Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – President Hage Geingob is pencilled in to deliver the main tribute at a public memorial service honouring iconic Nigerian professor Adebayo Adedeji. He died in April, aged 87 years.
A renowned economist and academic, Adedeji became a fully-fledged professor at the age of just 36 years, and was Nigeria’s Federal Commissioner for Economic Development and Reconstruction from 1971 to 1975.
“To celebrate the life of Professor Adebayo Adedeji, including his exceptional contributions to Namibia and Africa, President Hage G. Geingob will deliver the main tribute at a public memorial service on 27 June 2018 at 16h00, NIPAM in Olympia, Windhoek,” presidential press secretary Dr Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari said late yesterday.
Adedeji passed away on 25 April 2018, and will be laid to rest on 6 July 2018 in Ogun State, Nigeria. President Geingob said Africa as unquestionably a poorer continent without Adedeji, whom he labelled as his “gracious teacher and mentor”.
Adedeji is former executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and chairman of Senate of the United Nations Institute for Namibia (UNIN). Geingob praised his “intensity at work, and intellectual finesse in whatever role assigned to him”.
The public memorial in honour of Adedeji is an open event, and the general public is invited to join President Geingob in paying a fitting homage to a committed Pan-Africanist and friend of the Namibian people, State House said.