Professor Adebowale Ibidapo Adefuye, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States is dead.

Adefuye, according to embassy sources died Thursday evening at a Washington DC hospital where he had gone for a routine check up. He was 68 at death.

The Ijebu-Igbo born diplomat was a former professor of history at the University of Lagos, Nigeria before he started his diplomatic career. He was appointed Nigerian Ambassador to the United States by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010.

Adefuye received his First Degree in History at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1969, and in 1973 earned a Ph.D. in History at the top school. As a Fulbright scholar he studied at Columbia University, the University of North Florida and the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Adefuye started his academic career as a Lecturer at the University of Lagos, where he rose to the position of Professor, published books and articles, and served as Head of the History Department from 1985 to 1987. Among the books he wrote was History of the Peoples of Lagos State (1987) and Culture and Foreign Policy: The Nigerian Example (1993).

He received his first diplomatic commission, as High Commissioner (i.e., ambassador) to Jamaica, with concurrent accreditation to Haiti and Belize, a job he kept from 1987 to 1991. From 1991 to 1994, he served as Deputy High Commissioner at the Nigerian Embassy in London, U.K., when he was hired by the Commonwealth (formerly the British Commonwealth of Nations) as Deputy Director of Strategic Planning. After fourteen years with the Commonwealth, Adefuye took a job with the Economic Community of West African States, where he served as an Advisor for two years, from 2008 to 2010.