There are strong indications that the Lagos Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola is set to join President Bola Tinubu’s team in Abuja,any moment from now.
We have it on good authority that the President wants him to join his team in Aso Rock as his Private Secretary.
The rumour mill has been agog with the news for a while now but CityPeople gathered last week that HMO has been tipped for the job.
Why the choice of HMO? It is because he is one of the trusted aides of President Tinubu and they have worked together since 1999,when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was governor of Lagos. Beyond that, HMO is like a son to Asiwaju. He has been like a son to him since HMO was young. And HMO’s late father was one of the President’s godfathers.
Citypeople can also reveal that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was instrumental to HMO joining the Lagos civil service. So HMO has been tried and tested. He has also paid his dues in the Civil service, rising to be Head of service in Lagos State.
Hakeem Muri-Okunola is 41 He is a lawyer, public administrator, technocrat and current Lagos State Head of Service. And he is the first son of the late respected Justice Muritala Okunola.
What is his educational background like?
After his primary education in Lagos Island, where he grew up, a young Muri-Okunola became a student of the Nigeria Navy Secondary School, Lagos in 1982. By 1989, he had become an undergraduate of the Lagos State University, Ojo, graduating in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in Law, following which he completed the mandatory one year of study at the Nigeria Law School.
Three years on, he gained admission into the prestigious Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London, obtaining a master’s degree in International Business Law in 1999.
Let’s tell you more about his career.
Between 1996-1999, he served as an Associate Solicitor with Adepetun, Caxton-Martins and Agbor, before joining Company Secretary/Legal Adviser at Ibile Holdings Limited, the Investment Company of Lagos State Government, a position he held from 2000 to 2003.
How about his foray into the Lagos Civil Service? Hakeem Muri-Okunola joined the Lagos state civil service in 2001.
Between 2003 2005, he was a personal assistant to Bola Tinubu, then governor of Lagos until Tinubu appointed him Executive Secretary to the Governor, Land Use and Allocation Committee. Afterwards, he was promoted to the position of Permanent Secretary in the Lagos State Public Service in 2011. He was deployed to the Lands Bureau in the Governor’s Office where he supervised the State’s Lands Administration machinery. In this capacity, he played significant roles in improving the state’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. These include the Electronic Certificate of Occupancy (E-C of O), the Electronic Data Management System (EDMS) and the 30-day processing of consent applications.
In 2015, he was named Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, working on the amended version of the Child’s Rights Law and the Child Protection Policy among other things. During this period, he was also on the board of the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA).
Muri-Okunola was appointed Head of Service on 28 December 2018, being the most senior ranking member of the Body of Permanent Secretaries in Lagos State.
What is his personal life like?
He lives in Lagos and is happily married with children. A member of the Ikoyi Club 1938, Lagos Motor Boat Club, Lagos Polo Club and F’s Club, his hobbies include soccer, athletics, polo, boating, squash, basketball and many other water sports.
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