The writer didn’t do their homework if the word ‘serial’ is missing in Doyin Okupe’s Biography. The Agbonmagbe prince has been a serial publicist at various times to Nigerian presidents and presidential aspirants of the PDP.
He was a ‘serial’ publicist to the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Goodluck Jonathan (fmr), Bukola Saraki, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi.
Beyond politics, Doyin Okupe calls himself a serial monogamist favouring that coinage over the more popular expression of a polygamist!
We present Doyin Okupe’s biography.
Doyin Okupe: Birth
Adedoyin Ajibike Okupe, better known as Doyin Okupe, was born in Iperu, Ogun State, on March 22nd, 1952. He is the 17th child out of 41 children of his father. His mother was the ninth out of ten wives. However, her identity is unknown.
Born with a silver spoon, Doyin Okupe is the son of Chief Matthew Adekoya Okupe, a haulage business owner. In 1945, he established the Agbonmagbe Bank, which had branches in Zaria, Ebute Metta, Mushin, Ago-Iwoye and Ijebu Igbo.
The bank would eventually become the National Bank and Wema Bank. Chief Okupe was a contemporary of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Akin Maja, H.O. Davies, and Alhaji S. O. Gbadamosi when he was a politician.
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Doyin Okupe: Education
He attended Saint Jude’s School in Ebute Metta, Lagos, and Igbobi College in Yaba, on the same axis of the state. Many in the Nigerian political space would later know Doyin Okupe for his rambunctious style.
However, whatever rascality anyone would ascribe to him was gained in his days as a student of Igbobi College. While there, he was nicknamed “Dorrie” and earned a reputation for unconventional behaviour.
Doyin Okupe had his university education at the University of Ibadan, where he studied medicine. He gained admission at 19 and graduated at 24. He was quite studious, but what helped him the most was the privilege of having excellent teachers. And he’s still proud of the training he received in UI.
“I have not practised medicine for a long time. But I can still consider myself very proficient in medicine. Because this lecturer of mine took me through every aspect of medicine,” he wrote in his book Double Jeopardy.
“Till today, you can’t fault my diagnosis. I learnt medicine from a genius. It was the knowledge in medicine gained from Professor Bademosi that I used in surgery, cardiology and other departments.”
Doyin Okupe’s Medical Career
After completing his National Youth Service in 1978, Doyin Okupe worked briefly at the St. Nicholas Hospital and later at Juli-San Clinic, both in Lagos. He tried his hands on publishing and came out with a health-themed newspaper, Life Mirror.
In 1982, he teamed up with Seyi Roberts and Ladi Okuboyejo to set up a joint practice, The Royal Cross Medical Centre, in Obalende, Lagos. The practice thrived.
The junior doctors had great fun in the office attending to patients. Outside the office, just a stone’s throw from the clinic, there was Iya Modinat, who sold delicious rice and stew.
The restaurant soon became a major attraction for many junior executives who ate there and also stopped by the clinic. However, Doyin Okupe did not stay long in the medical line.
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Doyin Okupe’s Political Career
Politics soon became a part-time vocation for the prince of the Agbonmagbe dynasty of Iperu Remo. He attended meetings of the ruling party in Nigeria at that time – the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). It was an opposition party in Lagos, where he was based. Doyin Okupe opted for the NPN because he wanted to play politics at the national level.
He rose within the party ranks to become the vice chairperson of Epetedo Ward. And later secretary of Eti Osa Local Government between 1978 and 1980. Doyin Okupe was an associate of Dr Wahab Dosunmu, who would contest the Lagos governorship primaries with Bola Tinubu in 1999.
In 1982, Doyin Okupe contested for the Federal House of Representatives under the NPN. That was in the Second Republic. In the Third Nigerian Republic, he was the representative of the NRC that observed the collation of the 1993 presidential election results at the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (NEC).
On October 3rd 1996, General Sani Abacha’s military government detained Doyin Okupe. In March 1998, during the aborted transition programme of Abacha, Doyin Okupe was among the politicians who were disqualified from participating in the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) primaries.
For over 50 years, Doyin Okupe has been an experienced politician and bridge builder. He was inside the arena or at the ringside during critical moments in Nigerian history, like the processes leading to the formation of political parties and groups.
He has firsthand knowledge of the politics of June 12, the formation of the Oodua People’s Congress. And the emergence and activities of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).
In that period, he interacted with key political figures like MKO Abiola, Bola Ige, Tom Ikimi, Bamanga Tukur, Frederick Fasehun, Rufus Ada George, Awwal Tukur, Bashir Tofa, Ayo Adebanjo, Segun Osoba, Edwin Clark, Buruji Kashamu, and others.
The prime point of his political career is his appointment with President Olusegun Obasanjo as his administration’s Special Assistant on Media. The position raised his profile and shot him into the national and international limelight. He gave the job his best effort and had much joy and fulfilment. But Doyin Okupe was shocked when Obasanjo sacked him.
Thus began a period in his life that he termed “Half-Time” in his book. In that time (between 2001 and 2012), Doyin Okupe tried his hands on entrepreneurship as he hustled for survival and capital.
In 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan brought him out of the political doldrums by making him a Senior Special Assistant, Public Affairs. One of his first declarations on resumption was that he was no longer “an attack dog”, as the press tagged him under Obasanjo, but an “attack lion”. And indeed, the Jonathan government needed a lion in its attacking mid-field, like a Gennaro Gattuso, Roy Keane, and Patrick Vieira rolled into one.
The major opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the coalition of other opposition forces merged to become the All Progressives Congress (APC). And they bombarded the government with all the guns and missiles in their arsenal, especially on the abduction of the Chibok Girls and the menace of Boko Haram.
Eventually, the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party lost the presidential election in 2015. But Doyin Okupe insists that “the APC never won the 2015 Presidential election”.
Doyin Okupe has seen quite a lot and learnt so much about Nigerian politics and the character of the average politician to say such. In his book, he drew attention to the intrigues in political corridors, the sycophancy of politicians, the use of money as a tool of influence, the reign of occultism, and all things fetish in Nigerian politics.
He’s quick to absolve himself, saying he does not believe in using politics to amass wealth. And surprise, surprise, he said he had never stolen a penny! But then added that “he prefers to forgive those who have wronged him”.
Maybe Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu is on the list of those who have wronged him. In a Federal High Court ruling on December 19th 2022, she found him guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
He was sentenced to two years imprisonment or an option of N13 million fine. Doyin Okupe didn’t sleep at the Kuje Correctional Centre!
Doyin Okupe and Peter Obi
A day after his conviction for money laundering, he announced he’ll be leaving the campaign of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
Until his conviction and eventual resignation, Doyin Okupe was the Director-General of the party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation. He was also the party’s VP placeholder to beat the INEC submission deadline for presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
“It’s time to step aside. But I am with PO and the Obidients and the Presidential Campaigns till God gives us victory in Jesus’ name,” he tweeted.
“I have invested too much energy in your campaign to allow my personal travails to become a source of distraction.”
Doyin Okupe is not new in dissipating energy in political campaigns. He was the National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) and also a spokesperson for the Presidential Campaign Organisation of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP candidate for president in the 2019 presidential election.
Doyin Okupe’s Mentors
His father was his first hero. The elder Okupe taught him about values, temperance and faith, which were abiding mottos as he traversed the murky waters of Nigerian politics.
Others who have affected him positively and given him opportunities in life include his maternal grandmother, who taught him the art of discipline; his half-sister, Adeola Olumide, a medical doctor, who insisted that the best career path for him in life would be in medicine.
Akin Ogunmade-Davies introduced him to the world of political communication and public relations; Duro Onabule, an editor of the National Concord newspaper, taught him the basics of media practice and writing, and Biodun Shobanjo, who he worked with on political marketing for the NRC.
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Doyin Okupe’s Wives
Doyin Okupe is a polygamist, or serial monogamist, as he calls himself. He has three wives. They are Titilola Okupe, Omolola Okupe, and Aduralere Okupe.
Doyin Okupe’s Children
He has eight children. They are Olayemi Agbobua, Omotola Thomas, Oditan Okupe, Adewunmi Okupe, Sunkanmi Okupe, Mobolurin Okupe, Moradeke Okupe and Adetunyori Okupe.
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Doyin Okupe’s Gay son
In January 2021, Doyin Okupe’s son, Bolu Okupe, a Paris-based fitness coach, came out as gay on his Instagram page.
Holding an LGBT flag behind him, a shirtless Bolu in tight rainbow-striped shorts announced to the world: “Yes, I’m gay AF”.
His father was unimpressed and dubbed being gay “un-biblical and un-African”. “I have been aware of this new orientation for a while now,” he tweeted.
“He knows that as a Christian and a witness for Christ (an evangelist), I am vehemently opposed to homos3xuality as it runs contrary to the avowed precepts of my Christian faith.
“For me, I look beyond the surface or the physical. Here I see a major spiritual challenge ahead, but I know as my God liveth, this whole saga will end up in praise to the Almighty Jehovah who I serve day and night.”
Okupe Senior won’t be winning any ‘Father of the Year awards!
Doyin Okupe’s Contact Number
We don’t have his mobile number, but the serial (that word again!) cross-carpeting politician can be contacted on Twitter via @doyinokupe.
Doyin Okupe’s Net worth
His estimated net worth is projected to be $5 million. Most of his earnings come from his political career. He has been in government for several years and has worked with former Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan.
Conclusion
Doyin Okupe’s biography is the perfect stuff of adventure and misadventure. This article is just a bite of the cherry. His book, which tells not just his story but his encounters and relationships with people across the country, is worth searching for.
