Nigeria’s first female Minister, Chief (Mrs) Adenike Ebun Oyagbola, who was also the first Iyalode of Yewaland and the Bobajiro of Igan Alade, Yeye-Oba of Ketu, is dead. She died on February 28 at the age of 93.
Chief (Mrs) Oyagbola served as a member of the Federal Executive Council in her capacity as the Minister of National Planning in the second Republic under late former President Shehu Shagari and also served a Nigerian Ambassador to the United Mexican States with concurrent accreditation to Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala, a position she held between 2000 and 2003.
A statement by Adebayo Oyegbola, said the late Chief EBUN OYAGBOLA was born in Igan Alade, Yewa North Local Government of Ogun State (then the Egbado Province of the Western Region) on May 5, 1931 and had her early education in her hometown and later trained at the Christ Church Teacher Training College in Ilaro from where she qualified as a Grade 2 Teacher and later taught in several towns in Yewa before moving to Mushin as a Headmistress.
In her quest for further education, the late Chief Ebun Oyagbola travelled to the United Kingdom for further studies, following which she obtained a degree in accounting and upon her return to Nigeria, she joined the Federal Civil Service in 1963 and worked in several Ministries and Government Departments before retiring from service in 1977.
She was appointed as the first female minister in December 1979 by late former President Shehu Shagari as Minister of National Planning, a position she held till October 1983.
In yet another first, she became the first President of the International Delphic Council (IDC) in 1990, a body responsible for the promotion of arts and culture worldwide through the revival of the Delphic Games that was started in Greece in antiquity.
The late Chief (Mrs) Ebun was married to late Chief Thomas Adedokun Oyagbola, a legal practitioner and the marriage was blessed with children, and grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements will be made public by her family in due course.
