Adelabu Adebayo Adekola
357,982 votes (39.04%)
Adelabu Adebayo Adekola is a Nigerian politician who contested the 2019 Governorship Elections as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Oyo. They received 358K votes (39.04%).
Biography
Adebayo Adelabu (born September 9, 1970) is a former deputy governor, operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria who is currently serving as the Federal Minister of Power of Nigeria. He was also an Oyo State gubernatorial candidate for the All Progressives Congress in 2019.
Adelabu was born to Aderibigbe Adelabu of Oke-Oluokun compound, Kudeti Area in Ibadan. His grandfather is Adegoke Adelabu. Adelabu attended Ibadan Municipal Government primary school, Agodi Ibadan from 1976 to 1982 and Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan from 1982 to 1987.
Adelabu received a first-class degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, and an Associate Member of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Adelabu has also completed professional courses in various business schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg’s, Euromoney, and the University of London. He started his career with PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), leading audit and consultancy engagements for banks and financial institutions.
He was on secondment to the Central Bank of Nigeria in 1999, leading the finance team on the CBN re-engineering project 'Project EAGLES'. He left PriceWaterhouse in 2000 to join First Atlantic Bank as Financial Controller and Group Head of Risk Management.
Adelabu was promoted to Chief Inspector of the Bank in 2002 and Group Head of National Public Sector Business in 2003. He later moved to Standard Chartered Bank as the West African Regional Head of Finance and Strategy (Consumer Banking Business) until 2009.
From 2009 to 2014, he served as Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of First Bank of Nigeria. Adebayo was appointed by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in February 2014 as Deputy Governor, Operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Adelabu serves as the Chairman, Board of Directors of the Nigeria InterBank Settlement Systems (NIBBS) and has chaired the board of Financial Institution Training Centre (FITC). He is also a member of the Board of Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), and Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).
He is a businessman with investments in hospitality, entertainment, agriculture, and real estate, including Bayse One Group of Hotels, Best Western Plus Hotels in Ibadan, and Bayse One Farm.
Adelabu resigned from the Central Bank of Nigeria with the intention of seeking election into the governorship position of Oyo State in 2019. He declared his candidacy on June 20, 2018, and emerged as the APC gubernatorial candidate at the party primaries on September 30, 2018.
On March 9, 2019, Adelabu lost to Oluwaseyi Makinde of the People Democratic Party in the 2019 Oyo gubernatorial election. In 2022, he resigned from the All Progressive Party (APC) and defected to Accord Party after losing the primary election to Teslim Folarin.
He contested for the Governor of Oyo state under the Accord Party after Ayodele Oyajide stepped down. On July 27, 2023, Adelabu was included in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 28-man ministerial nomination. He was made Minister of Power by President Bola Tinubu on August 16, 2023.
Party Positions
Policy positions from the All Progressives Congress (APC) party manifesto.
Agriculture
Launches the Irrigate Nigeria Project as a public-private partnership to develop small-scale irrigation and water catchment systems using modern technology to boost agricultural productivity.
Security & Defense
Will deploy modern aerial surveillance and advanced technology to monitor and deter intrusions into oil pipelines, power stations, and other critical national infrastructure in real time.
Environment & Climate
Accelerates the environmental cleanup and re-establishment of fisheries and profitable aquacultural activities in the Niger-Delta region to counter violent extremism and poverty-driven disaffection.
Economy & Trade
Will implement the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and additional favorable policies to attract investment in deep-water assets within 6 months, including encouraging signature bonus negotiations and royalty reliefs.
Infrastructure
Creates regional industrial hubs in specific zones (North West, North East, South East, South South, South West, North Central) to focus on labor-intensive manufacturing, with tailored investments (e.g., textiles, dry ports, glass, pottery, solid minerals, regulated mining).
Enterprise grant support
Work with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to simplify loan processes for commercial banks, mandate federally owned banks to provide low-cost loans to youth-led enterprises, and expand business incubation centers to support youth innovation.
Energy
Will mandate gas metering equipment on all facilities where gas flaring occurs within 6 months and establish a special enforcement unit to monitor compliance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) on gas flaring reduction, with non-compliance leading to financial penalties for affected communities.
Governance & Reform
Reserve at least 3 cabinet positions for individuals under 40 and 6 more positions for members under the age of 40, and mandate that at least 20% of political appointments to Ministries/Dangomas (MDAs) be reserved for individuals under 40.
Education
Raises the priority of addressing out-of-school children, establishes a task force to review and strengthen programs like school feeding, and aims to reduce disaffected youth recruitment by violent groups.
Healthcare
Will establish a network of upgraded, equipped, and staffed general hospitals in every Local Government Area, tertiary facilities in each State, and world-class specialist hospitals in each geo-political zone to improve healthcare accessibility and quality.
Technology & Digital
Supports the development of MSMEs through partnerships with fintech players to expand access to capital and business development services.
Reliefs and scholarships
Commits to a conditional income support program requiring recipients to meet human capital goals (school attendance, healthcare, nutrition) in exchange for payments.
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