A former Information Minister, Chief Alex Akinyele, has passed on.
This was confirmed in a statement by one of his sons, Constantine Akinfolarin, which said that the Lobosin of Ondo, and Jagunmolu of Ipetu Ijesa, died on Thursday night after a brief illness.
A trained public relations specialist, Akinyele also served as the Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee, NRC, which was set up by the Gen Sani Abacha junta in the heat of the bloody pro-democracy struggle, to placate aggrieved Nigerians over the refusal of the military to install the winner of the 1993 presidential election, Nigeria’s freest election ever, the late Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola, as President.
That election, conducted by Prof Humphrey Nwosu, a brilliant professor of Political Science, and former Head of Political Science Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as the Head of the National Electoral Commission, was annulled by the military regime headed by former Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
Akinyele later became chairman of the Nigerian Sports Commission.
He was born in Ondo to a father who was a teacher but who later served in the West African Frontier Force during World War II. After his father’s return from the war, Akinyele began his primary education at All Saints School, Ondo and completed secondary studies at Gboluji Grammar School.
He then attended St Andrews College, Oyo to obtain a teacher’s training certificate. At St Andrew’s, the principal, Seth Runsewe Kale, took a liking to Akinyele and appointed him a receptionist prefect, an ambassador for the school to receive visitors.
After graduation, he taught briefly at his alma mater, Gboluji, before earning a degree in English language from the University of Ife. His degree was partially sponsored by a secondary school in Idanre, and after obtaining his diploma, he returned to the school to teach English for a number of years.
In 1967, he transferred services to the Department of Customs in Lagos, during which he also worked with a group of writers of the Village Headmaster.
On the recommendation of Customs director, Etim Duke, Akinyele became the public relations officer of the department. He worked in that position until 1978 when he joined a cosmetic company.
He was an investor in Newswatch magazine and played a role in negotiations between the Federal Government and magazine when the latter was proscribed in 1986.
In 1995, the late Gen. Sani Abacha appointed him as Head of the National Reconciliation Committee also with the objective of opening dialogue with interest groups in the country to support the democratic transition programme of the government.
Fondly called Aleco, Chief Sir Akinyele Opeyemi Alexander, was born on April 24th 1938 to Pa Akinyele a soldier and an ex-serviceman who was by the end of the Second World War holding the rank of a Regimental Sergeant, and who retired in 1974 as a Court Clark in Ondo.
He attended All Saint Primary School Ondo, Gboluji Grammar School Ile-Oluji and St. Andrew’s College Oyo. While at St. Andrew’s College, he was appointed the school first reception prefect.
He studied English language at the prestigious University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University.
On leaving Ife, he worked as a teacher at Olofin Grammar School, Idanre. In June 1967, he applied to join the Nigeria Police force and was offered a place as a trainee assistant Superintendent of Police, but fate had other plans for him.
On reporting to the Police Service Commission, the other 12 trainees recruit were not present due largely to the commencement of the civil war. He was directed to join the customs.
After his 18 month training programme, Custom Controller Henry Duke appointed him the first Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs and Excise.
Following his retirement from the Customs he joined the private sector business.
He was the first former secretary general of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations that eventually became the President.
Former military president, Gen Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda first nominated him as a member of the Constituent Assembly and later appointed him as the Minister of information thus becoming the very first public relation practitioner in Nigeria to be appointed into that post.
