Obi-Datti Campaign Shops For Female DG, Adesanya’s Daughter, Modupe Adelaja, May Replace Okupe

Nigeria Needs A New Lease Of Life - By Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed

Unless there is any last-minute change of plans, Modupe Adenike Adelaja, the former Minister of State for Defence and daughter of late Afenifere leader, Abraham Adesanya, will fill the vacuum left by the resignation of Doyin Okupe as Director-General of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation.

Recall that Okupe had early in the week, resigned his position as DG after he was convicted of complicity in a money laundering case involving former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki. Okupe was made to pay up to N13 million fine in lieu of jail term.

Impeccable sources within the Obi-Datti Campaign and the Labour Party on Wednesday hinted that ” this time around, there is overwhelming support for the idea of appointing a female DG, also from the Southwest.”

According to one of the sources, the pendulum this time around have is steadily swinging towards Modupe Adelaja, not only because of the need for inclusiveness but also to ensure that the very best and the most experienced is deployed to our important task of delivering this country from poverty and bad governance.”

Prime Business Africa also gathered that the Labour Party and, indeed, the Obi-Datti campaign are willing to allow the Afenifere interests within the Obi-Datti support group to find a replacement for Okupe. “This, the Afenifere group is already doing and there is every chance that Modupe Adelaja, an experienced lawyer and former Defence Minister, will emerge very very soon.”

As a lawyer, Mrs Adelaja was Principal Counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice; Banking Legal Officer at the Express Building Society and was appointed Minister of State for Defence in 1999.

In 2003, Adelaja became the Pioneer Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

She had earlier served in her father’s Chambers, A A Adesanya & co. She later became an instructor, Community Access Centre, Matthew Bolton College, Birmingham, United Kindom as well as a former Researcher on Childcare Provision.

Authoritative sources withing the Obi-Datti campaign also confirmed to Prime Business Africa that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural organisation will be given an upper hand in deciding who replaces Okupe. They, however, said the the former Defence Minister and found favour before Obasanjo and the Afenifere members within the Obi-Datti support group.