Tinubu’s Loyalist, APC Women Leader, Kemi Nelson, is Dead

A former Commissioner for Women’s Affairs and a member of the Lagos State Governorship Advisory Council Kemi Nelson is dead. She was 66.

Kemi Nelson, a former executive director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund and zonal women leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC reportedly died on Sunday morning from an undisclosed ailment suspected to be cancer.

Sources within the family said Nelson had been nursing a certain ailment for some time now but surrendered to it on Sunday morning.

She was one of the close loyalists of APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola morning

Ikeja Chapter of the APC, which officially announced the passing of the former executive director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund said on its social media handles “With a heavy heart but with gratitude to Almighty God We announce the death this morning of our Ikeja apex leader and the State GAC member Chief Mrs Kemi Nelson. Our condolences go to her immediate family and her Ikeja political family. May her gentle soul rest in perfect peace.”

Ms Nelson was appointed to NSITF by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, a position she held until May 2021 when she was removed under unclear circumstances.

She was born on February 9, 1956, and schooled in Ijebu, Lagos and Ibadan; and was survived by her three children.

Political career

In the 1980s, Nelson joined the now defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.

She was the senatorial candidate for the Lagos West Senatorial district in 1992 and was defeated at the polls by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In 1998, during the regime of General Abacha, she contested for the Ikeja Federal Constituency in the house of assembly. This time, as a member of UNCP. She won the election but it was truncated by the death of General Abacha.

In 1999, she joined Alliance for Democracy (AD) and from 1999 to 2003, she served as the Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation during the tenure of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and has served as the Women Leader of Lagos State Chapter of APC and was later made the South West Women Leader of APC.

She was the only female serving member of the Lagos State Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC).