The former finance minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, Jubril Martins-Kuye, a former Nigerian senator who served twice as a federal minister has been reported dead.
Sources said Martins-Kuye passed on early Sunday, 17 January 2021 in his hometown of Ago-Iwoye. He was 78 years old.
The Ijebu born Senator Martins-Kuye was trained as a chartered accountant, practicing for several years in Lagos and overseas before moving to politics where he brought his conservative bonafides to bear.
Mr. Kuye was first elected to the Nigerian Senate in the truncated Third Republic. When democracy returned in 1999, he ran unsuccessfully for governor as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Olusegun Osoba in Ogun State. He was subsequently appointed Minister of State for Finance by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, remaining in the cabinet until 2003.
Between 2010 and 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan tapped Mr. Martins-Kuye as his Commerce and Industry Minister while completing the remaining tenure of departed President Umar Yar-Adua.
Senator Martins-Kuye will be buried shortly after 4:00 p.m. according to Islamic rites in his sprawling country home in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State
He was survived by two wives and children.