A former Minister of Education, Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa, has died at the age of 87.

His nephew, Dr. Hakeem Onikoyi, said the octogenarian died of natural causes, while on a trip to Abuja on Monday morning.

When THE PUNCH called his Lagos home, a female member of his household, who identified herself as Juliet, confirmed the late former minister’s demise.

“Sorry, you cannot talk with Baba again. He is dead.

“They called us from Abuja where he travelled to this morning to tell us that he is no more. He was in Abuja with mummy,” she said in an emotion laden voice.

However, Onikoyi later confirmed the development to newsmen at the late Fafunwa’s residence in Lagos on Monday.

According to him, the ex-minister had left Lagos for Abuja on Thursday accompanied by his wife to receive an award at the second convocation of the National Open University of Nigeria. But when the management of the university postponed the award, Fafunwa, who served as minister between 1990 and 1992, decided to return to Lagos on Saturday.

“Before he went to Abuja, he was not ill; but on Saturday, he complained of minor weakness of his body and he was taken to one hospital in Abuja. He was there till this morning (Monday) when he died around 7am,” he said.

As at 6.30pm when one of our correspondents left his Ikoyi residence, his corpse was still being expected from Abuja.

Family sources said this was due to flight delay in Abuja. The family, THE PUNCH learnt, would finalise plans for his burial on Monday night, after the arrival of one of his children, Tanimola, from the Philippines.

One of the early callers at the Lagos residence of the former minister was the mother of Lagos State Deputy Governor Sarah Sosan, Alhaja Serifat Onikoyi, who is one of the sisters of the deceased.

A former vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof. Wale Omole, and a former chief judge of Lagos State, Justice Abdulfatai Adeyinka, were some of the prominent Nigerians that visited the family to pay their condolences.

Meanwhile, some Nigerians have expressed shock at Fafunwa’s demise. They noted that he would be remembered for his devotion to research and struggle for the adoption of local languages as the mode of instruction in the nation’s primary school system.

One of them, the former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, said Fafunwa’s death was “a huge loss to the development of education in Nigeria as a nation and Africa as a region.

“His contributions were monumental, which he sustained even till his old age. As minister of education, he stimulated the setting up of the 6-3-3-4 system and leveraged the visibility of African education systems in UNESCO and other global bodies. His forte was in mentoring younger ones, to keep the flame of quality education burning.

“He takes credit for setting up several innovative mechanisms to bolster quality in the education system, including the National Examination Council, National Board for Technical Education and Business Board and the Fafunwa Educational Foundation.

“Even as an octogenarian who could spend retirement in a reclusive corner, he was not shy of sharing his views on topical issues in education in Nigeria. We lost a legend. May his soul rest in peace,” he said.

Fafunwa, fondly called Babs by his former students, associates, friends and colleagues, was born in September 1923 in Isale-Eko Lagos.

Fafunwa’s educational philosophy was centrally focused on the Nigerian child.

The deceased, in an interview he granted to THE PUNCH on September 30, this year, said he would love to be remembered as a man who tried to make every Nigerian literate and numerate in his mother tongue and in English as a second language.

Family sources said his remains might be buried on Tuesday (today).


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May his soul rest in peace. He was a great man, less regarded in his country. His family should take consolation in knowing that the prof has impacted so many people positively.

May his soul rest in d bossom of d lord.

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