By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji was a Nigerian career diplomat and politician who was the Special Representative of the General Secretary with the United NationsMission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) from November 19, 1999 to July 16, 2003.
Adeniji 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.
Born in July 22, 1934 in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Oluyemi obtained a degree in History. He was Foreign Minister of Nigeria from July 2003 to June 2006 and then Internal Affairs Minister from 21 June 2006 to May 2007.
He retired from service in 1991 after serving as the Director-General of the ministry of foreign affairs. For five years he was the Nigerian Ambassador to France.
Adeniji 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.
Ambassador Adeniji in March 2008 headed negotiations in Kenya at the peak of that country’s political crisis, following the departure of the previous head negotiator, Kofi Annan.
He also 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”.
Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji died on Sunday, 26 November 2017 in London at the age of 83.