Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs is dead. He died at the age of 83 in London.

Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji

Amb. Dapo Fafowora, National President of the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) broke the sad news: “I have received with sadness, the news of the death of Amb. Olu Adeniji in London last Sunday.”

For those who don’t know, Ambassador Adeniji was the Foreign Affairs Minister under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He served between July 2003 and June 2006, when he was moved to head the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

He was appointed the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sierra Leone and Head of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

Adeniji also served in Nigerian embassies in Washington, D.C., Freetown and Accra, Ghana. He retired from service in 1991 after serving as the Director-General of the Ministry of foreign affairs.

He was the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). Adeniji was born on July 22, 1934 in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.