“No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men” -
Thomas Carlyle.
ANCESTRAL BACKGROUND :
On the glorious Monday, 28th September, 1970, the Almighty God blessed Mr. & Mrs. Aderibigbe Adelabu of Adegoke Adelabu’s Compound, Oke-Oluokun, Ibadan, Oyo State, with a “Star”. He is Adebayo Adekola Adelabu. His grandfather was the late Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu (popularly known as Penkelemesi), the most flamboyant and articulate grassroots politician of the pre-independence political era and Nigeria’s first Federal Minister of Social Services and Natural Resources.
ACADEMIC/CAREER:
As great men are like eagles that build their nests on some lofty solitude, Bayo had his primary education at Ibadan Municipal Government Primary School, Agodi Ibadan between 1976 and 1982 and secondary school education at the famous Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan between 1982 and 1987 with Distinctions.
According to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : ”The heights that great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden fight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night”. Bayo holds a First Class Degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and 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.
Adebayo Adekola Adelabu, until his appointment as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was an Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. (FBN).
Prior to that, he held the positions of General Manager as the West African Regional Head of Finance and Strategy (Consumer Banking Business) for Standard Chartered Bank.
He had his professional training with PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), an international firm of Chartered Accountants and Management Consultants where he worked for seven years. While with the firm, he led and managed various audit and consultancy engagements for large banks and non-bank financial institutions within and outside Nigeria. He was also on secondment to the CBN for one year (in 1999) when he led the Finance team on the CBN re-engineering and corporate renewal project tagged (Project EAGLES).
He left the firm in year 2000 as an Audit Manager and Senior Consultant to join First Atlantic Bank as the Financial Controller and Group Head of Risk Management and Controls. He also held various other positions while in First Atlantic Bank including the Chief Inspector of the Bank (2002) and Group Head of National Public Sector Business (2003).
Bayo Adelabu had attended various local and International trainings, seminars and conferences including the University of London School of Management Development, the Euromoney Executive Education, UK, the United States Institute of Internal Auditors in Orlando, Florida, Harvard Business School, Boston USA, Wharton Business School, Pensyvalnia, USA, Stanford Business School, Carlifornia, USA and Columbia University Business School, New York USA.
Bayo served as the Chairman, Board of Directors of the Financial Institution Training center (FITC) and also sits on the board of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NISRAL)
SOCIAL/PHILANTHROPY :
Bayo Adelabu is the pioneer Chairman till date of the 1982/87 Set of the Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan Old Boys’ Association and once the Treasurer of the Lagos branch of the National Alumni Association. In year 2012, he led his set, while celebrating their 25th graduation anniversary, to renovate 2 blocks consisting of six classrooms, to donate 500 units of students’ chairs and tables, 10,000 pieces of big exercise books and10 computer workstations to the school. More recently, in 2017, he led his set during their 30 years graduation annivesary to donate a block of eight toilets for the use of students and teachers. He has also singlehandedly funded the state of the art School Governing Board Administrative Building for Lagelu Grammar School. All in addition to other various supports his set alumni have been rendering to the school under his able leadership.
Considering all these, the Executive Governor of the state, Senator Dr. Abiola Ajimobi appointed Chief Bayo Adelabu as the Chairman, Governing Board of Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan as well as Chairman, Oyo State Security Trust Fund in 2017. As a Deputy Governor while in Central Bank of Nigeria, Bayo influenced the establishment and building of the Technical University, Ibadan, hostel in the University of Ibadan, New Senate Building of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and Central Bank of Nigeria Medical and Diagnostic Centre in Ibadan, Graduate School of Economics and Banking built by CBN for the University of Ibadan for over #15 Billion, renovation and new academic buildings for Bishop Philips Academy by the CBN costing over #500/Million, relocation of the CBN Entrepreneur ial Development Center (EDC) from Lagos to Oyo State at Samonda,Ibadan thus creating learning and employment opportunities for Oyo State indigenes, already approved is #3.5 Billion Accounting and Banking Studies Building for The Polytechnic, Ibadan, a #500 Million renovation for Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan by the CBN and provision of employment and small contracts for hundreds of Oyo State indigenes within the four years of stay at the Central Bank of Nigeria, first ever in the history of political appointment from Oyo State.
In his personal capacity, Bayo uses the platform of his NGO, Bayo Adelabu Foundation (BAF) to levitate his various philanthropic gestures to the society which include but not limited to Scholarship and Other Education support to indigent students, Health support to the less privileged, Artisans and Traders Finance support, Youth Engagement and Rehabilitation, Support for the Aged, Widows and the Physically challenged and Basic communal infrastructure supports. He has also set up a Skill Acquisition Centre at Oluyoro Oke Adu for training of artisans and youths in the state. His philantrophic gesture has spread through the education sector and many health projects. He also engages himself in Public Motivational Speaking and Youth mentoring activities.
It is in recognition of all these that the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) conferred on him in year 2010 the honour of Ibadan Distinguished Fellowship Award. In addition to this in 2012, the then Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Odulana Odugade counted him worthy of conferment of a Chieftaincy title of Agbaakin Parakoyi of Ibadanland and recently on 4th August, 2018, the Alado of Ado Awaye, Oba Reverend Ademola Olugbile Folakanmi Makuleboye II conferred on him the chieftaincy title of Are Asoludero of Ado Awaye.
Beyond his official assignment as a Financial and Banking guru, Bayo is an urban renewal and development freak with special passion for Hospitality, Entertainment and Real Estate. He is the Group ChIrman of BayseOne Group of Hotels, the Best Western Plus Hotels, Ibadan and BayseOne Farms.
LEADERSHIP/ COMPETENCY:
“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better” - Harry S. Truman. Also, according to John J. Pershing “ : “A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops”.
Bayo Adelabu is graciously blessed with seven qualities of a good leader as follows:
(1) Ability to create vision, articulate vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion;
(2) Courage to pursue the best and achieve success;
(3) Integrity to fear nothing. With this integrity, Bayo is always willing to do the right thing;
(4) Humility to carry all along and to give people their deserved respects with self –confidence and self-awareness, to recognize the value of others without feeling threatened;
(5)Strategic Planning to look ahead and to anticipate with some accuracy. He is a leader with foresight that can gain the “first mover”;
(6) Focus on the past successes rather than the past failures, and on the next action steps needed to take, rather than all the other distractions that life can present;
(7) Ability to gain cooperation of others by making a commitment to get along well with each person every single day.
Here is the “Penkelemesi” of our own generation. He is young, dynamic and vibrant. He is a complete epitome of “The Best” among the rest. The man that is poised with the heritage of service to God and humanity. The man that doesn’t lead by hitting people over the head but always apply great simplifiers and cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.
Bayo is a member of Ikoyi Club 1938, Jericho Businessmen Club and Ibadan Golf Club. A responsible and complete family man, he is happily married to Oluwaseyi Omolara and blessed with lovely and Godly children.
Ibukun Ogunniran, arpa, MPCS, is an Advertising and Publishing Practitioner.
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