Things People Don't Know About Late Ambassador Ronke Adefowope

Oloye Lekan Alabi has described the death of Ambassador Ronke Adefowope as a personal loss to him, and a great loss not only to her family but Ibadanland, Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole.

Adefowope, a former Nigeria's High Commissioner to Zambia and Malawi and a member of the Oyo State Elder's Council, passed away on Monday, June 9, 2025, at age 73.

In an interview last week, Chief Lekan Alabi paid a very touching tribute in honor of Adefowope, his wife's former classmate.

The Maye Olubadan of Ibadanland also gave detailed accounts of how he got attracted to late Aderonke Adefowope the very first time they met.

Adefowope, Alabi, a veteran media personality and a PR guru, said, was very natural, plain and modest. The qualities he said they had in common and has kept their relationship strong till the deceased breath her last. Read the excerpts.....

Ibadan woke up on Monday, June 9, 2025, to hear the sad news of the passing of Ambassador Ronke Adefowope, who was she to you and how would you describe her?

Thank you very much. Ambassador Ibironke Vaughan-Adefowope was a natural person-very kind, respectful and plain. Even though she was my wife's classmate at St. Anne's School 1965, we related as 'egbon and aburo' because she chose to call me in public and private 'egbon mi' my elder brother with all the Yoruba finesse. So I took her too with all the respect to her as my 'aburo' and we shared the same philosophy and ideals of thoroughness, fairness and justice. So much so that in 1993 when we founded the MKO Abiola Dynamic Group, we fiited in. I was the founding Secretary-general of that group, she was a trustee. In fact, she gave the group the name MKO Dynamic Group. And what is MKO Dynamic Group? It was a group of professionals, technocrats, who were non-politicians but wanted Basorun MKO Abiola to win that year's election. So that binded is the more. And as I said, we shared the same ideals, philosophy and principle. 23 years ago when she was 50 years old, by then she was already Nigeria's High Commissioner to Zambia and Malawi, I went with my wife to celebrate with her, and I was the MC. We were very close.

Sir, could you share with us your last encounter with her and what was the discussion about?

There are many encounters I could recall but since said last encounter. A year ago I was ill. My self and my family thought I had malaria fever attack. So our family doctor was treating me. But after about 3 weeks and there was no improvement, Ambassador Ibironke Adefowope called her friend, my wife, that she wouldn't think this "her brother's matter" (that's me) was simple malaria fever. That I should be taken to a specialist hospital, and she was ready to pay. The deposit at that hospital was 250,000 naira. She volunteered to pay. But my older daughter, who was in Lagos with her family, had thought otherwise. "That she too didn't think daddy's matter is simple case of malaria." That she was sending her driver and car, which she did the following morning, to pick me up from Ibadan to Reddinton Hospital, a specialist hospital at Ikeja. So if a former classmate of my wife would volunteer to pay my hospital bills for admission in a specialist hospital that would take a quarter of a million naira, it would show you the level of love and care she had for me.

What will you miss most about her?

I would miss her wise counsel. Oh God! She was deep. Despite attending elite schools here in Nigeria and graduating at a top American university, she never lost her touch with root, culture in particular. I would miss that. She was a very great confidant, who despite her background (those they call ajebutter), she was deep in culture and tradition of Ibadan and the Yoruba. I would miss that, oh yea!

Apart from the ideals and philosophy you shared, what really would you say attracted you to Ambassador Adefowope?

As I said I met her for the first time when we returned from England. We got married in London 1978. So when we back to Nigeria naturally My wife wanted me to meet her former classmate. Because their fathers were not only friends, they were members of a club called Goodwill Brothers. So they had a long standing relationship. My first seeing Ibironke Adefowope, what you would call attraction just came like that. She was humble, modest, devoid of 'ajebutter' complexity and all that. We clicked the very first time. Until she died people would tell you, 'Lekan and Ronke, a mo ibi ti won di si o'. It was natural.

What would be your pathing words if you are to write a tribute on her in a few sentences?

I have written it already. I pray it comes out soon. I used 3 key words, "A Part of Me is Gone". And I know that is what she would have written about me if the situation was different. People would many times wonder, if they ask her at a far place and here, ask me, our answers would always rhyme. What you would call telepathy - saying the same thing without meeting face to face or writing what what you are going to say. I believe in telepathy because that existed between both of us.

Did you learn anything in the course of your relationship, especially about the qualities you had in common?

Yes, of course. As I said, she was organized, she was neat and elegant, and she was full of respect for every human being and those characters merged with mine. I'm a modest person. I hate people who look down on others. Even though circumstances and background separate us, God creates all human beings equal. That was her.

Credit: City People