Adelabu Adebayo Adekola
357,982 votes (39.04%)
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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.
Security & Defense
Enhances compensation, medical care, housing support, scholarships, stipends, and health insurance for military personnel injured in duty and their families.
Governance & Reform
Commits to amending Nigeria’s governance architecture through constitutional review and collaboration with the National Assembly and State Governments to grant States greater autonomy over critical matters like crime prevention, prisons, stamp duties, and taxation.
Economy & Trade
Reforms the Federal Budgetary Methodology to move away from oil revenue dependence and base spending on projected growth, establishing an inflationary ceiling to optimize fiscal policy without causing excessive inflation.
Infrastructure
Launches a National Infrastructure Campaign to modernize national infrastructure by hiring millions of unemployed Nigerians through the fiscal flexibility gained from reforming budgetary methodology.
Agriculture
Will encourage local farmers to form farm cooperatives, enabling them to pool resources for modern farming equipment, fertiliser, and access priority government agricultural assistance programs (extension services), with tax breaks and credits.
Environment & Climate
Will **reduce Nigeria’s gas flaring** by removing it from the top 10 countries with highest flares, aiming to maximize sector benefits while eliminating environmental harm.
Anti-corruption
Curb reliance on imported goods via luxury taxes, higher tariffs, and processing fees while incentivizing local manufacturing with tax credits/rebates.
Enterprise grant support
Provides tax credits, holidays, and reduced interest rate loans for businesses that hire a specified percentage of youth in their workforce and offer on-the-job training.
Energy
Will increase Nigeria’s domestic crude oil production to **2.6 million barrels per day by 2027** and **4 million barrels per day by 2030**, while implementing a Special Enforcement and Monitoring Unit to deter theft, vandalism, and pipeline breaches using drones and aerial surveillance.
Education
Introduces a new management system for federally funded primary and secondary schools via Boards of Education, reserving community representation in decision-making.
Healthcare
Will strengthen primary healthcare infrastructure with incentive schemes, counterpart funding programs, and grassroots preventative care (vaccinations, cancer screening, blood pressure monitoring) in collaboration with state/local governments.
Technology & Digital
Establishment of an advisory committee to review and reform regulatory frameworks for blockchain technology and virtual asset services.
Reliefs and scholarships
Provides **conditional income support** to very poor households, tied to human capital development goals like high-school attendance, healthcare, and nutrition.
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Who declares, who drops out, who switches party: sourced, not speculation.