My ‘Most Valuable Persons 2025’: No. 08 – Alh. Abdurrazaq Danjuma & Ms. Oyinkansola Okewoye 

Guess whom we have as my number 8 spotlight of those who shaped the outgoing 2025 year for me? They are no other persons than the duo of genteel Alhaji Abdurrazaq Danjuma and the delectable Ms. Oyinkansola Okewoyin. Both souls have been quite helpful and supportive.

Again, it was the *Tinubu* 2023 presidency project that brought us together in the year 2021. Albeit I had met Alhaji Abdurrazaq as an aquaintance during a project called ‘Nigeria Diaspora Voting Council’ (NDVC) championed by Prince Ade Omole, an APC chieftain domiciled in the United Kingdom in 2019/2020 where I led the advocacy by touring the entire NASS Complex, visiting every House of Representatives member and every Senator to canvass for diaspora voting, but the Tinubu project brought Alhaji Abdurrazaq and I closer in 2021.

By 2021, when we started the sensitisation of a possible Tinubu presidency through the Nigeria Diaspora for Asiwaju (NDA), Alhaji Abdurrazaq served as the Director of Mobilisation for the NDA in the Federal Capital Territory even though he held forth briefly as the FCT Director. I must say he was a great mobiliser with the kind of prominence he gave the NDA in the Seat of Power. Suffice to say his capacity as a one-time union leader in the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) helped a lot.

After the NDA experience, Alhaji Abdurrazaq and I had developed a special bond, tagging along like comrades in same struggle. He saw in me a dependable ally. It is instructive to say that Alhaji Abdurrazaq is very close to, again, Engr. Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN). Although I had briefly come in contact with the Energy Commission honcho through Prince Ade Omole in 2019, Alhaji Abdurrazaq brought me closer to him (Dr. Mustapha) while he held sway as the Special Adviser on Oil and Gas and Energy to then Governor Yahya Bello of Kogi State. I did some media work for the governor during his sway.

When in 2023, it was time for gubernatorial election, Alhaji Abdurrazaq again called me to join the media team of the Uche Nnaji Campaign Organisation. Former Minister of Innovation, Science & Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji was then running for governorship race in Enugu State. The campaign organisation was largely the brain child of Engr. Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi then. So, it was easy to work for the team and offered our best.

Over the years, Alhaji Abdurrazaq has become a brother birthed from another womb. There’s nothing that came through ECN’s Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi to me except that Alhaji Abdurrazaq had an input. He would always go to any extent to see me and my family happy. I owe him a lot.

Ms. Oyinkansola Okewoye, my charming and adorable amazon from Yewa in Ogun State, is another wonderful soul. She’s always wanting the best for everyone around her. She joined the Nigeria Diaspora for Asiwaju (NDA) first as the Director, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) before she was elevated to serve as my deputy (National Coordinator) by the Director-General of the group, Mr. Akinmoladun Badeji. I must say Ms. Oyinkansola is a lady of virtue, a mother in a young body. She would always throw herself in the service of others. A selfless soul who would stop at nothing to put smiles on the faces of those around her.

I remember an experience I had with her. I was in Lagos in 2022. She called me and said in her usual style, “Brother mi, I have a small job for you o. Can you deliver a lecture during an empowerment programme in Ogun State?” I answered in the affirmative. And voila, I went to Ayetoro Community in Ogun State to join her during the empowerment programme. The picture is what I attached to this piece. She probably did not know I still kept the picture till this day (smile).

Not too long ago, again she called and said she was recommending me to lead a President Tinubu support group on behalf of a strong man from Niger Delta as its FCT Director as well as the South West Coordinator. That, to me, was huge! For anyone to have remembered you for anything of such was because of the premium value they place on your potential. She could have called upon anyone but she chose me even though we have not seen in a very long while. That means a whole to me.

To these duo of very wonderful souls therefore, my story is not complete without your mention. I cannot but always thank God that our paths crossed. Permit me therefore to say God bless you two for shaping the outgoing year for me. I appreciate your kindness and pray you duo always find favour in every of your undertakings.

Thanks a bunch!

OMOLUABI OMOGBOLAHAN BABAWALE (O’CZAR)