President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Senator Adedayo Adeyeye as Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
He also appointed Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho as the authority’s Managing Director.
These were in a statement on Friday by the Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), Ajuri Ngelale,.s
The statement also described Adeyeye as a seasoned lawyer, journalist, and politician.
He is a former Minister of State for Works and a former Senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District.
It said that “the president expects the new leadership of this pivotal agency to deploy excellence in the discharge of their duties to enable efficient port services and improved industry outcomes.”
Dantsoho holds a doctorate in maritime technology from Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, and a master’s degree in international transport from Cardiff University of Wales, United Kingdom.
Before his appointment, he had served in various roles in the Nigerian Ports Authority as Assistant General Manager, Technical Assistant to the Managing Director, Port Manager, Onne Port, and Principal Manager of Tariff & Billing.
Adedayo Clement Adeyeye is a former Minister of State for Works and former Senator for Ekiti South Senatorial District. He was National Chairman of the Southwest Agenda for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (SWAGA), and NADECO chieftain.
Born on 4 April 1957 in Ise-Ekiti to the royal family of Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, the Arinjale of Ise Ekiti (who reigned between 1932 and 1976), and Olori Mary Ojulege Adeyeye, a princess of Are, Ikere-Ekiti, his work experience spanned three major professional fields – teaching, journalism and legal practice.
He was a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) who was prominently involved in the national struggles to end the tyranny of military rule and facilitate a return to democracy in Nigeria.
He was Director of Publicity, Falae for President Campaign Organisation (1990-1992), Adviser on policy and Press Matters, M.K.O. Abiola for President Campaign Organisation (1993), spokesperson for the Alliance for Democracy (AD), and a member of the South-West Delegation to the Nigerian leaders of Thought Conference, Abuja. He was the youngest of the 21 eminent leaders who represented the South Western zone of Nigeria at the Conference.
He was also the National Publicity Secretary of the Pan Yoruba Socio-political group called Afenifere between 2001-2004 as well as the spokesperson of the AD between 2004-2006; and a member of the Odua Development Union (ODU) which was established for the overall Socio-political and economic development of the South-West.
In 2006, Clement Adedayo was an Ekiti State governorship aspirant under AD, which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria, and was runner-up to Governor Kayode Fayemi in the controversial primary elections that led to the defection of 13 of the total 16 aspirants from the Action Congress of Nigeria to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Prince Adeyeye was among those who defected.
He served as Executive Chairman of Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in the administration of Governor Segun Oni, where he recorded several achievements and won the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) award as the best chairman in the South-West of Nigeria in 2008. The award came along with a cash prize of Seventy Million Naira. He again won the same award as the best Chairman of SUBEB in the South West in 2009.
The funds derived from the awards were used to provide more infrastructure for schools across Ekiti State. That same year, he was named the most innovative SUBEB chairman in Nigeria by the Presidential Committee on Schools’ Debate. He was the only SUBEB chairman in the country selected by the World Bank to attend the conference on Strategies for Education Reform, sponsored by the World Bank in Washington, United States in March 2010.
His administration organised the training of over 12,000 teachers within Ekiti State on contemporary teaching methods. As chairman of Ekiti SUBEB, Adeyeye changed the face of public school buildings in the State with the introduction of story buildings and tiled floors and the provision of school furniture. During his tenure as SUBEB chairman, pupils stopped carrying furniture to school from their homes. The quality of the furnishings was regarded as the best in the country.
In 2014, he was nominated by President Goodluck Jonathan as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was sworn in on 9 July of that year as Minister of State for Works. He served as Minister until the end of Jonathan’s administration on 29 May 2015.
Adeyeye was appointed by the Ekiti State Government as Pro-Chancellor of Ekiti State University in June 2015 and served as the Chairman of the University’s Governing Council.
In 2018, he declared interest in the race for Ekiti Governorship seat and ran for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but controversially lost to Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, the anointed candidate of the sitting Governor – Peter Ayodele Fayose. This made him and his supporters defect to the All Progressive Congress (APC), a move that eventually led to the APC winning the election.
Adeyeye is the Chairman of Southwest Agenda’23 (SWAGA), which has a presence in Nigeria with offices in several states, including Kwara, Kogi, Akwa Ibom, Benue, and Plateau, amongst several others.
