Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji is dead.
THISDAY gathered that the diplomat died yesterday in London. He was aged 83.
Adeniyi was the Minister of Foreign Affairs under former President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 to June 2006, and also served as Minister of Interior from 21 June 21, 2006 to May 2007.
He was the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). The mission was responsible for providing security in Bangui and for coordinating the legislative and presidential elections held in 1998 and 1999.
The renowned diplomat was then appointed the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sierra Leone and Head of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) from November 19, 1999 to July 16, 2003. For five years, he was the Nigerian Ambassador to France.
Adeniji was born July 22, 1934 in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. He had a degree in History and joined the Nigerian Foreign Service in July 1960. He served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nigerian embassies in Washington, D.C., Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Accra, Ghana. He retired from service in 1991 after serving as the Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Beginning in early March 2008, Adeniji headed negotiations in Kenya related to that country’s political crisis, following the departure of the previous head negotiator, Kofi Annan. In addition, he served on the Commission of Eminent Persons on The Role of the IAEA to 2020 and Beyond, chaired by Ernesto Zedillo, whose report Reinforcing the Global Nuclear Order for Peace and Prosperity was launched in June 2008.
