Fayemi urged to rename EKSU after Fajuyi

Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has been urged to immortalise the late Col. Adekunle Fajuyi by renaming the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, after the deceased soldier.

A group known as Immortalise Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi said this in a letter to the governor.  

The letter was signed by the Coordinator of ICAF, Mr. Dimeji Daniels; and the Assistant Coordinator, Mr. John Osadeyi. 

The ICAF suggested that the College of Education in Ikere-Ekiti was an alternative institution that could be named after Fajuyi, who was killed during the July 29, 1966 coup.  He was 40 years old then.

The group lamented that while the country had honoured some Nigerians who contributed little or nothing to the development of the nation, the first Military Governor of the old Western State, who sacrificed his life for the unity of the nation, had been left unrecognised. 

The ICAF reminded the governor of his June 12 speech where he said that those who sacrificed for the nation should be honoured, to encourage the younger generations to emulate them. 

The letter reads in part, “It is for this reason that the ICAF is proposing that the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, or the Ekiti State College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, be renamed after Colonel Adekunle Francis Fajuyi. This is the only meaningful and lasting immortlisation that Col. Adekunle Fajuyi deserves.” 

The group said the Federal Government would continue to neglect the memory of Fajuyi if the state where he hailed from did not do anything meaningful to honour him. 

It regretted that the FG, in September 2010, honoured 50 dead and living Nigerians for their services to the nation, and that though the name of Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was on the list, Fajuyi’s name was conspicuously missing. 

Fajuyi was said to have contributed to the global peace during his time and he was said to have been awarded the British Empire Medal for helping to contain a mutiny in his unit over food rations in 1951 and 1961 during peace keeping operations.