father of ECOWAS –– which he established in May 1975 ––after over three years of arduous negotiations with sixteen governments and countries divided into Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone spheres of influence.