President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described the late former Oyo State governor, Chief Lam Adesina, as a leader who remained close to his people while holding firm to his progressive convictions, saying public office must be treated as a trust.
The Minister of Power, Chief Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, delivered the president’s message on Wednesday at the third Lam Adesina Annual Lecture Series, held at the Hall of Grace, Jogor Centre, Liberty Road, Ibadan.
Conveying Tinubu’s greetings, Tegbe said the president valued the lecture for preserving Nigeria’s democratic heritage and drawing lessons from it as the country works towards the “Nigeria of our collective dream.”
He commended the Adesina family, associates of the late governor and the Lam Adesina Annual Lecture Series Foundation for bringing together scholars, public servants and civic leaders of different political convictions. He said the forum gave participants an opportunity to examine ideas against the historical record and find areas where they could work together.
Recounting Adesina’s path into politics, Tegbe traced his public life to the classroom and his work with the Nigerian Tribune. He said Adesina’s concern with what government owed the people it served drew him to the progressive philosophy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Tegbe said Adesina wrote, spoke and organised around those beliefs. When he contested for a National Assembly seat in 1979, the minister said, he asked voters for the chance to put into practice the ideas he had defended in public for years.
“A leader can hold such political convictions and still remain deeply connected to his people,” Tegbe said, describing that connection as one of the enduring lessons of Adesina’s life. He remembered the late governor as an activist and a man of ideas who remained humble and firmly rooted in Ibadan.
For Adesina, Tegbe said, social justice meant giving every child a fair chance in life and every family the means to live with dignity. Democracy, he added, meant giving citizens a say in decisions that affect them and the power to hold their leaders accountable.
Tegbe said those ideals also informed the agenda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, who he said had pledged to put them into practice.
The minister acknowledged Adesina’s widow, Alhaja Saratu Adeola Lam Adesina, and said he had spoken privately with her and others at the event. He promised to relay their discussions to the president when he met him later that day.
Tegbe also commended Chief Fatai Ibikunle, a close associate who regarded the late governor as his mentor, for keeping Dapo Lam Adesina “on his toes.” He praised Dapo, the late governor’s son and one of the organisers, for his consistency in sustaining the lecture and promised to convey his message to Tinubu.
Speaking on behalf of the president, Tegbe thanked the foundation for keeping Adesina’s legacy alive. He said he hoped the lecture would continue to remind a new generation of leaders that public office is a trust and that they must stay connected to the people they serve.
“May Baba’s soul continue to rest in peace, and may his legacy live on,” he said.
