Dr Victor Omololu Olunloyo, a statesman and extremely brilliant mathematician, Tuesday, April 14 turned 85 and he is being celebrated by his wife, Aderonke, his children and several Nigerians.
On her Facebook page, the wife wrote “Happy 85th birthday to an upright and selfless Nigerian of noble birth. May you live long in good health and happiness.”
Unfortunately, all plans by the family to celebrate the veteran politician who was born in 1935 was aborted by the outbreak of coronavirus.
According to wikipedia.org, Olunloyo, is a mathematician who became governor of Oyo State in Nigeria in October 1983, holding the office briefly until the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari took power in December 1983. He later became a power in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State.
Olunloyo’s deceased father Horatio Olunloyo was Christian and his late mother Alhaja Bintu Tejumola Abebi Olunloyo who died October 2013 at 102-year-old was Muslim
His father died in December 1948 when Victor Olunloyo was 13 years old, he gained a Ph.D. from St. Andrews University in 1961. His thesis was on the Numerical Determination of the Solutions of Eigenvalue Problems of the Sturm–Liouville Type. He published several other papers on number theory and applied mathematics.
Olunloyo was appointed Commissioner for Economic Development for the Western Region in 1962 at the age of 27, in the cabinet of Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. He was re-appointed when Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo was appointed military governor of Western State. Other positions included Commissioner for Community Development, Education (twice), Special Duties, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs which includes crowning of two of Nigeria’s monarchs namely the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III and the Soun of Ogbomosho King Oyewunmi. He was appointed chairman of the Western Nigerian Development Corporation.[1]
Life as Governor of Oyo State
In 1983, Olunloyo ran for governor of the old Oyo State on the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) platform, and defeated the incumbent, Bola Ige of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), assuming office in October 1983. His term ended three months later when General Muhammadu Buhari took power and dismissed the elected government on December 31, 1983.[4]
Later career
In November 2002 Victor Olunloyo said he would be a candidate for governor of Oyo State in the April 2003 elections.[3] However, Rasheed Ladoja was eventually chosen as the PDP candidate. In 2009, he was chairman of a panel to investigate the collapse of a part of the Pharmacy section of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. The panel laid blame on the contractor and on the state government, drawing attack from the Oyo State governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.[5] He was elected chairman of the PDP Planning and Strategy Committee for Ibadanland to prepare for the 2011 election, and was also made chairman of the PDP Media and Publicity Committee for the state.[6] In 2012 Victor Olunloyo abandoned the PDP political party and joined ACN.
From all of us at PMParrot.com and Parrot Xtra Magazine, we salute the statesman on the occasion of his 85th birthday anniversary.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele
