News reaching us from the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom confirmed that Abiola Adekunle Adelabu, the second son of the Ibadan born former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the APC Gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 general elections, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has just graduated with a first class degree in Accounting and Finance from the University.
In a letter sent by the Senior Teaching fellow at the University, Professor Catherine Salzedo, the University congratulated the 22years old Abiola on his excellent first class degree result which came as a result of hardwork and dedication to his studies. The University also wished him success in his future endeavours and confirmed their readiness for support in whatever Abiola’s future plans are either in securing a job or further post graduate studies.
While in school, Abiola Adelabu was a student mentor, an academic representative and student member of the board of trustees of the University of Lancaster. He was at a time the brand ambassador of Ernst & Young Uk as well as Promotional Marketing Circle at Lancaster University. He was also sent on a student fellowship program to the University of Boston, United States of America by Lancaster University. In his third year industry exposure, he had a one year work experience with the International Business Machine Ltd (IBM) in London, UK. Abiola also authored three mini books to assist fellow students, An Idiots Guide to Graduate Jobs, An Idiots Guide to Internships and An Idiots Guide to University Placements. All these books are published and sold on Amazon.co.uk.
It will be recalled that Abiola’s elder brother who is Chief Adelabu’s first son, Babatunde Adelabu just two years ago completed his masters degree in Construction Management and Real Estate from the University of Loughbrouh, Uk after graduating in B.Sc Mechanical Engineering from the University of Liverpool, Uk a year earlier after completing his NYSC program in Nigeria.
It can be said that Excellence runs in the family as their father, Chief Adebayo Adelabu also finished with a first class degree in Accounting from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife about 30years ago. He is today a fellow of both the Institute of Chatered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN). He was an Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer of First Bank of Nigeria for five years before being appointed the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2014. He resigned in 2018 to join politics in his quest to serve his state of origin as the Executive Governor. He however lost to the Incumbent, Governor Oluseyi Makinde. He has also declared his intention to recontest in the coming elections while managing his business conglomerates covering Real Estates, Hospitality, Farming and Financial Instruments Trading. He is indeed a chip of the old block as his own grandfather, Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemesi, the popular pre-independence political juggernaut, also had an academic record at the Government College Ibadan which is yet to be broken till date.
In a telephone conversation with the proud father of this first class graduate, Chief Adebayo Adelabu who was initially reluctant for this publicity expressed his joy and excitement to record another first class graduate in his family from a top Uk University especially in the same profession as his. He said it will be his wish to see the standard of education in Nigeria measure up to international standards so we wont need to spend our scarce foreign currencies to pay for education in western countries. He congratulated his son who he claimed has done the family proud and expressed his readiness to continue to support him in whatever he chooses to do after his first degree. But first, he must serve his country under the NYSC program before any other plan.
“Education is the best legacy and inheritance we should give our children, not wealth as a well educated child will surely outgrow his parents’ wealth and will also be more useful to the society. My dream is to see that we are proud of our schools in Nigeria without having to travel abroad as very few Nigerians can afford this. I congratulate my wife, Biola’s mum specially for the moral and spiritual support and regular calls, visits and counsels while he was in school. We fathers are always busy in search of livelihood for the family only fund the education while we have very little time to provide the kind of support their mothers offer. But on the whole, i’m happy he has taken after me”, Adelabu said.
