Lagos State governorship battle has taken a fresh dimension.

The tale spreading like wild harmattan fire now is that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been denied a second term ticket by the political power brokers in the state.

Talebearers added that Abdul-Ahmed Olorunfemi Mustapha has been picked to replace the incumbent governor in the forthcoming election.

For those who don’t know, Mustapha’s social media profile has been updated to ‘Lagos 2023 Project’

He is a member of National Black Association of America (MBA), and Project Management Institute of America, Newark, New Jersey Chapter, and he is an expert in Information Technology/Financial Systems.

He attended the New Jersey University, Jersey City, New Jersey for a Course that led to an Award of Bachelor Degree in Business Administration in May 1996.

He attended Farleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey where he got a Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA) with a Speciality in Finance in May 1998.

He also obtained Oracle EBS certification from Oracle University, USA; Database Administration and Designs from Rutgers University Extension Services, and Project Management Certification from City of New York Training Department.

He started his career in 1992 at the Worldwide Media Service, Jersey City, New Jersey as Assistant Vice President, Finance after which he assisted various clients such as General Electric, Merril Lynch, DeanWitter Project Lead, and NEXTEL Meadowlands, New Jersey between March 1997 and June 1998.

He worked as Senior Manager at KPMG Consulting World Class Division Kennedy Blvd, Morristown, New Jersey, June 1998 to October 1999.

He was Financial Application Manager at Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield Newark, New Jersey; Project Manager, Global Project Testing, Home Depot Atlanta, Georgia, Before he moved to Ernst and Young Meadowland, New Jersey in 2003 as Global Project Land QA and Support.

He was also involved in Project Oracle/Peoplesoft and Oracle Financial Application Rollout at Fedex Memphis Spherion International Ft. Lauderdale Florida as Project Land, Production Support and Testing.

He worked as Senior Project Manager, Bearing Point Consulting Project; Project Lead, ETS Global Testing Service; Global Project Manager, Security, QA and Training, Astra-Zeneca-Wilminton, Delaware, and was member of the Project Management Committee on all Project affecting FISA across the City of New York.

He served as Assistant Executive Director, HRMS and Financial Systems, City of New York Financial Information Services Agency, New York in January 2006. He returned to Nigeria to serve as a Director Oracle Application in Ministry of Finance, and later appointed as Director-General, Lagos State Financial Systems Management Bureau (FSMB) in 2012.

Mustapha, a 2009 recipient of Best Collaborative Application Award, Mayor of New York, and an honorary of Dean’s Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio, was appointed as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science & Technology in August 2015.

He was redeployed in same capacity to the Ministry of Wealth Creation & Employment in May 2016 and thereafter to the Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment (Lagos Global) in February 2017.

He was redeployed to Governor’s Office Parastatals Monitoring Office in November 2017 and Office of Civic Engagement in June 2019. He retired as the Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources 2021.

Mustapha is a Member of Eko Club, Ansar-ud-deen Society of Nigeria and Patron of The Muslim Congress (TMC) Lagos State’

He was born to the family of Mustapha-Olagunju and Seriki Amdalat Martins both Lagos State indigenes on 8th November 1964.