Former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Jubril Martins-Kuye, is dead at the age of 78, on Sunday morning.
The Ago-Iwoye born politician was appointed as Minister of Commerce and Industry on April 6, 2010, when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, announced his cabinet.
The late Martins-Kuye was born on August 1942 in Ago Iwoye, Ijebu constituency of Ogun State. He studied sociology at the University of Ibadan (1965-1968) and then Economics at the Harvard University Business School, graduating in 1983. He gained qualifications as a Chartered Accountant.
Martins-Kuye was a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a senator in the Nigerian Third Republic.
Martins-Kuye became a member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) towards the end of the Sani Abacha regime. He was a candidate on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) platform for governor of Ogun State in 1999.
He was appointed Minister of State for Finance in June 1999 during the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo, serving until June 2003. In July 2002, as Minister of Finance, he announced that Nigeria’s GDP had grown by 4% annually by the World Bank’s estimate, the highest rate for ten years.
