The author of Nigeria’s national pledge, Prof. Felicia Adebola Adedoyin, passed away at 82 on saturday after a brief illness.
According to InsideOyo, she was in the care of her children and surrounded by loved ones when she died.
The Late Adedoyin who was born on the 6th of November 1938 is the second of six children and a Princess from the Iji Ruling House of Saki, Saki West Local Government, Oke Ogun area of Oyo State.
An educationist, Adeyoyin received her PhD in 1981 from the University of Lagos.
Prof. Adedoyin, who lectured at the University of Lagos and was a consultant with the United Nations, wrote the national pledge in 1976.
She was propelled to write the pledge following questions by her children who had been used to reciting the Oath of Allegiance while in school in New York, and the State Pledge in Achimota School, Ghana.
The pledge was written in the Daily Times on July 15, in an article titled ‘Loyalty to the Nation, Pledge’ which was shown to the then Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, who modified it and introduced it to the country during the formal launch of the Universal Free Primary Education (UPE) and decreed that all school children recite the national pledge in assembly.
In 2005, Prof Adedoyin was given a national award, the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).
Read Also: Lagos State Says It Supported Widows with N29 million in 2020
